ture--Funeral
obsequies at Nukuheva--Number of inhabitants in Typee--Location of
the dwellings--Happiness enjoyed in the valley.

King Mehevi!--A goodly sounding title!--and why should I not bestow it upon
the foremost man in the valley? All hail, therefore, Mehevi, king over all
the Typees! and long life and prosperity to his tropical majesty! But to
be sober again after this loyal burst.

Previously to seeing the Dancing Widows I had little idea that there were
any matrimonial relations subsisting in Typee, and I should as soon have
thought of a Platonic affection being cultivated between the sexes, as of
the solemn connexion of man and wife. To be sure, there were old Marheyo
and Tinor, who seemed to live together quite sociably; but for all that, I
had sometimes observed a comical-looking old gentleman, dressed in a suit
of shabby tattooing, who appeared to be equally at home. This behaviour,
until subsequent discoveries enlightened me, puzzled me more than anything
else I witnessed in Typee.

As for Mehevi, I had supposed him a confirmed bachelor, as well as most of
the principal chiefs. At any rate, if they had wives and families, they
ought to have been ashamed of themselves; for sure I am, they never
troubled themselves about any domestic affairs. In truth, Mehevi seemed to
be the president of a club of hearty fellows who kept "Bachelor's Hall" in
fine style at the Ti. I had no doubt but that they regarded children as
odious incumbrances; and their ideas of domestic felicity were
sufficiently shown in the fact, that they allowed no meddlesome
housekeepers to turn topsy-turvy those snug little arrangements they had
made in their comfortable dwelling. I strongly suspected, however, that
some of those jolly bachelors were carrying on love intrigues with the
maidens of the tribe, although they did not appear publicly to acknowledge
them. I happened to pop upon Mehevi three or four times when he was
romping--in a most undignified manner for a warrior king--with one of the
prettiest little witches in the valley. She lived with an old woman and a
young man, in a house near Marheyo's; and although in appearance a mere
child herself, had a noble boy about a year old, who bore a marvellous
resemblance to Mehevi, whom I should certainly have believed to have been
the father, were it not that the little fellow had no triangle on his
face. Mehevi, however, was not the only person upon whom the damsel
M