I have mentioned above, that the inhabitants of Taiti seemed to live in an enviable happiness. We took them to be almost equal in rank amongst themselves; or at least enjoying a liberty, which was only subject to the laws established for their common happiness. I was mistaken; the distinction of ranks is very great at Taiti, and the disproportion very tyrannical. The kings and grandees have power of life and death over their servants and slaves, and I am inclined to believe, they have the same barbarous prerogative with regard to the common people, whom they call Tata-einou, vile men; so much is certain, that the victims for human sacrifices are taken from this class of people. Flesh and fish are reserved for the tables of the great; the commonalty live upon mere fruits and pulse. Even the very manner of being lighted at night, shews the difference in the ranks; for the kind of wood, which is burnt for people of distinction, is not the same with that which the common people are allowed to make use of. Their kings, alone, are allowed to plant before their houses, the tree which we call the Weeping-willow, or Babylonian-willow[[106]]. It is known, that by bending the branches of this tree, and planting them in the ground, you can extend its shadow as far as you will, and in what direction you please; at Taiti, their shade affords the dining-hall of their kings.
The grandees have liveries for their servants. In proportion as the master’s rank is more or less elevated, their servants wear their sashes more or less high. This sash is fastened close under the arms, in the servants of the chiefs, and only covers the loins in those belonging to the lowest class of nobility. The ordinary hours of repast, are when the sun passes the meridian, and when he is set. The men do not eat with the women; the latter serving up the dishes, which the servants have prepared.
Custom of going into mourning.
At Taiti they wear mourning regularly, and call it ceva. The whole nation wear mourning for their kings. The mourning for the fathers is very long. The women mourn for their husbands; but the latter do not do the same for them. The marks of mourning, are a head-dress of feathers; the colour of which is consecrated to death, and a veil over the face. When the people in mourning go out of their houses, they are preceded by several slaves, who beat the castanets in a certain cadence; their doleful sound gives everybody notice to clear the way, whether out of respect for the grief of the persons in mourning, or because meeting them is feared as an unlucky and ominous accident. However at Taiti, as in every other part of the world, the most respectable customs are abused; Aotourou told me, that this practice of mourning was favourable to the private meetings; doubtless, as I believe, of lovers with wives, whose husbands are not very complaisant. The instrument, whose sound disperses every body, and the veil which covers the face, secure to the lovers both secrecy and impunity.
Reciprocal assistance in their diseases.
In all diseases, which are any way dangerous, all the near relations assemble in the sick person’s house. They eat and sleep there as long as the danger lasts; every one nurses him, and watches by him in his turn. They have likewise the custom of letting blood; but this operation is never performed at the foot or arm. A Taoua, i. e. a doctor, or inferior priest, strikes with a sharp piece of wood on the cranium of the patient; by this means he opens the sagittal vein; and when a sufficient quantity of blood is run out, he surrounds the head with a bandage, which shuts up the opening; the next day he washes the wound with water.
This is all that I have learnt concerning the customs of this interesting country, both upon the spot, and from my conversations with Aotourou. At the end of this work I shall add a Vocabulary of as many Taiti words as I could collect. When we arrived at this island, we observed that some of the words pronounced by the islanders stood in the vocabulary at the end of Le Maire’s Voyage, under the name of Vocabulary of Cocos island. Indeed those islands, according to Le Maire and Schouten’s reckoning, cannot be far from Taiti, and perhaps may be some of those which Aotourou named to me. The language of Taiti is soft, harmonious[harmonious], and easy to be pronounced; its words are composed of almost mere vowels, without aspirates[[107]]. You meet with no nasal, nor no mute and half sounded syllables, nor that quantity of consonants, and of articulations which render some languages so difficult. Therefore our Taiti-man could never learn to pronounce the French. The same reasons for which our language is accused of not being very musical, rendered it inaccessible to his organs. It would have been easier to make him pronounce Spanish or Italian.
M. Pereire, celebrated for his art of teaching people, who are born deaf and dumb, to speak and articulate words, has examined Aotourou several times, and has found that he could not naturally pronounce most of our consonants, nor any of our nasal vowels. M. Pereire has been so obliging as to communicate to me a memoir on this subject. Upon the whole, the language of this island is abundant enough; I think so, because Aotourou, during the course of the voyage, pronounced every thing that struck him in rhythmic stanzas. It was a kind of blank verse, which he spoke extempore. These were his annals; and it seems as if his language furnished him with expressions sufficient to describe a number of objects unknown to him. We further heard him pronounce every day such words as we were not yet acquainted with; and he likewise spoke a long prayer, which he calls the prayer of the kings, and of all the words that compose it, I do not understand ten.
I learnt from Aotourou, that about eight months before our arrival at his island, an English ship had touched there. It is the same which was commanded by Mr. Wallace. The same chance by which we have discovered this isle, has likewise conducted the English thither, whilst we lay in Rio de la Plata. They stayed there a month; and, excepting one attack of the islanders, who had conceived hopes of taking the ship, every thing has passed very friendly between them. From hence, doubtless, proceeds the knowledge of iron, which we found among the natives of Taiti, and the name of aouri, by which they call it, and which sounds pretty like the English word iron. I am yet ignorant, whether the people of Taiti, as they owe the first knowledge of iron to the English, may not likewise be indebted to them for the venereal disease, which we found had been naturalized amongst them, as will appear in the sequel.