Situated as I was in the Typee valley, I perceived every hour the effects of this all-controlling power, without in the least comprehending it.

Those effects were, indeed, wide-spread and universal, pervading the most important as well as the minutest transactions of life.

The savage, in short, lives in the continual observance of its dictates, which guide and control every action of his being.
For several days after entering the valley I had been saluted at least fifty times in the twenty-four hours with the talismanic word 'Taboo' shrieked in my ears, at some gross violation of its provisions, of which I had unconsciously been guilty.

The day after our arrival I happened to hand some tobacco to Toby over the head of a native who sat between us.

He started up, as if stung by an adder; while the whole company, manifesting an equal degree of horror, simultaneously screamed out 'Taboo!' I never again perpetrated a similar piece of ill-manners, which, indeed, was forbidden by the canons of good breeding, as well as by the mandates of the taboo.