midnight
The wild glare of these enormous flambeaux , lighting up with a startling brilliancy the innermost recesses of the vale , and seen moving rapidly along beneath the canopy of leaves , the savage shout of the excited messengers sounding the news of their approach , which was answered on all sides , and the strange appearance of their naked bodies , seen against the gloomy background , produced altogether an effect upon my mind that I shall long remember . It was on this same occasion that Kory-Kory awakened me at the dead hour of night , and in a sort of transport communicated the intelligence contained in the words `` pehee perni '' -LRB- fish come -RRB- . As I happened to have been in a remarkably sound and refreshing slumber , I could not imagine why the information had not been deferred until morning ; indeed , I felt very much inclined to fly into a passion and box my valet 's ears ; but on second thoughts I got quietly up , and on going outside the house was not a little interested by the moving illumination which I beheld . When old Marheyo received his share of the spoils , immediate preparations were made for a midnight banquet ; calabashes of poee-poee were filled to the brim ; green bread-fruit were roasted ; and a huge cake of `` amar '' was cut up with a sliver of bamboo , and laid out on an immense banana leaf . At this supper we were lighted by several of the native tapers , held in the hands of young girls . These tapers are most ingeniously made . There is a nut abounding in the valley , called by the Typees `` armor , '' closely resembling our common horse-chestnut .