CHAPTER 37

  1.Milesian: Irish, relating to Milesius.

  2.land beavers: Hats.

  3.Meath: County in Ireland.

  4.Hibernian: Irishman.

  CHAPTER 38

  1.shipping a new crew: Henry Ventom, captain of the whaleship Lucy Ann, had offered generous advances to unengaged whalemen ashore and had thus filled out his crew. Captain Guy of the Julia did the same thing, although the visit by Mack and his men to the calaboose is fictional.

  2.capstan-head: Top of the capstan, the vertical winch used for lifting heavy objects such as the anchor.

  3.“Beachcombers”: Deserters from ships who lived among the islanders for various lengths of time. Unlike missionaries, merchants, or soldiers, they came alone, without the structure of society. They were strangers in their new society, that of the islanders, and scandals in their old.

  4.“Ho, cheerly men!”: The chantey, or sailor’s work song, entitled “Cheerly, Man,” used to set a rhythm for the work so that the men pulled and lifted together.

  CHAPTER 39

  1.Damon and Pythias: Greek story in which Damon puts himself up as bond so that Pythias can see his family after he has been condemned to die by the king. When Pythias returns to meet his fate, the king, impressed by their loyalty and friendship, releases both men.

  2.Tamatoy, King of Raiatair: Tamatoa, king of Raiatea, in the Leeward Islands of the Society group.

  CHAPTER 40

  1.“Mickonaree”: Here, Christian; the word “mickonaree” is a pidgin English version of “missionary.” 2. “tayo”: Also spelled taio; an important type of social relationship, usually formed between individuals who were not related by ancestry or determined by respective social rank. The idea of taio is similar to the idea of name exchange in the Marquesas.

  3.sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal: From I Corinthians 13: 1: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

  4.Regatta shirt: Striped garment made of cotton.

  CHAPTER 41

  1.calabash: Shell of a gourd.

  CHAPTER 42

  1.rods: A rod is equal to 5½ yards or 16½ feet.

  2.Motoo-Otoo: Motu uta, the islet near the shore. 1. calabash: Shell of a gourd.

  3.learned Theban: Greek philosopher; reference to William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 3, sc. 4, 160: “I’ll take a word with this same learned Theban.”

  4.good ship Duff: The missionary ship Duff arrived at Matavai Bay, Tahiti, on March 5, 1797, under the command of James Wilson. It carried missionaries sent by the London Missionary Society to be settled on the islands of Tahiti, Tonga, and the Marquesas. Seventeen of the missionaries remained in Tahiti.

  5.Tahitian reckoning: The missionaries aboard the missionary ship Duff did not realize that they had crossed the international date line (180 degrees from the prime meridian running through Greenwich, England) en route to Tahiti. Therefore, the Tahitian calendar was one day off from the British calendar.

  6.Cape of Good Hope: Southern tip of Africa.

  7.Cape Horn: Southern tip of South America.

  CHAPTER 43

  1.mob cap: Large bonnet that covers most of the hair.

  CHAPTER 44

  1.Pomaree II: Pomare II ruled Tahiti from 1803 until 1821.

  2.Papoar: Papaoa; Melville took the information on the church from the second edition of William Ellis’s Polynesian Researches (1833).

  3.great temple of the Jews: Built in ancient Jerusalem c. tenth century BCE; according to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple was built by Solomon.

  4.Solomon: Solomon, king of Israel, son of King David and Bathsheba. Almost all knowledge of Solomon is from the Old Testament, I Kings and II Chronicles.

  5.Oro: Chief god of the Society Islands.

  CHAPTER 45

  1.Tahitian Bible: Parts of the Tahitian Bible were published for the first time in 1818, the New Testament in 1829, and the complete Bible in 1838. The Tahitian Bible was translated principally byHenry Nott (1774–1844), who arrived in Tahiti aboard the missionary ship Duff in 1797 as part of the London Missionary Society and stayed until his death forty-seven years later.

  2.“Great Revival at the Sandwich Islands”: Religious revival in Hawaii during the years 1835–1840, led by the missionary Titus Coan (1801–1882).

  3.London Missionary Society: Founded in 1795, the London Missionary Society laid the foundation for missionary work in the South Pacific.

  4.Raiatair: Melville’s spelling of Raiatea, an island that lies west of Tahiti in the Leeward Islands of the Society group.

  5.sinnate: Alternate spelling of “sennit,” a braided cord made from straw or grass.

  CHAPTER 46

  1.“Daniel Wheeler”: Daniel Wheeler, Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labors of the Late Daniel Wheeler (London, 1842).

  1.Titus Oates: Titus Oates (1649–1705), English conspirator. His story of a Jesuit plot to assassinate Charles II in 1678 resulted in the execution of many innocent Catholics.

  CHAPTER 47

  1.Temple of Tanee: Tanee, usually spelled Tane, was one of the mightiest of the Polynesian gods. In Polynesian Researches (1833), William Ellis mentions the extensive national temple of Tane on the island of Huahine, where he resided; Ellis is most likely Melville’s source.

  CHAPTER 48

  1.Tahitian mission: The Tahitian mission was started by members of the London Missionary Society in 1797. 2. Right Reverend M. Russell: Michael Russell, Polynesia (1843). 3. Kotzebue: Otto von Kotzebue (1787–1846), Russian navigator. Melville cites his book, A New Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26 (London: Colburn & Bentley, 1830).

  4.Captain Beechey: Frederick W. Beechey, Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bherring’s Straits (London, 1831); Charles Roberts Anderson, in Melville in the South Seas (1939), cites an 1832 Philadelphia edition.

  5.Turnbull: John Turnbull, A Voyage Round the World (London, 1805). Harrison Hayford, in the Explanatory Notes to the Hendricks House edition of Omoo (1969), notes that Melville took his footnote from Russell’s Polynesia and that nothing suggests that Melville read Turnbull. Charles Roberts Anderson, in Melville in the South Seas (1939), cites an 1810 Philadelphia edition of Turnbull but does not argue that Melville read it.

  6.Williams, the martyr of Erromanga: John Williams (1796–1839) and a young sailor named James Harris, who was considering becoming a missionary, arrived in the New Hebrides under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. Shortly after landing on Erromanga in 1839, they were killed by the islanders. Williams had worked in the South Pacific for more than twenty years, and his death shook the mission community.

  7.Rev. Mr. Simpson: Alexander Simpson, missionary, brother-in-law of George Pritchard, arrived in Tahiti in 1827 and moved to Moorea in 1829. 8. Captain Wilson: James Wilson, captain of the missionary ship Duff, who brought the missionaries to Tahiti, Tonga, and the Marquesas in 1797. His subsequent book about the voyage is entitled A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean…In the Ship Duff (London, 1799).

  CHAPTER 49

  1.Afrehitoo: Afareaitu on the eastern coast of Moorea (Melville’s Imeeo).

  2.Bligh: In 1787, Lieutenant William Bligh (1754–1817) was given command of the Bounty and sent to Tahiti to transport breadfruit plants to the West Indies to provide food for slaves. In 1789, part of the crew of the Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied, and Bligh and the crew loyal to him were set adrift in the ship’s boat. They eventually made their way to Timor and back to England. Bligh continued his career in the Royal Navy.

  3.volumes of the U.S. Exploring Expedition: Charles Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Under the Command of Charles Wilkes, U.S.N. (Philadelphia, 1844 [vols. 1–5], 1846 [vol. 6]). One of Melville’s major written sources for Omoo.

  4.Ruschenberger: William Samuel Waithman Ruschenberger (1807–1895), officer in the United States Navy.

  5.virulent disease: Venereal disease.

  6.Tyerman and Bennet: Daniel Tyerman and George Bennett, Journal of Voyages and Travels (1832). The missionaries Tyerman and Bennett spent eight years (1821–1829) visiting the Polynesian, Asian, and African missions of the London Missionary Society.

  7.Teearmoar: The prediction comes from Melville’s major written source, the second edition of William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1833); although Ellis himself gave the prediction, Melville attributes it to a name he found in Polynesian Researches: “Tairimoa, one of the priests.”

  CHAPTER 50

  1.“St. Witus’s hornpipe”: A play on Saint Vitus’ dance. More properly chorea, Saint Vitus’ dance was usually a complication of rheumatic fever that was characterized by involuntary muscular movements of the face and extremities.

  2.Grand Lama of Thibet: Also called the Dalai Lama; leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

  CHAPTER 51

  1.lady performing a tonsorial operation: Woman working as a barber.

  2.Fanning’s Island: One of the Line Islands, Republic of Kiribati, Fanning lies 230 miles north of the equator. The European discovery of Fanning Island was made by Captain Edmund Fanning in the American ship Betsy in 1798. 3. “the Marling-spike”: Sailors’ name for Mount Mouaroa; Tiger Tooth is another common name for this magnificent peak.

  CHAPTER 52

  1.Martair: Maatea, on the southeast corner of Moorea.

  2.most grotesque elevations: The island of Moorea is a caldera, a volcanic crater formed by the collapse of the central part of the volcano. The mountains are the edges of the crater, and the valleys and bays are the center. The fact that Moorea is a caldera makes themountains “grotesque,” as Melville calls them, but also stunningly beautiful.

  3.species of banian-tree: Banyan, a tree of the mulberry family with branches that send out shoots that grow down to the soil and root to form secondary trunks.

  4.rook: Common European bird about the size and color of the related American crow.

  CHAPTER 53

  1.Monument: Monument commemorating the Great Fire of London in 1666; the Monument was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Dr. Robert Hooke and built in 1671–1677.

  2.“Were you ever in Dumbarton?”: Chantey, or work song, used when pumping the windlass to pull in the anchor or lift heavy objects such as blanket pieces of whale blubber.

  3.“brass monkey”: The origin of the phrase is unknown, although the term “brass monkey” was widely distributed in the United States from the middle of the nineteenth century on. Melville’s use of “brass monkey” in Omoo is evidently the earliest written use. In the navy, the term “monkey” is quite common and often refers to something being small or tight-fitting.

  CHAPTER 54

  1.Vancouver left…Society group: Melville is mistaken. George Vancouver brought cattle to the Hawaiian Islands—not the Society Islands—on his second voyage of circumnavigation in 1793 as a gift for King Kamehameha I. He brought more on his third voyage in 1794 and convinced the king to place a ten-year tapu on their slaughter. James Cook notes in his account of his third voyage that he intended to leave all his European animals on Tahiti in 1777. See John L. Long, Introduced Mammals of the World (2003), and Christopher Lever, Naturalized Mammals of the World (1985)

  2.Mouna Roa and Mouna Kea: Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are shield volcanoes on the island of Hawaii. Mauna Loa is the world’s largest volcano.

  3.Hilo: Large town on the island of Hawaii.

  4.Tammahamaha III: Kamehameha II (1797–1824) succeeded the throne from his father, Kamehameha I, the first king of the kingdom of Hawaii. He reigned 1819–1824, during which time Chris- tian missionaries arrived in the Hawaiian Islands. He and his queen consort died in London from the measles.

  CHAPTER 55

  1.’tarnal: Slang for “eternal,” referring to eternal damnation; vulgar expression of execration.

  2.hermetically overgrown: Sealed; from the belief that Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary author of works embodying magical, astrological, and alchemical doctrines, invented a magical seal to keep vessels airtight.

  CHAPTER 56

  1.Hence the musquitoes: Mosquitoes existed in the South Pacific prior to European contact. There were endemic species. However, other species were introduced by Europeans. Ships were potent agents of mosquito dispersal, especially early sailing vessels because of the numerous water containers on board. The mosquitoes were then spread unwittingly from island to island in native canoes. See John N. Belkin, The Mosquitoes of the South Pacific (1962)

  4.Nathan Coleman: The story of Nathan Coleman is apocryphal. Melville gives this name as one of the men lost from the whaleship Eliza in 1839 and commemorated on a marble tablet in the New Bedford Whaleman’s Chapel (Moby-Dick, chapter 7), but this, too, is apocryphal.

  CHAPTER 57

  1.Taurus: Taurus the bull is a Zodiac constellation.

  CHAPTER 58

  1.“maitai”: Good. Melville’s use of mortarkee for “good” in Typee is a version of maitai.

  CHAPTER 59

  1.murphies: Potatoes.

  2.Callao to Lima: Lima is inland from Callao in Peru. In 1844, onhis return voyage aboard the frigate United States, Melville traveled this road with his shipmate Oliver Ross, the “Nord” of White-Jacket (1850).

  CHAPTER 60

  1.beach-de-mer: Sea cucumbers, which were dried and used as a trade item with China. The Chinese had little use for American goods, but Americans greatly desired Chinese goods, especially tea, silk, and china. Therefore American merchants and merchant captains searched the world for desirable items to trade with China.

  2.pearl-oyster: The oysters of the South Pacific produce beautiful pearls that were highly valued.

  3.arrow-root: Tuberous plant that yields a nutritious starch.

  4.ambergris: Waxy substance from the intestine of the sperm whale, used as a fixative in perfumes.

  5.edible birdsnests: Collected as a trade item with China. The saliva holding the bird’s nest together is nutritious and was used by the Chinese to make soup.

  6.Mercator’s Sailing: Gerard Mercator (1512–1594) perfected a map projection that would allow him to spread on a flat plane the surface of a sphere so that all latitude, longitude, and rhumb lines appeared straight and all directions and distances were true. Melville refers here to sailing charts constructed with this map projection.

  7.Azimuth compass: The azimuth compass was used to determine variation, the difference between true north and magnetic north. The azimuth compass was divided into 360 degrees rather than 32 points. An ordinary ship’s compass was usually marked in points and pointed to magnetic north.

  8.settling the longitude: Longitude is much more difficult to determine than latitude. John Harrison (1693–1776), an English clock maker, designed and built the first successful maritime clock, whose accuracy was great enough to determine longitude over long distances. Called H4, the clock was finished for testing in 1761.

  CHAPTER 61

  1.Tamai: The description in chapter 63 of the dance at Tamai was written for Typee and then inserted into Omoo, as Melville acknowledged in a letter to his British publisher, John Murray (January 29, 1847),rendering the visit to Tamai fictional. Tamae (Melville’s “Tamai”) does exist, as does Temae Lake, but Melville has mislocated them. They are actually on the northeast corner of the island of Moorea.

  2.Brazilian plum: Melville found the description of the “Brazilian plum” in the second edition of William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1833). Ellis spells the name of the fruit “vi,” which Melville renders as “Ve.”

  3.red apple of Tahiti: Melville also found the description of the “red apple of Tahiti” in the second edition of William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1833). Ellis spells the name of the fruit “ahia,” which Melville renders as “Arheea.”

  4.Otoo, the boy-king: More properly Tu: Melville follows Captain James Cook in adding “O” at the beginning of his name, just as Cook referred to Tahiti as Otaheite. Tu (1742–1803) took the name Pomare and unified the different chiefdoms of Tahiti into a single kingdom, which he ruled 1788–1791. He abdicated in 1791, but he remained the regent of Tahiti 1791–1803, when his son Pomare II became king. There are several extant contemporary engravings of Otoo.

  5.Taloo: Melville evidently took the name of the pass, Tareu, which he renders as “Taloo,” for the name of the bay. The bay is named Opunohu and was so called even in 1842. It is on the northern side of the island of Moorea. The village on the western shore of the bay is Papetoai.

  6.“Roora”: Melville found the description of this garment in the second edition of William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1833), although he attributes the description of it to Captain Bob.

  7.mendicant grandee: Friar.

  8.Bashaw with Two Tails: Turkish lower officer.

  CHAPTER 62

  1.“plug” tobacco: Stick of tobacco.

  2.“poee”: Poi, Polynesian dish made from fermented breadfruit.

  3.“karhowries”: Strangers.

  CHAPTER 63

  1.duennas: Elderly women serving as companions/governesses or chaperones to young ladies.

  2.Lory-Lory: William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1833), writes that ori is the native word for “dance.”

  CHAPTER 65

  1.Partoowye: Papetoai, on the western bank of Opunohu Bay on the north side of Moorea.

  2.Hardy of Hannamanoo: Lem Hardy (see chapter 7, note 9), a fictional character but evidently based on real renegades whom Melville met or about whom he read, as, for example, Jean Baptiste Cabri, whom Georg H. von Langsdorff discusses in his Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World (1813). Anderson notes that Max Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages (originally published in 1860), in a full account of a visit to Hanamenu, Hiva Oa, only two months before Melville’s in 1842, makes no mention of a white man living there.