Midnight
In truth , so horrific and improbable are these accounts , that many sensible and well-informed people will not believe that any cannibals exist ; and place every book of voyages which purports to give any account of them , on the same shelf with Blue Beard and Jack the Giant-killer . While others , implicitly crediting the most extravagant fictions , firmly believe that there are people in the world with tastes so depraved , that they would infinitely prefer a single mouthful of material humanity to a good dinner of roast beef and plum pudding . But here , Truth , who loves to be centrally located , is again found between the two extremes ; for cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific , but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone ; and horrible and fearful as the custom is , immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and condemned , still I assert that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous . Fishing parties -- Mode of distributing the fish -- Midnight banquet -- Timekeeping tapers -- Unceremonious style of eating the fish . There was no instance in which the social and kindly dispositions of the Typees were more forcibly evinced than in the manner they conducted their great fishing parties . Four times during my stay in the valley the young men assembled near the full of the moon , and went together on these excursions . As they were generally absent about forty-eight hours , I was led to believe that they went out towards the open sea , some distance from the bay .