He coaxed and blustered by turns, but in vain; the natives were neither to be intimidated nor appeased, and as a final resort he was obliged to call together his boat's crew, and pull away from what he termed the most infernal place he ever stepped upon.
Lucky was it for him and for us that we were not honoured on our departure by a salute of stones from the hands of the exasperated Tiors.
In this way, on the neighbouring island of Ropo, were killed, but a few weeks previously, and for a nearly similar offence, the master and three of the crew of the K---.
I cannot determine with anything approaching to certainty, what power it is that imposes the taboo.

When I consider the slight disparity of condition among the islanders--the very limited and inconsiderable prerogatives of the king and chiefs--and the loose and indefinite functions of the priesthood, most of whom were hardly to be distinguished from the rest of their countrymen, I am wholly at a loss where to look for the authority which regulates this potent institution.
It is imposed upon something today, and withdrawn tomorrow; while its operations in other cases are perpetual.

Sometimes its restrictions only affect a single individual--sometimes a particular family--sometimes a whole tribe; and in a few instances they extend not merely over the various clans on a single island, but over all the inhabitants of an entire group.

In illustration of this latter peculiarity, I may cite the law which forbids a female to enter a canoe--a prohibition which prevails upon all the northern Marquesas Islands.
The word itself (taboo) is used in more than one signification.

It is sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exercise of parental authority he forbids it to perform a particular action.
Anything opposed to the ordinary customs of the islanders, although not expressly prohibited, is said to be 'taboo'.
The Typee language is one very difficult to be acquired; it bears a close resemblance to the other Polynesian dialects, all of which show a common origin.