ld reply was, that we had come from Nukuheva, a place, be
it remembered, with which they were at open war. This intelligence
appeared to affect them with the most lively emotions. "Nukuheva
mortarkee?" they asked. Of course we replied most energetically in the
negative.

They then plied us with a thousand questions, of which we could understand
nothing more than that they had reference to the recent movements of the
French, against whom they seemed to cherish the most fierce hatred. So
eager were they to obtain information on this point, that they still
continued to propound their queries long after we had shown that we were
utterly unable to answer them. Occasionally we caught some indistinct idea
of their meaning, when we would endeavour by every method in our power to
communicate the desired intelligence. At such times their gratification
was boundless, and they would redouble their efforts to make us comprehend
them more perfectly. But all in vain; and in the end they looked at us
despairingly, as if we were the receptacles of invaluable information, but
how to come at it they knew not.

After awhile the group around us gradually dispersed, and we were left
about midnight (as we conjectured) with those who appeared to be permanent
residents of the house. These individuals now provided us with fresh mats
to lie upon, covered us with several folds of tappa, and then
extinguishing the tapers that had been burning, threw themselves down
beside us, and after a little desultory conversation were soon sound
asleep.

CHAPTER X

Midnight reflections--Morning visitors--A warrior in costume--A
savage AEsculapius--Practice of the healing art--Body-servant--A
dwelling-house of the valley described--Portraits of its inmates.

Various and conflicting were the thoughts which oppressed me during the
silent hours that followed the events related in the preceding chapter.
Toby, wearied with the fatigues of the day, slumbered heavily by my side;
but the pain under which I was suffering effectually prevented my
sleeping, and I remained distressingly alive to all the fearful
circumstances of our present situation. Was it possible that, after all
our vicissitudes, we were really in the terrible valley of Typee, and at
the mercy of its inmates, a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages?

Typee or Happar? I shuddered when I reflected that there was no longer any
room for d