Typee Chapter 21 Summary

  • Tommo explains a mineral spring outside the village called "arva wai," or, strong water. The water tastes, he says, like a bunch of different terrible things all in one, but the Typee seem to use it as a sort of medicine.
  • Coming back from the spring one day, Tommo discovers a large rock terrace set into the side of a high hill, made up of several large rocks, something like the side of a pyramid. These have been here since the beginning of history, Kory-Kory later explains.
  • Tommo finds this discovery interesting, and wonders about the full human history of the Marquesas as a result.
  • Each of the huts in which the Typee dwelt sat on a large stone foundation, and these too appear to have predated the Typee.