Typee · Chapter
XXXI explained
The narrator describes various Typee customs and observations, including their nightly chanting with sticks, the musical quality of their voices, the king's delight at hearing him sing, his promotion to court minstrel, the nasal flute playe
What happens
The narrator describes various Typee customs and observations, including their nightly chanting with sticks, the musical quality of their voices, the king's delight at hearing him sing, his promotion to court minstrel, the nasal flute played by women like Fayaway, his pugilistic performances for the king's amusement, a mother bathing her infant in the stream, and the girls' hair care using coconut oil.
Themes in this chapter
Civilization vs. Nature
The narrator contrasts the natural swimming ability of Typee infants with the helplessness of civilized individuals in water.
Cultural Relativism
The narrator describes Typee customs (chanting, singing, hair oil) without judgment, noting their unique beauty and logic.
Gender Roles and Sexuality
Women are depicted as graceful musicians and caretakers of their hair, while men engage in chanting and mock combat.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
Describes Typee customs, sings for Mehevi, performs mock fights, observes infant swimming and hair care rituals.
- Mehevi
King who is delighted by the narrator's singing and promotes him to court minstrel; enjoys watching pugilistic performances.
- Fayaway
Excels at playing the nasal flute, described as graceful with the instrument.
- Kory-Kory
Accompanies the narrator to the stream for bathing.
- Marheyo
His domestic establishment is the setting for the nightly chanting custom.
Key passages
“Every night, before retiring, the inmates of the house gathered together on the mats, and so squatting upon their haunches, after the universal practice of these islanders, would commence a low, dismal and monotonous chant, accompanying the voice with the instrumental melody produced by two small half-rotten sticks tapped slowly together.”
Each evening, the household members would sit on mats and begin a slow, mournful chant, tapping two sticks together as accompaniment.
Describes the nightly chanting ritual observed in Marheyo's house.
“I shall never forget the first time I happened to roar out a stave in the presence of noble Mehevi. It was a stanza from the 'Bavarian Broom-Seller.' His Typeean majesty, with all his court, gazed upon me in amazement, as if I had displayed some preternatural faculty which Heaven had denied to them.”
The narrator recalls singing a song from the 'Bavarian Broom-Seller' for King Mehevi, who was astonished as if witnessing a supernatural ability.
Highlights the cultural difference in musical appreciation.
“No wonder that the South Sea Islanders are so amphibious a race, when they are thus launched into the water as soon as they see the light. I am convinced that it is as natural for a human being to swim as it is for a duck.”
The narrator observes that Typee infants are bathed in streams from birth, making swimming as natural as for a duck, unlike in civilized societies.
Reflects on the natural swimming ability of the islanders.