The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 150

[ff] _Thus Argo plunged into the Euxine's foam_.--[MS. D, erased.]

[368] {598} The first three sections are taken from an actual song of the Tonga Islanders, of which a prose translation is given in "Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands." Toobonai is _not_ however one of them; but was one of those where Christian and the mutineers took refuge. I have altered and added, but have retained as much as possible of the original.

["Whilst we were talking of _Vavaoo tooa Lico_, the women said to us, 'Let us repair to the back of the island to contemplate the setting sun: there let us listen to the warbling of the birds, and the cooing of the wood-pigeon. We will gather flowers from the burying-place at _Matawto_, and partake of refreshments prepared for us at _Lico O'ne_: we will then bathe in the sea, and rinse ourselves in the _Vaoo A'ca_; we will anoint our skins in the sun with sweet-scented oil, and will plait in wreaths the flowers gathered at _Matawto_.' And now as we stand motionless on the eminence over _Anoo Manoo_, the whistling of the wind among the branches of the lofty _toa_ shall fill us with a pleasing melancholy; or our minds shall be seized with astonishment as we behold the roaring surf below, endeavouring but in vain to tear away the firm rocks. Oh! how much happier shall we be thus employed, than when engaged in the troublesome and insipid cares of life!

"Now as night comes on, we must return to the _Mooa_. But hark!--hear you not the sound of the mats?--they are practising a _bo-oola_ ['a kind of dance performed by torch-light'], to be performed to-night on the _malai_, at _Tanea_. Let us also go there. How will that scene of rejoicing call to our minds the many festivals held there, before _Vavdoo_ was torn to pieces by war! Alas! how destructive is war!

Behold! how it has rendered the land productive of weeds, and opened untimely graves for departed heroes! Our chiefs can now no longer enjoy the sweet pleasure of wandering alone by moonlight in search of their mistresses. But let us banish sorrow from our hearts: since we are at war, we must think and act like the natives of _Fiji_, who first taught us this destructive art. Let us therefore enjoy the present time, for to-morrow perhaps, or the next day, we may die. We will dress ourselves with _chi coola_, and put bands of white _tappa_ round our waists. We will plait thick wreaths of _jiale_ for our heads, and prepare strings of _hooni_ for our necks, that their whiteness may show off the colour of our skins. Mark how the uncultivated spectators are profuse of their applause! But now the dance is over: let us remain here to-night and feast and be cheerful, and to-morrow we will depart for the Mooa. How troublesome are the young men, begging for our wreaths of flowers! while they say in their flattery, 'See how charming these young girls look coming from _Licoo_!--how beautiful are their skins, diffusing around a fragrance like the flowering precipice of _Mataloco_:--Let us also visit _Licoo_. We will depart to-morrow.'"--_An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, etc._, 1817, i. 307, 308. See, too, for another version, ed. 1827, vol. ii. Appendix, p. xl.]

[369] {599}[Bolotoo is a visionary island to the north westward, the home of the G.o.ds. The souls of chieftains, priests, and, possibly, the gentry, ascend to Bolotoo after death; but the souls of the lower cla.s.ses "come to dust" with their bodies.--_An Account, etc._, 1817, ii.

104, 105.]

[370] [The toa, or drooping casuarina (_C. equisetifolia_). "Formerly the toa was regarded as sacred, and planted in groves round the 'Morais'

of Tahiti."--_Polynesia_, by G. F. Angas, 1866, p. 44.]

[371] {600}[The capital town of an island.]

[372] ["The preparation of _gnatoo_, or _tappa_-cloth, from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, occupies much of the time of the Tongan women. The bark, after being soaked in water, is beaten out by means of wooden mallets, which are grooved longitudinally.... Early in the morning," says Mariner, "when the air is calm and still, the beating of the _gnatoo_ at all the plantations about has a very pleasing effect; some sounds being near at hand, and others almost lost by the distance, some a little more acute, others more grave, and all with remarkable regularity, produce a musical variety that is ... heightened by the singing of the birds, and the cheerful influence of the scene."--_Polynesia_, 1846, pp. 249, 250.]

[373] [Marly, or Malai, is an open gra.s.s plat set apart for public ceremonies.]

[fg]

_Ere Fiji's children blew the sh.e.l.l of war_ _And armed Canoes brought Fury from afar_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[fh] _Too long forgotten in the pleasure ground_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[374] [Cava, "kava," or "ava," is an intoxicating drink, prepared from the roots and stems of a kind of pepper (_Piper methystic.u.m_). Mariner (_An Account, etc._, 1817, ii. 183-206) gives a highly interesting and suggestive account of the process of brewing the kava, and of the solemn "kava-drinking," which was attended with ceremonial rites. Briefly, a large wooden bowl, about three feet in diameter, and one foot in depth in the centre (see, for a typical specimen, King Thakombau's kava-bowl, in the British Museum), is placed in front of the king or chief, who sits in the midst, surrounded by his guests and courtiers. A portion of kava root is handed to each person present, who chews it to a pulp, and then deposits his quid in the kava bowl. Water being gradually added, the roots are well squeezed and twisted by various "curvilinear turns"

of the hands and arms through the "fow," _i.e._ shavings of fibrous bark. When the "kava is in the cup," quaighs made of the "unexpanded leaf of the banana" are handed round to the guests, and the symposium begins. Mariner (_ibid._, p. 205, note) records a striking feature of the preliminary rites, a consecration or symbolic "grace before"

drinking. "When a G.o.d has no priest, as Tali-y-Toobo [the Supreme Deity of the Tongans], no person ... presides at the head of his cava circle, the place being left ... vacant, but which it is supposed the G.o.d invisibly occupies.... And they go through the usual form of words, as if the first cup was actually filled and presented to the G.o.d: thus, before any cup is filled, the man by the side of the bowl says ... 'The cava is in the cup:' the mataboole answers ... 'Give it to our G.o.d:' but this is mere form, for there is no cup filled for the G.o.d." (See, too, _The Making of Religion_, by A. Lang, 1900, p. 279.)]

[375] {601}[The gnatoo, which is a piece of tappa cloth, is worn in different ways. "Twenty yards of fine cloth are required by a Tahitian woman to make one dress, which is worn from the waist downwards."--_Polynesia_, 1866, p. 45.]

[376] [_Licoo_ is the name given to the back of or unfrequented part of any island.]

[fi]

_How beauteous are their skins, how softly all_ _The forms of Beauty wrap them like a pall_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[fj] {602} _Glares with his mountain eye_--.--[MS. D. erased.]

[377] [The _Morning Chronicle_, November 6, 1822, prints the following proclamation of Jose Maria Carreno, Commandant-General of Panama: "Inhabitants of the Isthmus! The Genius of History, which has everywhere crowned our arms, announces peace to Colombia.... From the banks of Orinoco to the towering summits of Chimborazo not a single enemy exists, and those who proudly marched towards the abode of the ancient children of the Sun have either perished or remain prisoners expecting our clemency."]

[378] [Compare "a wise man's sentiment," as quoted by Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun: "He believed if a man were permitted to make all the Ballads, he need not care who should make the Laws."--_An Account of a Conversation, etc._, 1704, p. 10.]

[fk] {603} _Than all the records History's annals rear_.--[MS. D.

erased.]

[379] [Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), at a meeting of the _Academie des inscriptions_, at Paris, September 17, 1822, announced the discovery of the alphabet of hieroglyphics.]

[380] [So, too, Sh.e.l.ley, in his Preface to the _Revolt of Islam_, speaks of "that more essential attribute of Poetry, the power of awakening in others sensations like those which animate my own bosom."]

[fl] {604}

_And she herself the daughter of the Seas_ _As full of gems and energy as these_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[381] {605}[George Stewart was born at Ronaldshay (circ. 1764), but was living at Stromness in 1780 (where his father's house, "The White House," is still shown), when, on the homeward voyage of the Resolution, Cook and Bligh were hospitably entertained by his parents. He was of honourable descent. His mother's ancestors were sprung from a half-brother of Mary Stuart's, and his father's family dated back to 1400. When he was at Timor, Bligh gave a "description of the pirates"

for purposes of identification by the authorities at Calcutta and elsewhere. "George Stewart, mids.h.i.+pman, aged 23 years, is five feet seven inches high, good complexion, dark hair, slender made ... small face, and black eyes; tatowed on the left breast with a star," etc.

Lieutenant Bligh took Stewart with him, partly in return for the "civilities" at Stromness, but also because "he was a seaman, and had always borne a good character." Alexander Smith told Captain Beachey (_Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific_, 1831, Part I. p. 53) that it was Stewart who advised Christian "to take possession of the s.h.i.+p," but Peter Hayward, who survived to old age, strenuously maintained that this was a calumny, that Stewart was forcibly detained in his cabin, and that he would not, in any case, have taken part in the mutiny. He had, perhaps, already wooed and won a daughter of the isles, and when the _Bounty_ revisited Tahiti, September 20, 1789, he was put ash.o.r.e, and took up his quarters in her father's house. There he remained till March, 1791, when he "voluntarily surrendered himself" to the captain of the _Pandora_, and was immediately put in irons. The story of his parting from his bride is told in _A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean in the s.h.i.+p Duff_ (by W. Wilson), 1799, p. 360: "The history of Peggy Stewart marks a tenderness of heart that never will be heard without emotion.... They had lived with the old chief in the most tender state of endearment; a beautiful little girl had been the fruit of their union, and was at the breast when the Pandora arrived....

Frantic with grief, the unhappy Peggy ... flew with her infant in a canoe to the arms of her husband. She was separated from him by violence, and conveyed on sh.o.r.e in a state of despair and grief too big for utterance ... she sank into the deepest dejection, pined under a rapid decay ... and fell a victim to her feelings, dying literally of a broken heart." Stewart was drowned or killed by an accident during the wreck of the _Pandora_, August 29, 1791. _Sunt lacrymae rerum!_ It is a mournful tale.]

[382] {606} The "s.h.i.+p of the desert" is the Oriental figure for the camel or dromedary; and they deserve the metaphor well,--the former for his endurance, the latter for his swiftness. [Compare _The Deformed Transformed_, Part I. sc. i, line 117.]

[383] [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, lines 271-279.]

[384]

"Lucullus, when frugality could charm.

Had roasted turnips in the Sabine farm."

POPE [_Moral Essays_, i. 218, 219.]

[385] The consul Nero, who made the unequalled march which deceived Hannibal, and defeated Asdrubal; thereby accomplis.h.i.+ng an achievement almost unrivalled in military annals. The first intelligence of his return, to Hannibal, was the sight of Asdrubal's head thrown into his camp. When Hannibal saw this, he exclaimed with a sigh, that "Rome would now be the mistress of the world." And yet to this victory of Nero's it might be owing that his imperial namesake reigned at all. But the infamy of one has eclipsed the glory of the other. When the name of "Nero" is heard, who thinks of the consul?--But such are human things! [For Hannibal's cry of despair, "Agnoscere se fortunam Carthaginis!" see Livy, lib. xxvii. cap. li. _s.f._]

[fm] _Tyrant or hero--patriot or a chief_.--[MS. erased.]

[386] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza v. line i, see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 102, and 99, note 1.]

[387] {609}[Toobo Neuha is the name of a Tongan chieftain. See Mariner's _Account, etc._, 1817, 141, _sq._]

[388] When very young, about eight years of age, after an attack of the scarlet fever at Aberdeen, I was removed by medical advice into the Highlands. Here I pa.s.sed occasionally some summers, and from this period I date my love of mountainous countries. I can never forget the effect, a few years afterwards, in England, of the only thing I had long seen, even in miniature, of a mountain, in the Malvern Hills. After I returned to Cheltenham, I used to watch them every afternoon, at sunset, with a sensation which I cannot describe. This was boyish enough: but I was then only thirteen years of age, and it was in the holidays. [Byron spent his summer holidays, 1796-98, at the farm-house of Ballatrich, on Deeside. (See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 192, note 2. For his visit to Cheltenham, in the summer of 1801, see _Life_, pp. 8, 19.)

[389] {610}[For the eagle's beak, see _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xviii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 226, note 1.]

[390] {611}[Compare _Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 4, line 13.]

[391] [Compare--"The never-merry clock," _Werner_, act iii. sc. 3, line 3.]

[fn] _Which knolls the knell of moments out of man_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[392] {612} The now well-known story of the loves of the nightingale and rose need not be more than alluded to, being sufficiently familiar to the Western as to the Eastern reader. [Compare _Werner_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 380-382; and _The Giaour_, lines 21, 33.]

[fo] _Which kindled by another's_--.--[MS. D.]

[393] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanzas lxxii., lxxv. Once again the language and the sentiment recall Wordsworth's _Tintern Abbey_. (See _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 261, note 2.)]

[394] {613} If the reader will apply to his ear the sea-sh.e.l.l on his chimney-piece, he will be aware of what is alluded to. If the text should appear obscure, he will find in _Gebir_ the same idea better expressed in two lines. The poem I never read, but have heard the lines quoted, by a more recondite reader--who seems to be of a different opinion from the editor of the _Quarterly Review_, who qualified it in his answer to the Critical Reviewer of his _Juvenal_, as trash of the worst and most insane description. It is to Mr. Landor, the author of _Gebir_, so qualified, and of some Latin poems, which vie with Martial or Catullus in obscenity, that the immaculate Mr. Southey addresses his declamation against impurity!

[These are the lines in _Gebir_ to which Byron alludes--