ce. Every sound that reached us conveyed some momentous
item of intelligence to him. At such times, as if he were gifted with
second sight, he would go through a variety of pantomimic illustrations,
showing me the precise manner in which the redoubtable Typees were at
that very moment chastising the insolence of the enemy. 'Mehevi hanna
pippee nuee Happar,' he exclaimed every five minutes, giving me to
understand that under that distinguished captain the warriors of his
nation were performing prodigies of valour.

Having heard only four reports from the muskets, I was led to believe
that they were worked by the islanders in the same manner as the Sultan
Solyman's ponderous artillery at the siege of Byzantium, one of them
taking an hour or two to load and train. At last, no sound whatever
proceeding from the mountains, I concluded that the contest had been
determined one way or the other. Such appeared, indeed, to be the case,
for in a little while a courier arrived at the 'Ti', almost breathless
with his exertions, and communicated the news of a great victory having
been achieved by his countrymen: 'Happar poo arva!--Happar poo arva!'
(the cowards had fled). Kory-Kory was in ecstasies, and commenced a
vehement harangue, which, so far as I understood it, implied that the
result exactly agreed with his expectations, and which, moreover,
was intended to convince me that it would be a perfectly useless
undertaking, even for an army of fire-eaters, to offer battle to the
irresistible heroes of our valley. In all this I of course acquiesced,
and looked forward with no little interest to the return of the
conquerors, whose victory I feared might not have been purchased without
cost to themselves.

But here I was again mistaken; for Mehevi, in conducting his warlike
operations, rather inclined to the Fabian than to the Bonapartean
tactics, husbanding his resources and exposing his troops to no
unnecessary hazards. The total loss of the victors in this obstinately
contested affair was, in killed, wounded, and missing--one forefinger
and part of a thumb-nail (which the late proprietor brought along with
him in his hand), a severely contused arm, and a considerable effusion
of blood flowing from the thigh of a chief, who had received an ugly
thrust from a Happar spear. What the enemy had suffered I could not
discover, but I presume they had succeeded in taking off with them the
bodies of their slain.

Such was the issue of the