CHAPTER XX
The spring of Arva Wai--Remarkable monumental remains--Some ideas with regard to the history of the pi-pis found in the valley.
Almost every country has its medicinal springs famed for their healingvirtues. The Cheltenham of Typee is embosomed in the deepest solitude, andbut seldom receives a visitor. It is situated remote from any dwelling, alittle way up the mountain, near the head of the valley; and you approachit by a pathway shaded by the most beautiful foliage, and adorned with athousand fragrant plants.
The mineral waters of Arva Wai(2) ooze forth from the crevices of a rock,and gliding down its mossy side, fall at last, in many clustering drops,into a natural basin of stone, fringed round with grass and dewy-lookinglittle violet-coloured flowers, as fresh and beautiful as the perpetualmoisture they enjoy can make them.
The water is held in high estimation by the islanders, some of whomconsider it an agreeable as well as a medicinal beverage; they bring itfrom the mountain in their calabashes, and store it away beneath heaps ofleaves in some shady nook near the house. Old Marheyo had a great love forthe waters of the spring. Every now and then he lugged off to the mountaina great round demijohn of a calabash, and, panting with his exertions,brought it back filled with his darling fluid.
The water tasted like a solution of a dozen disagreeable things, and wassufficiently nauseous to have made the fortune of the proprietor, had thespa been situated in the midst of any civilized community.
As I am no chemist, I cannot give a scientific analysis of the water. AllI know about the matter is, that one day Marheyo in my presence poured outthe last drop from his huge calabash, and I observed at the bottom of thevessel a small quantity of gravelly sediment very much resembling ourcommon sand. Whether this is always found in the water, and gives it itspeculiar flavour and virtues, or whether its presence was merelyincidental, I was not able to ascertain.
One day in returning from this spring by a circuitous path, I came upon ascene which reminded me of Stonehenge and the architectural labours of theDruid.
At the base of one of the mountains, and surrounded on all sides by densegroves, a series of vast terraces of stone rises, step by step, for aconsiderable distance up the hillside. These terraces cannot be less thanone hundred yards in length and twenty in width. Their magnitude, however,is less striking than the immense size of the blocks composing them. Someof the stones, of an oblong shape, are from ten to fifteen feet in length,and five or six feet thick. Their sides are quite smooth, but thoughsquare, and of pretty regular formation, they bear no mark of the chisel.They are laid together without cement, and here and there show gapsbetween. The topmost terrace and the lower one are somewhat peculiar intheir construction. They have both a quadrangular depression in thecentre, leaving the rest of the terrace elevated several feet above it. Inthe intervals of the stones immense trees have taken root, and their broadboughs stretching far over, and interlacing together, support a canopyalmost impenetrable to the sun. Overgrowing the greater part of them, andclimbing from one to another, is a wilderness of vines, in whose sinewyembrace many of the stones lie half-hidden, while in some places a thickgrowth of bushes entirely covers them. There is a wild pathway whichobliquely crosses two of these terraces; and so profound is the shade, sodense the vegetation, that a stranger to the place might pass along itwithout being aware of its existence.
These structures bear every indication of a very high antiquity, andKory-Kory, who was my authority in all matters of scientific research,gave me to understand that they were coeval with the creation of theworld; that the great gods themselves were the builders; and that theywould endure until time shall be no more. Kory-Kory's prompt explanation,and his attributing the work to a divine origin, at once convinced me thatneither he nor the rest of his countrymen knew anything about them.
As I gazed upon this monument, doubtless the work of an extinct andforgotten race, thus buried in the green nook of an island at the end ofthe earth, the existence of which was yesterday unknown, a strongerfeeling of awe came over me than if I had stood musing at the mighty baseof the Pyramid of Cheops. There are no inscriptions, no sculpture, noclue, by which to conjecture its history: nothing but the dumb stones. Howmany generations of those majestic trees which overshadow them have grownand flourished and decayed since first they were erected!
These remains naturally suggest many interesting reflections. Theyestablish the great age of the island, an opinion which the builders oftheories concerning the creation of the various groups in the South Seasare not always inclined to admit. For my own part I think it just asprobable that human beings were living in the valleys of the Marquesasthree thousand years ago as that they were inhabiting the land of Egypt.The origin of the island of Nukuheva cannot be imputed to the coralinsect: for indefatigable as that wonderful creature is, it would behardly muscular enough to pile rocks one upon the other more than threethousand feet above the level of the sea. That the land may have beenthrown up by a submarine volcano is as possible as anything else. No onecan make an affidavit to the contrary, and therefore I will say nothingagainst the supposition: indeed, were geologists to assert that the wholecontinent of America had in like manner been formed by the simultaneousexplosion of a train of Etnas, laid under the water all the way from theNorth Pole to the parallel of Cape Horn, I am the last man in the world tocontradict them.
I have already mentioned that the dwellings of the islanders were almostinvariably built upon massive stone foundations, which they call pi-pis.The dimensions of these, however, as well as of the stones composing them,are comparatively small: but there are other and larger erections of asimilar description comprising the "morais," or burying-grounds, andfestival-places, in nearly all the valleys of the island. Some of thesepiles are so extensive, and so great a degree of labour and skill musthave been requisite in constructing them, that I can scarcely believe theywere built by the ancestors of the present inhabitants. If indeed theywere, the race has sadly deteriorated in their knowledge of the mechanicarts. To say nothing of their habitual indolence, by what contrivancewithin the reach of so simple a people could such enormous masses havebeen moved or fixed in their places? and how could they with their rudeimplements have chiselled and hammered them into shape?
All of these larger pi-pis--like that of the Hoolah Hoolah ground in theTypee valley--bore incontestable marks of great age; and I am disposed tobelieve that their erection may be ascribed to the same race of men whowere the builders of the still more ancient remains I have just described.
According to Kory-Kory's account, the pi-pi, upon which stands the HoolahHoolah ground, was built a great many moons ago, under the direction ofMonoo, a great chief and warrior, and, as it would appear, master-masonamong the Typees. It was erected for the express purpose to which it is atpresent devoted, in the incredibly short period of one sun; and wasdedicated to the immortal wooden idols by a grand festival, which lastedten days and nights.
Among the smaller pi-pis, upon which stand the dwelling-houses of thenatives, I never observed any which intimated a recent erection. There arein every part of the valley a great many of these massive stonefoundations which have no houses upon them. This is vastly convenient, forwhenever an enterprising islander chooses to emigrate a few hundred yardsfrom the place where he was born, all he has to do in order to establishhimself in some new locality, is to select one of the many unappropriatedpi-pis, and without further ceremony pitch his bamboo tent upon it.