PAGE 7
The Feast Of Famine
by
And they tell that when next the sun had climbed to the noonday skies,
It shone on the smoke of feasting in the country of the Vais.
NOTES TO THE FEAST OF FAMINE
In this ballad, I have strung together some of the more striking
particularities of the Marquesas. It rests upon no authority; it is in no
sense, like “Rahero,” a native story; but a patchwork of details of manners
and the impressions of a traveller. It may seem strange, when the scene is
laid upon these profligate islands, to make the story hinge on love. But
love is not less known in the Marquesas than elsewhere; nor is there any
cause of suicide more common in the islands.
{2a} “Pit of Popoi.” Where the breadfruit was stored for preservation.
{2b} “Ruby-red.” The priest’s eyes were probably red from the abuse of
kava. His beard (ib.) is said to be worth an estate; for the beards of old
men are the favourite head adornment of the Marquesans, as the hair of women
formed their most costly girdle. The former, among this generally beardless
and short-lived people, fetch to-day considerable sums.
{2c} “Tikis.” The tiki is an ugly image hewn out of wood or stone.
{2d} “The one-stringed harp.” Usually employed for serenades.
{2e} “The sacred cabin of palm.” Which, however, no woman could approach.
I do not know where women were tattooed; probably in the common house, or in
the bush, for a woman was a creature of small account. I must guard the
reader against supposing Taheia was at all disfigured; the art of the
Marquesan tattooer is extreme; and she would appear to be clothed in a web of
lace, inimitably delicate, exquisite in pattern, and of a bluish hue that at
once contrasts and harmonises with the warm pigment of the native skin. It
would be hard to find a woman more becomingly adorned than “a well-tattooed”
Marquesan.
{2f} “The horror of night.” The Polynesian fear of ghosts and of the dark
has been already referred to. Their life is beleaguered by the dead.
{2g} “The quiet passage of souls.” So, I am told, the natives explain the
sound of a little wind passing overhead unfelt.
{2h} “The first of the victims fell.” Without doubt, this whole scene is
untrue to fact. The victims were disposed of privately and some time before.
And indeed I am far from claiming the credit of any high degree of accuracy
for this ballad. Even in a time of famine, it is probable that Marquesan
life went far more gaily than is here represented. But the melancholy of to-
day lies on the writer’s mind.