[Typee by Herman Melville]@TWC D-Link book
Typee

CHAPTER TEN
8/16

Was this act of the chief a token of his enmity?
Typee or Happar?
I asked within myself.

I started, for at the same moment this identical question was asked by the strange being before me.

I turned to Toby, the flickering light of a native taper showed me his countenance pale with trepidation at this fatal question.
I paused for a second, and I know not by what impulse it was that I answered 'Typee'.

The piece of dusky statuary nodded in approval, and then murmured 'Motarkee!' 'Motarkee,' said I, without further hesitation 'Typee motarkee.' What a transition! The dark figures around us leaped to their feet, clapped their hands in transport, and shouted again and again the talismanic syllables, the utterance of which appeared to have settled everything.
When this commotion had a little subsided, the principal chief squatted once more before me, and throwing himself into a sudden rage, poured forth a string of philippics, which I was at no loss to understand, from the frequent recurrence of the word Happar, as being directed against the natives of the adjoining valley.

In all these denunciations my companion and I acquiesced, while we extolled the character of the warlike Typees.


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