- Now that Tommo is feeling much better, he's able to walk around. He swims regularly with Fayaway and the other young girls in a nearby lake.
- Tommo asks Kory-Kory to bring a boat to the lake, but learns that it is taboo. The girls may not swim while it is in the water. Tommo implores Kory-Kory to break the taboo, and after a bit of a lecture (that Tommo can't exactly follow), he agrees to ask the priests about it. Fayaway is then allowed to boat with Tommo on the lake, and his admiration of her builds each day.
- One day a man named Marnoo comes to the village. He is a young and handsome man with tattoos different than those of the Typee. Tommo's pride is a bit hurt when the new man ignores him and greets the adoring villagers (including his own adoptive household).
- Marnoo offers a speech to the villagers about the French and Nukuheva, and Tommo thinks he seems inordinately eloquent—though he can't really understand everything the charming stranger is saying.
- After quite some time of Marnoo politicking around the crowd, he at last approaches Tommo and asks him in English how is he doing, and how it likes it in the village. Tommo wonders if he knows what happened to Toby, and asks where he's come from. Marnoo explains that he came from Nukuheva and that he's "taboo," meaning he can go anywhere on the island and remain unharmed.
- Marnoo wants to know how Tommo came to the Typee valley, but as soon as he gets to the part about Toby, Marnoo seems uncomfortable and tries to change the subject. He tries to ask, too, why he's being held captive and if Marnoo would convince the Typee to let him go. Again, Marnoo tries to change the subject. These affairs, he explains, are not ones he can muck about in, if he hopes to remain "taboo."
- Marnoo leaves the valley, leaving Tommo without answers.