shaved his upper lip every morning three times with, three times against the grain

[alice wellintown]

A new P-List! One where naturally argumentative members strive to live
like the Typee! Imagine there's no debating and no disagreements too.
You may say we are Typee-like ....


I HAVE already mentioned that the influence exerted over the people of
the valley by their chiefs was mild in the extreme; and as to any
general rule or standard of conduct by which the commonality were
governed in their intercourse with each other, so far as my
observation extended, I should be almost tempted to say, that none
existed on the island, except, indeed, the mysterious 'Taboo' be
considered as such. During the time I lived among the Typees, no one
was ever put upon his trial for any offence against the public. To all
appearance there were no courts of law or equity. There was no
municipal police for the purpose of apprehending vagrants and
disorderly characters. In short, there were no legal provisions
whatever for the well-being and conservation of society, the
enlightened end of civilized legislation. And yet everything went on
in the valley with a harmony and smoothness unparalleled, I will
venture to assert, in the most select, refined, and pious associations
of mortals in Christendom. How are we to explain this enigma? These
islanders were heathens! savages! ay, cannibals! and how came they
without the aid of established law, to exhibit, in so eminent a
degree, that social order which is the greatest blessing and highest
pride of the social state?

It may reasonably be inquired, how were these people governed? how
were their passions controlled in their everyday transactions? It must
have been by an inherent principle of honesty and charity towards each
other. They seemed to be governed by that sort of tacit common-sense
law which, say what they will of the inborn lawlessness of the human
race, has its precepts graven on every breast. The grand principles of
virtue and honour, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes,
are the same all the world over: and where these principles are
concerned, the right or wrong of any action appears the same to the
uncultivated as to the enlightened mind. It is to this indwelling,
this universally diffused perception of what is just and noble, that
the integrity of the Marquesans in their intercourse with each other,
is to be attributed. In the darkest nights they slept securely, with
all their worldly wealth around them, in houses the doors of which
were never fastened. The disquieting ideas of theft or assassination
never disturbed them.

[...]

There was one admirable trait in the general character of the Typees
which, more than anything else, secured my admiration: it was the
unanimity of feeling they displayed on every occasion. With them there
hardly appeared to be any difference of opinion upon any subject
whatever. They all thought and acted alike. I do not conceive that
they could support a debating society for a single night: there would
be nothing to dispute about; and were they to call a convention to
take into consideration the state of the tribe, its session would be a
remarkably short one. They showed this spirit of unanimity in every
action of life; everything was done in concert and good fellowship. I
will give an instance of this fraternal feeling.