Typee Chapter 29 Summary

  • The natural history of the valley is next up for discussion. Tommo mentions large, rat-like dogs, big cats, and tame lizards and birds.
  • Although other Polynesian islands have to deal with mosquitos all the time, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of bugs in the valley, besides a small variety of fly.
  • The weather in the Marquesas, Tommo reports, is mostly fantastic, even during the rainy season, when it doesn't even rain that hard.
  • Because of the climate, the coconuts grow quickly everywhere, and some Typee are able to walk up the trunk of the trees in order to make a harvest. Even some children climb the fifty-foot trees.
  • Turning back to the many birds, Tommo confesses that watching them fly overhead makes him sad, and he wonders if it's because they know he's a stranger to the valley.