banana leaf.

At this supper we were lighted by several of the native tapers, held in
the hands of young girls. These tapers are most ingeniously made. There is
a nut abounding in the valley, called by the Typees "armor," closely
resembling our common horse-chestnut. The shell is broken, and the
contents extracted whole. Any number of these are strung at pleasure upon
the long elastic fibre that traverses the branches of the cocoa-nut tree.
Some of these tapers are eight or ten feet in length; but being perfectly
flexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other is lighted. The nut
burns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil that it contains is
exhausted in about ten minutes. As one burns down, the next becomes
ignited, and the ashes of the former are knocked into a cocoa-nut shell
kept for the purpose. This primitive candle requires continual attention,
and must be constantly held in the hand. The person so employed marks the
lapse of time by the number of nuts consumed, which is easily learned by
counting the bits of tappa distributed at regular intervals along the
string.

I grieve to state so distressing a fact, but the inhabitants of Typee were
in the habit of devouring fish much in the same way that a civilized being
would eat a radish, and without any more previous preparation. They eat it
raw; scales, bones, gills, and all the inside. The fish is held by the
tail, and the head being introduced into the mouth, the animal disappears
with a rapidity that would at first nearly lead one to imagine it had been
launched bodily down the throat.

Raw fish! Shall I ever forget my sensation when I first saw my island
beauty devour one? Oh, heavens! Fayaway, how could you ever have
contracted so vile a habit? However, after the first shock had subsided,
the custom grew less odious in my eyes, and I soon accustomed myself to
the sight. Let no one imagine, however, that the lovely Fayaway was in the
habit of swallowing great vulgar-looking fishes: oh, no; with her
beautiful small hand she would clasp a delicate, little, golden-hued love
of a fish, and eat it as elegantly and as innocently as though it were a
Naples biscuit. But, alas! it was after all a raw fish; and all I can say
is, that Fayaway ate it in a more ladylike manner than any other girl of
the valley.

When at Rome do as the Romans do, I held to be so good a proverb, that
being in Typee, I made a point of doing as the Typees did. Thus I ate
poee-poee as