The Art of R. Terry Malone
Fine Art Giclee Prints Depicting the Era of the 1700 and 1800s
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A Greeting Tapu
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Original-Vinyls on Illustration Board
Printed on canvas
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Captain Cook first sighted the Marquesan Islands
in April of 1774. On June 23rd, 1842, the Acushnet anchored at Taiohae
on the island of Nuku Hiva. Melville, a common seaman on the ship, describes
his first encounter with the Marquesans:
"As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed off from the surrounding
shores, and we were soon in the midst of quite a flotilla of them. I was somewhat
astonished to perceive that among the number of natives that surrounded us not
a single female was to be seen.
Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen numbers of cocoa nuts
floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing up and down with every
wave. By some inexplicable means these cocoa nuts were all steadily approaching
towards the ship. As I curiously leaned over the side endeavoring to solve their
mysterious movements, one mass far in advance of the rest attracted my attention.
In its centre was something I could take for nothing else than a cocoa nut, but
which I certainly considered to be one of the most extraordinary specimens of
the fruit I had ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing about among the rest
in the most singular manner, and as it drew nearer I thought it bore a remarkable
resemblance to the brown shaven skull of one of the savages. Presently it betrayed
a pair of eyes, and soon I became aware that what I had supposed to have been
one of the fruit was nothing else than the head of an islander."
Unlike some islands of Polynesia and the Pacific, it was tapu (taboo) for Marquesan
women to use or go near canoes, and for whom it was death even to be seen entering
one when hauled on shore. Consequently, whenever a Marquesan lady voyages by
water, she puts in requisition the paddles of her own fair body. |
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© 2005
R. Terry Malone
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