Two white men came on board, one of whom had been here several years, and had become quite domesticated. He seemed to have considerable influence among the natives, and doubtless was as arrant a savage as any of them when on shore. This man told me that the work of building canoes was constantly going on at their naval dockyard, and that he could hardly perceive the progress made from day to day; several months being consumed in finishing one of them. And no more work is done to them than is absolutely necessary to fit them for service, for the people evince none of the artistic skill and taste in ornamenting their vessels, for which many other of the Polynesian tribes are noted.
The man whom I had assisted by throwing him a rope, and relieving him of a part of his load, attached himself particularly to me, and we drove a smart barter trade, highly satisfactory to both parties. He soon gave me further evidence of his powers of jaw, as, laughing at my bungling attempts to husk a cocoanut with an axe, he seized the whole bunch of nuts, and jerked the husks all off with his teeth, in less time than I should have taken to finish one, considering his services amply rewarded with a morsel of "tabahky." I bought all his stock of mats, and as many of the hats as I could adapt to my very accommodating head, in other words, all which were not more than eleven sizes too big for me. The next thing produced for my inspection was a cocoanut shell, filled with a sort of syrup, into which he run his finger and sucked it with infinite gusto, at the same time tempting me to do likewise.
"Tikee-moee-moee?" he repeated. "Tabahky!"
I found this a very nice article, light in color, clear and thick, not unlike honey. I bought it eagerly, and gave my friend to understand I would like to have more. In less than ten minutes he had brought me more than a dozen, which I purchased at sight of the shells, and carried below. I discovered the next day when too late, that only the first one was worth eating, the rest appearing to be about equally compounded of very black molasses and sea-water.
I made my out-door agent understand that I wanted to collect shells, showing him one as a specimen. He rushed to the side, shouting to his comrade in the canoe, "Teroot!" and returned with a few which were not worth much. My "wants" having been thus advertised, I was beset with cries of "Teroot!" for the next half-hour; for every barbarian pedler who had a beech-worn shell or fragment of a shell to dispose of, pushed it into my face with the same war-cry. I selected a few, which I thought worthy to be added to my collection. But I was by no means rid of the rest, after so doing; for I was pursued from post to pillar, and the same specimens, transferred to different hands, loomed before my eyes dozens of times, with the savage cry "Teroot! Tabahky!"