ut
flinching, I flung myself anew into all the social pleasures of the
valley, and sought to bury all regrets, and all remembrances of my
previous existence, in the wild enjoyments it afforded.

In my various wanderings through the vale, and as I became better
acquainted with the character of its inhabitants, I was more and more
struck with the light-hearted joyousness that everywhere prevailed. The
minds of these simple savages, unoccupied by matters of graver moment,
were capable of deriving the utmost delight from circumstances which would
have passed unnoticed in more intelligent communities. All their
enjoyment, indeed, seemed to be made up of the little trifling incidents
of the passing hour; but these diminutive items swelled altogether to an
amount of happiness seldom experienced by more enlightened individuals,
whose pleasures are drawn from more elevated but rarer sources.

What community, for instance, of refined and intellectual mortals would
derive the least satisfaction from shooting pop-guns? The mere supposition
of such a thing being possible would excite their indignation, and yet the
whole population of Typee did little else for ten days but occupy
themselves with that childish amusement, fairly screaming, too, with the
delight it afforded them.

One day I was frolicking with a little spirited urchin, some six years
old, who chased me with a piece of bamboo about three feet long, with
which he occasionally belaboured me. Seizing the stick from him, the idea
happened to suggest itself, that I might make for the youngster, out of
the slender tube, one of those nursery muskets with which I had sometimes
seen children playing. Accordingly, with my knife, I made two parallel
slits in the cane several inches in length, and cutting loose at one end
the elastic strip between them, bent it back and slipped the point into a
little notch made for the purpose. Any small substance placed against this
would be projected with considerable force through the tube by merely
springing the bent strip out of the notch.

Had I possessed the remotest idea of the sensation this piece of ordnance
was destined to produce, I should certainly have taken out a patent for
the invention. The boy scampered away with it, half delirious with
ecstasy, and twenty minutes afterwards I might have been seen surrounded
by a noisy crowd--venerable old greybeards--responsible fathers of
families--valiant warriors--matrons--young men--girls