Some of these tapers are eight or ten feet in length; but being perfectly flexible, one end is held in a coil, while the other is lighted.

The nut burns with a fitful bluish flame, and the oil that it contains is exhausted in about ten minutes.

As one burns down, the next becomes ignited, and the ashes of the former are knocked into a cocoanut shell kept for the purpose.

This primitive candle requires continual attention, and must be constantly held in the hand.

The person so employed marks the lapse of time by the number of nuts consumed, which is easily learned by counting the bits of tappa distributed at regular intervals along the string.
I grieve to state so distressing a fact, but the inhabitants of Typee were in the habit of devouring fish much in the same way that a civilized being would eat a radish, and without any more previous preparation.