{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14224/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14224","id":"gutenberg_14224","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14224","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Islands of the Pacific -- Social life and customs","Samoan Islands"],"text":"[Illustration: SAMOAN WOMAN IN COSTUME OF THE PAST.]\n\nSAMOA\n\nA HUNDRED YEARS AGO\nAND LONG BEFORE.\n\n\nBY\n\nGEORGE TURNER, LL.D.\n\nOF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.\n\nFIRST PRINTED\nLONDON 1884\n\nReprinted by\nInstitute of Pacific Studies\nUniversity of the South Pacific\n1984\n\n[Illustration: _Samoa_ London: Macmillan & Co.]\n\n[Illustration: SAMOAN MAN IN COSTUME OF THE PAST.]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nPOSITION OF THE ISLANDS--EARLY VISITORS AND\nTRADITIONARY ORIGIN\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nSAMOA--ORIGIN OF THE NAME\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nA FUTURE STATE--RELIGION, ETC.\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nGODS SUPERIOR--WAR AND GENERAL VILLAGE GODS\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nGODS INFERIOR, OR HOUSEHOLD GODS\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE PEOPLE--INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nADULT AND ADVANCED YEARS\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nFOOD--COOKING--LIQUORS\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nCLOTHING\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nAMUSEMENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nMORTALITY, LONGEVITY, DISEASES, ETC.\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nDEATH AND BURIAL\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nHOUSES\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nCANOES\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nGOVERNMENT AND LAWS\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nWARS\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nTHE HEAVENS, AND THE HEAVENLY BODIES\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF FIRE, AND OTHER STORIES\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nNAMES OF THE ISLANDS--ILLUSTRATING MIGRATIONS, ETC.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nPOLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF NOTE ON UPOLU\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nPOLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF NOTE ON SAVAII\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nPOSITION OF THE ISLANDS--EARLY VISITORS AND TRADITIONARY ORIGIN.\n\n\nSamoa is the native name of the group of volcanic islands in central\nPolynesia long known as the \"Navigators Islands.\" They are situated\nabout 3000 miles from Sydney, and stand on the charts between the\nparallels of 13\u00b0 and 15\u00b0 south latitude, and 168\u00b0 and 173\u00b0 west\nlongitude. The mountains of Savaii, one of which is 4000 feet high,\nmay be seen 50 miles off, and, on coming near, the stranger finds a\nlovely island, 150 miles in circumference, and covered with vegetation\nas far as the eye can reach. The mountains of Upolu and Tutuila rise\n2000 and 3000 feet above the level of the sea, and present the same\naspect of richness and fertility. These are the principal islands of\nthe group. They run east and west. Upolu, 130 miles in circumference,\nis in the middle, having Savaii 10 miles to the west; and Tutuila, an\nisland 80 miles in circumference, about 40 miles to the east. There\nare several smaller islands which are inhabited, and several other\nisolated romantic spots here and there which are not inhabited.\n\nUpolu is almost entirely surrounded by barrier reefs; these wonderful\nsubmarine walls, or breakwaters, built up to the level of the sea and\nforming a fine smooth lagoon, invaluable for fishing and facilitating\nall kinds of communication between the settlements along the coast.\nThe distance between the shore and the reef is from thirty feet to\nthree or four miles. In some places the lagoons are shallow, and\nrequire the rise of the tide to allow a canoe or boat to pass along;\nin other places, and particularly where there are openings in the\nreef, they are from ten to twenty fathoms deep, and afford anchorage\nto ships. The rivers are neither numerous nor large, but there is no\nlack of fresh water; it springs up in abundance in many parts in the\ninterior and along the coast.\n\nThe Dutch \"three-ship expedition,\" under Roggewein, in 1722, seems to\nhave been the first to notice these islands. Then followed the French\nnavigators, Bougainville and La Perouse, the former in 1768 and the\nlatter in 1787. Bougainville, seeing the natives move about so much in\ncanoes, gave the group the name of the \"Isles of the Navigators.\"\nCaptain Cook heard of them in 1773 from the Tongans, noted some of\ntheir names, and in 1791 they were visited by H.B.M. ship _Pandora_.\nLittle, however, was known of these islands until 1830, when a mission\nwas commenced there by the agents of the London Missionary Society.\n\nThe natives, who number about 35,000, are of the prevailing light\ncopper colour of central and eastern Polynesia. Hardly a vestige is to\nbe seen among them of the crisped and woolly-haired dark-brown\nPapuans, or western Polynesian negroes. But as the physical\ncharacteristics and languages of central and eastern Polynesia are\nwell known, I pass on to other and traditionary matters, and begin\nwith what the Samoans have to say on COSMOGONY AND MAN.\n\n1. There was first of all Leai, _nothing_. Thence sprung Nanamu,\n_fragrance_. Then Efuefu, _dust_. Then Iloa, _perceivable_. Then Maua,\n_obtainable_. Then Eleele, _earth_. Then Papatu, _high rocks_. Then\nMaataanoa, _small stones_. Then Maunga, _mountains_. Then Maunga\nmarried Malaeliua, or changeable meeting-place, and had a daughter\ncalled Fasiefu, _piece of dust_. She married Lave i fulufulu tolo, or\ndown of the sugar-cane flower, and to her was born three sons: Mua,\n_first_; Uso, _brother_; Talu, and their sister Sulitonu, or true\nheir. And then follows a story as to Mua and Talu originating the\nnames of two districts on the island of Upolu.\n\n2. A cosmical genealogy takes the form of married couples, and runs as\nfollows:--\n\n    _Male._          _Female._          _Progeny._\n\n1.  The high rocks.  The earth rocks.   The earth.\n\n2.  The earth.       High winds.        Solid clouds.\n\n3.  Solid clouds.    Flying clouds.     (1) Confused winds.\n                                        (2) Quiet winds.\n                                        (3) Boisterous winds.\n                                        (4) Land beating\n                                            winds.\n                                        (5) Dew of life.\n\n4.  Dew of life.     Clouds clinging    Clouds flying about.\n                     to the heavens.\n\n5.  Clouds flying    Clear heavens.     (1) Shadow.\n    about.                              (2) Twilight.\n                                        (3) Daylight.\n                                        (4) Noonday.\n                                        (5) Afternoon.\n                                        (6) Sunset.\n\n6.  Quiet winds.     Beautiful clouds.  Cloudless heavens.\n\n7.  Cloudless        Spread out         Tangaloa the\n    heavens.         heavens.           originator of men.\n\n8.  Tangaloa         Great heavens.     Tangaloa of the\n                                        heavens.\n\n9.  Tangaloa of      Keeper of the      Pili.\n    the heavens.     heavens.\n\n10. Pili.            Sina the tropic    (1) Sanga.\n                     bird               (2) Ana.\n                                        (3) Tua.\n                                        (4) Tolufale.\n                                        (5) Muganitama.\n\n11. Ana.             Sina the powerful. Matofaana.\n\n12. Matofaana.       Sina the bald.     Veta.\n\n13. Veta.            Afu lilo.          Naituveta.\n\n14. Naituveta.       Toe lauoo.         Toso.\n\n15. Toso.            Langi fiti pula.   Siu tau lalovasa.\n\n16. Siu tau          Pai (who reckoned  Siu toso.\n    lalovasa.        the light).\n\n17. Siu toso.        Lau lano ma lau    Ata.\n                     vai.\n\n18. Ata.             Uliaumi.           Siufeai.\n\n19. Siufeai.         Polaitu.           Siu le lau mato.\n\n20. Siu le lau mato. Sina i lau tolo.   Feepo.\n\n21. Feepo.           Sea faetele.       Ationgie.\n\n22. Ationgie.        Tau vai upolu.     Savea.\n\nThis Savea was the first Malietoa, and then in the continuance of\nthis genealogy there follow twenty-three generations of Malietoa, down\nto Malietoa Talavou, who was proclaimed king in 1878, and subsequently\nrecognised by the Governments of England, Germany, and the United\nStates. Many other traditionary genealogies of chiefs might be given,\nbut let the above suffice as a specimen of the rest.\n\n3. Other descendants of Cloudless heavens (No. 6 above):--\n\n     _Male._        _Female._             _Progeny._\n\n(1)  Cloudless      The eighth heavens.   Tangaloa the\n     heavens.                             dweller in lands.\n\n(2)  Tangaloa       Cloudy heavens.       Tangaloa the\n     dweller in                           explorer of lands.\n     lands.\n\n(3)  Tangaloa the   Queen of earth.       Valevalenoa, or\n     explorer of                          _space_.\n     lands.\n\n_Space_ had a long-legged seat. At another birth Cloudy heavens\nbrought forth a head. This was the head that was said to have fallen\nfrom the heavens. Space set it up on his high stool and said to it, \"O\nbeloved! be a son--be a second with me on the earth.\" Space started\nback, for all of a sudden the body of a man-child was added to the\nhead. The child was sensible, and inquired who his father was. Space\nreplied, \"Your father is yonder in the East, yonder in the West,\nyonder towards the sea, and yonder in-land, yonder above and yonder\nbelow.\" Then the boy said, \"I have found my name, call me All the\nsides of heaven.\" And from him sprang the four divisions, East, West,\nNorth, and South. He grew up to manhood, went to the North, married\nand had children. Went to the South, married and had children. Went to\nthe East, married and had children. Went to the West, married and had\nchildren. He then went up to the heavens, and told all his children to\nfollow him.\n\n4. The children of Ilu, _worm_, and Mamao, _distant,_ were:--\n\n    (1) Papa tu, or great rocks.\n    (2) Papa one, or sandy rocks.\n    (3) Papa ele, or earthy rocks.\n    (4) Masina, or the moon.\n    (5) La, or the sun.\n    (6) Sami, or the sea.\n    (7) Vai, or fresh water.\n\nThese were all sons, and then there were two daughters, the one named\nGreat wind and the other Gentle wind.\n\nThey all separated and lived apart, but the sea was shut up. Then the\nchildren said, \"Let the sea be set free and allowed to come out that\nwe may look at it.\" This was done, and then the three kinds of rocks\nwere flooded and died, but the sun and the moon fled to the heavens\nand lived.\n\n5. Fire and water married, and from them sprung the earth, rocks,\ntrees, and everything.\n\nThe cuttle-fish fought with the fire and was beaten. The fire fought\nwith the rocks, and the rocks conquered. The large stones fought with\nthe small ones; the small conquered. The small stones fought with the\ngrass, and the grass conquered. The grass fought with the trees; the\ngrass was beaten and the trees conquered. The trees fought with the\ncreepers, the trees were beaten and the creepers conquered. The\ncreepers rotted, swarmed with maggots, and from maggots they grew to\nbe men.\n\n6. The god Tangaloa existed in space, but we do not know how or whence\nhe came. He wished some place to live in, and so he made the heavens.\nHe also wished to have a place under the heavens, and so he made the\nLalolangi, _under the heavens_, or the earth. Savaii was formed by a\nstone rolled down from the heavens, Upolu by another. Other stories\nsay that they were drawn up from under the ocean by a fishing-hook. He\nnext made the Fee or cuttle-fish, and told it to go down under the\nearth, and hence the lower regions of sea or land are called Sa le\nfe\u00e9, or sacred to the cuttle-fish. The cuttle-fish brought forth all\nkinds of rocks, and hence the great one on which we live.\n\n7. Tangaloa the god of heaven sent down his daughter in the form of\nthe bird Tur\u012b, a species of snipe, _Charadrius fulvus_. She flew\nabout, but could find no resting-place, nothing but ocean. She\nreturned to the heavens, but was again sent down by Tangaloa to search\nfor land. First she observed spray, then lumpy places, then water\nbreaking, then land above the surface, and then a dry place where she\ncould rest. She went back and told her father. He again sent her down;\nshe reported extending surface of land, and then he sent her down with\nsome earth and a creeping plant. The plant grew, and she continued to\ncome down and visit it. After a time its leaves withered. On her next\nvisit it was swarming with worms or maggots, and the next time she\ncame down they had become men and women.\n\n8. The ants and the small coral made the small stones. The small and\nlarge stones caused the loose rocks, and from the loose rocks and the\nfire sprang a man called Ariari, _to appear_, and from him and a woman\nsprang the cuttle-fish and the race of men.\n\n9. Man is formed from a species of mussel. If made of the hard mussel\nhe lives long--it is difficult for him to die. But if he happens to be\nmade of the poisonous mussel, he is fragile, easily upset, and does\nnot live long.\n\nThe soul of man is called his ang\u0101nga, or that which goes or comes. It\nis said to be the daughter of Taufanuu, or _vapour of lands_, which\nforms clouds, and as the dark cloudy covering of night comes on, man\nfeels sleepy, because his soul wishes to go and visit its mother.\n\n10. All the gods had a meeting at a public place on Upolu to decide\nwhat was to be the end of the life of man. One god made a speech and\nproposed that it should be like the extinction of the cocoa-nut-leaf\ntorch, which when it goes out can be shaken, blown, and blaze up\nagain, so that man after sickness and death might rise again in all\nthe vigour of youth.\n\nAnother god called the Supa or _paralysis_, rose and proposed that the\nlife of man should be like the extinction of the candle-nut torch,\nwhich when once out cannot be blown in again.\n\nThen followed a number of speeches, some for the one proposal and some\nfor the other. While the discussion was proceeding a pouring rain came\non and broke up the meeting. The gods ran to the houses for shelter,\nand as they were dispersing they called out, \"Let the proposal of\nParalysis be carried, and let man's life go out like the candle-nut\ntorch.\" And hence the proverb: \"It is as Paralysis said.\" Man dies and\ndoes not return.\n\nAnother account of this meeting adds other two proposals. One that men\nshould cast their skins like the shell-fish; and another that when\nthey grow old they should dive in the \"water of life\" and come up\nlittle boys. It finishes, however, with the proposal of Paralysis\nbeing carried, but adds that only men were to die, not women.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nSAMOA.\n\n_Origin of the Name._\n\n\n1. The rocks married the earth, and the earth became pregnant.\nSalevao, the god of the rocks, observed motion in the moa or _centre_\nof the earth. The child was born and named Moa, from the place where\nit was seen moving. Salevao ordered the umbilicus to be laid on a\nclub, and cut with a stone; and hence the custom ever after on the\nbirth of a man-child.\n\nSalevao then provided water for washing the child and made it sa, or\n_sacred_ to Moa. The rocks and the earth said they wished to get some\nof that water to drink. Salevao replied that if they got a bamboo he\nwould send them a streamlet through it, and hence the origin of\nsprings.\n\nSalevao said he would become loose stones, and that everything which\ngrew would be sa ia Moa, or _sacred to_ Moa, till his hair was cut.\nAfter a time his hair was cut and the restriction taken off, and\nhence also the rocks and the earth were called Sa ia Moa, or as it is\nabbreviated, SAMOA.\n\n2. Tangaloa of the heavens had two children--a son called _Moa_, and a\ndaughter called Lu. Lu married a brother chief of Tangaloa, and had a\nson, who was named Lu after herself. One night when Tangaloa lay down\nto sleep, he heard his grandson singing--\n\n    Moa Lu,\n    Moa Lu.\n\nAfter a time he changed it to--\n\n    Lu Moa,\n    Lu Moa.\n\nTangaloa was annoyed at the presumption of the lad, as if he wished to\nbe above Moa the firstborn. He feigned an errand, and called the boy\nto come and scratch his back. The boy went to perform the operation,\nbut on stretching out his hand was seized by his grandfather, and\nbeaten with the handle of his fly-flapper. Lu made his escape, came\nrunning down to the earth, and named it SAMOA.\n\n3. At one time the land was flooded by the sea, and everything died\nexcept some fowls and pigeons. The pigeons flew away, but the Moa, or\n_fowls_, remained and were made sacred by Lu, and not to be killed,\nand hence called the Sa Moa or _preserve fowls_ of Lu.\n\n4. Tangaloa of the heavens and his son Lu built a canoe or vessel up\nin the heavens. They were aided by a carpenter called Manufili. When\nfinished it was taken down and set on the Laueleele, or surface of the\nearth. There was no sea at that time.\n\nLu had a wife called Gaogao o le tai, _expanse of sea_. She had a son\nwho was also called Lu, and when he grew up the vessel was given to\nhim. When she next brought forth it was a lot of all kinds of\nshell-fish. Lu said to his mother, \"What is the use of having all\nthese things lying there bare in the sun?\" \"Leave it with me to make a\n_lake_ for them,\" was her reply; and then she told him to go and get\nhis vessel in order, and be ready to get into it when the sea was\nmade.\n\nThe sea was the product of the next birth. Lu caught two fowls, and\nwhen the sea rose took them with him into the vessel. He was not many\ndays afloat, some say six, when his vessel rested on the top of the\nmountain called Malata, in Atua, east end of Upolu. Lu lived there at\nthe village called Uafato, and had there his Sa Moa, or _preserve\nfowls_, which were not to be killed. Another story says that Lu came\nfrom the west with his fowls, and that from his crew all the islands\nof the group were peopled. He was said to have come from Pulotu,\nPapatea, Pau, Vau, Aoao, and Ngaelu. Others say he came with his fowls\ndirect from Tafiti apaau, or the _Winged Fiji_.\n\nTwo of the people of Tangaloa of the heavens came down to fish. As\nthey were returning with two baskets of fish, the fowls of Lu leaped\nup to peck at the fish. The lads caught and killed the precious\npreserve, or Sa Moa, and ran off with them to the heavens.\n\nIn the morning Lu missed the fowls, and went off in search of them. He\nsaw from the unbroken early morning cobwebs across the roads east and\nwest, that no one had passed along there. He suspected the fishing\nparty from the heavens, and away he went up there from the top of the\nmountain. He had nothing in his hand but his fly-flapper.\n\nIn the first heavens he smelled roast fowl, and presently he came upon\nthe two culprits as they were eating, and believed that they were\ncrunching the bones of the very fowls of which he was in search. He\ncharged them. They did not deny, but commenced to lay the blame the\none on the other, and hence the proverb to this day: \"It was not I,\nbut you.\" He set upon both of them with his fue, or fly-flapper, and\nhence the word to _fue_, or to fly-flapper, is used as a milder term\nto express beating or killing.\n\nAway the lads fled, and he after them up through the nine heavens,\nlaying out on them with his fue. When they reached the tenth heaven,\nTangaloa made his appearance and called out, \"What is all this about?\nDon't you know this is Malae totoa, the _place of rest_? There must be\nno fighting here.\"\n\nIn the tenth heaven no strife was allowed; the place was kept\nbeautifully clean, no rubbish to be seen about the roads, and there\nwere no clubs hanging in the houses.\n\nLu told the cause of his anger: his Sa Moa or preserve fowls had been\nstolen, and he had found the thieves in the very act of eating them.\nTangaloa said, \"It is indeed very bad; but now that you have left\nbehind all the places where wars may be fought out, and have come to\nthis heaven of peace, let your wrath abate, spare these men, and you\nshall go back with the title of _King of heaven_, and take my daughter\nLangituavalu, _Eighth heavens_, to be your wife.\" \"Very good,\" said\nLu; \"let these men live, and let us be at peace, and conform to the\ncustom of Malae totoa.\"\n\nA handsome dowry was got up, the marriage took place, and Tangaloa\ntold Lu to name the earth Samoa when he came down, and so keep in\nremembrance his _preserve fowls_.\n\nThe two came down, had a child, and named him Samoa, and from them\nthese islands have been peopled. Hence also the proverb from this lady\ncoming from heaven and having children on earth: \"The heavens are\nswinging and touching the earth.\" Of any one who marries a person far\naway it is also said, \"It is like Langituavalu.\"\n\nAt the marriage of Langituavalu and Lu, Tangaloa ordered all his\npeople to contribute a fine white mat each, with which to form her\ndowry. A great feast was also provided, but only those were admitted\nwho had contributed a white mat. When the festive day came there were\nmany outside who were chagrined that they had not made an effort to\nget the white mat, and so have been permitted to share in the grand\ncelebration, to the music of which they could only listen outside and\nin the distance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nA FUTURE STATE--RELIGION, ETC.\n\n\nThe Samoans believed in a soul or disembodied spirit, which they\ncalled the _ang\u0101nga_. Anga means to _go_ or _come_, according to the\nparticle of direction suffixed. Anga _atu_ means to go away; anga\n_mai_ signifies to come. The reduplicated ang\u0101nga is used to designate\nthe soul as distinct from the body, and which at death was supposed to\ngo away from the body and proceed to the hadean regions under the\nocean, which they called Pulotu.\n\nIn describing the localities about Falealupo in another chapter, we\nhave noted some things about the lower regions which were supposed to\nenter from the neighbourhood of Falealupo. We know little, if\nanything, more of the notions which the Samoans had of a future state,\nand therefore pass on to the religion which prevailed all over the\ngroup.\n\nAt one time it was supposed that Samoa was destitute of any kind of\nreligion, and by some of the early visitors the people were called\n\"the _godless_ Samoans.\" On closer acquaintance with them, however,\nit was discovered that they lived under the influence of a host of\nimaginary deities, claiming alike belief and corresponding practice.\n\nAt his birth a Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some\ngod, or _aitu_, as it was called. The help of several of these gods\nwas probably invoked in succession on the occasion, and the one who\nhappened to be addressed just as the child was born was fixed on as\nthe child's god for life.\n\nThese gods were supposed to appear in some _visible incarnation_, and\nthe particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing\nwas to the Samoan an object of veneration. It was, in fact, his idol,\nand he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One,\nfor instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in\nthe turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the\nlizard, and so on throughout all the fish of the sea, and birds, and\nfour-footed beasts, and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish,\neven, gods were supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of what\nwas regarded as the incarnation of the god of another man, but the\nincarnation of his own particular god he would consider it death to\ninjure or to eat. The god was supposed to avenge the insult by taking\nup his abode in that person's body, and causing to generate there the\nvery thing which he had eaten, until it produced death. This class of\ngenii, or tutelary deities, they called _aitu fale_, or gods of the\nhouse.\n\nThe father of the family was _the high-priest_, and usually offered a\nshort prayer at the evening meal, that they might all be kept from\nfines, sickness, war, and death. Occasionally, too, he would direct\nthat they have a family feast in honour of their household gods; and\non these occasions a cup of their intoxicating ava draught was poured\nout as a drink-offering. They did this in their family house, where\nthey were all assembled, supposing that their gods had a spiritual\npresence there, as well as in the material objects to which we have\nreferred. Often it was supposed that the god came among them, and\nspoke through the father or some other member of the family, telling\nthem what to do in order to remove a present evil or avert a\nthreatened one. Sometimes it would be that the family should get a\ncanoe built and keep it sacred to the god. They might travel in it and\nuse it themselves, but it was death to sell or part with a canoe which\nhad been built specially for the god.\n\n_Another class of Samoan deities_ may be called gods of the town or\nvillage. Every village had its god, and every one born in that village\nwas regarded as the property of that god. I have got a child for\nso-and-so, a woman would say on the birth of her child, and name the\nvillage god. There was a small house or temple also consecrated to\nthe deity of the place. Where there was no formal temple, the great\nhouse of the village, where the chiefs were in the habit of\nassembling, was the temple for the time being, as occasion required.\nSome settlements had a sacred grove as well as a temple, where prayers\nand offerings were presented.\n\n_In their temples_ they had generally something for the eye to rest\nupon with superstitious veneration. In one might be seen a conch\nshell, suspended from the roof in a basket made of cinnet network; and\nthis the god was supposed to blow when he wished the people to rise to\nwar. In another, two stones were kept. In another, something\nresembling the head of a man, with white streamers flying, was raised\non a pole at the door of the temple, on the usual day of worship. In\nanother, a cocoa-nut shell drinking-cup was suspended from the roof,\nand before it prayers were addressed and offerings presented. This cup\nwas also used in oaths. If they wished to find out a thief, the\nsuspected parties were assembled before the chiefs, the cup sent for,\nand each would approach, lay his hand on it, and say, \"With my hand on\nthis cup, may the god look upon me, and send swift destruction, if I\ntook the thing which has been stolen.\" The stones and the shells were\nused in a similar way. Before this ordeal, the truth was rarely\nconcealed. They firmly believed that it would be death to touch the\ncup and tell a lie.\n\n_The priests_ in some cases were the chiefs of the place; but in\ngeneral some one in a particular family claimed the privilege, and\nprofessed to declare the will of the god. His office was hereditary.\nHe fixed the days for the annual feasts in honour of the deity,\nreceived the offerings, and thanked the people for them. He decided\nalso whether or not the people might go to war.\n\n_The offerings_ were principally cooked food. The first cup was in\nhonour of the god. It was either poured out on the ground or _waved_\ntowards the heavens. The chiefs all drank a portion out of the same\ncup, according to rank; and after that the food brought as an offering\nwas divided and eaten there before the god. This feast was annual, and\nfrequently about the month of May. In some places it passed off\nquietly; in others it was associated with games, sham-fights,\nnight-dances, etc., and lasted for days. In time of war special feasts\nwere ordered by the priests. Of the offerings on war occasions women\nand children were forbidden to partake, as it was not their province\nto go to battle. They supposed it would bring sickness and death on\nthe party eating who did not go to the war, and hence were careful to\nbury or throw into the sea whatever food was over after the festival.\nIn some cases the feasts in honour of the god were regulated by the\nappearance in the settlement of the bird which was thought to be the\nincarnation of the god. Whenever the bird was seen the priest would\nsay that the god had come, and fix upon a day for his entertainment.\n\nThe village gods, like those of the household, had all some particular\nincarnation: one was supposed to appear as a bat, another as a heron,\nanother as an owl. If a man found a dead owl by the roadside, and if\nthat happened to be the incarnation of his village god, he would sit\ndown and weep over it, and beat his forehead with stones till the\nblood flowed. This was thought pleasing to the deity. Then the bird\nwould be wrapped up and buried with care and ceremony, as if it were a\nhuman body. This, however, was not the death of the god. He was\nsupposed to be yet alive, and incarnate in all the owls in existence.\nThe flight of these birds was observed in time of war. If the bird\nflew before them, it was a signal to go on; but if it crossed the\npath, it was a bad omen, and a sign to retreat. Others saw their\nvillage god in the rainbow, others saw him in the shooting star; and\nin time of war the position of a rainbow and the direction of a\nshooting star were always ominous.\n\nThe constant dread of the gods, and the numerous and extravagant\ndemands of a cunning and avaricious priesthood, made the heathenism of\nSamoa a hard service.\n\nI have collected and arranged alphabetically in the two following\nchapters the names of the principal gods formerly worshipped in\nSamoa. The notices of each will explain more fully the religion of the\npeople, and especially that system of zoolatry which so extensively\nprevailed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nGODS SUPERIOR--WAR AND GENERAL VILLAGE GODS.\n\n\n1. AITU LANGI, or _Gods of heaven._\n\n1. These gods were supposed to have fallen from the heavens at the\ncall of a blind man to protect his son from a cannibal chief. They\nwere scattered over several villages, but did not move about in the\nbodies of mortals. A large temple was erected to one of them in which\nthere were ten seats on which sat the principal chiefs. A large shell\nwas the only visible representation of the god, and in time of war it\nwas carefully consulted. If it stood on end and made an unusual noise\nthey went to battle cheerfully; if, however, it only murmured what\nthey imagined to be \"Go back, go back,\" there was no fighting that\nday. Tupai was the name of the high priest and prophet. He was greatly\ndreaded. His very look was poison. If he looked at a cocoa-nut tree it\ndied, and if he glanced at a bread-fruit tree it also withered away.\n\n2. Aitu langi was the name of a village god in another place, and\nsupposed to be incarnate in the owl. If, when going to fight, an owl\nflew before, it was a good sign; but if across the road or backwards\nthey returned immediately.\n\n\n2. ALII TU, or _The God who stands._\n\nThis god was seen in the Ve'a, or rail (_Rallus pectoralis_). The\nflight of this bird was also observed during war. If it flew before,\nit was a good omen; if otherwise they went back disconcerted.\n\n\n3. AVE I LE TALA, Or _Take to the end of the house._\n\nThis was the name of an accoucheur god, whose priest went, when sent\nfor, and prayed for the safety of the patient. This god is specially\nnoted as having predicted the arrival of a powerful foreign god, who\nwas to eat up all the gods of Samoa except one, and that was himself;\nand then he added pathetically through the priest to the family where\nhe was supposed to reside, \"When the great god comes, do not you all\nleave me, but let two still keep aloof and stand by me.\" On the\nintroduction and rapid spread of Christianity many said, \"The\nprediction of Ave i le tala has come true.\"\n\n\n4. FONGE AND TOAFA.\n\n1. These were the names of two oblong smooth stones which stood on a\nraised platform of loose stones inland of one of the villages. They\nwere supposed to be the parents of Saato, a god who controlled the\nrain. When the chiefs and people were ready to go off for weeks to\ncertain places in the bush for the sport of pigeon-catching, offerings\nof cooked taro and fish were laid on the stones, accompanied by\nprayers for fine weather and no rain. Any one who refused an offering\nto the stones was frowned upon; and in the event of rain was blamed\nand punished for bringing down the wrath of the fine-weather god, and\nspoiling the sports of the season.\n\n2. Persons going to search for bush yams in time of scarcity gave a\nyam to the stones as a thank-offering, supposing that these gods\ncaused the yams to grow, and could lead them to the best places for\nfinding such edible roots.\n\n3. Any one passing by casually with a basket of cooked food would stop\nand lay a morsel on the stones.\n\n4. When such offerings were eaten in the night by dogs or rats, it was\nsupposed that the god chose to become incarnate for the time being in\nthe form of such living creatures.\n\n\n5. FANONGA, _Destruction._\n\n1. This was the name of a war-god, and supposed to be incarnate in the\nSamoan owl (_Strix delicatula_). In time of war, offerings of food\nwere presented to a pet one which was kept for the purpose. If it\nflew about above while the troops were walking along below that was a\ngood omen; but if it flew away in the direction of the enemy it was\nsupposed to have left the one party and gone to join the other, and\ntherefore a calamity.\n\n2. At the beginning of the annual fish festivals, the chiefs and\npeople of the village assembled round the opening of the first oven,\nand give the first fish to the god.\n\n3. A dead owl found under a tree in the settlement was the signal for\nall the village to assemble at the place, burn their bodies with\nfirebrands, and beat their foreheads with stones till the blood\nflowed, and so they expressed their sympathy and condolence with the\ngod over the calamity \"by an offering of blood.\" He still lived,\nhowever, and moved about in all the other existing owls of the\ncountry.\n\n\n6. FAAMALU, _Shade._\n\n1. The name of a village god, and represented by a trumpet-shell. On\nthe month for annual worship all the people met in the place of public\ngatherings with heaps of cooked food. First there were offerings and\nprayers to the god to avert calamities and give prosperity; then they\nfeasted with and before their god, and after that any strangers\npresent might eat.\n\nAt the same settlement a marine deity called Tamauanuu, or _Plenty\nfor the land_, was worshipped at the same time. On that day no one\ndared to swim on his back off the settlement, or eat a cocoa-nut. Any\none transgressing would have to go to the beach and beat his forehead\nwith stones till the blood flowed, so as to prevent his being devoured\nby a shark the next time he went to fish.\n\nIn time of war Faamalu was also represented by a fish, the movements\nof which were watched. If it was seen to swim briskly they went to\nbattle cheerfully; but if it turned round now and then on its back\nthat was a veto on fighting.\n\nFaamalu was also seen in a cloud or shade. If a cloud preceded them in\ngoing to battle they advanced courageously; if, however, the clouds\nwere all behind they were afraid.\n\n2. In a quarrel a mischief-maker would be cursed and given over to the\nwrath of Faamalu. If anything was stolen the sufferer would go along\nthe road shouting and calling on Faamalu to be avenged on the thief.\n\n3. In another district Faamalu was only a war-god--had a temple with a\nshell in it, and the shell was carried about with the troops. The\ntrees all around the temple were sacred, and never used for any\npurpose.\n\n\n7. FAAOLA, _Life-giver._\n\nThe name of a war-god. Before going to fight the people of the\ndistrict where he was worshipped all met and prayed that they might be\n\"strong-hearted\" and free from cowardice.\n\n\n8. O LE FE'E, _The cuttle-fish (Octopus)._\n\n1. This was a war-god said to have been brought by a chief called\nTapuaau, who swam hither from Fiji with his cuttle-fish. When taken\ninto a house it showed a special fondness for a piece of white native\ncloth by stretching over to it, and hence this white cloth became an\nemblem of the god, and his worshippers in going to battle were known\nby white turbans, which they thought would please the god and be a\ndefence against the enemy.\n\nBefore starting all assembled in the public place of the village, and\none of the priests prayed as follows:--\n\n    Le Fe'e e! faafofoga mai ia\n    O au o Fale le a tulai atu nei.\n    Le Fe'e e! au mai ia ou m\u016bm\u016b fua\n    Sei tau a'i le taua nei.\n\nWhich may be translated as follows:--O Fe'e! listen--I am Fale who now\nstand up--O Fe'e! give us your red flaming rage with which to fight\nthis battle.\n\nAll listened carefully to the enunciation of this prayer by the\npriest, for if he was observed to _stutter_ in a single word it was a\nbad omen.\n\nThe Fe'e was also supposed to be present in the white shell of the\n_Cypr\u00e6a ovula_; hence a string of these shells was suspended in the\nhouse of the priest, and were supposed to murmur, or \"cry,\" when war\nwas determined on. The colour of the shells was also watched. A clear\nwhite was a good omen, but if they looked dark and dingy it was a bad\none.\n\nThe movements of the cuttle-fish at sea were also looked after at\nwar-times. If seen near the shore when the people were mustering for\nbattle it was a good sign; if far off the reverse.\n\n2. In one place the Fe'e was a general village god, whose province was\nnot confined to war. The month of May was sacred to his worship. No\ntraveller was then allowed to pass through the village by the public\nroad; nor was any canoe allowed in the lagoon off that part of the\nsettlement. There was great feasting, too, on these occasions, and\nalso games, club exercise, spear-throwing, wrestling, etc.\n\nA new temple was at this time erected, to the material of which every\nman, woman, and child contributed something, even if only a stick or a\nreed of thatch. Some were drafted off to put up the house, and the\nrest commenced to fight in real earnest, and settle any old grudges\nwith each other. He who got the most wounds was set down for special\nfavours from the god. With the completion of the temple the fighting\nended, and that was to suffice for the year. A quarrel of neighbours\nat any other time, and rising to blows, was frowned upon by the god\nFe'e, because it was not left till next year and temple-building day.\n\nIn another district three months were sacred to the worship of the\nFe'e. During that time any one passing along the road, or in the\nlagoon, would be beaten, if not killed, for insulting the god. For the\nfirst month torches and all other lights were forbidden, as the god\nwas about and did not wish to be seen. White turbans were also\nforbidden during the festivities, and confined to war. At this time,\nalso, all unsightly projecting burdens--such as a log of firewood on\nthe shoulder--were forbidden, lest it should be considered by the god\nas a mockery of his _tentacula_.\n\nThe priest at this place had a large wooden bowl, which he called\nlipi, or _sudden death_. This was another representative of the god,\nand by this the family had no small gains. In a case of stealing, fine\nmats or other gifts were taken by the injured party to the priest to\ncurse the thief and make him ill. The priest would then sit down with\nsome select members of the family around the bowl representative of\nthe god, and pray for speedy vengeance on the guilty; then they waited\nthe issue. These imprecations were dreaded. Conscience-stricken\nthieves, when taken ill, were carried off by their friends on a litter\nand laid down at the door of the priest, with taro, cocoa-nuts, or\nyams, in lieu of those confessed to have been stolen; and they would\nadd fine mats and other presents, that the priest might pray again\nover the death-bowl, and have the sentence reversed.\n\nThere is a story that the cuttle-fish gods of Savaii were once chased\nby an Upolu hero, who caught them in a great net and killed them. They\nwere changed into stones, and now stand up in a rocky part of the\nlagoon on the north side of Upolu. For a long time travelling parties\nfrom Savaii felt _eerie_ when they came to the place--did not like to\ngo through between the stones, but took the outside passage.\n\nAnother fragment makes out that a Savaii Fe'e married the daughter of\na chief on Upolu, and for convenience in coming and going made a hole\nin the reef, and hence the harbour at Apia. He went up the river also\nat that place, and built a stone house inland, the \"Stonehenge\" relics\nof which are still pointed out, and named to this day \"the house of\nthe Fe'e.\" In time of war he sent a branch drifting down the river as\na good omen, and a sign to the people that they might go on with the\nwar, sure of driving the enemy.\n\n3. In some instances the Fe'e was a household god only. If any visitor\ncaught a cuttle-fish and cooked it, or if any member of that family\nhad been where a cuttle-fish was eaten, the family would meet over the\ncase, and a man or woman would be selected to go and lie down in a\n_cold_ oven, and be covered over with leaves, as in the process of\nbaking, and all this as a would-be or mock burnt-offering to avert the\nwrath of the god. While this was being done the family united in\npraying: \"O bald-headed Fe'e! forgive what has been done--it was all\nthe work of a _stranger_.\" Failing such signs of respect and humility,\nit was supposed the god would come to the family, and cause a\ncuttle-fish to grow internally, and be the death of some of them.\n\n\n9. FUAI LANGI, _Beginner of the Heavens._\n\nA god of one of the small islands, and seen in the sea-eel, or\n_Mar\u00e6na_. If the sea-eel happened to be driven on to the shore in a\ngale or by any tidal wave it portended evil, and created a commotion\nall over the place.\n\n\n10. GA'E FEFE, _Breathless fear._\n\nA war-god in some of the villages, and seen in a cocoa-nut-leaf\nbasket. It is said that during a battle between the gods of Samoa and\nthose of Tonga the former crouched about the trunks of the cocoa-nut\ntrees; but Ga'e fefe hid in a cocoa-nut-leaf basket, and escaped while\nmany others were killed. Hence the _basket_ became a sign of the god,\nand no one would step over such a thing, supposing the god might be in\nit. Hence, also, if in going to fight they fell in with a\nnewly-plaited cocoa-nut-leaf basket turned upside down it was a bad\nomen, and sent them back. If, however, the basket was an old one, and\nnot lying _across_ the road, but to the one side, and \"fore and aft,\"\nit was a good sign, and encouraged them to proceed.\n\n\n11. LA'ALA'A--_Step over._\n\n1. A village war god in Savaii. Supposed to go before the troops, but\ninvisible. When the people turned out, according to hospitality usage,\nto take food to a travelling party, they would arrange to lay down ten\npigs. If the visitors, in recounting and shouting out in public, as\nthey do, what they had got, said that there were _eleven_ pigs, it was\nsupposed that the god had added _one_. Then they would compare notes,\nand say: \"Oh yes, it must have been that old woman we saw with a dry\nshrunk leaf girdle.\" There were other instances of the \"devil's dozen\"\nin Samoa.\n\nOnce, when the people were driven by a war fleet from Upolu, the god\nbecame incarnate in a _yellow_ man, went and lay down in a house, and\nthere they killed him to please the Upolu people and stop the war,\nwhich the latter agreed to do in return for killing the god. Out of\nrespect to the god the people of that village never used the word\nla'ala'a for _stepping over_, but sought a new word in soposopo, which\nis still a current synonym for la'ala'a.\n\n2. La'ala'a was also the name of a god who took care of the\nplantations. He guarded them by the help of the god _thunder_. They\nnever spoke of _lightning_ as doing harm, it is always the thunder.\n\"Thunder\" once struck the house of Fala and Paongo. The family rose\nup, caught him, tied him up with pandanus leaves, and frightened him\nby poking him with firebrands. He cried out in distress:\n\n    \"Oh! Fala, I'm burning,\n    Oh! Paongo, I wish to live!\"\n\nThey decided to spare him, and make him a god to keep the rats away\nfrom their food. They made a hieroglyphic scare for him, also, of a\nbasket filled with pandanus leaves and charred firebrands, and hung it\nup among the trees, that he might know what to expect if he destroyed\na house again. This basket was also a scare for a thief, and an\nimprecation that _thunder_ might destroy his plantation.\n\n3. La'ala'a was also the name of a god in Upolu, who was the champion\nof _wrestlers_. The place was supposed to be filled with gods who came\nto wrestle.\n\n4. The same name was given to a god who predicted in war, sickness,\nand family events. In sickness the people of the village confessed\ncrimes, and prayed that they might be _stepped over_ or forgiven. He\nwas supposed to dwell in the mountain, and any part of it sufficed as\na confessional.\n\nThere was a priest also who, when he prayed to la'ala'a, became\npossessed, told the cause of disease, and forbade the evil conduct of\nthe suffering culprit.\n\n\n12. LAA MAOMAO--_The great step._\n\nThis is one of the names of the rainbow, which was a representative of\na war god of several villages. If, when going to battle, a rainbow\nsprang up right before them and _across_ the path, or across the\ncourse of the canoes at sea, the troops and the fleet would return.\nThe same if the rainbow arch, or _long step_, of the god was seen\nbehind them. If, however, it was sideways they went on with spirit,\nthinking the god was marching along with them and encouraging them to\nadvance.\n\n\n13. MAO MA ULI--_Mistake and Black._\n\nTwo teeth of the sperm whale, and said to have come from Fiji, were so\nnamed, and represented the war gods of a large village. They were kept\nin a cave, and when the people went to fight a priest remained behind\nto pray for success and watch and report the position of the teeth. If\nthey lay east and west it was a good omen, but if they turned over and\nlay north and south it was a sign of defeat.\n\n\n14. MATUU--_Heron_, or \"_Andrea sacra._\"\n\nThe heron was the incarnation of a war god on the island of Manono. If\nit flew _before_ the troops that was a good sign, but the reverse if\nit flew across the path.\n\nA story is told of Heron and his brother Destruction. They cooked\nsome food one day, but it was not half done. The enraged family set\nupon the two. Destruction had his neck broken by a stick thrown at\nhim; but Heron escaped by having his neck pulled long, as it is to\nthis day.\n\n\n15. MOSO.\n\n1. This was the name of one of the great _land_ gods, in opposition to\nTangaloa, the god of the heavens. The root of the word is the name of\na tree--\"_Cananga odorata_\"--the yellow flowers of which are highly\nfragrant. A stone was his representative in one village, on which\npassing travellers laid down a scented wreath or necklace as an\noffering to Moso.\n\n2. In another place Moso's representative was a large wooden bowl,\ndecorated with white shells, and called Lipi, or sudden death, as\ndescribed under Le Fe'e, No. 8. The priest received offerings from the\ninjured, and, in lieu of them, prayed to Moso with loud crying and\nforced tears to curse with sudden death the unknown thief or other\ninjurer. \"Oh Moso! make haste, show your power, send down to the lower\nregions, sweep away like a flood, may they never see the light of\nanother day.\" These were the usual imprecations shrieked out over the\nbowl.\n\n3. One of the kings of the district of Atua was supposed to be a man\nand move about among mortals in the daytime; but at night he was\nMoso, and away among the gods.\n\n4. Moso was also a household god in some families. In one he was\nincarnate as a man. He helped himself to food of any kind from the\nplantations of his neighbours, and, if chased, suddenly disappeared;\nand hence they considered he was a god, and prayed to him and laid\ndown offerings.\n\n5. In another family Moso was said to appear, but only one old man\ncould discern him when he came. A visit was known by the old man\nshouting out, \"Your excellency! Your excellency has come!\" and some\nsuch chief's language. Then would follow a conversation between the\nold man and the god, all through the lips of the old impostor himself;\nand then the family would hear of some new house, or canoe, or food,\nor marriage, or something else that was wanted.\n\n6. Moso also appeared in one family in the form of a pet pigeon called\nthe Tu (_Phlegoenas Stairi_). When food was brought in, no water was\nto be spilled on the doorstep. It would make the protecting god Tu\nangry, and cause him to go off.\n\nIn another family he was incarnate in the domestic fowl, and if any of\nthem ate a piece of fowl the consequence was delirium and death.\n\nIn another family Moso was incarnate in the cuttle-fish, and none of\nthem dared to eat one.\n\nAnother family had Moso incarnate with them in a creeper bird called\nthe Fuia (_Sturnoides atrifusca_). If it came about in the morning or\nthe evening it was a sign that their prayers were accepted. If it did\nnot come Moso was supposed to be angry. The bird did not appear at\nnoon owing to the glare of the sun. The priest interpreted to the\nfamily the meaning of the _chirps_ as his inclination or fancy\ndictated.\n\n7. _Long Moso_ was the name of another family god. The turtle and the\nmullet were sacred to him, and eaten only by the priest. The family\nprayed to him before the evening meal.\n\n8. The Fai, or stinging ray fish, and also the mullet were\nincarnations of _Moso the strong_ in another family. If visitors or\nfriends caught or brought with them either of these fish, a child of\nthe family would be taken and laid down in an unheated oven, as a\npeace-offering to Moso for the indignity done to him by the strangers.\nIf any member of the family tasted of these sacred fish he was\nsentenced by the heads of the family to drink a cupful of rancid oil\ndregs as a punishment and to stay the wrath of Moso.\n\n\n16. NAFANUA--_Hidden inland._\n\nThis was the name of the goddess of a district in the west end of\nthe island of Savaii. She was the daughter of Saveasiuleo, the\ngod of Pulotu, and was _hidden_ inland, or in the bush, when an\ninfant by her mother, who was ashamed of the illegitimate birth.\nShe came from Pulotu, the Samoan haedes, at a time when the\nruling power was so oppressive as to compel the people to climb\ncocoa-nut trees with their feet upwards, their heads downwards,\nand to pluck the nuts with their toes. As she passed along she\nsaw a poor fellow struggling up a tree with his head downward,\nand calling out in despair that he could endure it no longer. She\ntold him to come down, and that she would put an end to it. She\nsummoned all to battle, took the lead herself, and completely\nrouted the enemy, and raised the district to a position of honour\nand equality. When she went to the fight she covered her breasts\nwith cocoa-nut leaflets that the enemy might not see she was a\nwoman, and the distinguishing mark or pass-word of her troops was\na few cocoa-nut leaflets bound round the waist. After the battle\nin which she conquered, she ordered cocoa-nut leaflets to be tied\nround the trees, marking them out as hers, and defying the enemy\nor any one else to touch them. To this day a strip of cocoa-nut\nleaflets encircling a tree is a sign that it is claimed by some\none for a special purpose, and that the nuts there are not to be\nindiscriminately plucked without permission.\n\n2. Nafanua was also the name of a village god on the island of Upolu.\nIn a case of concealed theft, all the people assembled before the\nchiefs, and one by one implored vengeance on himself if he was\nguilty. If all denied, the chiefs wound up the inquiry by shouting\nout, \"O Nafanua! Compassionate us, let us know who it was, and let\nspeedy death be upon him!\"\n\nIn war, all assembled to be sprinkled with Nafanua's cocoa-nut water\nbefore going to battle. If well done, they conquered; if not, they\nwere driven before the enemy. Confession of offences sometimes\npreceded the sprinkling, as it was a sign of pardon and purification.\nOccasional torchlight processions through the village were held in\nhonour of Nafanua. Cases of sickness were also brought and laid before\nthe priest. Those who took fine mats were cured, but shabby offerings\nof native cloth only prolonged the disease.\n\n\n17. NAVE.\n\nNave was the name of a village god on the island of Tutuila. It was\nrepresented by a stone called Maa o Nave, or the stone of Nave. This\nwas abbreviated and euphonised into Amanave, and is the name of the\nvillage to this day.\n\n\n18. NONIA.\n\nThis was the name of a village god, and was supposed to be incarnate\nin the cockle. If this shell-fish was eaten by any one of the place a\ncockle would grow on his nose. If one was picked up and taken away\nfrom the shore, a cockle would appear on some part of that person's\nbody.\n\nMay was the usual month for feasting and prayers to Nonia, for the\nremoval of coughs and other ailments usually prevalent during that\ntime of transition from the wet to the dry months. On the days of\nworship the people went about with bundles of cockles, and through\nthem prayed to Nonia.\n\n\n19. O LE NIFO LOA--_The long tooth._\n\nThis was the name of a disease-making god, said to have come from Fiji\nand taken up his abode about the south side of Savaii. People, canoes,\nor property of any kind belonging to that place, were supposed to be\nmedia by which the long tooth might be conveyed and cause disease and\ndeath. One day the tooth was visible to an old lady, and struck by\nsome scalding greens which she threw at it, and ever after it was\ncrooked and not so deadly. If a person recovered it was said that the\ntooth must have had the crook running _outside_ of the wound, and\n_vice versa_ in a case of death.\n\nTo this day the long tooth superstition is a nuisance. A few years ago\nsome people went to that part of Savaii to buy a canoe. They did not\nget it, but, from a number of deaths soon after at their village, they\nbelieved that the tooth had followed them. After a battle ten years\nago a man from the long tooth district in Savaii who had been killed,\nwas buried in a village in Upolu. After a time a young chief died\nthere rather suddenly. The tooth was suspected by some of the old\npeople, and so they dug up the bones of the man who had died in battle\nfour years before, and threw them away into the sea, far off outside\nthe reef, so as to rid the land, as they supposed, from the long tooth\nenemy. Like the celebrated tooth of Buddha at Ceylon, visited by the\nPrince of Wales in 1875, about which kings fought, the attempt to burn\nwhich burst the furnace, and, although buried deep in the earth and\ntrodden down by elephants, managed to come up again, so the long tooth\ngod of Samoa continues to come up every now and then after a sudden\ndeath or a prolonged disease of the knee joint, or other deadly\nailment.\n\n\n20. PAVA.\n\nThis was the name of a war god on the south side of Upolu. It was\noriginally the name of a man who came from the east end of the group.\nHe and his wife went to work as usual in the bush, and left their\nchildren in the house. The children kindled a fire to cook some food.\nTangaloa, seeing the smoke, came down from the heavens. He found only\nthe children, and inquired where their parents were. Gone to work,\nsaid they. \"Go and tell them I am here.\" The children ran off and told\nthem there was a chief in the house. Pava made haste home, found\nTangaloa, and prepared a bowl of 'ava (_Piper methisticum_) for him.\nA little child in creeping about the floor upset the 'ava. Tangaloa\nflew into a rage, and beat the child to death. He again made it live,\nhowever, but Pava got up in anger, went out, plucked a taro leaf\n(_Arum esculentum_), stepped on to it and went off to Fiji. After a\ntime he came back with a son of the king of Fiji, to the amazement of\neverybody, and when he died had a place in the Samoan pantheon.\n\nHis emblem was a taro leaf, and all his adherents in going to battle\nwere known by taro leaf caps. The slain of that particular village\nwere also known by the round leaf cap. Pava was seen in the rainbow.\nIf it was clear and reflected down on the village, that was a good\nomen; but if it appeared far inland, the sign was bad, and a veto on\nany fighting for that day at least.\n\nAnother story places the killing of the child in the east end of the\ngroup, and says that Pava fled from place to place, and from island to\nisland to get away from the presence of Tangaloa. As soon, however, as\nhe reached a fresh place and thought of remaining there, he saw the\nterrible eye of Tangaloa looking down on him. Off he went to another\nvillage or another island, but still the piercing eye of Tangaloa\nfollowed him, until he reached the district to which I have referred,\nand where the dreaded eye was no longer visible.\n\n\n21. PILI MA LE MAA--_The lizard and the stone._\n\nThese were the names of twin gods, and worshipped at certain villages\nin time of war, famine, and pestilence. The month of May was a\nspecially fixed time for prayers, and food offerings. The lizard was\nthe guiding incarnation, and carefully watched in times of war. If in\ngoing to battle a lizard was seen darting _across_ the road, they\nreturned at once. If it ran ahead, however, they were cheered, and\nwent right on to meet the enemy.\n\nAnother plan in searching for an omen was to plait cocoa-nut leaves\nand cover the middle post of the great house, from the floor to the\nridge pole, and there the chiefs sat and watched. If a lizard from the\nroof came _straight_ down on the matting, that was a good sign; but if\nit came down zigzag, the omen was bad, and fighting suspended. Before\ngoing to the fight they met and were sprinkled with cocoa-nut juice by\nthe priest, each at the same time uttering the prayer, \"May the road I\ntake flow with blood.\"\n\n\n22. STONES.\n\n1. Two unchiselled \"smooth stones of the stream\" were kept in a temple\nat one of the villages, and guarded with great care. No stranger or\nover-curious person was allowed to go near the place, under penalty of\na beating from the custodians of these gods. They represented good and\nnot malicious death-causing gods. The one made the yams, bread,\nfruit, and cocoa-nuts, and the other sent fish to the nets.\n\n2. Another stone was carefully housed in another village as the\nrepresentative of a rain-making god. When there was over-much rain,\nthe stone was laid by the fire and kept heated till fine weather set\nin. In a time of drought, the priest and his followers dressed up in\nfine mats, and went in procession to the stream, dipped the stone and\nprayed for rain.\n\n3. In a road leading to village plantations a stone stood which was\nsaid to have been a petrified coward. He and his brother entered into\ncompact that they would be brave in battle, and implored their god\nthat if either fled that one should be changed into a stone. The day\ncame, the battle was fought, but one of the brothers turned and fled\nbefore the face of the enemy, and so was changed into a stone there\nand then by the god Fe'e. All the people as they passed inland to work\nin their plantations kissed, or rather \"_smelled_\" the stone, and in\ncoming back did the same. Death was supposed to be the consequence of\nthe neglect of this mark of deference to the power of the Fe'e.\n\n4. At the boundary line between two villages there were two stones,\nsaid to have been two young men who quarrelled, fought, and killed\neach other on that very spot, and whose bodies were immediately\nchanged into stones. If any quarrel took place in either of these two\nvillages there was never any general disturbance. \"Go and settle it at\nthe stones\" was the standing order; and so all who were inclined to be\ndemonstrative in any affair of honesty or honour went to the stones\nand fought it out. If either of the duellists was knocked down, that\nwas the final settlement. No one else interfered, and so, by common\nconsent in such matters, these two villages were noted for peace and\norder.\n\n5. In a district said to have been early populated by settlers from\nFiji, a number of fancy Fijian stones were kept in a temple, and\nworshipped in time of war. The priest, in consulting them, built them\nup in the form of a wall, and then watched to see how they fell. If\nthey fell to the westward, it was a sign that the enemy there was to\nbe driven; but if they fell to eastward, that was a warning of defeat,\nand delay in making an attack was ordered accordingly.\n\nThe iconoclast native teachers from Tahiti, in the early stage of the\nmission, when such stones were given up to them, had them taken off to\nthe beach and broken into fragments, and so stamp out at once the\nheathenism with which they were associated. Hardly a single relic of\nthe kind can be found at the present day.\n\n\n23. LE SA--_The sacred one._\n\n1. The name of a war god in several villages, and incarnate in the\nlizard. Before going to battle the movements of a lizard in a bundle\nof spears was watched. If the lizard ran about the points of the\nspears and the outside of the bundle, it was a good omen; but if it\nrather worked its way into the centre for concealment, it was a bad\nsign.\n\nA piece of matting was also spread over one of the posts of the house,\nand if a lizard was seen coming down on the matting, the sign was\ngood; but if a bare post was chosen by the creature for its descent\nfrom the rafters to the floor, it augured ill. If a lizard crossed the\npath or ran against any one going to battle, that also was an evil\nomen.\n\n2. In some places Le Sa was incarnate in an owl, was more of an\nagricultural god, who sent rain and abundance of food, and was\nworshipped about the month of April. He was prayed to and propitiated\nwith offerings for the removal of caterpillars from the plantations,\nas they were thought to be servants under his orders to forage and\npunish. He was supposed to be fond of the bodies of thieves, and to go\nat once and devour them if prayed to do so. Bad-tempered parents\nfrightened the children by saying that they would call Le Sa to\n_drink_ them up. In cases of sickness the patient went and weeded some\npiece of bush land as an offering to Le Sa; and the consequence was\noften a wonderful cure to the indolent dyspeptic!\n\n3. Le Sa in one place was a household god, and incarnate in the\ncentipede. If any one was bitten by the reptile, or otherwise ailing,\nan offering of a fine mat and a fan was presented, and the god\nentreated in some such words as:\n\n    \"Lord! if you are angry,\n    Tell us the reason\n    And send recovery.\"\n\n\n24. SILI VAAI--_Far-seeing._\n\n1. This was the name of a village war god, and seen in a bird. Flight\nof the bird in the direction of the enemy was a good sign, otherwise\nthe omen was bad.\n\n2. This was also the name of a family god, and seen in a star.\n\n\n25. SA FULU SA--_Of the sacred feather._\n\nThis was the name of a village war god in Upolu. Incarnate in the\nkingfisher bird, which, if seen flying _before_ the troops, was a good\nsign. If observed to come flying towards the people as they were\npreparing to start, the omen signified defeat.\n\n\n26. SAMA--_Yellow._\n\nThe name of the cannibal god of a village in Savaii. He was incarnate\nas a man, who had human flesh laid before him when he chose to call\nfor it. This man's power extended to several villages, and his\ndescendants are traced to the present day.\n\n\n27. SALEVAO--_Sacred one of the bush._\n\n1. This was a war god in a number of villages, and incarnate in a\ndog--a white one usually. When he wagged his tail, barked, and dashed\nahead in sight of the troops of the enemy, it was a good sign; but to\nretreat or howl was a bad omen.\n\n2. In some places Salevao was a general village god, as well as a war\ngod. A time was fixed for giving thanks for good crops, and prayers\nwere offered for more. Each family took it in turn to provide food,\nand they feasted until it had gone the round of the village. The\nfamily who had a great display of good things was praised; but the\nstingy, stinted offerers were cursed. After all had prayed and\npartaken for the day, nothing was kept for another meal. Whatever was\nover was thrown away or buried. At one place in Savaii Salevao had a\ntemple in which a priest constantly resided. The sick were taken there\nand laid down with offerings of fine mats. The priest went out and\nstroked the diseased part, and recovery was supposed to follow. At\nthis place Salevao was declared to be a good god in raising a\nplentiful supply of food, and also noted for his power in keeping away\nother gods. A story is told of a party of gods from Upolu who were on\na journey, but on coming to that place left the public highway along\nthe beach and took a circuitous course far inland, owing to their\ndread of Salevao. He was generous, however, to travelling parties of\nmortals. When the chiefs laid down a previously arranged number of\ncooked pigs and other food to visitors, there was an odd one over and\nabove found among the lot, and this they attributed to the special\nfavour of the god (see 11).\n\nA story of his kindness to Nonu, one of his worshippers, relates that\nwhen Nonu was on a visit to the King of Tonga, he and the king had a\ndispute about the age of the moon. Nonu maintained that it was then to\nbe seen in the morning, the king held that it was not visible in the\nmorning. Nonu said he would stake his life on it; and so it was left\nfor the morning to decide. In the night Salevao appeared to Nonu and\nsaid to him: \"Nonu, you are wrong; the moon is not now seen in the\nmorning. But, lest you should be killed, I will go and be the moon in\nthe horizon to-morrow morning, and make the king believe you were\nright after all, and so save your life.\" In the morning Salevao, as\nthe moon, was seen, and Nonu was saved. Such stories added alike to\nreverence for the god and to the treasury of the priest.\n\n3. Salevao was the name of a family god also, and incarnate in the eel\nand the turtle. Any one of the family eating such things was taken\nill; and before death they heard the god saying from within the body:\n\"I am killing this man; he ate my incarnation.\"\n\nIn a case of sickness, a cup of kava was made and poured on the ground\noutside the house as a drink-offering, and the god called by name to\ncome and accept of it and heal the sick.\n\nIn another family the head of the household was the priest. At the\nevening hour, and other times fixed for worship, all were studiously\npresent, as it was supposed that death would be the penalty if any one\nwas absent.\n\n\n28. SEPO MALOSI--_Sepo the strong._\n\n1. Was worshipped in Savaii as a war god, and incarnate in the large\nbat, or flying-fox. While the bat flew before the warriors all was\nright; but if it turned round and shut up the way, it was a sign of\ndefeat and a warning to go back.\n\n2. But Sepo in many places was a household god. In an inland village\nfamily in Upolu he was called the \"Lord of the mountain,\" and\nincarnate in the domestic fowl and the pigeon. In another family he\nwas seen in a very small fish which is difficult to catch; and by\nanother family he was supposed to be in the prickly sea-urchin\n(_Echinus_). The penalty of eating this incarnation was death from a\nsupposed growth of a prickly sea-urchin inside the body.\n\n\n29. SIULEO--_Tail of the voice, or echo._\n\nThis was the name of a village god in Savaii. Said to have come from\nTonga, and able to walk on the sea. He was the fisherman's god. He had\na fisherman's hut erected for him on the sea-shore, and was supposed\nto preside over a certain division of coast.\n\n\n30. TAAFANUA--_Walk the land._\n\nThis was the name of a war god of one of the islands in the east end\nof the group. It was incarnate in the Ve'a, or rail _(Rallus\nPectoralis)._ When the bird screeched and flew before, the people went\nto battle; but if it turned and flew back, they hesitated.\n\n\n31. TANGALOA LANGI--_Tangaloa of the heavens._\n\nThe derivation of Tangaloa is uncertain. Loa means long, and tanga, a\nbag; or, as an adjective, freedom from restriction. The unrestricted,\nor unconditioned, may therefore fairly be regarded as the name of this\nSamoan Jupiter. Tangaloa langi tuavalu, Tangaloa of the eighth heaven;\nTangaloa faatupu nuu, Tangaloa the creator of lands; Tangaloa asiasi\nnuu, Tangaloa the visitor of lands; Tangaloa lafoai nuu, Tangaloa the\nabandoner of lands--these were some of the names by which this god\nsuperior was known.\n\n1. At one place he was seen in the moon, and principally worshipped\nin the month of May. He was also incarnate in the Turi, or snipe. At\nthe stated time of worship no one went from home, and no strangers\nwere allowed to pass through the land. Only men were allowed to\npartake in the offerings of food; women and children were excluded\nfrom any share.\n\n2. At another place his image was a large wooden bowl, said to have\ncome from Fiji. He was also supposed to be present in a hollow stone.\nA temple was built for him there, and called \"The house of the gods.\"\nIt was carefully shut up all round; thinking that if it was not so,\nthe gods would get out and in too easily, and be all the more\ndestructive. Offerings were presented on war occasions; and he was\nalso presented with gifts, and had prayers offered to him, before\ngoing to fish, before planting some fresh section of bush land, and\nalso in times of sickness or special epidemic. It was firmly believed\nthat if there was no prayer to Tangaloa there could be no blessing.\nThunder was a sign that the prayer was heard. Slight tremulous\nreverberation, however, was a sign rather of rejected prayer and\nthreatened punishment.\n\n3. In another district Tangaloa was said to have come along the ocean\nin a canoe, with seven of a crew, and to have taken up his abode in\nthe bush inland of the settlement. Confused noises from the bush\nthere were supposed to be the murmurs of the gods, and a cause of\ndeath in the village.\n\nWhen war broke out two of the chiefs went inland to consult Tangaloa.\nOne sat down in front of the sacred grove of high trees, and the other\nwent round behind. This man was covered from head to foot with leaves,\nand had only a hole left for the eyes. No creepers ran up the trees,\nand no leaves were allowed to be seen on the small stones under the\ntrees, as it was supposed the god was in the stones. If the stones\nappeared separated and unusually far apart, that was a sign that the\ndistrict was about to be broken up and killed or banished. But if the\nstones were huddled together, that was a good omen, and indicated\nunion, victory, and strength.\n\n\n32. TAPAAI--_Beckoning._\n\nThis was a war god of a family on Tutuila. He was supposed to be\npresent in a trumpet-shell. When the people were about to go to war\nthe shell was blown by the priest, and all listened. If it blew rough\nand hollow it was a bad sign; but if clear and euphonic all were\ncheered, and went off joyfully under the good omen.\n\n\n33. TAEMA--_Glittering black._\n\n1. The name of a war god incarnate in the kingfisher bird. If it flew\nright on before the troops without returning it was a good sign.\nThere was also a temple with only one opening. In times of difficulty\nthe old men of the place went inside and addressed the god, who\nreplied in a human voice, but no body was seen.\n\n2. This was also the name of a goddess said to have been found by some\nfishermen swimming between Tutuila and Upolu. They covered her with\nsome fine native cloth, and conveyed her to a place in the bush, where\nthey built a temple for her. Offerings of food and fine mats were\ntaken to the place, and laid before two men who acted as priests. On\nthe change from heathenism to Christianity these men had a large\nquantity of fine mats among the temple treasures. The temple was\ndestroyed, and with the fine mats pigs were bought, and a grand feast\nwas the final adieu to the darkness and follies of the past.\n\n3. In another place Taema was a war god, and present in a bundle of\nsharks' teeth. These curiosities were done up in a piece of native\ncloth, and consulted before going to battle. If the bundle felt heavy,\nthat was a bad omen; but if light, the sign was good, and off they\nwent to the fight.\n\n4. Taema and Tila fainga, or Tila the _sportive_, were the goddesses\nof the tattooers. They swam from Fiji to introduce the craft to Samoa,\nand on leaving Fiji were commissioned to sing all the way,\n\n    \"Tattoo the women, but not the men.\"\n\nThey got muddled over it in the long journey, and arrived at Samoa\nsinging,\n\n    \"Tattoo the _men_ and not the women.\"\n\nAnd hence the universal exercise of the blackening art on the men\nrather than the women.\n\n5. Taema and Titi were the names of two household gods in a family at\nthe east end of the group. They were twins, and _Siamese_. Their\nbodies were united back to back. They swam from the east, and as they\ncame along the one said to the other: \"What a pity it is that we can\nonly hear each other's voice, but cannot see each other's face!\" On\nthis they were struck by a wave, which cleaved asunder the joining and\nseparated them. Members of the family going on a journey were supposed\nto have these gods with them as their guardian angels. Everything\n_double_--such as a double yam, two bananas adhering, etc.--was\nsacred, and not to be used under penalty of death. It was also\nforbidden for any member of the family to sit back to back, lest it\nshould be considered mockery and insult to the gods, and incur\ndispleasure.\n\n\n34. TAISUMALIE--_Tide gently rising._\n\n1. This was the name of a lady in Upolu who went away among the gods,\nwas worshipped first by her family, and then by all the people of the\nland where she resided. She spoke through one of the heads of the\nfamily. The bat also was an incarnation, and an unusual number of\nthem came about the temple in time of war. One flying ahead of the\ntroops was always a good omen. If a neighbour killed a bat, it might\nlead to war to avenge the insult. Another representative of this deity\nwas a shrub (_Ascarina lanceolata_). The leaf of the ti (_Dracaena\nterminalis_) was carried as a banner wherever the troops went. June\nwas the usual month for special worship. All kinds of food from the\nland and the sea were provided as a feast, but only the one family of\nthe priest was allowed to partake. Whatever was over after the meal\nwas buried at the beach. After that followed club exercise, and in\nterrible earnest they battered each other's scalps till the blood\nstreamed down and over their faces and bodies; and this as an offering\nto the deity. Old and young, men, women, and children, all took part\nin this general _m\u00eal\u00e9e_ and blood-letting, in the belief that\nTaisumalie would thereby be all the more pleased with their\ndevotedness, and answer prayer for health, good crops, and success in\nbattle.\n\n2. This was also the name of a war god in Savaii. Incarnate in a man\nand spoke through him. When the war fleet was about to cross to\nanother island to fight, they went out from the shore half a mile and\nthen returned to a streamlet where they prayed for success, and were\nsprinkled or purified, and then went off to the fight, free, as they\nthought, from any delinquency curse which might have been resting\nupon them.\n\nThis deity was also supposed to be incarnate in the sea eel\n(_Muraena_). In a village where the first Christian native teachers\nwere located one of them caught an eel and had it cooked. Two lads of\nthe place who were their servants ate a bit at the evening meal. As\nsoon as the people heard that these lads had \"eaten the god,\" they\nmustered, gave them a beating, and dragged them off to a cooking\nhouse. They laid them down in the oven pit, and covered them with\nleaves _as if_ they had been killed, and were now to be cooked as a\npeace-offering to avert the wrath of the deity. It was expected that\nthe lads would immediately die, but as nothing amiss happened to them\nbeyond the weals of the rods used by mortals, it was concluded that\nTaisumalie was a mere sham, and that they had better now turn to the\nGod of heaven.\n\n3. Taisumalie was also the name of a household god, and worshipped\namong various families in different parts of the group.\n\n(1.) In one place a member of the family was the incarnation, and\nconsulted on everything of importance. Before going to war each one\nwould ask whether he should go, what was to befall him, etc. If wounds\nor death were predicted, the person would perhaps turn round and beat\nthe priest for giving _such_ a response!\n\n(2.) In another place this god was incarnate in an old man who acted\nas the doctor of the family. The neighbours also took in their sick to\nhim. His principal remedy was to rub the affected part with oil, and\nthen shout out at the top of his voice five times the word Taisumalie,\nand five times also call him to come and heal. This being done, the\npatient was dismissed to wait a recovery. On recovery the family had a\nfeast over it, poured out on the ground a cup of kava to the god,\nthanked for healing and health, and prayed that he might continue to\nturn his _back_ towards them for protection, and set his _face_\nagainst all the enemies of the family.\n\n(3.) To another family he was incarnate in the cuttle-fish\n(_Octopus_). To another in the mullet. To another in the turtle. If,\nthrough a stranger or by any member of the family, an incarnation had\nbeen cooked in the family oven, it could not be used again until some\none had been laid there as a mock burnt-offering, and gone through the\n\"make-believe\" process of cooking. It was death to the family if the\noven was used without this ceremony.\n\n\n35. TILI TILI--_Swift._\n\nA village god in Upolu, noted for mischief-making, and supposed to be\nthe cause of quarrels, war, and darkness. Seen in the lightning. If\nthere was much of it in a time of war it was believed that the god had\ncome to help and direct. Constant lightning in a particular place\nindicated an ambushment of the enemy. Continued flashes in front was a\nsign that the troops of the enemy were driven. But if the lightning\nmoved from the front backwards, that betokened danger, and was an\norder to retreat.\n\n\n36. TITI USI--_Glittering leaf girdle._\n\nThe name of a village god in Savaii, and worshipped at the new moon,\nwhen he appeared to them like a bright shining leaf girdle. At that\ntime all work was suspended for a day or two. The cocoa-nut leaf\nblinds were kept down, and the people sat still in their houses. Any\none walking in front of the house risked a beating. After prayer and\nfeasting a man went about and blew a shell-trumpet as a sign to all\nthat the ceremonies were over, and that the usual routine of village\nand family life might be resumed. Out of respect to the god the name\nof the leaf girdle, titi, was changed into savalinga, or walking. The\nsaid girdle is made of the ti leaves (_Dracaena terminalis_).\n\n\n37. TONGO--_Mangrove._\n\n1. This was the name of a war god, and incarnate in the owl. If it\nhovered over or flew before the troops, that was a sign of victory. If\nit crossed the path or flew back on them, that was a warning to\nretreat.\n\nA dead owl found under a tree in the settlement was at once covered\nover with a piece of white native cloth by the person who discovered\nit. Then all the village would assemble around it, sit down and beat\nand bruise their foreheads with any stones they could lay their hands\non. This was \"an offering of blood\" to Tongo, and, with an\naccompanying death wail, expressed their sympathy with the god over\nthe calamity. Tongo, however, still existed, and was seen in all the\nremaining owls, which continued to be his incarnations.\n\n2. There was also a family god of this name, and incarnate in the\nmullet. If any one of that household ate a piece of that fish it\nbrought on a curse in the form of a _squint_.\n\n\n38. TU--_Stand._\n\nStand was the name of this war god, as he was said never to sit down.\nHe was incarnate in the rail. If the bird appeared reddish and glossy,\nit was a sign the people were to go to war. If dark and dingy, the\nomen was bad, and they were ordered to sit still.\n\n\n39. TUFI--_To pick up._\n\nA cocoa-nut tree spear ten feet long was the idol representative of\nthis war god. When the people met for worship the spear was stood up,\nand offerings were laid before it. It was taken in the war fleet also\nas a sign that Tu was with them.\n\nIn time of peace Tu was a doctor, and supposed to be powerful in\nremoving sickness in return for prayers and offerings.\n\n\n40. TURIA--_Driven._\n\nThis was the name of a god in Savaii by whose help a district once\nfought and conquered against fearful odds. He was of use in peace also\nas well as in times of war. He could change the drought into rainy\nweather, and this again into sunshine. He was also supposed to come\nwith his share of food for the entertainment of strangers, and add a\npig to the number prepared by the people. If six were laid down, the\nguests found, when they separated the heap of dainties they had\nreceived, that there would be _seven_ instead of six. The trick of\nadding secretly a pig was carried on by some of the priesthood, and,\nin the eyes of the credulous multitude, added vastly to the\nwonder-working power of Turia. On another island the shrine of Turia\nwas a very smooth stone in a sacred grove. The priest was careful to\nweed all round about, and covered it with branches to keep the god\nwarm. When praying on account of war, drought, famine, or epidemic,\nthe branch _clothes_ were carefully renewed. No one dared to touch\nthis stone, lest a poisonous and deadly influence of some kind should\nat once radiate from it to the transgressor.\n\n\n41. TUIFITI--_King of Fiji._\n\nThis was the name of a village god in Savaii supposed to be incarnate\nin a man who walked about but was never visible to the people of the\nplace. He could be seen, however, by strangers. For instance, if a\nlarge travelling party were spending a day at the settlement, and\nentertained in the usual way by every inhabitant turning out to march\nin procession to the guests, each with a basket of cooked food, the\ngod would be among them. This was known by two things. First, more\npigs by one, two, or three than the chiefs arranged to provide; and\nsecondly, by the guests after the ceremony putting such a question as,\n\"Whose son was that handsome young man dressed with a girdle of fancy\nbush leaves?\" while at the same time no one of the place had seen such\na person.\n\nThe special abode of Tuifiti was a grove of large and durable trees\ncalled Ifilele, or _Afzelia bijuga_. No one dared to cut that timber.\nA story is told of a party from Upolu who once attempted it, and the\nconsequence was that _blood_ flowed from the tree and that the\nsacrilegious strangers all took ill and died. In later times the trees\nfell harmlessly under the axes of the villagers, and were very useful\nin building a house for their missionary.\n\n\n42. TUNA MA FATA--_The Eel and the Litter._\n\nThere are two mountains at the west end of Upolu with a stream between\nthem. On the one mountain Tuna lived, and on the other Fata. They\nwere in the habit of meeting at the stream close by the habitat of a\ngreat eel. With this they amused themselves by taking it out of the\nwater and carrying it about shoulder high on a litter.\n\n\n43. VAVE--_Swift._\n\n1. This was the name of a war god in Savaii, said to have come from\nTonga, and incarnate in the Manualii (_Porphyris Samoensis_). Bird of\nLii, or Bird of Chiefs, the word may be translated. If it flew about\nand behind the war party, they were encouraged and sure of victory;\nbut if the bird fluttered about before them, it was a sign of defeat.\nAgain, if in time of peace it was seen pecking at the ridge pole of\nthe house, that was a sign of a coming disturbance, and the pressure\nof some heavy fine. When the people mustered in the village for\nbattle, and before going off to meet the enemy, they were first of all\nsprinkled with the juice of a cocoa-nut, and then all united with the\npriest in the following prayer:--\n\n    \"Our own Lord Vave!\n     Level up the stumps of the trees,\n     Take away the rough stones,\n     Give light to our eyes,\n     And let blood flow in our path.\"\n\n2. In another village in Upolu Vave was incarnate in a pigeon which\nwas carefully kept and fed by the different members of the family in\nturn. But the special residence of Vave there was an old tree inland\nof the village which was a \"place of refuge\" for murderers and other\ncapital offenders. If that tree was reached by the criminal he was\nsafe, and the avenger of blood could pursue no farther, but wait\ninvestigation and trial. It is said that the king of a division of\nUpolu, called Atua, once lived at that spot. After he died the house\nfell into decay, but the tree was fixed on as representing the\ndeparted king, and out of respect for his memory it was made the\nsubstitute of a living and royal protector. It was called \"O le asi\npulu tangata,\" _the asi tree the refuge of men_. This reminds me of\nwhat I once heard from a native of another island. He said that at one\ntime they had been ten years without a king, and so anxious were they\nto have some protecting substitute, that they fixed upon a large O'a\ntree (_Bischoffia Javanica_), and made it the representative of a\nking, and an asylum for the thief or the homicide when pursued by the\ninjured in hot haste for vengence.\n\n3. Vave was also the name of a war god in another village, and\nincarnate in the Ve'a, or rail bird. When it was heard chattering, or\n\"scolding,\" as they called it, at midnight, it prognosticated an\nattack next day, and they would at once send off the women and\nchildren to a place of safety. When offerings of food were presented\nat the temple of Vave, long poles were erected, one at each corner,\nand these were covered with fragrant-scented leaves and flowers. When\nthey started to fight they prayed and professed to be guided by the\nflight of the Ve'a. If it flew before them that was enough, they\nfollowed. A notable instance of the power of Vave is given in an\naccount of the battle with the Tongan invaders. Many were killed in\nsingle combat by a hero called One. Vave was once more implored to\nhelp, and that very day One was killed at a single blow by a chief\ncalled Tuato, and hence the proverb which obtains to the present day:\n\n    \"Ua 'ai tasi Tuato, or\n     Tuato bites but once.\"\n\nThe power of Vave was again seen in another way. A number of gods came\nto raise a rocky precipice right between the village and the ocean.\nVave, however, was immediately up in arms against them, and drove them\noff for miles along the coast into another district, where they\neffected their object and made the beach there a great high iron-bound\nshore, which remains to the present day.\n\n4. In another place Vave was the name of a household god, and\nincarnate in the eel. If any one of the family was sick, Vave was\nprayed to in the evening. Next morning a search was made among the\nbundles of mats and other property. If an eel was found among them it\nwas a sign of death; if not, it was a sign of recovery.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nGODS INFERIOR, OR HOUSEHOLD GODS.\n\n\n1. ALOIMASINA--_Child of the Moon._\n\nThis was the name of a household god, and seen in the moon. On the\nappearance of the new moon all the members of the family called out:\n\"Child of the moon, you have come.\" They assembled also, presented\nofferings of food, had a united feast, and joined in the prayer:\n\n    \"Oh, child of the moon!\n     Keep far away\n     Disease and death.\"\n\nThey also prayed thus before leaving the house to go to battle:\n\n    \"Oh, child of the moon!\n     Bury up your hollows\n     And stumps of trees\n     And lumpy stones\n     For our running at ease.\"\n\n\n2. APELESA--_Sacred fulness._\n\n1. In one family this god was incarnate in the turtle. While one of\nthe family dared not partake, he would help a neighbour to cut up and\ncook one; only while he was doing that, he had a bandage tied over his\nmouth lest some embryo turtle should slip down his throat, grow up,\nand cause his death.\n\n2. In another family Apelesa spoke at times through an old man. When\nan oven of food was opened the first basket was hung up on the outside\nof one of the posts of the house for the god. If the rats, or a dog,\nor any hungry mortal took it in the night, it was supposed that\nApelesa chose to come in _that_ form for his offering. He was also\nconsidered the guardian of the family, and if any other gods came\nabout he frightened them away.\n\n3. In another family a woman called Alaiava, or _means of\nentertainment_, was priestess of Apelesa. She prayed at parturition\ntimes, and in cases of severe illness. Her usual mode of acting the\ndoctor was, first of all, to order down all the cocoa-nut leaf\nwindow-blinds of one end of the house. She then went into the darkened\nplace. Presently that end of the house shook as if by an earthquake,\nand when she came out she declared what the disease was, and ordered\ncorresponding treatment; the result was that, \"some recovered, and\nsome died.\"\n\nIn this family the first basket of cooked food was also sacred to the\ngod, but their custom was to take it and hang it up in the large house\nof the village where passing travellers were accustomed to call and\nrest. No one of the village dared to touch that basket without\nrisking the wrath of the god. Any passing _stranger_, however, was as\nwelcome to partake as if he had been specially sent for it by Apelesa.\n\n\n3. ASOMUA--_First Day._\n\nThis was a household god, and particularly useful to the family in\ndetecting and telling out the name of the thief when anything was\nmissed. He was called _first day_, as it was supposed that he existed\nin the world before mortals.\n\n\n4. LEATUALOA--_The long god, or the centipede._\n\nThis was the name of a god seen in the centipede. A tree near the\nhouse was the residence of the creature. When any one of the family\nwas ill, he went out with a fine mat and spread it under the tree, and\nthere waited for the centipede to come down. If it came down and\ncrawled _under_ the mat, that was a sign that the sick person was to\nbe covered over with mats and buried. If, however, it crawled on the\ntop of the mat, that was a sign of recovery.\n\n\n5. O LE AUM\u0100--_The red liver._\n\nThis family god was seen, or incarnate, in the wild pigeon. If any\nvisitor happened to roast a pigeon while staying there, some member of\nthe household would pay the penalty by being done up in leaves, as if\nready to be baked, and carried and laid in the _cool_ oven for a\ntime, as an offering to show their unabated regard to Aum\u0101.\n\nThe use of the reddish-seared bread-fruit leaf for any purpose was\nalso insulting to this deity. Such leaves were in common use as\n_plates_ on which to hand a bit of food from one to another, but that\nparticular family dared not use them under a penalty of being seized\nwith rheumatic swellings, or an eruption all over the body called\ntangosusu, and resembling chicken-pox.\n\n\n6. IULAUTALO--_Ends of the taro leaf._\n\nTo this family god the _ends_ of leaves and other things were\nconsidered sacred, and not to be handled or used in any way. In daily\nlife it was no small trouble to this particular household to cut off\nthe ends of all the taro, bread-fruit, and cocoa-nut leaves which they\nrequired for culinary purposes. Ends of taro, yams, bananas, fish,\netc., were also carefully laid aside, and considered as unfit to be\neaten as if they were poison. In a case of sickness, however, the god\nallowed, and indeed required, that the patient should be fanned with\nthe _ends_ of cocoa-nut leaflets.\n\n\n7. O LE ALII O FITI--_The Chief of Fiji._\n\nThis was the name of a god in a certain household, and present in the\nform of an eel, and hence the eel was never used by them as an article\nof food. This god was supposed to be unusually kind, and never\ninjured any of the family. They showed their gratitude by presenting\nthe first fruits of their taro plantation.\n\n\n8. LIMULIMUTA--_Sea-weed._\n\nThis was the name by which another protector was known. If any members\nof the family went to fight at sea, they collected some sea-weed to\ntake with them. If in pursuit of a canoe, they threw out some of it to\nhinder the progress of the enemy, and make the chase successful in\nobtaining a decapitated head or two. If the enemy tried to pick up any\nof this deified sea-weed it immediately sank, but rose again and\nfloated on the surface if one of its friends paddled up to the spot.\n\n\n9. MOSO'OI.\n\nThis is the name of a tree (_Conanga Odorata_), the yellow flowers of\nwhich are highly fragrant. In one place it was supposed to be the\nhabitat of a household god, and anything aromatic or sweet-scented\nwhich the family happened to get was presented as an offering.\n\nAt any household gathering the god was sent for to be present. Three\ndifferent messengers had to go at short intervals, as it was not\nexpected that he would come before the _third_ appeal or entreaty for\nhis presence.\n\n\n10. FATUPUAA MA LE FEE--_The pig's heart and the octopus._\n\nAnother family supposed that two of their gods were embodied in the\nsaid heart and octopus. Men, women, and children of them were most\nscrupulous never to eat either the one or the other, believing that\nsuch a meal would be the swallowing of a germ of a living heart or\noctopus growth, by which the insulted gods would bring about death.\n\n\n11. PU'A.\n\nThis is the name of a large tree (_Hernandia Peltata_). A family god\nof the same name was supposed to live in it, and hence no one dared to\npluck a leaf or break a branch.\n\nThe same god was also supposed to be incarnate in the octopus, and\nalso in the land crab. If one of these crabs found its way into the\nhouse, it was a sign that the head of the house was about to die.\n\n\n12. SAMANI.\n\nThis was the name of a family god. It was seen in the turtle, the sea\neel, the octopus, and the garden lizard. Any one eating or injuring\nsuch things had either to be _sham_ baked in an unheated oven, or\ndrink a quantity of rancid oil as penance and a purgative. This god\npredicted that there was a time coming when Samoa would be filled\nwith foreign gods.\n\n\n13. SATIA.\n\n1. In one place the member of the family supposed to be the priest of\nthe god was noted for cannibalism. At times he would cry out furiously\nand order those about him to be off and get him some of his \"sacred\nfood.\" He professed to be doctor as well as demon. A great chief when\nill was once taken to him, and the doctor's bill for a cure was the\nerection of a mound of stones, on the top of which a house was to be\nbuilt. The bill was paid by the retinue of the chief.\n\n2. In another family it was supposed that their god Satia had the\npower to become incarnate in a man or a woman. If he wished to go to a\nparticular woman, he became a man; and if he desired a man, he changed\ninto a woman.\n\n\n14. SENGI VAVE--_Snatch quickly._\n\nAn old man named Sengi, or _snatch_, was an incarnation of this\nhousehold god. All the fine mats and other valuables were in some\nmysterious way under his control. On returning from any kind of daily\nwork in the bush every one on entering the house had to salute him, as\nthe representative of the god, in some apologetic phrase, such as \"I\nbeg your pardon.\" If any one omitted this mark of respect, the\npenalty was the disappearance of a fine mat from the family bundle\nwithout any one knowing how it was taken.\n\n\n15. SOESAI.\n\nThis was the name of a household god in some families. In one, the god\nwas seen in the domestic fowl. In another, the incarnations were the\neel, the octopus, and turtle. Prayers for life and recovery were\noffered in cases of great danger, and also at child-birth.\n\n\n16. SI'U--_Extremity or end._\n\nThe family in which this god was worshipped said that he appeared in\nthe form of a _skull_ once a year, about the month of May. Lemana, or\nthe Powerful, was the name of the priest. If in time of famine or\npestilence the family had been preserved thanks were specially offered\nto Lemana for having been so successful in his pleadings with the god.\n\n\n17. SINA 'AI MATA--_Sina the eye-eater._\n\nThis god was incarnate in the bird called Ve'a, and was the juvenile\nscarecrow of the family. \"Do not make such a noise; Sina, the\neye-eater, will come and pick out your eyes.\" The eyes of fish were\nsacred to this god, and never eaten by any of the family.\n\n\n18. TONGO.\n\n1. In one family this god was incarnate in the bat, and was supposed\nto be specially attentive to turmeric. When a party of women were met\nto grate the root and prepare some of this native dye and cosmetic\nthey usually had some food together. If at such a time a woman\nconcealed a tit-bit to eat by the sly, when she came to put it to her\nmouth it had been changed into _turmeric_ by the anger and power of\nTongo.\n\n2. The stinging ray fish was the incarnation of Tongo in another\nfamily. If they heard of any neighbour who had caught a fish of the\nsort, they would go and beg them to give it up and not to cook it. A\nrefusal would be followed by a fight.\n\n3. In another family Tongo was incarnate in the mullet, and the\npenalty for eating that fish by any of them was a disease ending in a\nsquint.\n\n\n19. TUIALII--_King of Chiefs._\n\n1. In one family this god was greatly praised as being a good and kind\ndeity. In a time of scarcity, for instance, he led them to some place\nin the bush where they could dig up plenty of wild yams.\n\n2. In another family this god was prayed to for life and health before\nthe evening meal; an offering of a blazing fire was essential to the\nsuccess of the prayer, which ran as follows:--\n\n     \"This is our fire to you, it burns bright; other fires are dim and\n     going out; send these families to the lower regions, but give us\n     life and health.\"\n\nThe sea eel, octopus, and mullet were incarnations of this god. He\nwas also seen in the _ends_ of banana leaves. If any one used the end\nof a banana leaf as a cap, baldness was the punishment. All the\nchildren born in the family were called by the name of the god.\n\n\n20. TUIPANGOTA--_The King of Criminals._\n\nA household god, and the special guardian of a particular family\nagainst thieving. If any thing was stolen the unknown culprit was\ngiven over by prayer to be put to death in some way by Tuipangota. A\nraised stone platform was erected in the house on which he was\nsupposed to sit, and close beside it was another to serve the purpose\nof an altar, on which offerings were laid.\n\n\n21. TAUMANUPEPE--_Fight creature butterfly._\n\nThis family god was incarnate in butterflies. Any one of that\nhousehold catching or killing these beautiful winged insects were\nliable to be struck dead by the god.\n\nIn another family this god was supposed to have three mouths. There it\nwas forbidden to drink from a cocoa-nut shell water-bottle which had\nall the three eyes or openings perforated. Only one, or at the most\ntwo, apertures for drinking were allowed. A third would be a mockery,\nand bring down the wrath of his butterflyship.\n\n\n22. ULAVAI--_Fresh-water prawn, or crayfishes._\n\nThis was a household god in a family in one of the villages of Aana. A\nwoman had been bathing and brought on a premature event which happens\nsometimes. When she told her friends they went to search for the\nchild. Nothing could be seen, however, but an unusual number of prawns\nor crayfishes, into which they supposed the infant had been changed.\nAnd so they commenced to regard the crayfish as the incarnation of a\nnew household god, gave it food, and offered prayers before it for\nfamily prosperity.\n\nTo these may be added the names of forty-six other gods, making in all\none hundred and ten, but of whom I have little to say different from\nthe descriptions of Samoa Zoolatry, etc., already given. A few more\nare referred to in the Cosmogony and other details, making up the\nnumber of Samoan deities of which I have heard to about a hundred and\ntwenty, all claiming and receiving the two essentials of\nreligion--something to be believed and something to be done.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE PEOPLE--INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD.\n\n\nAt the birth of her child, the mother had a liberal share in the kind\nattentions of her friends. Her own mother was almost invariably _la\nsage-femme_; but, failing her, some other female friend. Her father\nwas generally present on the occasion, and either he or her husband\nprayed to the household god, and promised to give any offering he\nmight require, if he would only preserve mother and child in safety. A\nprayer was thus expressed: \"O Moso, be propitious; let this my\ndaughter be preserved alive! Be compassionate to us; save my daughter,\nand we will do anything you wish as our redemption price.\" Offerings\nto the god, as we have already seen, were regulated by the caprice and\ncovetousness of the cunning priest. Sometimes a canoe was demanded; at\nother times a house was to be built; and often fine mats or other\nvaluable property was required. The household god of the family of the\nfather was generally prayed to first; but, if the case was tedious or\ndifficult, the god of the family of the mother was then invoked; and\nwhen the child was born, the mother would call out: \"Who were you\npraying to?\" and the god prayed to just before was carefully\nremembered and its incarnation duly acknowledged throughout the future\nlife of the child. By way of respect to him the child was called his\n_merda_; and was actually named during infancy and childhood \"merda of\nTongo,\" or \"Sati\u0101,\" or whatever other deity it might be. If the little\nstranger was a boy, the umbilical cord was cut on a club, that he\nmight grow up to be brave in war. If of the other sex, it was done on\nthe board on which they beat out the bark of which they make their\nnative cloth. Cloth-making is the work of women; and their wish was\nthat the little girl should grow up and prove useful to the family in\nher proper occupation.\n\n_Infanticide_, as it prevailed in Eastern Polynesia and elsewhere, was\nunknown in Samoa. Nor were children ever exposed. After they were born\nthey were affectionately cared for. But the custom of destroying them\n_before_ that prevailed to a melancholy extent. Shame, fear of\npunishment, lazy unwillingness to nurse, and a dread of soon being\nold-looking, were the prevailing causes. Pressure was the means\nemployed, and in some cases proved the death of the unnatural parent.\n\n_As to nursing_, during the first two or three days the nurse\nbestowed great attention to the head of the child, that it might be\nmodified and shaped after notions of propriety and beauty. The child\nwas laid on its back, and the head surrounded with three flat stones.\nOne was placed close to the crown of the head, and one on either side.\nThe forehead was then pressed with the hand, that it might be\nflattened. The nose, too, was carefully flattened. Our \"canoe noses,\"\nas they call them, are blemishes in their estimation. For the first\nthree days the infant was fed with the juice of the chewed kernel of\nthe cocoa-nut, pressed through a piece of native cloth, and dropped\ninto the mouth. On the third day a woman of the sacred craft was sent\nfor to examine the milk. A little was put into a cup, with water and\ntwo heated stones, and then examined. If it had the slightest curdled\nappearance she pronounced it bitter and poisonous. This process she\nrepeated two or three times a day for several days, until it was drawn\noff free from coagulation, and then she pronounced it sweet and\nwholesome, and the child was forthwith permitted to partake of its\nproper nourishment. Of course she was well paid for her services, and\nhad every inducement to prolong them for several days. During this\ntime the infant was fed with the juice of the cocoa-nut or the\nsugar-cane. Many fell victims to this improper treatment. At a very\nearly period the child was fed, and sometimes weaned altogether at\nfour months. This was another fruitful source of mortality among\nchildren. Occasionally the father, or some member of the family,\nthrough whom it was supposed the god of the family spoke, expressly\nordered that the child have nothing but the breast for an indefinite\ntime. This was a mark of respect to the god, and called his \"banana.\"\nIn these cases the child grew amazingly, and was soon, literally, as\nplump as a banana.\n\nA modified form of _circumcision_ prevailed. About the eighth or tenth\nyear two or three boys would unite and go of their own accord to some\none in the village, who would make the customary incision, and give\nhim some trifling reward for his trouble. There was no further\nceremony on the occasion, as at other periods of life.\n\n_Names._--Out of respect to the household god, as we have already\nremarked, the child was named after him, during the time of infancy\nand childhood; after that, a name was given. The animal and vegetable\nkingdoms, places, occupations, actions, and passing events, furnished\nthem with the principal names. The primitive rule, \"one man, one\nword,\" invariably prevailed. Occasionally a chief bore the name of one\nof the gods superior.\n\n_Rejoicing._--About the third day the woman was up and at her usual\noccupation, and ready to take part in the rejoicings connected with\nthe occasion. By this time the principal friends were assembled. They\nall brought presents, and observed an unvarying rule in the _kind_ of\npresents each was expected to bring. The relations of the husband\nbrought \"_oloa_,\" which included pigs, canoes, and all kinds of\nforeign property. The relations of the wife brought \"_tonga_,\" which\nincluded the leading articles manufactured by the females--viz. fine\nmats and native cloth. The \"_oloa_\" brought by the friends of the\nhusband was all distributed among those of the wife, and the \"_tonga_\"\nbrought by the friends of the wife was divided among those of the\nhusband; and thus the whole affair was so managed that the friends\nwere the benefited parties chiefly, and the husband and wife left no\nricher than they were. Still, they had the satisfaction of having seen\nwhat they considered a great honour--viz. heaps of property collected\non occasion of the birth of their child. Feasting, sham-fighting,\nnight-dancing, and many other heathen customs, formed one continued\nscene of revelry for two or three days, when the party broke up. When\nthe child became strong and able to sit there was another feast for\n\"the sitting of the child.\" A third feast was for the \"creeping of the\nchild.\" A fourth when the child was able to stand, and called \"the\nstanding feast.\" But the greatest was the _fifth_, when the child\ncould walk. Then there was singing and night-dances, and then, too, if\nthe child danced and sang, and was \"impudent,\" the parents boasted\nover its abilities.\n\n_Twins_ were rare. Triplets still more so; indeed, there is only a\nvague tradition of such a thing. Twins were supposed to be of one\nmind, and to think, feel, and act alike, during the time of infancy\nand childhood at least. There were a few instances of large families,\nbut four or five would be the average.\n\n_Adopted Children._--The number of children seen in a family was\nsmall, occasioned, to a great extent, by the bad management and\nconsequent mortality of children, and also a custom which prevailed of\nparting with their children to friends who wished to adopt them. The\ngeneral rule was for the husband to give away his child to his sister.\nShe and her husband gave, in return for the child, some foreign\nproperty, just as if they had received so many fine mats or native\ncloth. The adopted child was viewed as \"_tonga_\" and was, to the\nfamily who adopted it, a channel through which native property (or\n\"_tonga_\") continued to flow to that family from the parents of the\nchild. On the other hand, the child was to its parents a source of\nobtaining foreign property (or \"_oloa_\") from the parties who adopted\nit, not only at the time of its adoption, but as long as the child\nlived. Hence the custom of adoption was not so much the want of\nnatural affection as the sacrifice of it to this systematic facility\nof traffic in native and foreign property. Hence, also, parents may\nhave had in their family adopted children, and their own real children\nelsewhere.\n\n_Employments._--Girls always, and boys for four or five years, were\nunder the special charge of the mother, and followed her in domestic\navocations. The girl was taught to draw water, gather shell-fish, make\nmats and native cloth. The boy after a time followed his father, and\nsoon became useful in planting, fishing, house-building, and all kinds\nof manual labour. Boys were also accustomed to club together, and\nwander about the settlement, the plantation, or in the bush. If they\nfell in with a fallen cocoa-nut one boy would sit down and name some\nto come and join him in eating it, and to the rest he would call out,\n\"Go and catch butterflies.\" Hence one who is excluded from eating\nanything nice is called _a butterfly-catcher_. If they called at the\nresidence of one of themselves, then perhaps the lad of that house\nwould select some to have food with him there, and call them\n\"cocoa-nut princes,\" and the rest he would send off, calling them\n\"cocoa-nut pigs.\" The latter would go off offended, and vow to each\nother never again to be friendly with that stingy, _stunted_ fellow!\nThe following is a translated specimen of one of the old songs chanted\nfor the diversion of children, or to lessen the tedium of a long canoe\njourney. I do not tamper with an exact translation by any attempt at\nrhythm or rhyme, but simply give the thoughts as they stand, and as a\nfair translation would explain them.:--\n\n    1. Mailesaeia and Mailetupengia were married.\n       They had two children, and these were their names,\n       The boy Tulifauiave, and the girl Sinataevaeva.\n                             _Chorus_--Aue! or _wonderful!_\n\n    2. They were unkind to their children, and deserted them;\n       They did not wish to have children.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    3. Then said the girl to the boy: \"Come let us go,\n       Let us seek another home,\" and away they wandered.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    4. They called at the house of Tangaloa of the heavens,\n       And Tangaloa took the girl and married her.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    5. The brother of the girl acted as their child.\n       He was a lovely boy, and grew up to be a beauty.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    6. Tangaloa of the heavens became jealous of the lad,\n       And told his people to kill him.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    7. They took him to the bush and killed him,\n       He yielded to their wishes and resisted not.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    8. They were divided about the disposal of the body,\n       Some said throw it into the river, others said leave it in the bush.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    9. They cast it into the river to float to the sea,\n       It came floating down, and there his sister stood on the beach.\n                                                    etc.\n    10. She screamed, and wept, and wailed;\n        She seized the body, patted his head, and prayed for life.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    11. The wounds closed up and healed, the lad sat up,\n        And thus he spake: \"Let us both be off together.\"\n                                                    etc.\n\n    12. They went to the village, the people were in the bush;\n        They smashed every canoe but one, and in that they left,\n        To search for the land of their parents.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    13. The people returned from work, no Sinataevaeva was there,\n        Tangaloa called for his daughters Darkness, Lightning, and Thunder,\n        And ordered them off in search of his wife.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    14. The three daughters obeyed, Thunder roared and Lightning flashed,\n        Darkness and Storm were added, and the canoe was found.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    15. The ladies shouted out: \"Don't be afraid; all's well!\n        You two be off, a calm and a smooth sea to you!\n        'Twas cruel to kill a child yonder.\"\n                                                    etc.\n\n    16. The two went on and reached their land and home,\n        First the boy went on shore, his sister remained in the canoe.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    17. Their parents called out: \"Where are you two going?\"\n        \"My sister and I are in search of the home of our parents.\"\n                                                    etc.\n\n    18. \"Who are your parents, tell us their names?\"\n          \"Mailesaeia and Mailetupengia,\" replied the lad.\n                                                    etc.\n\n    19. Out rushed the parents in tears,\n          The children they cast away had come back,\n          And now their love returned to them.\n                                                    etc.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nADULT AND ADVANCED YEARS.\n\n\nPassing from infancy and childhood we proceed to the ceremonies,\nsuperstitions, and customs connected with more advanced years.\n\n_Tattooing._--\"Herodotus found among the Thracians that the barbarians\ncould be exceedingly foppish after their fashion. The man who was not\ntattooed among them was not respected.\" It was the same in Samoa.\nUntil a young man was tattooed, he was considered in his minority. He\ncould not think of marriage, and he was constantly exposed to taunts\nand ridicule, as being poor and of low birth, and as having no right\nto speak in the society of men. But as soon as he was tattooed he\npassed into his majority, and considered himself entitled to the\nrespect and privileges of mature years. When a youth, therefore,\nreached the age of sixteen, he and his friends were all anxiety that\nhe should be tattooed. He was then on the outlook for the tattooing of\nsome young chief with whom he might unite. On these occasions, six or\na dozen young men would be tattooed at one time; and for these there\nmight be four or five tattooers employed.\n\nTattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular\nprofession, just as house-building, and well paid. The custom is\ntraced to Ta\u0113m\u0101 and Tilafainga (see p. 55); and they were worshipped\nby the tattooers as the presiding deities of their craft.\n\nThe instrument used in the operation is an oblong piece of human bone\n(_os ilium_), about an inch and a half broad and two inches long. A\ntime of war and slaughter was a harvest for the tattooers to get a\nsupply of instruments. The one end is cut like a small-toothed comb,\nand the other is fastened to a piece of cane, and looks like a little\nserrated adze. They dip it into a mixture of candle-nut ashes and\nwater, and, tapping it with a little mallet, it sinks into the skin;\nand in this way they puncture the whole surface over which the\ntattooing extends. The greater part of the body from the waist down to\nthe knee is covered with it, variegated here and there with neat\nregular stripes of the untattooed skin, which when they are well\noiled, make them appear in the distance as if they had on black silk\nknee-breeches. Behrens, in describing these natives in his narrative\nof Roggewein's voyage of 1772, says: \"They were clothed from the waist\ndownwards with fringes and a kind of silken stuff artificially\nwrought.\" A nearer inspection would have shown that the \"fringes\"\nwere a bunch of red _ti_ leaves (_Drac\u00e6na terminalis_) glistening with\ncocoa-nut oil, and the \"kind of silken stuff,\" the tattooing just\ndescribed. As it extends over such a large surface the operation is a\ntedious and painful affair. After smarting and bleeding for a while\nunder the hands of the tattooers, the patience of the youth is\nexhausted. They then let him rest and heal for a time, and, before\nreturning to him again, do a little piece on each of the party. In two\nor three months the whole is completed. The friends of the young men\nare all the while in attendance with food. They also bring quantities\nof fine mats and native cloth, as the hire of the tattooers; connected\nwith them, too, are many waiting on for a share in the food and\nproperty.\n\nThe waste of time, revelling, and immorality connected with the custom\nhave led many to discountenance it; and it is, to a considerable\nextent, given up. But the gay youth still thinks it manly and\nrespectable to be tattooed; parental pride says the same thing; and so\nthe custom still obtains. It is not likely, however, to stand long\nbefore advancing civilisation. European clothing, and a sense of\npropriety they are daily acquiring, lead them to cover the tattooed\npart of the body entirely; and, when its display is considered a shame\nrather than a boast, it will probably be given up as painful,\nexpensive, and useless; and then, too, instead of the tattooing, age,\nexperience, common-sense, and education will determine whether or not\nthe young man is entitled to the respect and privileges of mature\nyears.\n\nThere was a custom observed by the other sex worth noticing, for the\nsake of comparison with other parts of the world. About the time of\nentering into womanhood, their parents and other relatives collected a\nquantity of fine mats and cloth, prepared a feast, and invited all the\nunmarried women of the settlement. After the feast the property was\ndistributed among them, and they dispersed. None but females were\npresent. It was considered mean and a mark of poverty if a family did\nnot thus observe the occasion.\n\n_Chastity_ was ostensibly cultivated by both sexes; but it was more a\nname than a reality. From their childhood their ears were familiar\nwith the most obscene conversation; and as a whole family, to some\nextent, herded together, immorality was the natural and prevalent\nconsequence. There were exceptions, especially among the daughters of\npersons of rank; but they were the exceptions, not the rule.\n\n_Adultery_, too, was sadly prevalent, although often severely punished\nby private revenge. If the injured husband sought revenge in the blood\nof the seducer no one thought he had done wrong. But the worst feature\nof the law of private revenge was that the brother, or any near\nrelation of the culprit, was as liable to be killed as himself.\n\n_Marriage_ contracts were never entered into before the parties\nreached the years of maturity just described. Considerable care was\ntaken to prevent any union between near relatives; so much so, that a\nlist of what they deemed improper marriages would almost compare with\nthe \"Table of kindred and affinity.\" They say that, of old, custom and\nthe gods frowned upon the union of those in whom consanguinity could\nbe closely traced. Few had the hardihood to run in the face of\nsuperstition; but if they did, and their children died at a premature\nage, it was sure to be traced to the anger of the household god on\naccount of the forbidden marriage.\n\nA young man rarely, in the first instance, paid his addresses in\nperson to the object of his choice. A present of food was taken to her\nand her relatives by a friend of his, who was, at the same time,\ncommissioned to convey the proposal to her father; or, failing him, to\nthe elder brother of the young woman. Her consent was, of course,\nasked too; but that was a secondary consideration. She had to agree if\nher parents were in favour of the match. If the present of food was\nreceived and the reply favourable, the matter was considered settled.\nThere was also a somewhat formal meal directly after the marriage\nceremony.\n\nAll parties consenting, preparations commenced, and one, two, or\nthree months were spent collecting various kinds of property. All the\nfamily and relatives of the bride were called upon to assist, and thus\nthey raised a great quantity of _tonga_, which included all kinds of\nfine mats and native cloth, manufactured by the women. This was\ninvariably the dowry presented to the bridegroom and his friends on\nthe celebration of the nuptials. He and his friends, on the other\nhand, collected in a similar manner for the family of the bride\n_oloa_, which included canoes, pigs, and foreign property of any kind\nwhich might fall into their hands, such as knives, hatchets, trinkets,\ncloth, garments, etc., received through a Tongan canoe or a passing\nvessel.\n\nA time was fixed when the parties assembled. The bride and her\nfriends, taking with them her dowry, proceeded to the home of the\nbridegroom, which might be in another settlement, or on an adjacent\nisland. If they were people of rank it was the custom that the\nceremonies of the occasion pass off in the marae. The marae is the\nforum or place of public assembly--an open circular space, surrounded\nby bread-fruit trees, under the shade of which the people sit. Here\nthe bridegroom and his friends and the whole village assembled,\ntogether with the friends of the bride. All were seated cross-legged\naround the marae, glistening from head to foot with scented oil, and\ndecked off with beads, garlands of sweet-smelling flowers, and\nwhatever else their varying fancy might suggest for the joyous\noccasion. In a house close by the bride was seated. A pathway from\nthis house to the marae, in front of where the bridegroom sits, was\ncarpeted with fancy native cloth; and, all being ready, the bride,\ndecked off with beads, a garland of flowers or fancy shells, and girt\nround the waist with fine mats, flowing in a train five or six feet\nbehind her, moved slowly along towards the marae. She was followed\nalong the carpeted pathway by a train of young women, dressed like\nherself, each bearing a valuable mat, half spread out, holding it to\nthe gaze of the assembly; and, when they reached the bridegroom, the\nmats were laid down before him. They then returned to the house for\nmore, and went on renewing the procession and display until some fifty\nor a hundred fine mats and two or three hundred pieces of native cloth\nwere heaped before the bridegroom. This was the dowry. The bride then\nadvanced to the bridegroom and sat down. By-and-by she rose up before\nthe assembly, and was received with shouts of applause, and, as a\nfurther expression of respect, her immediate friends, young and old,\ntook up stones and beat themselves until their heads were bruised and\nbleeding. The obscenity to prove her virginity which preceded this\nburst of feeling will not bear the light of description. Then followed\na display of the _oloa_ (or property) which the bridegroom presented\nto the friends of the bride. Then they had dinner, and after that,\nthe distribution of the property. The father, or, failing him, the\nbrother or sister of the father of the bridegroom, had the disposal of\nthe _tonga_ which formed the dowry; and on the other hand, the father\nor brother of the bride had the disposal of the property which was\ngiven by the bridegroom. Night-dances and their attendant immoralities\nwound up the ceremonies.\n\nThe marriage ceremonies of common people passed off in a house, and\nwith less display; but the same obscene form was gone through to which\nwe have referred--a custom which, doubtless, had some influence in\ncultivating chastity, especially among young women of rank. There was\na fear of disgracing themselves and their friends, and a dread of a\nsevere beating from the latter after the ceremony to which the\nfaithless bride was sometimes subjected, almost as if the letter of\nthe Mosaic law had been carried out upon her.\n\nBut there were many marriages without any such ceremonies at all. If\nthere was a probability that the parents would not consent, from\ndisparity of rank or other causes, an elopement took place; and, if\nthe young man was a chief of any importance, a number of his\nassociates mustered in the evening, and walked through the settlement,\nsinging his praises and shouting out the name of the person with whom\nhe had eloped. This was sometimes the first intimation the parents had\nof it, and, however mortified they might be, it was too late. After a\ntime, if the couple continued to live together, their friends\nacknowledged the union by festivities and an exchange of property.\n\n_Concubinage._--When the newly-married woman took up her abode in the\nfamily of her husband she was attended by a daughter of her brother,\nwho was, in fact, a concubine. Her brother considered that if he did\nnot give up his daughter for this purpose, he should fail in duty and\nrespect towards his sister, and incur the displeasure of their\nhousehold god. Failing her brother, her mother's relatives supplied\nher with this maid of honour. Hence, with his wife, a chief had one,\ntwo, or three concubines. Each of these took with her _tonga_ as a\ndowry, which, perhaps, was the most important part of the business,\nfor, after presenting her dowry, she might live with him or not, as\nshe pleased. Often the addition of these concubines to the family was\nattended with all the display and ceremonies of a regular marriage.\n\n_Polygamy._--The marriage ceremony being such a prolific source of\nfestivities and profit to the chief and his friends, the latter,\nwhether he was disposed to do it or not, often urged on another and\nanother repetition of what we have described. They took the thing\nalmost entirely into their own hands, looked out for a match in a rich\nfamily, and, if that family was agreeable to it, the affair was pushed\non, whether or not the daughter was disposed to it. She, too, as a\nmatter of etiquette, must be attended by her complement of one or\nmore young women. According to this system, a chief might have some\nten or a dozen wives and concubines in a short time. Owing, however,\nto quarrelling and jealousies, many of them soon returned to their\nparental home; and it was rare to find a chief with more than two\nwives living with him at the same time.\n\n_Divorce._--If the marriage had been contracted merely for the sake of\nthe property and festivities of the occasion, the wife was not likely\nto be more than a few days or weeks with her husband. With or without\nleave, she soon found her way home to her parents. If, however, a\ncouple had lived together for years and wished to separate, if they\nwere mutually agreed, they did it in a more formal way. They talked\nover the matter coolly, made a fair division of their property, and\nthen the wife was conveyed back to her friends, taking with her any\nyoung children, and leaving those more advanced with their father. A\nwoman might thus go home and separate entirely from her husband; but,\nwhile that husband lived, she dared not marry another. Nor could she\nmarry even after his death, if he was a chief of high rank, without\nthe special permission of the family with which she had connected\nherself by marriage. Any one who broke through the custom, and married\nher without this, was liable to have his life taken from him by that\nfamily, or at least he had to pay them a heavy fine.\n\n_Widows._--The brother of a deceased husband considered himself\nentitled to have his brother's wife, and to be regarded by the orphan\nchildren as their father. If he was already married, she would,\nnevertheless, live with him as a second wife. In the event of there\nbeing several brothers, they met and arranged which of them was to act\nthe part of the deceased brother. The principal reason they alleged\nfor the custom was a desire to prevent the woman and her children\nreturning to her friends, and thereby diminishing the number and\ninfluence of their own family. And hence, failing a brother, some\nother relative would offer himself, and be received by the widow.\nShould none of them, however, wish to live with her, or should there\nbe any unwillingness on her part, she was, in either case, at liberty\nto return to her own friends.\n\nThe following is a specimen of one of their love songs:--\n\n    1. There was Tafitofau and Ongafau, and they had two daughters;\n    The one was Sinaleuuna and the other Sinaeteva.\n    The two girls sat and wished they had a brother.\n                                           _Chorus_--Aue!\n\n    2. Again Ongafau had a child, and it was a boy.\n    The child grew up, but his sisters never saw him,\n    They lived apart from their parents and the boy.\n      etc.\n\n    3. Then Tafitofau and Ongafau said to the boy, who was called\n    Maluafiti (\"Shade of Fiji\"): \"Go with some food to the ladies.\"\n    The lad went down, the girls looked and were struck with his beauty,\n      etc.\n\n    4. He came with the food and said he was their brother;\n    The sisters rejoiced and gave thanks that their desire was granted,\n    They had now a brother.\n      etc.\n\n    5. Then the sisters sat down and filled into a bamboo bottle\n    The liquid shadow of their brother.\n      etc.\n\n    6. A report came from Fiji of the beautiful lady Sina,\n    And that all the swells of Fiji were running after her.\n      etc.\n\n    7. Then off went Sinaleuuna and Sinaeteva to Fiji,\n    And took with them the shadow of their brother Maluafiti.\n      etc.\n\n    8. The two sisters dressed up and went to tell her\n    All about their handsome brother.\n    But they were slighted and shamefully treated by Sina.\n      etc.\n\n    9. Sina did not know they were the sisters of Maluafiti.\n    She had heard of his beauty and longed for his coming.\n      etc.\n\n    10. The sisters were still ill-treated by Sina; their anger rose,\n    And off they went to the water where Sina was bathing.\n    They threw out from the bottle on to the water the shadow of their\n      brother.\n      etc.\n\n    11. Sina looked at the shadow and was struck with its beauty.\n    \"That is my husband,\" said she, \"wherever I can find him.\"\n      etc.\n\n    12. Then Sinaleuuna wept and uttered in soliloquy:\n    \"Oh, Sinaleuuna, Sinaeteva, you are enraged!\n    Where is our brother? 'Tis for him we are here and slighted.\"\n      etc.\n\n    13. Sina called out to the villagers for all to come,\n    All the beautiful young men to assemble and find out\n    Of whom the figure in the water was the image.\n      etc.\n\n    14. They sought in vain, they could not find.\n    The shadow was bright and beautiful and compared with no one.\n    When Maluafiti turned about in his own land,\n    The shadow wheeled round and round in the water.\n      etc.\n\n    15. But Sina heard not the weeping of the sisters of Maluafiti.\n    Again their song rang out, \"Where is our brother?\n    'Tis for him we are here and slighted.\"\n      etc.\n\n    16. \"Oh, Maluafiti! rise up, it is day;\n    Your shadow prolongs our ill-treatment.\n    Maluafiti come and talk with her face to face,\n    Instead of that image in water.\"\n      etc.\n\n    17. Sina had listened, and now she knew 'twas the shadow of Maluafiti.\n    These are his sisters too, and I've been ill-using them.\n      etc.\n\n    18. Sina reproached herself: \"Oh! I fear these ladies;\n    I knew not they were seeking a wife for their brother Maluafiti.\n      etc.\n\n    19. \"Come, oh come,\" said Sina, \"forgive me, I've done you wrong.\"\n    Sina begged pardon in vain, the ladies were angry still.\n      etc.\n\n    20. The canoe of Maluafiti arrived.\n    He came to court Lady Sina, and also to fetch his sisters.\n      etc.\n\n    21. He came, he heard the tale of his sisters,\n    And then up flew implacable rage.\n      etc.\n\n    22. Sina longed to get Maluafiti;\n    He was her heart's desire, and long she had waited for him.\n      etc.\n\n    23. Maluafiti frowned and would return,\n    And off he went with his sisters.\n    Sina cried and screamed, and determined to follow swimming.\n      etc.\n\n    24. The sisters pleaded to save and to bring her,\n    Maluafiti relented not, and Sina died in the ocean.\n      etc.\n\nIn a story about another lady called Sinasengi, we are told about her\nwonderful pool. She had \"caught the shadows\" of a variety of scenes,\nand imprinted them on the _water_. A problem this for the\nphotographers! Night-dances, races, club exercise, battles, public\nmeetings, and some of the ordinary employments of daily life were all\nthere. The pool was covered over, but by the removal of a stone this\n\"chamber of imagery\" could be all seen. Everything seemed so real\nthat a man one day was so enraptured with the sight of one of his\nfavourite sports that he jumped in to join a dancing party. But, alas!\nhe bruised his head and broke his arm on the _stones_ which he found\nunder the surface, instead of the gambols of living men.\n\nStories also of wifely and husband affection and the reverse are\npreserved in song. Take the following as a specimen. The original runs\nthrough twenty-six verses, but I abbreviate and give the substance:--\n\nThere was a youth called Siati noted for his singing. A serenading god\ncame along, threw down a challenge, and promised him his fair daughter\nif he was the better singer. They sung, Siati beat, and off he went to\nthe land of the god, riding on a shark belonging to his aunt.\n\nThey reached the place. The shark went in to the shore, set him down,\nand told him to go to the bathing-place, where he would find the\ndaughters of the god, the one was called Puapae, \"White Fish,\" and the\nother Puauli, \"Dark Fish.\"\n\nSiati went and sat down at the bathing-place. The girls had been\nthere, but had gone away. Puapae had forgotten her comb, returned to\nget it, and there she found Siati. \"Siati,\" said she, \"however have\nyou come here?\" \"I've come to seek the song-god and get his daughter\nto wife.\" \"My father,\" said she, \"is more of a god than a man--eat\nnothing he hands you, never sit on a high seat lest death should\nfollow, and now let us unite.\" Siati and Puapae were united in\nmarriage, but they were sent off to live elsewhere.\n\nThe god sent his daughter Puauli to Puapae to tell her husband to\nbuild him a house, and that it must be finished that very day, under a\npenalty of death and the oven. Siati cried, but his wife Puapae\ncomforted him, said she could do it, and off she went and built the\nhouse, and by the evening was weeding all around it.\n\nIn came another order, and that was for Siati to fight with the dog.\nThe fight took place and Siati conquered. Next the god had lost his\nring, and Siati must go to the sea and find it. Again Siati wept, and\nagain his wife cheered him. \"I'll find the ring,\" said she; \"only do\nwhat I tell you. Cut my body in two, throw me into the sea, and stand\nstill on the beach till I come.\" He did so, cut her in two, threw her\ninto the sea, she was changed into a fish, and away she went to seek\nfor the ring.\n\nSiati stood, and stood, sat and lay down, stood again, and then lay\ndown, and went off to sleep. Puapae returned, she was thrown up by the\nfish and stood on the shore. Siati awoke by the splash of the sea on\nhis face. She scolded him for not keeping awake, and then said, \"There\nis the ring, go with it in the early morning,\" and in the morning off\nthe two went to her father.\n\nThat very morning the god called his daughter Puauli and said, \"Come,\ntake me on your back, and let us seek Siati that I may eat him.\"\nPresently they started back, Siati and Puapae were coming. Puapae and\nSiati threw down the comb and it became a bush of thorns in the way to\nintercept the god and Puauli. But they struggled through the thorns. A\nbottle of earth was next thrown down, and that became a mountain; and\nthen followed their bottle of water, and that became a sea and drowned\nthe god and Puauli.\n\nPuapae said to Siati, \"My father and sister are dead, and all on\naccount of my love to you; you may go now and visit your family and\nfriends while I remain here, but see that you do not behave unseemly.\"\nHe went, visited all his friends, and then he forgot his wife Puapae.\nHe tried to marry again, but Puapae came and stood on the other side.\nThe chief called out, \"Which is your wife, Siati?\" \"The one on the\nright side.\" Puapae then broke silence with, \"Ah Siati, you have\nforgotten all I did for you;\" and off she went. Siati remembered it\nall, darted after her crying, and then fell down and died.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nFOOD--COOKING--LIQUORS.\n\n\n_Animal and Vegetable Food._--Bread-fruit, taro, yams, bananas, and\ncocoa-nuts formed the staff of life in Samoa. The lagoons and reefs\nfurnish a large supply of fish and shell-fish, of which the natives\nare very fond; and occasionally all, but especially persons of rank,\nregaled themselves on pigs, fowls, and turtle. A detailed account of\nthe flora and fauna in this and other groups in Central and Eastern\nPolynesia will be found in the published volumes of the United States\nExploring Squadron of 1838-1842.\n\nTaro, cocoa-nuts, and 'ava were said to have been brought from the\nheavens by a chief called Losi. When on a visit there he was pleased\nwith the taste of taro, and tried to get some to take down with him.\nHe found a young shoot about the cooking-house, concealed it under his\nclothing, but the Tangaloans were on the watch. They made him take off\nhis roundabout, snatched the plant from him, pulled his hair,\nscratched and cut his skin, and back he came to the earth in a great\nrage.\n\nHe engaged six of the gods to go up with him again and be avenged on\nTangaloa and his people. He proposed to take up a present of fish.\nThey caught ten, and were up before daybreak, and laid down a fish on\nthe doorstep of ten of the houses. When the people came out of their\nhouses they stumbled over the slippery fish, fell and cut their\nforeheads. They cooked the fish, but ate it with bruised heads. And\nhence the proverb in times of difficulty, \"To eat with a bruise.\"\n\nThen followed a number of schemes on the part of the Tangaloans to\nkill Losi and his party similar to those described (p. 250). But all\nfailed, and then up jumped Losi and his party, and ran at the\nTangaloans, who fled and called out as they ran, \"What do you want?\"\n\"Cocoa-nuts,\" said Losi. \"Take them all,\" was the reply. Losi again\ncalled to his party to _chase_, and they rushed after the Tangaloans,\nwho again shouted back, \"What do you want?\" \"Taro,\" said Losi, \"to\ncompensate for ill usage and the tearing of my skin.\" \"Take it, your\nclaim is just; take it and be off.\" Losi ordered still to pursue, and\nagain the call came from the frightened Tangaloans, \"What else do you\nwant?\" \"I want 'ava,\" replied Losi. \"Take it, all kinds of it, and be\noff.\" Losi conquered, had his revenge, and got what he wanted, and so\ncame down from the heavens with taro, cocoa-nuts, and 'ava, and\nplanted them all about.\n\nFor about half the year the Samoans have an abundant supply of food\nfrom the bread-fruit trees. During the other half they depend\nprincipally on their taro plantations. Bananas and cocoa-nuts are\nplentiful throughout the year. While the bread-fruit is in season\nevery family lays up a quantity in a pit lined with banana and\ncocoa-nut leaves, and covered in with stones. It soon ferments; but\nthey keep it in that state for years, and the older it is they relish\nit all the more. They bake this in the form of little cakes, when the\nbread-fruit is out of season, and especially when there is a scarcity\nof taro. The odour of these cakes is offensive in the extreme to a\nEuropean; but a Samoan turns from a bit of English cheese with far\nmore disgust than we do from his fermented bread-fruit.\n\nA crop of bread-fruit is sometimes shaken off the trees by a gale\nbefore it is ripe, and occasionally taro plantations are destroyed by\ndrought and caterpillars; but the people have wild yams in the bush,\npreserved bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and fish to fall back upon; so that\nthere is rarely, if ever, anything like a serious famine. A scarcity\nof food, occasioned by any of the causes just named, they were in the\nhabit of tracing to the wrath of one of their gods, called _O le Sa_\n(or the Sacred One). The sun, storms, caterpillars, and all\ndestructive insects were said to be his _au ao_, or servants, who\nwere commissioned to go forth and eat up the plantations of those with\nwhom he was displeased. In times of plenty as well as of scarcity the\npeople were in the habit of assembling with offerings of food, and\npoured out drink-offerings of _'ava_ to _Le Sa_, to propitiate his\nfavour.\n\nA story is told of a woman and her child, who in a time of great\nscarcity were neglected by the family. One day they cooked some wild\nyams, but never offered her a share. She was vexed, asked the child to\nfollow her, and when they reached a precipice on the rocky coast,\nseized the child and jumped over. It is said they were changed into\nturtles, and afterwards came in that form at the call of the people of\nthe village.\n\n_Cannibalism._--During some of their wars, a body was occasionally\ncooked by the Samoans; but they affirm that, in such a case, it was\nalways some one of the enemy who had been notorious for provocation or\ncruelty, and that eating a part of his body was considered the climax\nof hatred and revenge, and was not occasioned by the mere relish for\nhuman flesh, such as obtained in the Fiji, New Hebrides, and New\nCaledonian groups. In more remote heathen times, however, they may\nhave indulged this savage appetite. To speak of roasting him is the\nvery worst language that can be addressed to a Samoan. If applied to a\nchief of importance, he may raise war to avenge the insult. It is the\ncustom on the submission of one party to another to bow down before\ntheir conquerors each with a piece of firewood and a bundle of leaves,\nsuch as are used in dressing a pig for the oven; as much as to say,\n\"Kill us and cook us, if you please.\" Criminals, too, are sometimes\nbound hand to hand and foot to foot; slung on a pole put through\nbetween the hands and feet, carried and laid down before the parties\nthey have injured, like a pig about to be killed and cooked. So deeply\nhumiliating is this act considered that the culprit who consents to\ndegrade himself so far is almost sure to be forgiven.\n\nFrom such references to cannibalism as we have at pp. 47, 48, and also\nthe following fragments from old stories, it is further apparent that\nthe custom was not unknown in Samoa.\n\nDuring a great scarcity occasioned by a gale cannibalism prevailed.\nWhen a light was wanted in the evening, two or three went to fetch\nit--it was not safe for one to go alone. If a child was seen out of\ndoors, some one would entice it by holding up something white and\ncalling the child to get a bit of cocoa-nut kernel, and so kidnap and\ncook.\n\nA story is also told of a woman who had a child who was playing on the\nsurf on the beach. Three of her brothers came along and begged her to\nlet them have the child. She said that if a _bloody_ surf should\nsuddenly appear they might have the child, but not otherwise.\nPresently the surf dashed red and bloody on the shore. She kept to\nher word, and let the heartless fellows carry off the boy to the oven.\n\nHere is another piece about Ae a Tongan, who attached himself to the\nSamoan chief Tinilau. Tinilau travelled from place to place on two\nturtles. Ae wished to visit Tonga, and begged from his master the loan\nof the turtles. He got them, with the caution to be very careful of\nthem. As soon as he reached Tonga he called his friends to take on\nshore the turtles, kill them, and have a feast, and this they gladly\ndid.\n\nTinilau, after waiting long for the return of the turtles, suspected\nthey had been killed. This was confirmed in his mind by the appearance\non the beach of a bloody wave. He called a meeting of all the avenging\ngods of Savaii, and put the case into their hands. They went off to\nTonga, found Ae at midnight in a sound sleep, picked him up, brought\nhim back to Samoa, and laid him down in the front room of the house of\nTinilau.\n\nAt cock-crowing Ae woke up and said aloud, \"Why, you cock! you crow\nlike the one belonging to the _pig_ I lived with.\" Tinilau called out\nfrom his room, \"Had the fellow you lived with such a fowl?\" \"Yes, the\n_pig_ had one just like it.\" \"Tell us more about him,\" and so Ae went\non chattering, and still using the abusive epithet _pig_ when speaking\nof his master, and talked about the turtles, what a fine feast they\nhad, etc. As it got lighter, he looked up to the roof and said, \"This\ntoo is just like the house the _pig_ lived in.\" By-and-by he woke up,\nas it got light, to the full consciousness that somehow or other he\nwas again in the very house of Tinilau, and that his cannibal master\nwas in the next room. He was dumb and panic-stricken. Orders were\ngiven to kill him, and he was despatched accordingly, and his body\ndressed for the oven. And hence the proverb for any similar action, or\nif any one takes by mistake or intention what belongs to another, he\nsays in making an apology, \"I am like Ae.\"\n\nAnother curious fragment goes from cannibalism to the origin of pigs.\nA cannibal chief had human victims taken to him regularly, and was in\nthe habit of throwing the heads into a cave close by. A great many\nheads had been cast in, and he thought no more about them. One day,\nhowever, he was sitting on a rock outside the cave when he heard an\nunusual noise. On looking in, the place was full of _pigs_, and hence\nthe belief that pigs had their origin in the heads of men, or, as some\nwould call it, a humbling case of evolution _downwards_!\n\n_Cooking._--The Samoans had and still have, the mode of cooking with\nhot stones which has been often described as prevailing in the South\nSea Islands. Fifty or sixty stones about the size of an orange, heated\nby kindling a fire under them, form, with the hot ashes, an ordinary\noven. The taro, bread-fruit, or yams, are laid among the stones, a\nthick covering of bread-fruit and banana leaves is laid over all, and\nin about an hour all is well cooked. In the same oven they bake other\nthings, such as fish, done up in leaves and laid side by side with the\ntaro or other vegetables. Little bundles of taro leaves, too, mixed\nwith the expressed juice of the cocoa-nut kernel, and some other\ndishes, of which cocoa-nut is generally the chief ingredient, are\nbaked at the same time, and used as a relish in the absence of animal\nfood. Salt water is frequently mixed up with these dishes, which is\nthe only form in which they use salt. They had no salt, and were not\nin the habit of preserving fish or pork otherwise than by repeated\ncooking. In this way they kept pork for a week, and fish for three\nweeks or a month. However large, they cooked the entire pig at once;\nthen, using a piece of split bamboo as a carving-knife, cut it up and\ndivided it among the different branches of the family. The duties of\ncooking devolved on the men; and all, even chiefs of the highest rank,\nconsidered it no disgrace to assist in the cooking-house occasionally.\n\n_Forbidden Food._--Some birds and fishes were sacred to particular\ndeities, as has been described, and certain parties abstained from\neating them. A man would not eat a fish which was supposed to be under\nthe protection and care of his household god; but he would eat,\nwithout scruple, fish sacred to the gods of other families. The dog,\nand some kinds of fish and birds, were sacred to the greater\ndeities--the _dii majorum gentium_ of the Samoans; and, of course, all\nthe people rigidly abstained from these things. For a man to kill and\neat anything he considered to be under the special protection of his\ngod, was supposed to be followed by the god's displeasure in the\nsickness or death of himself, or some member of the family. The same\nidea seems to have been a check on cannibalism, as there was a fear\nlest the god of the deceased would be avenged on those who might cook\nand eat the body.\n\n_Liquors._--The young cocoa-nut contains about a tumblerful of a\nliquid something resembling water sweetened with lump-sugar, and very\nslightly acid. This is the ordinary beverage of the Samoans. A young\ncocoa-nut baked in the oven yields a hot draught, which is very\npleasant to an invalid. They had no fermented liquors; but they made\nan intoxicating draught from an infusion of the chewn root of the 'ava\nplant (_Piper methysticum_). A bowl of this disgustingly-prepared\nstuff was made and served out when a party of chiefs sat down to a\nmeal. At their ordinary meals few partook of it but the father, or\nother senior members of the family. It was always taken before, and\nnot after the meal. Among a formal party of chiefs it was handed round\nin a cocoa-nut shell cup with a good deal of ceremony. When the cup\nwas filled the name, or title rather, of the person for whom it was\nintended was called out; the cup-bearer took it to him, he received\nit, drank it off, and returned the cup to be filled again, as the\n\"portion\" of another chief. The most important chiefs had the first\ncups, and, following the order of rank, all had a draught. The liquor\nwas much diluted; few drank to excess; and, upon the whole, the\nSamoans were perhaps among the most temperate 'ava drinkers in the\nSouth Seas. The old men considered that a little of it strengthened\nthem and prolonged life; and often they had a cup the first thing in\nthe morning.\n\n_Hospitality._--The Samoans were remarkable for hospitality.\nTravelling parties never needed to take food for any place beyond the\nfirst stage of their journey. Every village had its \"large house,\"\nkept in good order, and well spread with mats for the reception of\nstrangers. On the arrival of a party some of the members of every\nfamily in the village assembled and prepared food for them. It was the\nprovince of the head of one particular family to decide, and send word\nto the rest, how much it would be necessary for each to provide. After\nall was cooked, it was taken and laid down in front of the house, and,\non presenting it, one of them would make a speech, welcoming them to\ntheir village; and, although a sumptuous repast had been provided, an\napology would be made that there was nothing better. The strangers\nreplied, returned thanks, and exchanged kind words. In the event of\nthere being a chief of high rank among the party, it would probably be\ndecided that every man, woman, and child of the place turn out, dress\nthemselves in their best, walk in single file, each carrying a fish, a\nfowl, a lobster, a yam, or something else in the hand, and, singing\nsome merry chant as they went along, proceed to the place, and there\nlay down in a heap what they had provided for their guests. An evening\nball or night-dance was also considered an indispensable accompaniment\nto the entertainment. A travelling party rarely spent more than one\nnight at a place.\n\n_Meals._--The Samoans had a meal about 11 A.M., and their principal\nmeal in the evening. At the evening meal every family was assembled;\nand men, women, and children all ate together. They had no tables, but\nseated themselves cross-legged round the circular house on mats. Each\nhad his portion laid down before him on a bread-fruit leaf; and thus\nthey partook, in primitive style, without knife, fork, or spoon.\nShould any strangers be present, due respect was shown to them by\nlaying before them \"a worthy portion.\" After the meal, water to wash\nwas handed round, and a _rub_ on the post of the house was the usual\ntable-napkin.\n\nThe head of the family, in taking his cup of 'ava at the commencement\nof the evening meal, would pour out a little of it on the ground, as a\ndrink-offering to the gods, and, all being silent, he would utter\naloud the following prayer:--\n\n     \"Here is 'ava for you, O gods! Look kindly towards this family; let\n     it prosper and increase; and let us all be kept in health. Let our\n     plantations be productive; let fruit grow; and may there be\n     abundance of food for us, your creatures.\n\n     \"Here is 'ava for you, our war gods! Let there be a strong and\n     numerous people for you in this land.\n\n     \"Here is 'ava for you, O sailing gods![1] Do not come on shore at\n     this place; but be pleased to depart along the ocean to some other\n     land.\"\n\nIt was also very common to pray with an offering of \"flaming fire,\"\njust before the evening meal. Calling upon some one to blow up the\nfire and make it blaze, and begging all to be silent, a senior member\nof the family would pray aloud as follows:--\n\n     \"This light is for you, O king[2] and gods superior and inferior!\n     If any of you are forgotten do not be angry, this light is for you\n     all. Be propitious to this family; give life to all; and may your\n     presence be prosperity. Let our children be blessed and multiplied.\n     Remove far from us fines and sicknesses. Regard our poverty; and\n     send us food to eat, and cloth to keep us warm. Drive away from us\n     sailing gods, lest they come and cause disease and death. Protect\n     this family by your presence, and may health and long life be given\n     to us all.\"\n\nIt is related of an old chief in Savaii, that one night at the evening\nmeal he ordered a sea-crab to be reserved for his breakfast. In the\nnight some lads of the family got up and ate it. Next morning the old\nman was in a great rage, rose, and said to his daughter that he was\ngoing off to commit suicide, he could bear no longer the unkindness of\nthe family. He seized his staff and went off to the mountain, where\nthere is a deep ravine. When he reached the edge of the precipice he\ncalled to his daughter, who had followed him, that he would jump over,\nand cause a storm to arise and destroy the place--and over he went.\nThe daughter thought it was of no use to go home, and so she lay down\non the edge of the ravine, and became a mountain to shut up the storm\nand save the people from the threatened wrath of her father.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 1: Gods supposed to come in Tongan canoes and foreign\nvessels.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The principal god of the family.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nCLOTHING.\n\n\nIn our last chapter we alluded to the food of the Samoans, and now\nproceed to a description of their clothing, the materials of which it\nis made, their modes of ornament, etc.\n\nDuring the day a covering of _ti_ leaves _(Drac\u00e6na terminalis_) was\nall that either sex thought necessary. \"They sewed\" _ti_ \"leaves\ntogether, and made themselves aprons.\" The men had a small one about a\nfoot square, the women had theirs made of longer _ti_ leaves, reaching\nfrom the waist down below the knee, and made wide, so as to form a\ngirdle covering all round. They had no regular covering for any other\npart of the body. Occasionally, during rain, they would tie a banana\nleaf round the head for a cap, or hold one over them as an umbrella.\nThey made shades for the eyes of a little piece of plaited cocoa-nut\nleaflet; and sometimes they made sandals of the plaited bark of the\n_Hibiscus tiliaceus_, to protect the feet while fishing among the\nprickly coral about the reef.\n\n_Native Cloth._--At night they slept on a mat, using as a covering a\nmat or a sheet of native cloth, and inclosed all round by a curtain of\nthe same material to keep out musquitoes. In sickness, also, they\nwrapped themselves up in native cloth. Their native cloth was made of\nthe inner bark of the paper mulberry (_Morus papyrifera_) beaten out\non a board, and joined together with arrow-root, so as to form any\nwidth or length of cloth required.\n\nThe juice of the raspings of the bark of trees, together with red\nclay, turmeric, and the soot of burnt candle-nut, furnished them with\ncolouring matter and varnish, with which they daubed their native\ncloth in the form of squares, stripes, triangles, etc., but, with a\nfew exceptions, perhaps, devoid of taste or regularity.\n\nTutunga is the native name of the paper mulberry. A fabulous story is\ntold of it and a stinging tree called Salato. As the tale goes, they\nwere two brothers, and had each his plot of ground and a distinct\nboundary. One morning Tutunga stretched over his boundary and crossed\nto Salato. Salato was displeased and complained to Tutunga, but he was\nsullen and made no reply. The affair was referred to the parents; who\ndecided that the two should separate, and that Salato should go\nfurther inland, and be sacred and respected; and so it is, no one\ndares to touch it. On the other hand, Tutunga was severely punished\nfor having proudly crossed his boundary. He was to be cut, and\nskinned, and beaten, and painted, and made to cover the bodies of men.\nThen to rot, and then to be burned. And so it is--thus ends Tutunga\nthe proud.\n\n_Fine Mats._--Their fine mats were, and are still, considered their\nmost valuable clothing. These mats are made of the leaves of a species\nof pandanus scraped clean and thin as writing-paper, and slit into\nstrips about the sixteenth part of an inch wide. They are made by the\nwomen; and, when completed, are from two to three yards square. They\nare of a straw and cream colour, are fringed, and, in some instances,\nornamented with small scarlet feathers inserted here and there. These\nmats are thin, and almost as flexible as a piece of calico. Few of the\nwomen can make them, and many months--yea, years, are sometimes spent\nover the making of a single mat. These fine mats are considered their\nmost valuable property, and form a sort of currency which they give\nand receive in exchange. They value them at from two to forty\nshillings each. They are preserved with great care; some of them pass\nthrough several generations, and as their age and historic interest\nincrease, they are all the more valued.\n\nAnother kind of fine mats for clothing they weave out of the bark of a\nplant of the nettle tribe, which is extensively spread over these\nislands without any cultivation. They are shaggy on the one side, and,\nwhen bleached white, resemble a prepared fleecy sheep-skin. These\nthey sometimes dye with red clay found in the mountains. From the\nstrength and whiteness of the fibre manufactured from this plant, it\nis capable of being turned to great use.\n\n_Cleanliness._--As the native cloth cannot be washed without\ndestroying it, it is generally filthy in the extreme before it is laid\naside. This has induced a habit of carelessness in washing cotton and\nother garments, which is very offensive and difficult to eradicate.\nThey are cleanly, however, in other habits beyond most of the natives\nof Polynesia. Their floor and sleeping mats are kept clean and tidy.\nThey generally use the juice of the wild orange in cleansing, and\nbathe regularly every day. It is worth remarking, too, that, while\nbathing, they have a girdle of leaves or some other covering round the\nwaist. In this delicate sense of propriety it would be well for some\nmore civilised parts of the world to learn a lesson from the Samoans.\n\n_Special Occasions._--At marriages and on other gala days, the women,\nand many of the men, laid aside the leaves and girded themselves with\nfine mats. Gay young men and women decorated themselves with garlands\nof flowers or shells. The nautilus shell, broken into small pieces,\nand strung together, was a favourite head-dress. They oiled themselves\nfrom head to foot with scented oil, and sometimes mixed turmeric with\nthe oil to give their skin a tinge of yellow.\n\nBoth sexes kept uncovered the upper part of the body, and wore\nshells, beads, or other trinkets round the neck. They prided\nthemselves also in dressing their children in a similar style. The\nwomen wore the hair short, and, on occasions, sometimes had it raised\nand stiffened with a mixture of scented oil and the gum of the\nbread-fruit tree. It was fashionable, also, for young women to have a\nsmall twisted lock of hair, with a curl at the end of it, hanging from\nthe left temple. The men wore their hair long and gathered up in a\nknot on the crown of the head, a little to the right side. In company,\nhowever, and when attending religious services, they were careful to\nuntie the string, and let their hair flow behind, as a mark of\nrespect. Gay young men occasionally cut their hair short, leaving a\nsmall twisted lock hanging down towards the breast from either temple.\nTheir hair is naturally black; but they were fond of dyeing it a light\nbrown colour, by the application of lime, which they made by burning\nthe coral. To dye hair, and also to rub and blind the eyes of pigs\nwhich trespassed into neighbouring plantations, were the only uses to\nwhich they applied lime in the time of heathenism.\n\nThe beard they shaved with the teeth of the shark. Armlets of small\nwhite shells were worn by the men above the elbow-joint. Some pierced\ntheir ears with a thorn, and wore a small flower for an earring; but\nthis was not very common. A long comb, made from the stem of the\ncocoa-nut leaflet, was a common ornament of the women, and worn in the\nhair behind the ear. For a looking-glass, they sometimes used a tub of\nwater; but in arranging the head-dress, they were more frequently\nguided by the eyes and taste of others. The tattooing, which we\ndescribed in a previous chapter, was also considered one of their\nprincipal ornaments.\n\nThere is a story told of a Fijian chief called Fulualela,\n_Feathers-of-the-Sun_, who came with his daughter to visit Samoa. He\nhad heard of the beauty of the islands and their handsome inhabitants,\nand thought he might find here a husband chief for his daughter. He\nwas greatly surprised, however, to discover that while the islands\nwere lovely, and the people attractive, they had no mats in their\nhouses, but slept on dried grass like the pigs. He could not think of\nleaving his daughter; but when he returned to Fiji he made up a\npresent of fine mats, native cloth, and scented oil, as if it were his\ndaughter's dowry, and went back to Samoa with the generous gift,\nadding also pandanus and paper mulberry plants with which to stock\nSamoa with material for making such household comforts as mats and\nnative cloth. And hence it is said that ever since the gift of\nFeathers-of-the-Sun from Fiji, Samoa has had the luxuries of mats to\nsleep on, and sheets of native cloth to cover them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nAMUSEMENTS.\n\n\nUnder the head of _amusements_, dancing, wrestling, boxing, fencing,\nand a variety of games and sports, call for description, and to these\nwe shall briefly advert.\n\n_Dancing_ was a common entertainment on festive occasions, such as a\nmarriage. Some of their dances were in the daytime, and, like\ndress-balls of other countries, were accompanied with a display of\nfancy mats and other Samoan finery. At the night assemblies the men\ndressed in their short leaf aprons. Sometimes only the men danced, at\nother times women, and occasionally the parties were mixed. They\ndanced in parties of two, three, and upwards, on either side. If the\none party moved in one direction, the other party took the opposite.\nThey had also various gesticulations, which they practised with some\nregularity. If, for example, the one party moved along with the right\narm raised, the other did precisely the same. It was posturing rather\nthan saltation.\n\nSinging, clapping the hands, beating time on the floor-mats, and\ndrumming, were the usual musical accompaniments. Their music, on these\noccasions, was a monotonous chant of a line or two, repeated over and\nover again, with no variety beyond two or three notes. They sought\nvariety rather in _time_. They began slow, and gradually increased\nuntil, at the end of ten or twenty minutes, they were full of\nexcitement, the perspiration streaming down, and their tongues\ngalloping over the rhyme at breathless speed. For a drum, they had two\nor three contrivances. One, a log of wood six or eight feet long,\nhollowed out from a narrow elongated opening on the upper surface; and\nthis they beat with a short stick or mallet. Another was a set of\nbamboos, four feet long and downwards, arranged like a Pan's pipe,\nhaving the open ends inclosed in a mat bag, and this bag they beat\nwith a stick. A third kind of drumming was effected by four or five\nmen, each with a bamboo open at the top and closed at the bottom, with\nwhich, holding vertically, they beat the ground, or a stone or any\nhard substance, and as the bamboos are of various lengths, they\nemitted a variety of sounds. At these night-dances all kinds of\nobscenity in looks, language, and gesture prevailed; and often they\ndanced and revelled till daylight.\n\n_Court buffoons_ furnished some amusement at dancing and other\nfestivals, and also at public meetings. If a chief of importance went\nto any of these assemblies he had in his train one or two humourists,\nwho, by oddity in dress, gait, or gesture, or by lascivious jokes,\ntried to excite laughter.\n\n_Boxing and fencing_ were common on festive days, and often led to\nserious quarrels. In fencing, they used the stalk of the cocoa-nut\nleaf as a substitute for a club. _Women_, as well as men, entered the\nring, and strove for the fame of a pugilist.\n\n_Wrestling_ was another amusement. Sometimes they chose sides, say\nfour against four; and the party who had the most thrown had to\nfurnish their opponents with a cooked pig, served up with taro, or\nsupply any other kind of food that might be staked at the outset of\nthe game. A supply of some kind of food was the usual forfeit in all\ntheir games.\n\n_Clasp and undo_ was another kind of wrestling. One man clasped a\nsecond tightly round the waist, and this second does the same to a\nthird. The three thus fastened together lay down and challenged any\nsingle man to separate them. If he succeeded, they paid the forfeit;\nif not, he did.\n\n_Throwing the spear_ was also common. The young men of one street or\nvillage matched against those of another; and, after fixing a mark in\nthe distance, threw a small wooden javelin so that it might first\nstrike the ground, and then spring upwards and onwards in the\ndirection of the mark. They who threw farthest won the game, and had a\nrepast of food at the expense of those who lost it. In more direct\nspear-throwing they set up the stem of a young cocoa-nut tree, with\nthe base upwards, which is soft and spongy. One party threw at it, and\nfilled it with spears. The other party threw, and tried to knock them\ndown. If any remained after all had thrown they were counted until\nthey reached the number fixed for the game. In another of these\namusements a man stood in the distance and allowed another to throw\nspears at him. He had no shield, but merely a club; and with this he\nshowed surprising dexterity in hitting off spear after spear as it\napproached him.\n\n_Fishing matches_ were in vogue at particular seasons. The party who\ntook the most fish won, and were treated with cooked pigs and other\nviands by those who lost.\n\n_Pigeon-catching_ was another amusement, and one, like our English\nfalconry of other days, in which the chiefs especially delighted. The\nprincipal season set in about June. Great preparations were made for\nit; all the pigs of a settlement were sometimes slaughtered and baked\nfor the occasion; and, laden with all kinds of food, the whole\npopulation of the place went off to certain pigeon-grounds in the\nbush. There they put up huts, and remained sometimes for months at the\nsport.\n\nThe ground being cleared, the chiefs stationed themselves at distances\nall round a large circular space, each concealed under a low shed or\ncovering of brushwood, having by his side a net attached to a long\nbamboo, and in his hand a stick with a tame pigeon on a crook at the\nend of it. This pigeon was trained to fly round and round, as directed\nby its owner, with a string at its foot thirty feet long, attached to\nthe end of his stick. Every man flew his pigeon, and then the whole\ncircle looked like a place where pigeons were flocking round food or\nwater. The scene soon attracted some wild pigeon; and, as it\napproached the spot, whoever was next to it raised his net and tried\nto entangle it. He who got the greatest number of pigeons was the hero\nof the day, and honoured by his friends with various kinds of food,\nwith which he treated his less successful competitors. Some of the\npigeons were baked, others were distributed about and tamed for\nfurther use. Taming and exercising them for the sporting season was a\ncommon pastime.\n\n_Spinning the cocoa-nut_ was another amusement. A party sat down in a\ncircle, and one in the centre spinned a cocoa-nut. When it rested they\nsaw to whom the three black marks or eyes on the end of the shell\npointed, and imposed upon him some little service to the whole, such\nas unhusking chestnuts, or going for a load of cocoa-nuts. This is\nespecially worthy of remark, as it was the Samoan method of _casting\nlots_. If a number of people were unwilling to go a message or do a\npiece of work, they decided the matter by wheeling round the\ncocoa-nut to see to whom it turned its _face_, as they called it, when\nit rested. Sometimes they appealed to this lot, and fixed the charge\nof stealing on a person towards whom the _face_ of the cocoa-nut\npointed.\n\nThey had also a game of _hide-and-seek_, with the addition that those\nwho hid tried to escape those who sought, and ran to a given post or\nmark. All who reached the post were counted towards making up the\ngame.\n\n_Pitching_ small cocoa-nut shells to the end of a mat was a favourite\namusement of the chiefs. They tried to knock each other's shells off\nthe given spot. They played in parties of two and two, with five\nshells each. They who had most shells left on the place after all had\nthrown won.\n\nThey had also _guessing_ sports. One party hid, the other bundled up\none of their number in a large basket covered over with a mat or\ncloth. Then they too hid, all but three, who carried the basket to the\nother party for them to guess who was in it. If they guessed\ncorrectly, then they in turn got the basket to do the same. The\nsuccessful guesses were counted for the game.\n\nThey were in the habit of amusing themselves with _riddles_, of which\nthe following are a specimen:--\n\n     \"1. A man who continues standing out of doors with a burden on his\n     back.--_Explanation._ A banana tree, with a bunch of bananas.\n\n     \"2. There are twenty brothers, each with a hat on his\n     head.--_Explan._ A man's fingers and toes; the nails of which are\n     represented as hats.\n\n     \"3. A man who stands between two ravenous fish.--_Explan._ The\n     tongue, as being placed between the teeth of the upper and lower\n     jaws.\n\n     \"4. There are four brothers, who are always bearing about their\n     father.--_Explan._ The Samoan pillow, formed by four legs and a\n     bamboo; the legs being the four brothers, the bamboo the father.\n\n     \"5. There is a man who calls out continually day and\n     night.--_Explan._ The surf on the reef, which never rests.\n\n     \"6. There is a man who, when he leaves the bush, is very little;\n     but when he has reached the sea-shore, becomes very\n     great.--_Explan._ The bark of the paper-mulberry, which, when first\n     taken off the wood, is very narrow; but, when beaten out to make\n     the native cloth, becomes very broad.\n\n     \"7. A man who has a white head stands above the fence, and reaches\n     to the heavens.--_Explan._ The smoke rising from the oven.\n\n     \"8. The person who sleeps on a bed of whales' teeth.--_Explan._ A\n     fowl sitting on her eggs.\n\n     \"9. Many brothers, but only one intestine.--_Explan._ A string of\n     beads. The beads being the brothers, and the string the intestine.\n\n     \"10. A long house with one post.--_Explan._ The nose; the septum\n     being the post.\"\n\nThey had also games at _rhyming_. One party would choose the names of\ntrees and another the names of men. Those who sided with the trees\nwould say: \"There is the _Fau_ tree, tell us a name which will rhyme\nwith it.\" The reply would perhaps be _Tulifau_.\n\nAgain, there is the _Toa_, and the other party would reply\n_Tuisamoa_. And so on they went till one party had exhausted all the\nnames they could think of, owned the defeat, and paid the forfeit.\n\nIn a similar game one party would name a bird or beast, and the other\na fish with a corresponding rhyme. For example, for the birds:\n\n    Lupe, they would give the name of the fish, Une.\n    Ngongo,      Do.     do.       do.          Alongo.\n    Tiotala,     Do.     do.       do.          Ngatala.\n\nHere, too, there was a forfeit if beaten. They had _tripping and\nstammering_ games also. One party would say to the other--you repeat\n\n     \"O lo matou niu afaafa lava le la i tuafale,\n     Sasa, ma fili, ma faataa, ma lafo i fongavai.\"\n\nIf any one tripped when repeating it he had to pay a forfeit.\n\nAnother might be in rhyme and run as follows:\n\n    \"Na au sau mai Safata,\n    Ou afe i le ngatai ala,\n    E fafanga i si au tiaa,\n    Fafanga, fafanga, pa le manava.\n    Fafanga, fafanga, pa le manava.\"\n\nAnother as his puzzle to repeat correctly would give:\n\n    \"Na au sau mai Mali'oli'o,\n    Lou ala i umu,\n    Lou ala i paito,\n    Lou ala i puto pute,\n    Lou ala i pute puto.\"\n\nIf any one slipped in repeating he paid the forfeit.\n\nIn some of their evening sports _theatricals_ were in vogue.\nIllustrations would be given of selfish schemes to take things easy at\nthe expense of others, clownish processions to create laughter, or\nmarriage ceremonies in which, when it came to the point, the bride\nrebelled and would not have her husband. Ventriloquism also was\nattempted, in which, as they say, \"voices spoke to them without\nbodies.\"\n\nThey amused each other also by stories of _hoodwinking and trickery_,\nsuch as the following:--A Samoan and a Tongan made friends with each\nother. When the latter went away on a visit to Tonga the former begged\nhim to bring back one of their large cocoa-nuts, which are prized as\nwater-bottles. He promised to do it on condition that the Samoan would\nlook out for him a fine white fowl.\n\nThe Samoan got ready the fowl, and made a basket in which to put it.\nThe Tongan returned with a large unhusked nut, but on the voyage he\nsplit up the husk, took out the nut, and closed all up again. The\nSamoan had the gift of _second sight_, knew what the Tongan had done,\nand so he let loose the white fowl, and put an _owl_ in its place in\nthe basket.\n\nThe Tongan on his arrival gave him the large _mock_ nut, _minus_ the\nreal nut and kernel, and the Samoan handed him the basket with the\npretended white fowl.\n\nThe Tongan jumped into his canoe again, and went off in high glee\nsinging:\n\n    \"Niu niu, pulu!\n    Niu niu, pulu!\"\n\n    \"Cocoa-nut, cocoa-nut,\n    Only a _husk_!\"\n\nBut the wind was taken out of his sail by the laughter and antics of\nhis friend on the beach shouting after him:\n\n    \"Moa, moa, lulu!\"\n    \"Fowl, fowl, only an _owl_!\"\n\nThey had _sundry other amusements_. Swimming in the surf on a board,\nand steering little canoes while borne along on the crest of a wave\ntowards the shore, were favourite juvenile sports. Canoe-racing, races\nwith one party in a canoe and another along the beach, races with both\nparties on land, climbing cocoa-nut trees to see who can go up\nquickest, reviews and sham-fighting, cock-fighting, tossing up oranges\nand keeping three, four, or more of them on the move: these and many\nother things were of old and are still numbered among Samoan sports.\nThe teeth and jaws, too, are called into exercise. One man would\nengage to unhusk with his teeth and eat five large native chesnuts\n(_Tuscapus edulis_) before another could run a certain distance and\nreturn. If he failed, he paid his basket of cocoa-nuts, or whatever\nmight be previously agreed upon.\n\nOur juvenile friends will be sure to recognise some of their\nfavourite amusements in this description, and will, perhaps, feel\ninclined to try the novelty of some of these Samoan variations. What a\nsurprising unity of thought and feeling is discoverable among the\nvarious races of mankind from a comparison of such customs as these!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nMORTALITY, LONGEVITY, DISEASES, ETC.\n\n\nMortality, longevity, diseases, and the treatment of the sick, will\nnow form the subject of a few observations; and here we begin with--\n\n_Infants._--Before the introduction of Christianity probably not less\nthan two-thirds of the Samoan race died in infancy and childhood. This\nmortality arose principally from carelessness and mismanagement in\nnursing; evils which still prevail to a great extent. Even now,\nperhaps, one-half of them die before they reach their second year. The\npoor little things are often carried about with their bare heads\nexposed to the scorching rays of a vertical sun. Exposure to the\nnight-damps also, and above all stuffing them with improper food, are\nevils which often make us wonder that the mortality among them is not\ngreater than it is. The Samoans were always fond of their children,\nand would have done anything for them when ill; but, with the\nexception of external applications for skin diseases, they had no\nproper remedies for the numerous disorders of children. Were their\ncare in preventing disease equal to their anxiety to observe a cure\nwhen the child is really ill, there would probably be less sickness\namong them, and fewer deaths.\n\n_Adults._--The universal opinion of the natives is that the mortality\nis now greater among young and middle-aged people than it was\nformerly. \"It was common,\" they say, \"to see three or four old men in\na house, whereas you rarely see more than one now.\" Among a people\ndestitute of statistics or records of any kind, it is difficult to\nspeak correctly of an earlier date than 1830. Since that time,\nhowever, the population has been remarkably stationary. We have not\nobserved any marked disproportion in the deaths of adults of any\nparticular age compared with other parts of the world. A person died\nin 1847 who was present at the massacre of M. de Langle and others\nconnected with the exploring expedition of La Perouse in 1787, and who\nwas then a youth of about fourteen years of age. Judging from his\nappearance, we may suppose that there are some in every village who\nmust be sixty, seventy, and even eighty years of age.\n\nThey have stories of a _giant race_, and tell particularly of one\ncalled _Tafai_. He was very tall and strong, but not cruel to any one.\nHe could throw a long cocoa-nut tree at the rocks as if he were but\nhurling a thin spear. He plucked up by the roots a great Malili tree,\neighty feet high, carried it off on his shoulder, branches and all,\nand could throw it up and catch it again as if he were playing with a\nsmall crab. It is said, too, that so great was his weight, if he put\nhis foot on a rock it left a footprint as if the rock had been soft\nsand.\n\n_Diseases._--Pulmonary affections, paralysis, diseases of the spine\nproducing humpback, ophthalmia, skin diseases, scrofulous, and other\nulcers, elephantiasis, and a species of leprosy, are among the\nprincipal diseases with which they were afflicted. Ophthalmia and\nvarious diseases of the eye were very prevalent. There were few cases\nof total blindness; but many had one of the organs of vision\ndestroyed. Connected with diseases of the eye, pterygium is common;\nnot only single, but double, triple, and even quadruple are\noccasionally met with. The leprosy of which we speak has greatly\nabated. The natives say that formerly many had it, and suffered from\nits ulcerous sores until all the fingers of a hand or the toes of a\nfoot had fallen off. Elephantiasis, producing great enlargement of the\nlegs and arms, has, they think, somewhat abated too; only, they say,\nit prevails among the _young_ men more now than it did formerly.\nInsanity is occasionally met with. It was invariably traced in former\ntimes to the immediate presence of an evil spirit. If furious, the\nparty was tied hand to hand and foot to foot until a change for the\nbetter appeared. Idiots are not common. Consumption they call\n\"Moomoo;\" and there were certain native doctors who were supposed to\nbe successful in spearing the disease, or rather the spirit causing\nit. The doctor when sent for would come in, sit down before the\npatient, and chant as follows:--\n\n    \"Moomoo e! Moomoo e!\n    O le \u0101 ou velosia atu oe;\"\n\nwhich in English is--\n\n    \"O Moomoo! O Moomoo!\n    I'm on the eve of spearing you.\"\n\nThen he would rise up, flourish about with his spear over the head of\nthe patient, and leave the house. No one dared speak or smile during\nthe ceremony. Influenza is a new disease to the natives. They say that\nthe first attack of it ever known in Samoa was during the Aana war in\n1830, just as the missionaries Williams and Barff, with Tahitian\nteachers, first reached their shores. The natives at once traced the\ndisease to the foreigners and the new religion; the same opinion\nspread through these seas, and especially among the islands of the New\nHebrides. Ever since there have been returns of the disease almost\nannually. It is generally preceded by unsettled weather, and westerly\nor southerly winds. Its course is generally from east to west. It\nlasts for about a month, and passes off as fine weather and steady\ntrade-winds set in. In many cases it is fatal to old people and those\nwho have been previously weakened by pulmonary diseases. There was an\nattack in May 1837, and another in November 1846, both of which were\nunusually severe and fatal. They have a tradition of an epidemic,\nanswering the description of cholera, which raged with fearful\nviolence probably about eighty years ago. In 1849 hooping-cough made\nits appearance, and prevailed for several months, among adults as well\nas children. A good many of the children died. In 1851 another new\ndisease surprised the natives--viz. the mumps. It was traced to a\nvessel from California collecting pigs, and soon spread all over the\ngroup. Scarcely a native escaped. It answered the usual description of\nthe attack given in medical works, and passed off in ten days or a\nfortnight. Hitherto they have been exempt from small-pox. Some years\nago the missionaries vaccinated all the natives, and continue to do so\nas often as a supply of vaccine lymph is obtained.\n\n_Medicine._--The Samoans in their heathenism seldom had recourse to\nany internal remedy except an emetic, which they used after having\neaten a poisonous fish. Sometimes juices from the bush were tried; at\nother times the patient drank on at water until it was rejected; and,\non some occasions, mud, and even the most unmentionable filth, was\nmixed up and taken as an emetic draught. Latterly, as their\nintercourse with Tongans, Fijians, Tahitians, and Sandwich Islanders\nincreased, they made additions to their _pharmacop\u0153ia_ of juices from\nthe bush. Each disease had its particular physician. Shampooing and\nanointing the affected part of the body with scented oil by the native\ndoctors was common; and to this charms were frequently added,\nconsisting of some flowers from the bush done up in a piece of native\ncloth and put in a conspicuous place in the thatch over the patient.\n\nThe advocates of _kinnesipathy_ would be interested in finding, were\nthey to visit the South Seas, that most of their friction, percussion,\nand other manipulations, were in vogue there ages ago, and are still\npractised. Now, however, European medicines are eagerly sought after;\nso much so, that every missionary is obliged to have a dispensary, and\nto set apart a certain hour every day to give advice and medicine to\nthe sick.\n\nAs the Samoans supposed disease to be occasioned by the wrath of some\nparticular deity, their principal desire, in any difficult case, was\nnot for medicine, but to ascertain the cause of the calamity. The\nfriends of the sick went to the high priest of the village. He was\nsure to assign some cause; and, whatever that was, they were all\nanxiety to have it removed, as the means of restoration. If he said\nthey were to give up a canoe to the god, it was given up. If a piece\nof land was asked, it was passed over at once. Or, if he did not wish\nanything particular from the party, he would probably tell them to\nassemble the family, \"confess, and throw out.\" In this ceremony each\nmember of the family confessed his crimes and any judgments which, in\nanger, he had invoked on the family or upon the particular member of\nit then ill; and, as a proof that he revoked all such imprecations, he\ntook a little water in his mouth, and spurted it out towards the\nperson who was sick.\n\nIn _surgery_, they lanced ulcers with a shell or a shark's tooth, and,\nin a similar way, bled from the arm. For inflammatory swellings they\nsometimes tried local bleeding; but shampooing and rubbing with oil\nwere the more common remedies in such cases. Cuts they washed in the\nsea, and bound up with a leaf. Into wounds in the scalp they blew the\nsmoke of burnt chestnut wood. To take a barbed spear from the arm or\nleg they cut into the limb from the opposite side and pushed it right\nthrough. Amputation they never attempted.\n\nThe _treatment of the sick_ was invariably humane, and all that could\nbe expected. They wanted for no kind of food which they might desire,\nnight or day, if it was at all in the power of their friends to\nprocure it. In the event of the disease assuming a dangerous form,\nmessengers were despatched to friends at a distance that they might\nhave an opportunity of being in time to see and say farewell to a\ndeparting relative. The greater the rank the greater the stir and\nmuster about the sick of friends from the neighbourhood and from a\ndistance. Every one who went to visit a sick friend supposed to be\nnear death took with him a present of a fine mat, or some other kind\nof valuable property, as a farewell expression of regard, to aid in\npaying native doctors or conjurors, and to help also in the cost of\npigs, etc., with which to entertain the friends who were assembled.\nThe following story illustrates the ideas and doings of the people at\nsuch a time:--\n\nTuitopetope and Tuioleole were two brother conjurors belonging to\nUpolu who had been on a visit to Tutuila. On their return they landed\nat night at Aleipata just as messengers were running from place to\nplace to inform the friends of the dangerous illness of the chief\nPuepuemai. The two looked into the house, and there they saw a number\nof gods from the mountain called Fiso sitting in the doorway. They\nwere handing from one to another the soul of the dying chief. It was\nwrapped up in a leaf, and had been passed by the gods inside the house\nto those sitting in the doorway. One of them said to Tuitopetope, \"You\ntake this,\" and handed the soul to him. He took it. The god mistook\nhim in the dark for another of their god party. Then all the gods went\noff, but Tuitopetope remained in the village and kept the soul of the\nchief.\n\nNext morning some women of the family were sent off with a present of\nfine mats to fetch a noted priest doctor. Tuitopetope and his\nbrother, who were sitting on the beach as they passed along, asked\nwhere they were going with that bundle of property. \"To fetch a doctor\nto Puepuemai,\" was the reply. \"Leave it here,\" said they, \"and take\n_us_.\" \"Lads! you are joking,\" said the women. \"No, we are not; _we_\ncan heal him.\" The women went back to the house to consult again with\nthe friends assembled around the dying man. All agreed to let the\nyoung men come and do what they could.\n\nTuitopetope and his brother were accordingly sent for. The chief was\nvery ill, his jaw hanging down, and apparently breathing his last.\nThey undid the leaf, let the soul into him again, and immediately he\nbrightened up and lived. It was blazed abroad that Puepuemai was\nbrought to life again by Tuitopetope and his brother, and they gained\na wonderful celebrity. It was supposed they knew everything and could\ndo anything; and so they were sent for by chiefs all over the group to\nheal the sick and find out the guilty in thieving and other\ncriminalities.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nDEATH AND BURIAL.\n\n\nWhenever the eye was fixed in death the house became a scene of\nindescribable lamentation and wailing. \"Oh, my father, why did you not\nlet me die, and you live here still?\" \"Oh, my brother, why have you\nrun away and left your only brother to be trampled upon?\" \"Oh, my\nchild, had I known you were going to die! Of what use is it for me to\nsurvive you; would that I had died for you!\" These and other doleful\ncries might have been heard two hundred yards from the house; and they\nwere accompanied by the most frantic expressions of grief, such as\nrending garments, tearing the hair, thumping the face and eyes,\nburning the body with small piercing firebrands, beating the head with\nstones till the blood ran, and this they called an \"offering of blood\"\nfor the dead.\n\nAfter an hour or so the more boisterous wailing subsided, and, as in\nsuch a climate the corpse must be buried in a few hours, preparations\nwere made without delay. The body was laid out on a mat, oiled with\nscented oil, and, to modify the cadaverous look, they tinged the oil\nfor the face with a little turmeric. The body was then wound up with\nseveral folds of native cloth, the chin propped up with a little\nbundle of the same material, and the face and head left uncovered,\nwhile, for some hours longer, the body was surrounded by weeping\nrelatives. If the person had died of a complaint which carried off\nsome other members of the family, they would probably open the body to\n\"search for the disease.\" Any inflamed substance they happened to find\nthey took away and burned, thinking that this would prevent any other\nmembers of the family being affected with the same disease. This was\ndone when the body was laid in the grave.\n\nWhile a dead body was in the house no food was eaten under the same\nroof; the family had their meals outside, or in another house. Those\nwho attended the deceased were most careful not to handle food, and\nfor days were fed by others as if they were helpless infants. Baldness\nand the loss of teeth were supposed to be the punishment inflicted by\nthe household god if they violated the rule. Fasting was common at\nsuch times, and they who did so ate nothing during the day, but had a\nmeal in the evening. The fifth day was a day of \"purification.\" They\nbathed the face and hands with hot water, and then they were \"clean,\"\nand resumed the usual time and mode of eating.\n\nThe death of a chief of high rank was attended with great excitement\nand display; all work was suspended in the settlement; no stranger\ndared to pass through the place. For days they kept the body unburied,\nuntil all the different parties connected with that particular clan\nassembled from various parts of the islands, and until each party had,\nin turn, paraded the body, shoulder high, through the village, singing\nat the same time some mournful dirge. The body, too, was wrapped up in\nthe most valuable fine mat clothing which the deceased possessed.\n\n_The burial_ generally took place the day after death. As many of the\nfriends as could be present in time attended. Every one brought a\npresent, and the day after the funeral these presents were all so\ndistributed again as that every one went away with something in return\nfor what he brought. The body was buried without a coffin, except in\nthe case of chiefs, when a log of wood was hollowed out for the\npurpose. The body being put into this rude encasement, all was done up\nagain in some other folds of native cloth, and carried on the\nshoulders of four or five men to the grave. The friends followed, but\nin no particular order; and at the grave again there was often further\nwailing and exclamations, such as, \"Alas! I looked to you for\nprotection, but you have gone away; why did you die? would that I had\ndied for you!\"\n\n_The grave_ was called \"the fast resting-place,\" and in the case of\nchiefs, \"the house thatched with the leaves of the sandal wood,\"\nalluding to the custom of planting some tree with pretty foliage near\nthe grave. There was no village burying-ground all preferred laying\ntheir dead among the ashes of their ancestors on their own particular\nground. They carried the skulls of their dead from a land where they\nhad been residing during war back to the graves of their fathers as\nsoon as possible after peace was proclaimed. The grave was often dug\nclose by the house. They made it about four feet deep, and after\nspreading it with mats, like a comfortable bed, there they placed the\nbody with the head to the rising of the sun, and the feet to the west.\nWith the body they deposited several things which may have been used\nduring the person's illness, such as his clothing, his drinking-cup,\nand his bamboo pillow. The sticks used to answer the purpose of a\npick-axe in digging the grave were also carefully buried with the\nbody. Not that they thought these things of use to the dead; but it\nwas supposed that if they were left and handled by others further\ndisease and death would be the consequence. Other mats were spread\nover the body, on these a layer of white sand from the beach, and then\nthey filled up the grave. The spot was marked by a little heap of\nstones a foot or two high. The grave of a chief was neatly built up in\nan oblong slanting form, about three feet high at the foot and four\nat the head. White stones or shells were intermixed with the top\nlayer, and if it had been a noted warrior his grave might be\nsurrounded with spears, or his club laid loosely on the top.\n\n_Embalming_ was known and practised with surprising skill in one\nparticular family of chiefs. Unlike the Egyptian method, as described\nby Herodotus, it was performed in Samoa exclusively by women. The\nviscera being removed and buried, they, day after day, anointed the\nbody with a mixture of oil and aromatic juices. To let the fluids\nescape, they continued to puncture the body all over with fine\nneedles. In about two months the process of desiccation was completed.\nThe hair, which had been cut and laid aside at the commencement of the\noperation, was now glued carefully on to the scalp by a resin from the\nbush. The abdomen was filled up with folds of native cloth; the body\nwas wrapped up with the same material, and laid out on a mat, leaving\nthe hands, face, and head exposed. A house was built for the purpose,\nand there the body was placed with a sheet of native cloth loosely\nthrown over it. Now and then the face was oiled with a mixture of\nscented oil and turmeric, and passing strangers were freely admitted\nto see the remains of the departed. Until about twenty years ago there\nwere four bodies laid out in this way in a house belonging to the\nfamily to which we refer, viz. a chief, his wife, and two sons. They\nwere laid on a platform raised on a double canoe. They must have been\nembalmed upwards of thirty years, and although thus exposed, they were\nin a remarkable state of preservation. They assigned no particular\nreason for this embalming, further than that it was the expression of\ntheir affection to keep the bodies of the departed still with them as\nif they were alive. None were allowed to dress them but a particular\nfamily of old ladies, who all died off; and, as there was a\nsuperstitious fear on the part of some, and an unwillingness on the\npart of others, to handle them, it was resolved at last to lay them\nunderground.\n\n_Burnings for the dead._--On the evening after the burial of any\nimportant chief his friends kindled a number of fires at distances of\nsome twenty feet from each other, near the grave; and there they sat\nand kept them burning till morning light. This was continued sometimes\nfor ten days after the funeral; it was also done before burial. In the\nhouse where the body lay, or out in front of it, fires were kept\nburning all night by the immediate relatives of the departed. The\ncommon people had a similar custom. After burial they kept a fire\nblazing in the house all night, and had the space between the house\nand the grave so cleared as that a stream of light went forth all\nnight from the fire to the grave. The account the Samoans give of it\nis, that it was merely a light burning in honour of the departed, and\na mark of tender regard.\n\n_The unburied_ occasioned great concern. No Roman was ever more\ngrieved at the thought of his unburied friend wandering a hundred\nyears along the banks of the Styx than were the Samoans while they\nthought of the spirit of one who had been drowned, or of another who\nhad fallen in war, wandering about neglected and comfortless. They\nsupposed the spirit haunted them everywhere, night and day, and\nimagined they heard it calling upon them in a most pitiful tone, and\nsaying, \"Oh, how cold! oh, how cold!\" Nor were the Samoans, like the\nancient Romans, satisfied with a mere \"_tumulus inanis_\" at which to\nobserve the usual solemnities; they thought it was possible to obtain\nthe soul of the departed in some tangible transmigrated form. On the\nbeach, near where a person had been drowned, and whose body was\nsupposed to have become a porpoise, or on the battlefield, where\nanother fell, might have been seen, sitting in silence, a group of\nfive or six, and one a few yards before them with a sheet of native\ncloth spread out on the ground in front of him. Addressing some god of\nthe family he said, \"Oh, be kind to us; let us obtain without\ndifficulty the spirit of the young man!\" The first thing that happened\nto light upon the sheet was supposed to be the spirit. If nothing came\nit was supposed that the spirit had some ill-will to the person\npraying. That person after a time retired, and another stepped\nforward, addressed some other god, and waited the result. By-and-by\nsomething came; grasshopper, butterfly, ant, or whatever else it\nmight be, it was carefully wrapped up, taken to the family, the\nfriends assembled, and the bundle buried with all due ceremony, as if\nit contained the real spirit of the departed. The grave, however, was\nnot the hades of the Samoans, as we have already seen in Chapter III.\nPrayers at the grave of a parent or brother or _chief_ were common.\nSome, for example, would pray for health in sickness and might or\nmight not recover. A woman prayed for the death of her brother, he\ndied, but soon after she died also. A chief promised to give a woman\nsome fine mats, he deceived her, and off she went and prayed at the\ngrave of his predecessor in the title. The man took ill and died. She\nconfessed what she had done, but said she did not pray for death, but\nonly _pain_ to make him smart for his deceit. And so the custom was\ncarried on, but with fluctuating belief in its efficacy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nHOUSES.\n\n\nThe Samoans have a tradition that of old their forefathers had no\nhouses. They say that in those days the people were \"housed by the\nheavens,\" and describe the ingenuity of a chief who first contrived to\nbuild houses. He had two sons, and out of love to them built for each\nof them a house. But leaving tradition let me describe the houses to\nbe seen at the present day in some of the villages, and the\ncounterpart of those which have been in use for ages. Imagine a\ngigantic bee-hive, thirty-five feet in diameter, a hundred in\ncircumference, and raised from the ground by a number of short posts,\nat intervals of four feet from each other all round, and you have a\ngood idea of the appearance of a Samoan house.\n\nThe spaces between these posts, which may be called open doors or\nwindows all round the house, are shut in at night by roughly-plaited\ncocoa-nut leaf blinds. During the day the blinds are pulled up, and\nall the interior exposed to a free current of air. The floor is raised\nsix or eight inches with rough stones, then an upper layer of smooth\npebbles, then some cocoa-nut leaf mats, and then a layer of finer\nmatting. Houses of important chiefs are erected on a raised platform\nof stones three feet high. In the centre of the house there are two,\nand sometimes three, posts or pillars, twenty feet long, sunk three\nfeet into the ground, and extending to and supporting the ridge pole.\nThese are the main props of the building. Any _Samson_ or giant\n_Tafai_ pulling them away would bring down the whole house. The space\nbetween the rafters is filled up with what they call _ribs_--viz. the\nwood of the bread-fruit tree, split up into small pieces, and joined\ntogether so as to form a long rod the thickness of the thumb, running\nfrom the ridge pole down to the eaves. All are kept in their places,\nan inch and a half apart, by cross pieces, made fast with cinnet. The\nwhole of this upper cagelike work looks compact and tidy, and at the\nfirst glance is admired by strangers as being alike novel, ingenious,\nand neat. The wood of the bread-fruit tree, of which the greater part\nof the best houses are built, is durable, and, if preserved from wet,\nwill last fifty years.\n\nThe thatch also is laid on with great care and taste; the long dry\nleaves of the sugar-cane are strung on to pieces of reed five feet\nlong; they are made fast to the reed by overlapping the one end of\nthe leaf, and pinning it with the rib of the cocoa-nut leaflet run\nthrough from leaf to leaf horizontally. These reeds, thus fringed with\nthe sugar-cane leaves hanging down three or four feet, are laid on,\nbeginning at the eaves and running up to the ridge pole, each one\noverlapping its fellow an inch or so, and made fast one by one with\ncinnet to the inside rods or rafters. Upwards of a hundred of these\nreeds of thatch will be required for a single row running from the\neaves to the ridge pole; then they do another row, and so on all round\nthe house. Two, three, or four thousand of these fringed reeds may be\nrequired for a good-sized house. This thatching, if well done, will\nlast for seven years. To collect the sugar-cane leaves, and \"sew,\" as\nit is called, the ends on to the reeds, is the work of the women. An\nactive woman will sew fifty reeds in a day, and three men will put up\nand fasten on to the roof of the house some five hundred in a day.\nCorrugated iron, shingles, and other contrivances, are being tried by\nEuropean residents; but, for coolness and ventilation, nothing beats\nthe thatch. The great drawback is, that in gales it stands up like a\nfield of corn, and then the rain pours into the house. That, however,\nmay be remedied by a network of cinnet, to keep down the thatch, or by\nthe native plan of covering all in with a layer of heavy cocoa-nut\nleaves on the approach of a gale.\n\nThese great circular roofs are so constructed that they can be lifted\nbodily off the posts, and removed anywhere, either by land, or by a\nraft of canoes. But in removing a house, they generally divide the\nroof into four parts--viz. the two sides, and the two ends, where\nthere are particular joints left by the carpenters, which can easily\nbe untied, and again fastened. There is not a single nail in the whole\nbuilding; all is made fast with cinnet. As Samoan houses often form\npresents, fines, dowries, as well as articles of barter, they are\nfrequently removed from place to place. The arrangement of the houses\nin a village has no regard whatever to order. You rarely see three\nhouses in a line. Every one puts his house on his little plot of\nground, just as the shade of the trees, the direction of the wind, the\nheight of the ground, etc., may suit his fancy.\n\nA house, after the usual Samoan fashion just described, has but _one_\napartment. It is the common parlour, dining-room, etc., by day, and\nthe bedroom of the whole family by night. They do not, however,\naltogether herd indiscriminately. If you peep into a Samoan house at\nmidnight, you will see five or six low oblong _tents_ pitched (or\nrather strung up) here and there throughout the house. They are made\nof native cloth, five feet high, and close all round down to the mat.\nThey shut out the mosquitoes, and enclose a place some eight feet by\nfive; and these said tent-looking places may be called the _bedrooms_\nof the family. Four or five mats laid loosely, the one on the top of\nthe other, form the _bed_. The _pillow_ is a piece of thick bamboo,\nthree inches in diameter, three to five feet long, and raised three\ninches from the mat by short wooden feet. The sick are indulged with\nsomething softer, but the hard bamboo is the invariable pillow of\nhealth. The _bedding_ in old times was complete with a single mat or\nsheet of native cloth. In the morning the tent was unstrung, mats,\npillow, and sheet rolled together, and laid up overhead on a shelf\nbetween the posts in the middle of the house.\n\nThese rolls of mats and bedding, a bundle or two done up in native\ncloth on the same shelf in the centre of the house, a basket, a fan or\ntwo, and a bamboo knife stuck into the thatch within reach, a\nfishing-net, a club, and some spears strung up along the rafters, a\nfew paddles, and a few cocoa-nut shell water-bottles, were about all\nthe things in the shape of furniture or property to be seen in looking\ninto a Samoan house. The fire-place was about the middle of the house.\nIt was merely a circular hollow, two or three feet in diameter, a few\ninches deep, and lined with hardened clay. It was not used for\ncooking, but for the purpose of lighting up the house at night. A\n_flaming fire_, as we have already remarked (p. 75), was the regular\nevening offering to the gods, as the family bowed the head, and the\nfathers prayed for prosperity from the \"gods great and small.\" The\nwomen collected during the day a supply of dried cocoa-nut leaves,\netc., which, with a little management, kept up a continued blaze in\nthe evening, while the assembled family group had their supper and\nprayer, and sat together chatting for an hour or two afterwards.\n\nBut about _house-building_: it was a distinct trade in Samoa; and\nperhaps, on an average, you might find one among every three hundred\nmen who was a master carpenter. Whenever this person went to work he\nhad in his train some ten or twelve, who followed him, some as\njourneymen, who expected payment from him, and others as apprentices,\nwho were principally anxious to learn the trade. When a young man took\na fancy to the trade he had only to go and attach himself to the staff\nof some master carpenter, follow him from place to place for a few\nyears, until he thought he could take the lead in building a house\nhimself; and whenever he could point to a house which he had built,\nthat set him up as a professed carpenter, and he would from that time\nbe employed by others.\n\nIf a person wished a house built, he went with a fine mat, worth in\nmodern cash value 20s. or 30s. He told the carpenter what he wanted,\nand presented him with the mat as a pledge that he should be well paid\nfor his work. If he accepted the mat, that was a pledge that he\nundertook the job. Nothing was stipulated as to the cost; that was\nleft entirely to the honour of the employing party. At an appointed\ntime the carpenter came with his staff of helpers and learners. Even\nnow their only tools are a felling-axe, a hatchet, and a small adze;\nand there they sit, chop, chop, chopping, for three, six, or nine\nmonths it may be, until the house is finished. Their _adze_ reminds us\nof ancient Egypt. It is formed by the head of a small hatchet, or any\nother flat piece of iron, lashed on, at an angle of forty-five, to the\nend of a small piece of wood, eighteen inches long, as its handle. Of\nold they used stone and shell axes and adzes.\n\nThe man whose house is being built provides the carpenters with board\nand lodging, and is also at hand with his neighbours to help in\nbringing wood from the bush, scaffolding, and other heavy work. As we\nhave just remarked, a Samoan house-builder made no definite charge,\nbut left the price of his work to the judgment, generosity, and means\nof the person who employed him. It was a lasting disgrace to any one\nto have it said that he paid his carpenter shabbily. It branded him as\na person of no rank or respectability, and was disreputable, not\nmerely to himself, but to the whole family or _clan_ with which he was\nconnected. The entire tribe or clan was his _bank_. Being connected\nwith that particular tribe, either by birth or marriage, gave him a\nlatent interest in all their property, and entitled him to go freely\nto any of his friends to ask for help in paying his house-builder. He\nwould get a mat from one, worth twenty shillings; from another he\nmight get one more valuable still; from another some native cloth,\nworth five shillings; from another, some foreign property; and thus he\nmight collect, with but little trouble, two or three hundred useful\narticles, worth, perhaps, forty or fifty pounds; and in this way the\ncarpenter was generally well paid. Now and then there might be a\nstingy exception; but the carpenter, from certain indications,\ngenerally saw ahead, and decamped, with all his party, leaving the\nhouse unfinished. It was a standing custom, that after the sides and\none end of the house were finished, the principal part of the payment\nwas made; and it was at this time that a carpenter, if he was\ndissatisfied, would get up and walk off. A house with two sides and\nbut one end, and the carpenters away, was indicative. Nor could the\nchief to whom the house belonged employ another party to finish it. It\nwas a fixed rule of the trade, and rigidly adhered to, that no one\nwould take up the work which another party had thrown down. The chief,\ntherefore, had no alternative but to go and make up matters with the\noriginal carpenter, in order to have his house decently completed.\nWhen a house was finished, and all ready for occupation, they had\ntheir \"house-warming,\" or, as they called it, its _oven consecration_;\nand formerly it was the custom to add on to that a night dance, for\nthe purpose, they said, of \"treading down the beetles.\"\n\nThe system of a common interest in each other's property, to which we\nhave referred, is still clung to by the Samoans with great tenacity.\nThey feel its advantages when they wish to raise a little. Not only a\nhouse, but also a canoe, a boat, a fine, a dowry, and everything else\nrequiring an extra effort, is got up in the same way. They consider\nthemselves at liberty to go and take up their abode anywhere among\ntheir friends, and remain without charge, as long as they please. And\nthe same custom entitles them to beg and borrow from each other to any\nextent. Boats, tools, garments, money, etc., are all freely lent to\neach other, if connected with the same tribe or clan. A man cannot\nbear to be called stingy or disobliging. If he has what is asked, he\nwill either give it, or adopt the worse course of telling a lie about\nit, by saying that he has it not, or that it is promised to some one\nelse. This communistic system is a sad hindrance to the industrious,\nand eats like a canker-worm at the roots of individual or national\nprogress. No matter how hard a young man may be disposed to work, he\ncannot keep his earnings: all soon passes out of his hands into the\ncommon circulating currency of the clan to which all have a latent\nright. The only thing which reconciles one to bear with it until it\ngives place to the individual independence of more advanced\ncivilisation, is the fact that, with such a state of things, no \"poor\nlaws\" are needed. The sick, the aged, the blind, the lame, and even\nthe vagrant, has always a house and home, and food and raiment, as far\nas he considers he needs it. A stranger may, at first sight, think a\nSamoan one of the poorest of the poor, and yet he may live ten years\nwith that Samoan and not be able to make him understand what _poverty_\nreally is, in the European sense of the word. \"How is it?\" he will\nalways say. \"_No food!_ Has he no friends? _No house to live in!_\nWhere _did_ he grow? Are there no houses belonging to his friends?\nHave the people there no love for each other?\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nCANOES.\n\n\nNext to a well-built house, Samoan ingenuity was seen in their canoes.\nAny one could fell a tree, cut off the branches, and hollow out the\nlog some fifteen feet long, for a common fishing canoe in which one or\ntwo men can sit. But the more carefully-built canoe, with a number of\nseparate planks raised from a keel, was the work of a distinct and not\nvery numerous class of professed carpenters. The keel was laid in one\npiece, twenty-five to fifty feet long, as the size of the canoe might\nbe, and to that they added board after board, not by overlapping and\nnailing, but by _sewing_ each close to its fellow, until they had\nraised it some two, or, it might be, three feet from the ground. These\nboards were not sawn, squared, and uniform, but were a number of\npieces, or _patches_, as they are called, varying in size from\neighteen inches to five feet long, as the wood split up from the log\nwith felling axes happens to suit; all, however, were well fastened\ntogether, and, with the help of a little gum of the bread-fruit tree\nfor pitch, the whole was perfectly water-tight. In dressing each\nboard, they left a ledge, or rim, all round the edge, which was to be\ninside, making it double the thickness at the edge to what it was in\nthe middle of the board. It is through this ledge or rim they bored\nthe holes, and with a few turns of cinnet sewed tight one board to the\nother. The sewing only appeared on the inside. Outside all was smooth\nand neat; and it was only on close inspection you could see that there\nwas a join at all. They had timbers, thwarts, and gunwale, to keep all\ntight; and over a few feet at the bow and the stern they had a deck,\nunder which they could stow away anything. The decked part at the bow\nwas the seat of honour, and there you generally saw the chief of the\ntravelling party sitting cross-legged, at his ease, while the others\nwere paddling.\n\nThe width of a canoe varied from eighteen to thirty inches; the\nlength, from fifteen to fifty feet. But for an outrigger, it was\nimpossible to keep such a long, narrow thing steady in the water. The\noutrigger may be described, in any boat, by laying oars across at\nequal distances, say one right above a thwart. Make fast the handle of\neach oar to the gunwale on the starboard side of the boat, and let the\noars project on the larboard side. To the end of each projecting oar\nmake fast four small sticks running down towards the water, and let\ntheir ends also be fastened to a long thick piece of wood, sharp at\nthe one end to cut through the water, and floating on the surface\nparallel to the boat. This being done will give any one an exact idea\nof a Polynesian outrigger, by means of which long narrow canoes are\nkept steady in the water.\n\nSome people who sketch and engrave from imagination, err in\nrepresenting the natives of Samoa as _pulling_ their short paddles, as\nthe European boatman pulls his long oars. The paddle is about four\nfeet long, something like a sharp-pointed shovel; and when the natives\npaddle, they sit with their faces in the direction in which the canoe\nis going, \"_dig_\" in their paddles, send the water flying behind them,\nand forward the canoe shoots at the rate of seven miles an hour. They\nhave always a sail for their canoe, as well as paddles, to take\nadvantage of a fair wind. The sail is triangular, and made of matting.\nWhen set, the base is up, and the apex down, quite the reverse of what\nwe see in some other islands. The _mat_ sails, however, are giving\nplace to cloth ones, made in the form of European boat-sails.\n\nSome two or three generations back the Samoans built large double\ncanoes like the Fijians. Latterly they seldom built anything larger\nthan a single canoe, with an outrigger, which might carry from fifteen\nto twenty people. Within the last few years the native carpenters have\ntried their hand at boat-building, and it is astonishing to see how\nwell they have succeeded in copying the model of an English or\nAmerican whaleboat, sharp at both ends, or having \"two bows,\" as they\ncall it. Some of them are fifty feet long, and carry well on to one\nhundred people. From stem to stern there is not a nail; everything is\nfastened in their ancient style, with cinnet plaited from the fibre of\nthe cocoa-nut husk. Cinnet is likely long to prevail in _native_ canoe\nand boat-building. Although it looks clumsy, it has the advantage of\nnot rotting the wood like an iron nail. It is durable also. With care,\nand the sewing once or twice renewed, a Samoan canoe or boat will last\nten or twenty years.\n\nThey did not paint their canoes, but decorated them with rows of white\nshells (_Cypr\u00e6a ovula_) running along the middle of the deck at the\nbow and stern, and also along the upper part of the outrigger. Now and\nthen they had a figure-head with some rude device of a human figure, a\ndog, a bird, or something else, which had from time immemorial been\nthe \"coat-of-arms\" of the particular village or district to which the\ncanoe belonged. A chief of importance must also have one, or perhaps\ntwo, large shells in his canoe, to answer the purpose of trumpets, to\nblow now and then as the canoe passed along. It attracted the\nattention of the villagers, and called them out to look and inquire,\n\"Who is that?\" The ambition to see and to be seen was as common in\nPolynesia as anywhere else. As the canoe approached any principal\nsettlement, or when it reached its destination, there was a special\ntoo-too-too, or flourish of their shell trumpets, to herald its\napproach. The paddlers at the same time struck up some lively chant,\nand, as the canoe touched the beach, all was wound up with a united\nshout, having more of the _yell_ in it, but the same in meaning as a\n\"hip, hip, hurrah!\"\n\nThe French navigator Bougainville, seeing the Samoans so often moving\nabout in their canoes, named the group \"The Navigators.\" A stranger in\nthe distance, judging from the name, may suppose that the Samoans are\nnoted among the Polynesians as enterprising navigators. This is not\nthe case. They are quite a domestic people, and rarely venture out of\nsight of land. The group, however, is extensive, and gives them some\nscope for travel. It numbers ten inhabited islands, and stretches east\nand west about 200 miles. Within these bounds they have kept up an\nintercourse from the earliest times in their history, which is fully\nproved, not only by tradition, but by the uniformity of customs and\nlanguage which prevails from the one end of the group to the other.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE.\n\n\n_Fishing-nets_ of various kinds were in use, and were all manufactured\non the islands. Several of the Polynesian tribes excel in this branch\nof industry. A captain of a ship of war, who was buying curiosities\nlately at Savage Island, actually refused their fine small\nfishing-nets, thinking that they must be articles of _European_\nmanufacture. In Samoa, net-making is the same now as it was of old. It\nis the work of the women, and confined principally to the _inland_\nvillages. One would have thought that it would be the reverse, and\nthat the _coast_ districts would have made it their principal\nbusiness. The trade being confined to the interior, is probably\noccasioned by its proximity to the raw material which abounds in the\nbush, viz. the bark of the hibiscus, already referred to in describing\n\"fine mats.\"\n\nAfter the rough outer surface of the bark has been scraped off with a\nshell on a board, the remaining fibres are twisted with the mere palm\nof the hand across the bare thigh into a strong whip-cord, or finer\ntwine, according to the size of the meshes of the net. As the good\nlady's cord lengthens, she fills her netting-needle, and when that is\nfull, works it into her net. Their wooden netting-needles are exactly\nthe same in form as those in common use in Europe. One evening, in\ntaking a walk, Mrs. Turner and I stood for a few minutes and looked at\na woman working a net. Mrs. Turner begged to be allowed to do a bit,\ntook the needle, and did a few loops, to the no small amazement of the\nwoman, who wondered how a European lady could know how to handle a\n_Samoan_ netting-needle, and do _Samoan_ work.\n\nThey make nets of all sizes, from the small one of eighteen inches\nsquare to the seine of a hundred feet long. A net forty feet long and\ntwelve feet deep can be had for native mats, or white calico, to the\nvalue of twenty shillings. A hundred men may be able to muster some\ntwenty nets. These they unite together, and, in the lagoon off their\nsettlement, take large quantities of mullet and other fish.\n\n_The pearl-shell fish-hook_ is another article long in use, and in the\nmanufacture of which the Samoans show some ingenuity. They cut a strip\noff the shell, from two to three inches long, and rub it smooth on a\nstone, so as to resemble a small fish. On the under side, or what may\nbe called the belly, of this little mock fish, they fasten a hook made\nof tortoise-shell, or, it may be, nowadays, an English steel one.\nAlongside of the hook, concealing its point, and in imitation of the\nfins of a little fish, they fasten two small white feathers. Without\nany bait, this pearl-shell contrivance is cast adrift at the stern of\na canoe, with a line of twenty feet, and from its striking resemblance\nto a little fish it is soon caught at, and in this way the Samoans\nsecure a large quantity of their favourite food. No European fish-hook\nhas yet superseded this purely native invention. They bait and use the\nsteel fish-hook, however, and in some cases use it on their\npearl-shells, as we have just remarked, instead of the tortoise-shell\nfish-hook.\n\n_A curious native drill_ is seen in connection with the manufacture of\nthese little shell fish-hooks. Fine holes are drilled through the\nshell for the purpose of making fast the hook as well as the line, and\nthe instrument to which we refer answers the purpose admirably. For\nthe sake of comparison with other parts of the world, this simple\ncontrivance is worth a few lines of description. Take a piece of wood,\neighteen inches long, twice the thickness of a cedar pencil. Fasten\nwith a strong thread a fine-pointed nail, or a sail-needle, to the end\nof this sort of spindle. Get a thick piece of wood, about the size of\nwhat is called in England a \"hot cross bun,\" and in Scotland a\n\"cookie,\" bore a hole in the centre of it, run the spindle through it,\nand wedge it fast about the middle of the spindle. At the top of the\nspindle fasten two strings, each nine inches long, to the ends of\nthese strings attach the ends of a common cedar pencil, forming a\ntriangle with a wooden base and string sides. Stand up the machine\nwith your left hand, place the iron point where you wish to bore a\nhole, and steady the spindle with your left hand. Take hold of the\npencil handle of the upper triangle, twirl round the spindle with your\nleft hand, which will coil on the strings at the top to the spindle,\npull down the pencil handle quickly, and then the machine will spin\nround. Work the handle in this way up and down, like a pump, the cord\nwill alternately run off and on to the spindle, and the machine will\ncontinue to whirl round, first one way and then the other, until the\npearl-shell, or whatever it may be, is perforated.\n\nThere is hardly anything else in the department of manufacture\nrequiring particular notice. When speaking of garments, we referred to\n_native cloth_ and _mats_. Large quantities of _cinnet_ are plaited by\nthe old men principally. They sit at their ease in their houses, and\ntwist away very rapidly. At political meetings also, where there are\nhours of formal palaver and speechifying, the old men take their work\nwith them, and improve the time at the cleanly, useful occupation of\ntwisting cinnet. It is a substitute for twine, and useful for many a\npurpose, and is now sold to the merchants at about a shilling per\npound. _Baskets_ and _fans_ are made as of old of the cocoa-nut\nleaflet, _floor mats_ and a finer kind of baskets from the pandanus\nleaf. Twenty or thirty pieces of the rib of the cocoa-nut leaflet,\nfastened close together with a thread of cinnet, form a _comb_. Oval\n_tubs_ are made by hollowing out a block of wood. _Clubs_, three feet\nlong, from the iron-wood, or something else that is heavy. _Spears_,\neight feet long, were made from the cocoa-nut tree, and barbed with\nthe sting of the ray-fish; a wicked contrivance, for it was meant to\nbreak off from the spear in the body of the unhappy victim. In nine\ncases out of ten there was no way of cutting it out, and the poor\ncreature died in agony.\n\nThe Samoans are an agricultural rather than a manufacturing people. In\naddition to their own individual wants, their hospitable custom in\nsupplying, without money and without stint, the wants of visitors from\nall parts of the group, was a great drain on their plantations. The\nfact that a party of natives could travel from one end of the group to\nthe other without a penny of expense for food and lodging, was an\nencouragement to pleasure excursions, friendly visits, and all sorts\nof travelling. Hardly a day passed without there being some strangers\nin the \"guest house\" of the village, to be provided for by a\ncontribution from every family in the place. After meeting fully,\nhowever, all home wants, large quantities of yams, taro, and bananas,\nwith pigs and poultry, were still to spare, and were sold to the ships\nwhich called for water and supplies.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nGOVERNMENT AND LAWS.\n\n\nA hurried glance, from a European stand-point, has caused many passing\nvisitors to conclude that the Samoans had nothing whatever in the\nshape of government or laws. In sailing along the coast of any island\nof the group, you can hardly discern anything but one uninterrupted\nmass of bush and vegetation, from the beach to the top of the\nmountains; but, on landing, and minutely inspecting place after place,\nyou find villages, plantations, roads, and boundary walls, in all\ndirections along the coast. It is the same with their political\naspect. It is not until you have landed, lived among the people, and\nfor years closely inspected their movements, that you can form a\ncorrect opinion of the exact state of affairs. To any one acquainted\nwith the aborigines of various parts of the world, and especially\nthose of the Papuan groups in Western Polynesia, the simple fact that\nthe Samoans have had but one dialect, and free intercourse with each\nother all over the group, is proof positive that there must have long\nexisted there _some_ system of government.\n\nA good deal of order was maintained by the union of two things, viz.\n_civil power_ and _superstitious fear_.\n\nI. As to the first of these, their government had, and still has, more\nof the patriarchal and democratic in it, than of the monarchical. Take\na village, containing a population, say, of three to five hundred, and\nthere will probably be found there from ten to twenty titled heads of\nfamilies, and one of the higher rank called chiefs. The titles of the\nheads of families are not hereditary. The son may succeed to the title\nwhich his father had, but it may be given to an uncle, or a cousin,\nand sometimes the son is passed over, and the title given, by common\nconsent, to a perfect stranger, merely for the sake of drawing him in,\nto increase the numerical strength of the family. What I now call a\nfamily is a combined group of sons, daughters, uncles, cousins,\nnephews, nieces, etc., and may number fifty individuals. They have one\nlarge house, as a common rendezvous, and for the reception of\nvisitors, and four or five other houses, all near each other.\n\nThe chiefs, on the other hand, are a most select class, whose pedigree\nis traced most carefully in the traditionary genealogies to the\nancient head of some particular clan. One is chosen to bear the title,\nbut there may be other individuals, who trace their origin to the\nsame stock, call themselves chiefs too, and any of whom may succeed to\nthe title on the death of the one who bears it. A chief, before he\ndies, may name some one to succeed him, but the final decision rests\nwith the heads of families as to which of the members of the chief\nfamily shall have the title and be regarded as the village chief. In\nsome cases the greater part of a village is composed of parties who\nrank as chiefs, but, as a general rule, it consists of certain\nfamilies of the more common order, which we have just mentioned, and\nsome titled chief, to whom the village looks up as their political\nhead and protector. It is usual, in the courtesies of common\nconversation, for all to call each other chiefs. If you listen to the\ntalk of little boys even, you will hear them addressing each other as\n_chief_ this, that, and the other thing. Hence, I have heard a\nstranger remark, that the difficulty in Samoa is, not to find who is a\nchief, but to find out who is a common man.\n\nAs the chief can call to his aid, in any emergency, other chiefs\nconnected with the same ancient stock from which he has sprung, and as\nhe looks upon the entire village as his children, and feels bound to\navenge their wrongs, it is thought essential to have some such head in\nevery settlement. If anything in the clubbing way is to be done, no\none but the chief, or his brother, or his son, dare do it. With few\nexceptions, he moves about, and shares in every-day employments, just\nlike a common man. He goes out with the fishing party, works in his\nplantation, helps at house-building, and lends a hand at the native\noven. There are still, however, although not at first sight to a\nEuropean eye, well-defined marks of his chieftainship. If you listen\nto the conversation of the people, or attend a meeting of the heads of\nfamilies for any village business, you hear that he is addressed with\nsuch formalities as might be translated into our English Earl, Duke,\nPrince, or King So-and-so; and, instead of the plebeian _you_, it is,\nyour Highness, your Grace, your Lordship, or your Majesty. When the\nava-bowl is filled, and the cup of friendship sent round, the first\ncup is handed to him. The turtle, too, the best joint, and anything\nchoice, is sure to be laid before the chief. Then again, if he wishes\nto marry, the heads of families vie with each other in supplying him\nwith all that is necessary to provide for the feasting, and other\nthings connected with the ceremonies. He, on the other hand, has to\ngive them ample compensation for all this, by distributing among them\nthe fine mats which he gets as the dowry by his bride. A chief is\ncareful to marry only in the family of a chief, and hence he has, by\nhis wife, a portion worthy of the rank of a chief's daughter. To some\nextent, these heads of families are the _bankers_ of the chief. His\nfine mats almost all go to them, and other property too. They, again,\nare ready with a supply whenever he wishes to draw upon them, whether\nfor fine mats, food, or other property.\n\nNo lover of money was ever fonder of gold than a Samoan was of his\nfine mats. Hence the more wives the chief wished to have, the better\nthe heads of families liked it, as every marriage was a fresh source\nof fine mat gain. To such an extent was this carried on, that one\nmatch was hardly over before another was in contemplation. If it did\nnot originate with the chief, the heads of families would be\nconcocting something, and marking out the daughter of some one as the\nobject of the next fine mat speculation. The chief would yield to\nthem, have the usual round of ceremonies, but without the remotest\nidea of living with that person as his wife. In this way a chief, in\nthe course of his lifetime, might be married well on to fifty times;\nhe would not, however, probably have more than two living with him at\nthe same time. As the heads of families were on the look-out to have\nthe _sons_ and _daughters_ of the chief married as often as they could\nalso, it can be imagined that the main connecting links between the\nheads of families and their chief, and that which marked him out most\nprominently as a superior, was this marriage, or rather polygamy\nbusiness.\n\nThe land in Samoa is owned alike by the chiefs and these heads of\nfamilies. The land belonging to each family is well known, and the\nperson who, for the time being, holds the title of the family head,\nhas the right to dispose of it. It is the same with the chiefs. There\nare certain tracts of bush or forest land which belong to them. The\nuncultivated bush is sometimes claimed by those who own the land on\nits borders. The lagoon also, as far as the reef, is considered the\nproperty of those off whose village it is situated. Although the power\nof selling land, and doing other things of importance affecting all\nthe members of the family, is vested in the titled head of the family,\nyet the said responsible party dare not do anything without formally\nconsulting all concerned. Were he to persist in attempting to do\notherwise, they would take his title from him, and give it to another.\nThe members of a family can thus take the title from their head, and\nheads of families can unite and take the title from their chief, and\ngive it to his brother, or uncle, or some other member of the chief\nfamily, who, they think, will act more in accordance with their\nwishes.\n\nThe chief of the village and the heads of families formed the\nlegislative body of the place, and the common court of appeal in all\ncases of difficulty. One of these heads of families was the sort of\nPrime Minister of the chief. It was his special business to call a\nmeeting, and it was also his province to send notice to the other\nheads of families, on the arrival of a party of strangers, and to say\nwhat each was to provide towards entertaining hospitably the village\nguests. Having no written language, of course they had no written\nlaws; still, as far back as we can trace, they had well understood\nlaws for the prevention of theft, adultery, assault, and murder,\ntogether with many other minor things, such as disrespectful language\nto a chief, calling him a pig, for instance, rude behaviour to\nstrangers, pulling down a fence, or maliciously cutting a fruit-tree.\nNor had they only the mere laws; the further back we go in their\nhistory, we find that their penalties were all the more severe. Death\nwas the usual punishment for murder and adultery; and, as the injured\nparty was at liberty to seek revenge on the brother, son, or any\nmember of the family to which the guilty party belonged, these crimes\nwere all the more dreaded and rare. In a case of murder, the culprit,\nand all belonging to him, fled to some other village of the district,\nor perhaps to another district; in either case it was a city of\nrefuge. While they remained away, it was seldom any one dared to\npursue them, and risk hostilities with the village which protected\nthem. They might hear, however, that their houses had been burned,\ntheir plantations and land taken from them, and they themselves\nprohibited, by the united voice of the chief and heads of families,\nfrom ever again returning to the place. Fines of large quantities of\nfood, which provided a feast for the entire village, were common; but\nthere were frequently cases in which it was considered right to make\nthe punishment fall exclusively on the culprit himself. For adultery,\nthe eyes were sometimes taken out or the nose and ears _bitten_ off. I\nwas called into a house one day to doctor the _nose_ of a young dame\nwho had just suffered from the incisors of a jealous woman. A story is\ntold of a husband and wife who made up their minds to end their\njealousies by a separation. When all was ready, and the woman was\nabout to leave the house with her share of the mat and other property,\nshe said to the man: \"Now, let us again salute noses and part in\npeace.\" The simpleton yielded, but instead of the friendly touch and\n_smell_, the vixen fastened on to the poor fellow's _gnomon_, and\ndisfigured him for life.\n\nFor other crimes they had some such punishments as tying the hands of\nthe culprit behind his back, and marching him along naked, something\nlike the ancient French law of \"amende honorable;\" or, tying him hand\nto hand and foot to foot, and then carrying him suspended from a\nprickly pole run through between the tied hands and feet, and laying\nhim down before the family or village against whom he had\ntransgressed, as if he were a _pig_ to be killed and cooked;\ncompelling the culprit to sit naked for hours in the broiling sun; to\nbe hung up by the heels; or to beat the head with stones till the face\nwas covered with blood; or to play at handball with the prickly\nsea-urchin; or to take five bites of a pungent root, which was like\nfilling the mouth five times with cayenne pepper. It was considered\ncowardly to shrink from the punishment on which the village court\nmight decide, and so the young man would go boldly forward, sit down\nbefore the chiefs, bite the root five times, get up and walk away with\nhis mouth on fire.\n\nIf two families in a village quarrelled, and wished to fight, the\nother heads of families and the chief stepped in and forbad; and it\nwas at the peril of either party to carry on the strife contrary to\nthe decided voice of public opinion.\n\nThese village communities, of from two to five hundred people,\nconsidered themselves perfectly distinct from each other, quite\nindependent, and at liberty to act as they pleased on their own\nground, and in their own affairs.\n\nThen, again, these villages, in numbers of eight or ten, united by\ncommon consent, and formed a district, or state, for mutual\nprotection. Some particular village was known as the capital of the\ndistrict; and it was common to have a higher chief than any of the\nrest, as the head of that village, and who bore the title of King.\nJust as in the individual villages the chief and heads of families\nunited in suppressing strife when two parties quarrelled, so it was in\nthe event of a disturbance between any two villages of the district,\nthe combined chiefs and heads of families of all the other villages\nunited in forbidding strife. When war was threatened by another\ndistrict, no single village acted alone; the whole district, or state,\nassembled at their capital, and had a special parliament to deliberate\nas to what should be done.\n\nThese meetings were held out of doors. The heads of families were the\norators and members of parliament. The kings and chiefs rarely spoke.\nThe representatives of each village had their known places, where they\nsat, under the shade of bread-fruit trees, and formed groups all round\nthe margin of an open space, called the mal\u00e6 (or forum), a thousand\nfeet in circumference. Strangers from all parts might attend; and on\nsome occasions there were two thousand people and upwards at these\nparliamentary gatherings. The speaker stood up when he addressed the\nassembly, laid over his shoulder his fly-flapper, or badge of office\nsimilar to what is seen on some ancient Egyptian standards. He held\nbefore him a staff six feet long, and leaned forward on it as he went\non with his speech. A Samoan orator did not let his voice fall, but\nrather gradually raised it, so that the last word in a sentence was\nthe loudest. It is the province of the head village to have the\nopening or king's speech, and to keep order in the meeting; and it was\nthe particular province of another to reply to it, and so they went\non. To a stranger the etiquette and delay connected with such meetings\nwas tiresome in the extreme. When the first speaker rose, other heads\nof families belonging to his village, to the number of ten or twenty,\nrose up, too, as if they all wished to speak. This was to show to the\nassembly that the heads of families were all at their post, and who\nthey were. They talked among themselves for a while, and it ended in\none after another sitting down, after having passed on his right to\nspeak to another. It was quite well known, in most cases, who was to\nspeak, but they must have this preliminary formality about it. At\nlast, after an hour or more all had sat down but the one who was to\nspeak; and, laden by them with the responsibility of speaking, he\ncommenced. He was not contented with a mere _word_ of salutation, such\nas, \"Gentlemen,\" but he must, with great minuteness, go over the names\nand titles, and a host of ancestral references, of which they were\nproud. Another half-hour was spent with this. Up to this time\nconversation went on freely all round the meeting; but whenever he\ncame to the point of his address, viz., the object of the meeting and\nan opinion on it, all was attention. After the first speech, it was\nprobably mid-day, and then food was brought in. The young men and\nwomen of the family, decked off in their best, came in a string of ten\nor twenty to their chief, each carrying something, and, naming him,\nsaid it was food for him. He told them to take it to So-and-so, and\nthen they marched off to that chief, and said that it was food from\nsuch a one. This person would return the compliment by-and-by, and in\nthis way there was, for hours, a delightful flow of friendship all\nover the place. On such occasions parties who had been living at\nvariance had a fine opportunity of showing kindness to each other.\nAmid all this feasting the speechifying went on. As the debate\nadvanced, the interest increased. They generally broke up at sundown;\nbut if it was something of unusual interest and urgency, they went on\nspeechifying in the dark, or in the moonlight, and might not adjourn\ntill long after midnight. Unless all were pretty much agreed, nothing\nwas done. They were afraid to thwart even a small minority.\n\nThroughout the Samoan group there were, in all, _ten_ of these\nseparate districts such as I have described. In war some of the\ndistricts remained neutral, and of those engaged in the strife there\nmight be two against one, or three against five, or, as in a late\nprolonged war, five against two. The district which was conquered, was\nexposed to the taunts and overbearing of their conquerors. But a\nsubdued district seldom remained many years with the brand of\n\"conquered.\" They were up and at it as soon as they had a favourable\nopportunity, and were probably themselves in turn the conquerors.\n\nII. But I hasten to notice _the second thing_ which I have already\nremarked was an auxiliary towards the maintenance of peace and order\nin Samoa, viz. _superstitious fear_. If the chief and heads of\nfamilies, in their court of inquiry into any case of stealing, or\nother concealed matter, had a difficulty in finding out the culprit,\nthey would make all involved swear that they were innocent. In\nswearing before the chiefs the suspected parties laid a handful of\ngrass on the stone, or whatever it was, which was supposed to be the\nrepresentative of the village god, and, laying their hand on it, would\nsay, \"In the presence of our chiefs now assembled, I lay my hand on\nthe stone. If I stole the thing may I speedily die.\" This was a common\nmode of swearing. The meaning of the grass was a silent additional\nimprecation that his family might all die, and that _grass_ might grow\nover their habitation. If all swore, and the culprit was still\nundiscovered, the chiefs then wound up the affair by committing the\ncase to the village god, and solemnly invoking him to mark out for\nspeedy destruction the guilty mischief-maker.\n\nBut, instead of appealing to the chiefs, and calling for an oath, many\nwere contented with their own individual schemes and imprecations to\nfrighten thieves and prevent stealing. When a man went to his\nplantation and saw that some cocoa-nuts, or a bunch of bananas, had\nbeen stolen, he would stand and shout at the top of his voice two or\nthree times, \"May fire blast the eyes of the person who has stolen my\nbananas! May fire burn down his eyes and the eyes of his god too!\"\nThis rang throughout the adjacent plantations, and made the thief\ntremble. They dreaded such uttered imprecations. Others cursed more\nprivately when a thing was stolen, and called in the aid of a priest.\nIn common disputes also, affecting the veracity of each other, it was\ncustomary for the one to say to the other, \"Touch your eyes, if what\nyou say is true.\" If he touched his eyes, the dispute was settled. It\nwas as if he had said, \"May I be cursed with blindness if it is not\ntrue what I say.\" Or the doubter would say to his opponent, \"Who will\neat you? Say the name of your god.\" He whose word was doubted would\nthen name the household god of his family, as much as to say, \"May god\nSo-and-so destroy me, if what I have said is not true.\" Or the person\nwhose word was doubted might adopt the more expressive course still of\ntaking a stick and digging a hole in the ground, which was as if he\nsaid, \"May I be buried immediately if what I say is not true.\" But\nthere was another and more extensive class of curses, which were also\nfeared, and formed a powerful check on stealing, especially from\nplantations and fruit-trees, viz. the silent hieroglyphic taboo, or\ntapui (tapooe), as they call it. Of this there was a great variety,\nand the following are specimens:--\n\n1. _The sea-pike taboo._--If a man wished that a sea-pike might run\ninto the body of the person who attempted to steal, say, his\nbread-fruits, he would plait some cocoa-nut leaflets in the form of a\nsea-pike, and suspend it from one or more of the trees which he\nwished to protect. Any ordinary thief would be terrified to touch a\ntree from which this was suspended, he would expect that the next time\nhe went to the sea, a fish of the said description would dart up and\nmortally wound him.\n\n2. _The white shark taboo_ was another object of terror to a thief.\nThis was done by plaiting a cocoa-nut leaf in the form of a shark,\nadding fins, etc., and this they suspended from the tree. It was\ntantamount to an expressed imprecation, that the thief might be\ndevoured by the white shark the next time he went to fish.\n\n3. _The cross-stick taboo._--This was a piece of any sort of stick\nsuspended horizontally from the tree. It expressed the wish of the\nowner of the tree, that any thief touching it might have a disease\nrunning right across his body, and remaining fixed there till he died.\n\n4. _The ulcer taboo._--This was made by burying in the ground some\npieces of clam-shell, and erecting at the spot three or four reeds,\ntied together at the top in a bunch like the head of a man. This was\nto express the wish and prayer of the owner that any thief might be\nlaid down with ulcerous sores all over his body. If a thief\ntransgressed, and had any subsequent swellings or sores, he confessed,\nsent a present to the owner of the land, and he, in return, sent back\nsome native herb, as a medicine, and a pledge of forgiveness.\n\n5. _The tic-doloureux taboo._--This was done by fixing a spear in the\nground close by the trees which the owner wished to guard. It was\nexpressive of a wish that the thief might suffer from the face and\nhead agonies of the disease just named.\n\n_6. The death taboo._--This was made by pouring some oil into a small\ncalabash, and burying it near the tree. The spot was marked by a\nlittle hillock of white sand. The sight of one of these places was\nalso effectual in scaring away a thief.\n\n7. _The rat taboo._--This was a small cocoa-nut leaf basket, filled\nwith ashes from the cooking-house, and two or three small stones, and\nsuspended from the tree. It signified a wish that rats might eat holes\nin the fine mats of the thief, and destroy any cloth, or other\nproperty which he might value.\n\n8. _The thunder taboo._--If a man wished that lightning might strike\nany who should steal from his land, he would plait some cocoa-nut\nleaflets in the form of a small square mat, and suspend it from a\ntree, with the addition of some white streamers of native cloth\nflying. A thief believed that if he trespassed he, or some of his\nchildren, might be struck with lightning, or, perhaps his own trees\nstruck and blasted from the same cause. They were not, however, in the\nhabit of talking about the effects of _lightning_. It was the\n_thunder_ they thought did the mischief; hence they called that to\nwhich I have just referred, the _thunder_ taboo.\n\nFrom these few illustrations it will be observed that Samoa formed no\nexception to the remarkably widespread system of superstitious taboo;\nand the extent to which it preserved honesty and order among a heathen\npeople will be readily imagined. At the present day the belief in the\npower of these rude hieroglyphics is not yet eradicated. In passing\nalong you still see something with streamers flying, dangling from a\ntree in one place, a basket suspended in another, and some reeds erect\nin a third. The sickness, too, and dying hours of some hardened thief\nstill bring out confessions of his guilt. Facts such as these which\nhave just been enumerated still further show the cruelties of the\nreign of superstition, and exhibit, in striking contrast, the better\nspirit and the purer precepts taught by that blessed volume which is\nnow received, read, and practised by many in Samoa. In days of\nheathenism there was no good rendered for evil there, and the only\nprayers for injurers and enemies were curses for their hurt and\ndestruction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nWARS.\n\n\nThe murder of a chief, a disputed title, or a desire on the part of\none, two, or more of the districts, to be considered stronger and of\nmore importance than the rest, were frequent causes of war in Samoa.\nHostilities were often prevented by such acts as giving up the\nculprit, paying a heavy fine, or by bowing down in abject submission,\ncarrying firewood and small stones used in baking a pig, or, perhaps,\na few bamboos. The firewood, stones, and leaves, were equivalent to\ntheir saying, \"Here we are, your pigs, to be cooked if you please; and\nhere are the materials with which to do it.\" Taking bamboos in the\nhand was as if they said, \"We have come, and here are the knives to\ncut us up.\" A piece of split bamboo was, of old, the usual knife in\nSamoa. If, however, the chiefs of the district were determined to\nresist, they prepared accordingly. The boundary which separated one\ndistrict from another was the usual battlefield; hence the villages\nnext to that spot, on either side, were occupied at once by the\ntroops. The women and children, the sick and the aged, were cleared\noff to some fortified place in the bush, or removed to some other\ndistrict which was either neutral, or could be depended upon as an\nally. Movable property was either buried, or taken off with the women\nand children. The wives of the chiefs and principal men generally\nfollowed their husbands wherever they might be encamped, to be ready\nto nurse them if sick or wounded. A heroine would even follow close\nupon the heels of her husband in actual conflict, carrying his club or\nsome other part of his armour.\n\nIt was common for chiefs to take with them a present of fine mats when\nthey went to another district to solicit help in war, but there was no\nstanding army or regularly paid soldiers anywhere. When the chiefs\ndecided on war, every man and boy under their jurisdiction old enough\nto handle a club had to take his place as a soldier, or risk the loss\nof his lands and property, and banishment from the place.\n\nIn each district there was a certain village, or cluster of villages,\nknown as \"the advance troops.\" It was their province to take the lead,\nand in battle their loss was double the number of that of any other\nvillage. Still they boasted of their right to lead, would on no\naccount give it up to others, and talked in the current strain of\nother parts of the world about the \"glory\" of dying in battle. In a\ntime of peace the people of these villages had special marks of\nrespect shown to them, such as the largest share of food at public\nfeasts, flattery for their bravery, etc.\n\nWhile war was going on the chiefs and heads of families united in some\ncentral spot, and whatever they decided on, either for attack or\ndefence, the young men endeavoured implicitly to carry out. Their\nweapons were clubs, spears, and slings. Subsequently, as iron was\nintroduced, they got hatchets, and with these they made their most\ndeadly weapon, viz. a sharp tomahawk, with a handle the length of a\nwalking-stick. After that again they had the _civilised_ additions of\nswords, pistols, guns, and bayonets. Around the village where the war\nparty assembled they threw a rough stockade, formed by any kind of\nsticks or trees cut into eight feet lengths, and put close to each\nother, upright, with their ends buried two feet in the ground. The\nhostile parties might be each fortified in this way not more than a\nmile from each other, and now and then venture out to fight in the\nintervening space, or to take each other by surprise at weak or\nunguarded points. In their war canoes they had some distinguishing\nbadge of their district hoisted on a pole, a bird it might be, or a\ndog, or a bunch of leaves. And, for the bush-ranging land forces, they\nhad certain marks on the body by which they knew their own party, and\nwhich served as a temporary watchword. One day the distinguishing\nmark might be blackened cheeks; the next, two strokes on the breast;\nthe next, a white shell suspended from a strip of white cloth round\nthe neck, and so on. Before any formal fight, they had a day of\nfeasting, reviewing, and merriment. In action they never stood up in\norderly ranks to rush at each other. According to their notions that\nwould be the height of folly. Their favourite tactics were rather of\nthe surprise and bush-skirmishing order. In some of their fights in\nrecent times I have known of from two to fifty killed on each side in\na battle, never more. Prisoners, if men, were generally killed; if\nwomen, distributed among the conquerors. In a battle which was fought\nin 1830 a fire was kindled and many of the prisoners were burned.\n\nTheir heroes were the swift of foot, like Achilles or Asahel; men who\ncould dash forward towards a crowd, hurl a spear with deadly\nprecision, and stand for a while tilting off with his club other\nspears as they approached him within an inch of running him through.\nThey were ambitious also to signalise themselves by the number of\n_heads_ they could lay before the chiefs. No hero at the Grecian games\nrejoiced more over his chaplet than did the Samoan glory in the\ndistinction of having cut off a man's head. As he went along with it\nthrough the villages on the way to the place where the chiefs were\nassembled, awaiting the hourly news of the battle, he danced, and\ncapered, and shouted, calling out every now and then the name of the\nvillage, and adding, \"I am So-and-so, I have got the head of such an\none.\" When he reached the spot where the chiefs were met, he went\nthrough a few more evolutions, and then laid down the head before\nthem. This, together with the formal thanks of the chiefs before the\nmultitude for his bravery and successful fighting, was the very height\nof a young man's ambition. He made some giddy, frolicsome turns on his\nheel, and was off again to try and get another victim. These heads\nwere piled up in a heap in the malae or public assembly. The head of\nthe most important chief was put on the top, and, as the tale of the\nbattle was told, they would say, \"There were so many heads, surmounted\nby the head of So-and-so,\" giving the number and the name. After\nremaining for some hours piled up they were either claimed by their\nrelatives or buried on the spot. A rare illustration of this ambition\nto get heads occurred about thirty years ago. In an unexpected attack\nupon a village one morning a young man fell stunned by a blow.\nPresently he recovered consciousness, felt the weight of some one\nsitting on his shoulders and covering his neck, and the first sounds\nhe heard was a dispute going on between two as to which of them had\nthe right to cut off his head! He made a desperate effort, jostled the\nfellow off his back, sprang to his feet, and, with his head all safe\nin his own possession, soon settled the matter by leaving them both\nfar behind him.\n\nThe headless bodies of the slain, scattered about in the bush after a\nbattle, if known, were buried, if unknown, left to the dogs. In some\ncases the whole body was pulled along in savage triumph and laid\nbefore the chiefs. One day, when some of us were in a war-fort\nendeavouring to mediate for peace, a dead body of one of the enemy was\ndragged in, preceded by a fellow making all sorts of fiendish\ngestures, with one of the legs in his teeth cut off by the knee.\n\nConnected with Samoan warfare several other things may be noted, such\nas consulting the gods, taking a priest to battle to pray for his\npeople and curse the enemy, filling up wells, destroying fruit-trees,\ngoing to battle decked off in their most valuable clothing and\ntrinkets, haranguing each other previous to a fight, the very\ncounterpart of Abijah the king of Judah, and even word for word, with\nthe filthy-tongued Rabshakeh.\n\nIf the war became general, and involving several districts, they\nformed themselves into a threefold division of highway, bush, and\nsea-fighters. The fleet might consist of three hundred men, in thirty\nor forty canoes. The bushrangers and the fleet were principally\ndreaded, as there was no calculating where they were, or when they\nmight pounce unawares upon some unguarded settlement. The fleet met\napart from the land forces, and concocted their own schemes. They\nwould have it all arranged, for instance, and a dead secret, to be off\nafter dark to attack a particular village belonging to the enemy. At\nmidnight they would land at an uninhabited place some miles from the\nsettlement they intended to attack. They took a circuitous course in\nthe bush, surrounded the village from behind, having previously\narranged to let the canoes slip on quietly, and take up their position\nin the water in front of the village. By break of day they rushed into\nthe houses of the unsuspecting people before they had well woke up,\nchopped off as many heads as they could, rushed with them to their\ncanoes, and decamped before the young men of the place had time to\nmuster or arm. Often they were scared by the people, who, during war,\nkept a watch, night and day, at all the principal openings in the\nreef; but now and then the plot succeeded and there was fearful\nslaughter. It was in one of these early morning attacks from the fleet\nthat the young man to whom I have referred had such a narrow escape.\nThat morning many were wounded, and the heads of thirteen carried off.\nOne of them was that of a poor old man, who was on his knees at his\nmorning devotions, when off went his head at a blow. In another house\nthat same morning there was a noble instance of maternal heroism, in a\nwoman who allowed herself to be hacked from head to foot, bending over\nher son to save his life. It is considered cowardly to kill a woman,\nor they would have despatched her at once. It was the head of her\nlittle boy they wanted, but they did not get it. The poor woman was in\na dreadful state, but, to the surprise of all, recovered.\n\nIt is now close upon a hundred years since the Samoans had their first\nserious quarrel with Europeans, and which ended in a fight. I refer to\nthe massacre at Tutuila of M. de Langle and others belonging to the\nexpedition under the unfortunate La Perouse in 1787, and which branded\nthe people for well-nigh fifty years as a race of treacherous savages\nwhose shores ought not to be approached. Had the native version of the\ntale been known, it would have considerably modified the accounts\nwhich were published in the voyages of La Perouse. The origin of the\nquarrel was not with the party who went on shore in the boats. A\nnative who was out at the ship was roughly dealt with, for some real\nor supposed case of pilfering. He was fired at and mortally wounded,\nand when taken on shore bleeding and dying, his enraged friends roused\nall on the spot to seek instant revenge. Hence the deadly attack on\nthe party in the boats at the beach, in which the stones flew like\nbullets and ended in the death of M. de Langle, his brother officer,\nand ten of the crew. The natives wound up the bodies of the Frenchmen\nin native cloth and decently buried them, as they were in the habit of\nburying their own dead. The only inference which ought to have been\ndrawn from this tragic occurrence was that heathen natives have a\nkeen sense of justice, and that if men will go on the disproportionate\nprinciple of a life for a tooth, and shoot a man for a perfect trifle,\nthey must abide by the consequences. It is almost certain to be\navenged, and, alas! it is often the case that vengeance falls not on\nthe guilty, but on some unsuspecting visitor who may subsequently\nfollow.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nTHE HEAVENS, AND THE HEAVENLY BODIES.\n\n\n1. The Samoans say that of old the _heavens fell down_, and that\npeople had to crawl about like the lower animals. After a time the\narrow-root and another similar plant pushed up the heavens, and the\nplace where these plants grew is still pointed out and called the\nTeeng\u0101langi, or heaven-pushing place; but the heads of the people\ncontinued to knock on the skies, and the place was excessively hot.\nOne day a woman was passing along who had been drawing water. A man\ncame up to her and said he would push up the heavens if she would give\nhim some water to drink. \"Push them up first,\" she replied. He pushed\nthem up, and said, \"Will that do?\" \"No,\" said she, \"a little farther.\"\nHe sent them up higher still, and then she handed him her cocoa-nut\nshell water-bottle. Another account says that the giant god Ti'iti'i\npushed up the heavens, and that at the place where he stood there are\nhollow places in a rock nearly six feet long which are pointed out as\nhis footprints.\n\n2. Tradition says that in former times the people on earth had\nfrequent _intercourse with the heavens_. We have already noticed some\nof these visits (pp. 13, 105). These stories are probably founded on\nthe old idea that the heavens ended at the horizon. They thought that\nthere was solidity there as well as extension; and therefore a distant\nvoyage to some other island might be called a visit to some part of\nthe heavens. When white men made their appearance, it was thought that\nthey and the vessel which brought them had in some way broken through\nthe heavens; and, to this day white men are called Papalangi, or\nHeaven-bursters.\n\nBut imagination required something more circumstantial, and hence the\nvariety of traditionary schemes by which the people were supposed to\ngo up and down on these visits to the heavens. One story speaks of a\nmountain, the top of which reached to the skies. Another says that a\nvery dense column of smoke took people up. Another tells of a tree\nwhich, when it fell, was sixty miles in length. Another tree is\nmentioned which formed a sort of ladder, but on different sections of\nit there were repulsive or stinging insects, through which few but the\nvery courageous persevered in forcing their way. First there was a\npart swarming with cockroaches; then a place full of ants; then a\nsection covered with large venomous ants; beyond that again was a part\nof the tree overspread with centipedes, from which many turned and\nwent down again to _terra firma_. The centipede region cleared,\nhowever, some finer branches were reached, and perched on them, the\ntourists waited for a high wind, which swung them up and down for a\ntime, and then they were suddenly jerked in to the heavens.\n\n3. Some curious stories are told about _the sun_. A woman called\nMangamangai became pregnant by looking at the rising sun. Her son grew\nand was named \"Child of the Sun.\" At his marriage he applied to his\nmother for a dowry. She sent him to his father, the sun, to beg from\nhim, and told him how to go. Following her directions he went one\nmorning with a long vine from the bush--which is the convenient\nsubstitute for a rope--climbed a tree, threw his rope with a noose at\nthe end of it, and caught the sun. He made known his message, and\n(Pandora-like) got a present for his bride. The sun first asked him\nwhat was his choice--blessings or calamities? \"Blessings,\" was his\nreply, and he came down with a store of them done up in a basket.\nThere is another tale told about this Samoan Phaethon similar to what\nis related of the Hawaiian Maui. He and his mother were annoyed at the\nrapidity of the sun's course in those days--it rose, reached the\nmeridian, and set, \"before they could get their mats aired.\" He\ndetermined to make it go slower. He climbed a tree in the early\nmorning, and with a rope and noose threw again and caught the sun as\nit emerged from the horizon. The sun struggled to get clear, but in\nvain. Then fearing lest he should be strangled he called out: \"Have\nmercy on me--spare my life--what do you want?\" \"We wish you to go\nslower,\" was the reply, \"we can get no work done.\" \"Very well, let me\ngo; for the future I will walk slowly.\" He let go the rope, and ever\nsince the sun has gone slowly and given longer days.\n\nThe sun was the usual _timekeeper_ of the day. The night was divided\ninto three parts--midnight, and the first and second cock-crowing.\nThen came the sun. There was the rising--the half-way up--the standing\nstraight overhead--turning over--making to go down--and, last of all,\nsinking. They thought the blazing sun went down into the ocean, passed\nthrough and came up next morning on the other side. The commotion\namong the waves at the horizon as he went down was supposed to be very\ngreat, and it was one of the worst curses to wish a person to sink in\nthe ocean and the sun to go blazing down on the top of him.\n\n_Human sacrifices_ to the sun are spoken of in some of the more remote\ntraditions. In this connection Papatea in the Eastward again comes up\nas the place where the sacrifices were offered. When the sun rose he\ncalled for a victim, and the same when he set. This continued for\neighty days, and the population of the island was fast passing away. A\nlady called Ui, and her brother Luamaa, fled from Papatea and reached\nManu'a, but alas! the sun there too was demanding his daily victims.\nIt went the round of the houses, and when all had given up one of\ntheir number it was again the turn of the first house to supply an\noffering. The body was laid out on a Pandanus tree, and there the sun\ndevoured it. It came to the turn of Luamaa to be offered, but his\nsister Ui compassionated him, and insisted on being offered in his\nstead. She lay down and called out: \"Oh, cruel Sun! come and eat your\nvictim, we are all being devoured by you.\" The sun looked at lady Ui,\ndesired to live with her, and so he put an end to the sacrifices, and\ntook her to wife. Another story makes out that Ui was the daughter of\nthe King of Manu'a, and that he gave up his daughter as an offering to\nthe sun, and so end the sacrifices by making her the saviour of the\npeople.\n\n4. Some of _the planets_ are known and named. Fet\u016b is the word used to\ndesignate all heavenly bodies except the sun and moon. Venus is called\nthe morning and evening star. Mars is the Matamemea, or the star with\nthe sear-leafed face. The Pleiades are called Lii or Mataalii, eyes of\nchiefs. The belt of Orion is the amonga, or burden carried on a pole\nacross the shoulders. The milky way is ao lele, ao to'a, and the\naniva. Ao lele, means flying cloud, and ao to'a, solid cloud. Meteors\nare called, fet\u016b ati afi, or stars going to fetch a light; and comets\nare called pusa loa, or an elongated smoke.\n\n5. Tradition in Samoa, as in other parts of the world, has a good deal\nto say about _the moon_. We are told of the visit to it by two young\nmen, the one named Punifanga and the other Tafaliu. The one went up by\na tree, and the other on a column of dense smoke from a fire kindled\nby himself for the purpose. We are also told of the woman Sina, or\n_white_, who with her child has long been up there. She was busy one\nevening with mallet in hand beating out on a board some of the bark of\nthe paper mulberry with which to make native cloth. It was during a\ntime of famine. The moon was just rising, and reminded her of a great\nbread-fruit, looking up to it she said, \"Why cannot you come down and\nlet my child have a bit of you?\" The moon was indignant at the thought\nof being eaten, came down forthwith, and took her up, child, board,\nmallet, and all. At the full of the moon young Samoa still looks up,\nand traces the features of Sina, the face of the child, and the board\nand mallet, in verification of the old story.\n\nThe moon was _the timekeeper of the year_. The year was divided into\ntwelve lunar months, and each month was known by a name in common use\nall over the group. To this there were some local exceptions, and a\nmonth named after the god, who on that month was specially worshipped.\nIt is said that of old it was universal to name the month after the\ngod whose worship at that particular time was observed. Among a people\nwho had no fixed astronomical dates intercallation was easy, and the\nnames of the twelve moons kept uniform.\n\n\nJANUARY.\n\n1. This was called Utu va mua, _first yam digging_. And so named from\ntheir then digging wild yams before the cultivated ones were ripe, and\nalso from early yam digging.\n\n2. Others say that the origin of Utu va mua was in two brothers, the\none called Utuvamua and the other Utuvamuli, who, when there was war\nin heaven, and their party beaten, fled to the earth and brought the\nJanuary storms with them.\n\n3. A third account says that Utuvamua was the elder brother and\nUtuvamuli the younger, and that during a great war on earth they\nescaped to the heavens. That the hills are the heaps of slain covered\nover by earth dug up from the valleys, and that when the two brothers\nlook down upon them their weeping and wailing and maddening\nexasperation occasion the storm and the hurricane.\n\n4. The month was also called Aitu tele, _great god_, from the\nprincipal worship of the month. At another place it was named Tangaloa\ntele, for a similar reason.\n\n\nFEBRUARY.\n\n1. This month was called Toe utu va, or _digging again_, and so named\nfrom the yam crop.\n\n2. The name is also explained as the further digging up of the winds\nto raise storms.\n\n3. Aitu iti, or _small gods_, is another name, from the worship of the\ninferior household gods in that month.\n\n\nMARCH.\n\n1. Called Faaafu, or _withering_, from the withering of the yam vine\nand other plants, which become coloured \"like the shells.\"\n\n2. Taafanua is another name of the month, which means, _roam_ or _walk\nabout the land_, being the name of a god worshipped in that month.\n\n3. Called also Aitu iti, or small gods, from the household gods then\nworshipped, and who were specially implored to bless the family for\nthe year \"with strength to overcome in quarrels and in battle.\"\n\n\nAPRIL.\n\n1. This month was called Lo, from the name of a small fish which comes\nin plentiful shoals at that time.\n\n2. Called also Fanonga, or _destruction_, the name of a god worshipped\nat the eastern extremity of the group during that month.\n\n\nMAY.\n\n1. Called Aununu, or _stem crushed_, from the crushed or pulverised\nstate of the stem of the yam at that time. Others say it was so named\nfrom multitudes of malicious demons supposed to be wandering about at\nthat time. Even the fish of the sea were supposed to be possessed and\nunusually savage in this month. May is often an unhealthy month, being\nthe time of transition from the wet season to the dry, and hence the\n_crushing_ sickness and superstitious vagaries.\n\n2. Called also on one island Sina, or _white_, from the worship of a\ngoddess of that name there.\n\n\nJUNE.\n\nThis month was called Oloamanu, or _the singing of birds_, it was thus\nnamed from the unusual joy among the birds over a plentiful supply of\nfavourite buds and berries. The bright scarlet flowers of the\n\"_Erythrina indica_\" begin then to come out and attract a host of\nparrakeets and other happy chirpers.\n\n\nJULY.\n\nCalled Palolo mua, or _the first of Palolo_. This is the first month\nof the half year, called the Palolo season in contradistinction to the\nother half, which is called the Trade-wind season. Palolo (_Palolo\nvirides_) is that singular worm which swarms out from certain parts\nof the barrier reefs for three days in the course of a year, of which\nthe natives are very fond, and all the more so from its rareness. If\nthe last quarter of the moon is late in October palolo is found the\nday before, the day of, and the day after, that quarter. If the last\nquarter of the moon is early in October palolo does not come till the\nlast quarter of the November moon. The middle day, or the day of the\nquarter, is the principal day for gathering these swarms of marine\nworms.\n\n\nAUGUST.\n\nThis month was called Palolo muli, or _after Palolo_. Pa means to\nburst, and lolo, fatty or oily, and hence probably the origin of the\nname in the fatty or oily appearance of the worms as they break,\nburst, and are mixed up in the heaps directly after they are taken.\nThey are only found for about half an hour before sunrise, after\nsunrise they disappear.\n\n\nSEPTEMBER.\n\n1. Mulif\u0101 was the name given to this month which means _end of the\nstem_ of the talo, or \"arum esculentum.\" The month being unusually dry\nand parching, the scorching rays of the sun left little of the talo\nstem but a small piece at the end.\n\n2. The _end_ of the season for catching the fish called _F\u0101_, is\nanother derivation of Mulif\u0101 given by some.\n\n\nOCTOBER.\n\nThis month was called Lotuaga, or _rain prayers_. It was so called\nfrom the special prayers which were then offered to the gods for rain.\n\n\nNOVEMBER.\n\nTaumafamua was the name of this month, _the first of plenty_, that\nmeans, fish and other food became plentiful, and then followed what\nwere called the palolo and fly-hook feasts. Public dinners in the\nhouses of the leading men of the village were the order of the day.\n\n\nDECEMBER.\n\nThis month was named Toetaumafa, or _the finish of the feasting_. Food\nnow was less plentiful, and after some of the December gales or\ncyclones there was a great scarcity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF FIRE, AND OTHER STORIES.\n\n\n1. The Samoans say that there was a time when their ancestors ate\neverything raw, and that they owe the luxury of cooked food to one\nTi'iti'i, the son of a person called Talanga. This Talanga was high in\nfavour with the earthquake god Mafuie, who lived in a subterranean\nregion where there was fire continually burning. On going to a certain\nperpendicular rock, and saying, \"Rock, divide! I am Talanga; I have\ncome to work!\" the rock opened, and let Talanga in; and he went below\nto his plantation in the land of this god Mafuie. One day Ti'iti'i,\nthe son of Talanga, followed his father, and watched where he entered.\nThe youth, after a time, went up to the rock, and, feigning his\nfather's voice, said, \"Rock, divide! I am Talanga; I have come to\nwork!\" and was admitted too. His father, who was at work in his\nplantation, was surprised to see his son there, and begged him not to\ntalk loud, lest the god Mafuie should hear him, and be angry.\n\nSeeing smoke rising, he inquired of his father what it was. His\nfather said it was the fire of Mafuie. \"I must go and get some,\" said\nthe son. \"No,\" said the father; \"he will be angry. Don't you know he\neats people?\" \"What do I care for him?\" said the daring youth; and off\nhe went, humming a song, towards the smoking furnace.\n\n\"Who are you?\" said Mafuie.\n\n\"I am Ti'iti'i, the son of Talanga. I am come for some fire.\"\n\n\"Take it,\" said Mafuie.\n\nHe went back to his father with some cinders, and the two set to work\nto bake some taro. They kindled a fire, and were preparing the taro to\nput on the hot stones, when suddenly the god Mafuie blew up the oven,\nscattered the stones all about, and put out the fire. \"Now,\" said\nTalanga, \"did not I tell you Mafuie would be angry?\" Ti'iti'i went off\nin a rage to Mafuie, and without any ceremony commenced with, \"Why\nhave you broken up our oven, and put out our fire?\" Mafuie was\nindignant at such a tone and language, rushed at him, and there they\nwrestled with each other. Ti'iti'i got hold of the right arm of\nMafuie, grasped it with both hands, and gave it such a wrench that it\nbroke off. He then seized the other arm, and was going to twist it off\nnext when Mafuie declared himself beaten, and implored Ti'iti'i to\nhave mercy, and spare his left arm.\n\n\"Do let me have this arm,\" said he; \"I need it to hold Samoa straight\nand level. Give it to me, and I will let you have my hundred wives.\"\n\n\"No, not for that,\" said Ti'iti'i.\n\n\"Well, then, will you take _fire_? If you let me have my left arm you\nshall have _fire_, and you may ever after this eat cooked food.\"\n\n\"Agreed,\" said Ti'iti'i; \"you keep your arm, and I have _fire_.\"\n\n\"Go,\" said Mafuie; \"you will find the fire in every _wood_ you cut.\"\n\nAnd hence, the story adds, Samoa, ever since the days of Ti'iti'i, has\neaten cooked food from the fire which is got from the friction of\nrubbing one piece of dry _wood_ against another.\n\nThe superstitious still have half an idea that Mafuie is down below\nSamoa somewhere; and that the earth has a long handle there, like a\nwalking-stick, which Mafuie gives a shake now and then. It was common\nfor them to say, when they felt the shock of an earthquake, \"Thanks to\nTi'iti'i, that Mafuie has only one arm: if he had two, what a shake he\nwould give!\"\n\nThe natives of Savage Island, 300 miles to the south of Samoa, have a\nsomewhat similar tale about the origin of fire. Instead of Talanga and\nTi'iti'i, they give the names of Maui, the father, and Maui, the son.\nInstead of going through a rock, their entrance was down through a\nreed bush. And, instead of a _stipulation_ for the fire, they say that\nthe youth Maui, like another Prometheus, _stole_ it, ran up the\npassage, and before his father could catch him, he had set the bush in\nflames in all directions. The father tried to put it out, but in vain;\nand they further add, that ever since the exploit of young Maui, they\nhave had _fire_ and cooked food in Savage Island.\n\n2. The Samoans have their stories of _a golden age_ of intelligence\nlong long ago, when _all_ things material had the power of speech.\nThey not only spoke, but they had evil natures as well, and quarrelled\nwith each other and fought, very much like the races of mankind. We\nhave already referred to the early battles of cosmogony, and to the\nwars of the rocks and fires and earth and stones. It was the same with\nthe flora and fauna. Or to give it in their own words: \"The small\nstones fought with the grass, the stones were beaten and the grass\nconquered. The short grass fought with the strong weedy grass, the\nshort grass was beaten and the strong grass conquered. The strong\ngrass fought with the long grass of the bush, the strong grass was\nbeaten and the bush grass conquered. The bush grass fought with the\ntrees, the grass was beaten and the trees conquered. The trees fought\nwith the creepers, the trees were beaten and the creepers\nconquered--and then began the wars of men.\" Pity but the wars of _men_\nhad been as bloodless as those which preceded them!\n\nThe principle seems to be that whenever one thing prevails to excess\nabove another thing, or is in any way superior, be it rock, stone,\nearth, grass, or tree, we are sure to find some tradition of its\nbattle and victory. The old poetic Samoan forefathers who framed these\nfabulous fights added a deal of circumstance and minuteness to their\ntales, and all was seriously believed by some of their more prosaic\nposterity.\n\n3. A story is told of _a battle between two trees_--a Fijian Banian\ntree and the Samoan tree called Tatangia (_acacia laurifolia_). A\nreport reached Samoa that the trees of Fiji had fought with the Banian\ntree, and that it had beaten them all. On this the Tatangia and\nanother tree went off from Samoa in two canoes to fight the Fijian\nchampion. They reached Fiji, went on shore, and there stood the Banian\ntree. \"Where is the tree,\" they inquired, \"which has conquered all the\ntrees?\" \"I am the tree,\" said the Banian. Then said the Tatangia, \"I\nhave come to fight with you.\" \"Very good, let us fight\" replied the\nBanian. They fought. A branch of the Banian tree fell, but Tatangia\nsprung aside and escaped. Another fell--ditto, ditto--the Tatangia.\nThen the trunk fell. Tatangia again darted aside and escaped unhurt.\nOn this the Banian tree \"buried its eyes in the earth,\" and owned\nitself conquered. As many of the towns and districts are spoken of\nfiguratively by the names of trees noted for strength or beauty, the\ninference as to the real actors in these tree fights is obvious. The\npresent generation, however, will hardly admit that they may describe\nthe wars of _men_.\n\nThe following is a specimen story of a piscatorial fight:--A shark\nwhich had its habitat in a cave on the south side of Savaii mustered\nall the fish in the neighbourhood to go and fight with the great red\nfish of Manu'a. The Manu'a fish with their red leader met them in the\nocean between Tutuila and Manu'a. They fought. The Savaii fish were\nbeaten, and fled pursued by their conquerors. Most of them took refuge\nunder stones and rocks and escaped, but their leader, the shark, fled\nto his own cave. He was pursued, however, and killed by the red fish\nof Manu'a. I tell them that the shark, red fish, etc., must have been\nmere figurative names for chiefs and districts, and the finny troops\nunder them were doubtless living _men_, but in all these stories the\nSamoans are rigid literalists, and believe in the very words of the\ntradition. And yet at the present day they have towns and districts\nbearing figurative names, distinct from the real names, such as the\nsword fish, the stinging ray, the dog, the wild boar, the Tongan cock,\nthe frigate bird, etc. And if such creatures had been known of old in\nSamoa, they would no doubt have had their bear, their lion, and their\neagle, and stories too of their battles.\n\n4. We have also accounts of battles fought by the birds on the one\nside and the fish on the other. The fish and the birds were in the\nhabit of paying friendly visits to each other. The inanga, or small\nfry of a fresh-water fish, were offended at not being hospitably\nreceived on shore by the birds; on the other hand, the birds despised\nthe inanga for being so small. They fought, and the fishes conquered,\nand it ended in the fish becoming birds and the birds fishes; and\nhence they say the back-bone of the inanga projects so much. But after\nthat there was another battle, in which the fish were beaten and the\nbirds conquered; and ever since the birds have had their wings, and\ntheir supremacy, and the right of going to the sea, or the river, as\nthey please, to pick up the fish which come within their reach.\n\nA battle also between the owl and the serpent is noteworthy. It runs\nas follows:--There were ten brothers, whose names were Sefulu, Iva,\nValu, Fitu, Ono, Lima, Fa, Tolu, Lua, and Tasi, and so named from the\nten numerals, which in those days began with Sefulu as 1, and ended\nwith Tasi as 10. These ten brothers went to the forest to cut wood for\na large canoe. They came upon an owl and a serpent fighting. Sefulu\nwas walking first, and to him the owl called out; \"Sefulu, you come\nand kill my enemy here, the serpent, and if you do, you shall have a\nright to the Ifilele and Maota timber trees\" [_Afzelia bijuga_, and\n_Dysoxylon Sp._]\n\n\"No, let us pass on,\" said Sefulu, \"there are plenty of other trees\nwhich will answer our purpose.\" Then the owl turned to Iva and all the\nothers on to Lua, and implored help in killing the serpent, but each\nin turn answered as did Sefulu. Tasi, however, replied to the entreaty\nof the owl, and said, \"Yes, I will,\" and grasping his felling axe,\nstruck out at the serpent and killed it. \"Well done, Tasi!\" said the\nowl, \"and to keep in remembrance for all time to come your bravery,\nand respect for me, you shall stand foremost in everything that is\nnumbered. Sefulu who has been _first_ shall now be _last_, and you who\nhave been last shall always be first.\" And so it has continued to the\npresent day--the first, Tasi, and the tenth, Sefulu.\n\n5. The appearance or forms of things, as in this latter instance\nperhaps, have also suggested some other _fabulous stories_. They say\nthat the rat had wings formerly, and that the large bat or flying fox\nat that time had no wings. One day the bat said to the rat: \"Let me\ntry on your wings for a little, that I may see how I like flying.\" The\nrat lent the bat his wings, off flew the bat with the wings, and never\ncame back to return them. And hence the proverb applied to a person\nwho borrows and does not return: \"Like the bat with the rat.\"\n\nTake another illustration. With the exception of the mountain plantain\n(_Musa uranospatha_) all the bananas have their bunches of fruit\nhanging downwards towards the earth, like a bunch of grapes.\n\nThe plantain shoots up its bunch of fruit erect towards the heavens.\nAs the reason of this, we are told that of old all the bananas held\ntheir heads erect, but they quarrelled with the plantain, fought, were\nbeaten, and, ever since, have hung their heads in token of their\ndefeat, whereas the plantain is erect still, and the symbol of its own\nvictory.\n\n6. They have a number of _other fabulous stories_ referred to in\nproverbial language in daily use. Take the story of the fowl and the\nturtle. A fowl made her headquarters over a rock from which a cool\nspring of fresh water ran out into the adjacent stream. One day a\nturtle made its appearance. It was enjoying the cool fresh bath, and\nrising now and then to look about, when it was addressed roughly by\nthe fowl: \"Who are you?\" \"I am a turtle.\" \"Where have you come from?\"\n\"From the hot salt sea.\" \"What are you doing here?\" \"Bathing, and\nenjoying the fine cool fresh water.\" \"Be off, this is my water.\" \"No,\nit is mine as much as it is yours.\" \"No, it is mine, and you must be\noff.\" \"No I won't. I have as much right to be here as you.\" \"Well,\nthen,\" said the fowl, \"let us decide in this way which of us will have\nit. Let each of us go away, and whoever is _first_ here in the morning\nshall have the right to the spring.\" \"Let it be so,\" said the turtle,\n\"I'm off to the briny sea; you go away to the village.\"\n\nThe turtle was back from the sea, up the river, and at the spring,\nvery early in the morning. The fowl thought there was no need to\nhurry, as she could with _one_ bound on her wings be at the rock; and\nso she roosted till the sun was rising, and then flew over to the\nrock, but there was the turtle before her! \"You are there, I see,\"\nsaid the fowl. \"Yes, I am,\" replied the turtle, \"and the spring is\nmine.\" And hence the proverb applied to the lazy and the late: \"Here\ncomes the fowl, the turtle is before you!\"\n\n7. Here is another of these fabulous stories:--There were three\nfriends, a rat, a snipe, and a crab. They thought they would like to\nlook about them on the sea, and so decided to build a canoe and go out\non a short cruise. They did so, and when the canoe was ready off they\nwent. The snipe pulled the first paddle, the crab the second, and the\nrat steered. A squall came on, and the canoe upset. The snipe flew to\nthe shore, the crab sank and escaped to the bottom, and the rat swam.\nThe rat was soon fatigued, but an octopus came along, and from it the\nrat implored help. \"Come on my back,\" said the octopus. The rat was\nonly too happy to do so. By-and-by the octopus said: \"How heavy you\nare! my back is getting painful.\" \"Yes,\" said the rat, \"I drank too\nmuch salt water when I was swimming there; but bear it a little\nlonger, we shall soon be at the shore.\"\n\nWhen the octopus reached the shore off ran the rat into the bush. The\noctopus felt the pain still, however, and now discovered that the rat\nhad been gnawing at the back of its neck. The octopus was enraged,\ncalled all his friends among the owls to assemble, and begged them to\npursue and destroy the rat. They did so, caught it, killed it, and ate\nit, but there was hardly a morsel for each, they were so many. And\nhence the proverb in exhorting not to return evil for good:--\"Do not\nbe like the rat with the octopus, evil will overtake you if you do.\"\n\n8. Here is a story of Toa and Pale, or Hero and Helper.\n\nThe King of Fiji was a savage cannibal, and the people were melting\naway under him. Toa and Pale were brothers, they wished to escape\nbeing killed for the oven, and so fled to the bush and became trees.\nIt was only the day before a party were to go to the woods to search\nfor a straight tree from which to make the keel of a new canoe for the\nking. They knew this, and so Pale changed himself into a crooked stick\noverrun with creepers, that he might not be cut by the king's\ncarpenters, and advised Toa to do the same. He declined, however, and\npreferred standing erect as a handsome straight tree.\n\nThe party in search of a keel went to the very place, liked the look\nof Toa, and decided to cut it down. They cut, and Toa was felled to\nthe ground, but Pale, who was close by, immediately raised him up\nagain. The carpenters were confounded--cut again--but it was just the\nsame. They persevered, and the cutting, falling, and rising again,\nwent on till night fell, when they gave it up. After they left Toa\nsaid to Pale, \"What a Toa (trouble) I have been to you!\" and hence\n_the proverb_ to this day, when a person or thing has been a trouble\nto another, he says to the sufferer in a sympathising or apologetic\ntone: \"_What a Toa it has been to you!\"_\n\n9. The following are a few more of these _proverbs_, but stated more\nbriefly.\n\n(1) \"One and yet a thousand,\" is a common description of a clever man,\nand equivalent to our own expression: \"He is a host in himself.\"\n\n(2) \"Only the appearance of plait.\" Spoken of a thin worn-out person\nreduced to a mere shadow. Not a real plaited mat, but only the\nappearance of one.\n\n(3) \"Many footprints.\" Spoken of a large settlement which makes many\nat a festival, or night-dance, or public meeting of any kind.\n\n(4) \"A single cocoa-nut.\" Referring to a single nut hanging from a\ntree. This is said of a man who has no brothers, and who is therefore\ncalled the single nut of the family.\n\n(5) \"Great and yet small.\" Applied to a populous place which has no\n_courage_. Or a large family, but without one who has any pluck.\n\n(6) \"The emptiness of a large basket.\" A good deal of food seems but\nlittle if put in a large basket. Also the population of a large\nvillage, if the houses are widely apart, seems small until they really\ncome together.\n\n(7) \"The break of a cocoa-nut leaf net.\" This leaf net is an\narrangement for enclosing fish by a long string of cocoa-nut leaves,\nwhich, if the leaves break, can be easily tied again. This is spoken\nof a chief who dies but leaves a number of sons to take his place.\n\n(8) \"Afterwards touched.\" If a family is numerically strong, no one\ndares to injure them. If, however, a number die, then those who\nsurvive are more liable to insult or injury from the neighbourhood. In\nthe event of such ill-usage they throw it back on their injurers: \"You\ndared not touch us before.\"\n\n(9) \"Helping with the burden.\" As one may run in and stretch out his\nhand to ease the shoulder of a weak person struggling under a load, so\na person who prompts a public speaker in a difficulty is said to help\nwith the burden.\n\n(10) \"Covering the dead bird.\" If a pigeon sees its mate fall dead it\nwill drop down and cover the body with its wings even if it should be\nkilled also. To this the Samoans compare a brother who will rush in\namong troops after his wounded brother even if he should be killed\nhimself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nNAMES OF THE ISLANDS.\n\n_Illustrating Migrations, etc._\n\n\n1. Of the group generally, it is said that a couple lived at Pulotu\ncalled Head of Day and Tail of Day. They had four children--(1) Ua, or\n_Rain_; (2) Fan, _Long grass_;(3) Langi, _Heavens_; (and 4) Tala, or\n_Story_. The four went to visit Papatea. Pulotu is in the west,\nPapatea in the east. The Papateans heard of the arrival of the four\nbrothers and determined to kill them. First, Ua was struck on the\nneck; and hence the word _taua_, or beat the neck, as the word for\nwar. This was the beginning of wars. Others stood on the neck of Fan,\nand hence the proverb in war: \"To-morrow we shall tread on the neck of\nFan.\" Others surrounded and spat on Langi, and hence the proverb for\nill-usage, or rudely passing before chiefs: \"It is spitting on Langi.\"\nTala was spared, and escaped uninjured.\n\nTala and Langi returned to Pulotu and told about their ill-usage.\nThen Elo, the king of Pulotu, was enraged, and prepared to go and\nfight the Papateans. This was the first war in history. They went,\nthey fought, they conquered, and made a clean sweep of Papatea; and\nhence the proverb: \"Like the rage of Elo.\" Also for a village\ndestroyed in battle they say: \"Ua faa Papateaina\"--_made to be like\nPapatea._\n\nAll who fled to the bush were sought and killed, only those who fled\nto sea escaped. A man called Tutu and his wife Ila reached the island\nof Tutuila, and named it so by the union of their names. U and Polu\nreached Upolu, and hence the name of that island by uniting their\nnames. Sa and Vaila reached Savaii, united their names also, and, for\nthe sake of euphony, or, as they call euphony \"lifting it easily,\"\nmade it Savaii instead of Savaila.\n\nElo and his warriors went back to Pulotu. Langi and Tala after a time\ncame to Samoa, but went round by way of Papatea,[3] and from them also\nthe people of Manono and Apolima are said to have sprung.\n\n2 MANU'A.--This name embraces three islands at the east end of the\nSamoan group. Manu'a means _wounded_. As the story runs, the rocks and\nthe earth married, and had a child, which, when born, was covered with\n_wounds_; and hence the name of the said small group of three islands.\n\nThe story of Lu figures here again. He had a son who was named Moa,\nafter his preserve fowls, and this Moa became king of Manu'a. From\nthat time fowls were no longer called _Moa_ on Manu'a, but Manu lele,\nor _winged creatures_, out of respect to the name of the king.\n\nFitiaumua, or _Fiji the foremost_, is also mixed up with Manu'a\nhistory. He was said to have come from the east, was a great warrior,\nconquered at Fiji, and in his lust for conquest came to Samoa. He\nsubdued all the leeward islands of the group, reached Manu'a, and\nthere he dwelt. All Samoa took tribute to him, and hence the place was\ncalled the Great Manu'a.\n\n(1.) _Ta\u016b_ is the name of the principal island of Manu'a. Its\nprincipal village is also called Ta\u016b. It is said to have had its name\nfrom the child of Faleile-langi--_House roofed by the heavens_, that\nis to say, no house at all, and alluding to the remote tradition of a\ntime when people had no houses. This lady was the daughter of the god\nTangaloa, and had a child who was _dumb_, and from that child she\nnamed the island Ta\u016b. \u016a expresses the hollow unintelligible sound\nemitted by the dumb.\n\n_Fitiuta_, or Inland Fiji, is the name of a principal village. It was\nformerly called Anga'e, or _Breathing hard_, from the hard breathing\nat its birth of a child of Rocks and Earth. But the name was changed.\nMoiuuoleapai, a daughter of Tangaloa, married the king of Fiji and\nwent and lived there. She was ill-used and sent to the backwoods of\nFiji. Taeotangaloa heard that his sister was being ill-treated, and\nwent off to Fiji to see if it was true. It was true. He stood by her,\ncheered her solitude, and by a great yam and banana plantation he\nturned the bush into a fruitful garden. The king of Fiji heard of it,\nwent and made up matters with his cast-off wife, as he much wished the\nyams, which were scarce at the time, and hence the proverb: \"Do you\ncall them friends who are but friendly to the _yam?_\" The king named\nthe fertile spot Fitiuta, and when Taeotangaloa returned to Manu'a he\nchanged the name of the village from Anga'e to Fitiuta.\n\n(2.) _Olosenga_ is the central island in the Manu'a group. This was\ncalled the land of the god Fuailangi, _Originator of the heavens_. He\ndug up the earth on the land of the chief Niuleamoa on Ta\u016b. The latter\npushed it off into the sea as a floating island, jumped on to it with\nthe god Fuailangi, together with a lady called Olo, and other two\nchiefs named Puletainuu and Masuitufanga. Away they went to Tonga,\nseeking some place suitable for the residence of a war god. They\nreturned to Samoa, touched at Savaii and Upolu, and then went to\nTutuila, but as the people there began to make a dunghill of their\nfloating island, they went back to Manu'a, and rested between Ta\u016b and\nOfu, as Fuailangi thought he could there fight at pleasure with the\npeople on either side of him.\n\nSenga, the chief of Ofu, looked out, was surprised to see the new\nisland, went over to look at it, and soon after married Lady Olo. They\nunited their names, and called it _Olosenga_. The god Fuailangi in\nafter years was in repute, and dreaded. He was incarnate in the sea\neel, had an altar which the people carried about with them, and any\npersons cooking or eating the sea eel had their eyes burned and their\nscalps clubbed as a punishment. Another story is that some parrots\nflew ashore from a Fiji canoe. Olo means _fort_ and Senga a _parrot_,\nand hence the island was called Olosenga--the fort or refuge of\nparrots.\n\n(3.) _Ofu_ is the name of a third island at Manu'a. Ofu means\n_clothed_. Faleile-langi, the daughter of Tangaloa, had another child,\nand this one they clothed, and, in remembrance of the early tailoring,\nthe island was called Ofu.\n\n3. TUTUILA.--The prevailing story of the origin of the name of this\nisland is the one already referred to. Tutu the man and Ila the woman\ncame from the eastward, and dwelt on the island. They had a daughter\nborn to them there and called her Salaia. When weak and dying they\nbegged that after their death their names might be remembered.\n\nAfter they passed away Salaia, or, as some call her, Sangaia, united\nthe names of her parents, and named the island Tutuila.\n\n4. NUUTELE is a small island off the east end of Upolu. It is said to\nhave been so named from two men who came to seek a steersman for the\nking of Fiji. Nuu was the name of the one, and Tele the other. The\nunion of their names became the name of the island.\n\n5. UPOLU.--There are a number of diverse stories as to the origin of\nthis name, as is the case with all these ancient legends.\n\n(1.) The most prevailing fragment is the one already alluded to of the\ntwo called U and Polu who fled from Papatea. Their united names became\nthe name of the island. They had a son, and they named him king of\nUpolu. He called his village the Malae, or meeting-place of Upolu, and\nall the gods of the group assembled there at times. It was here they\nmet to discuss the question as to the duration of human life (see p.\n9).\n\n(2.) Upolu was said to be the capital of Pulotu. In a time of war a\nnumber of people fled from Pulotu, reached this island of the Samoan\ngroup, and called it Upolu, in remembrance of their native land.\n\n(3.) Timuateatea, _Wide-spreading rain_, the daughter of Tangaloa of\nthe heavens, married a chief on earth called Beginning. They had a son\ncalled Polu. The father, in thinking of some employment for his boy,\nlooked over to the mountains of Savaii, and it occurred to him that it\nwould be well to get a canoe and go over and see whether there were\npeople over there or only mountains. He called Polu, and told him to\ngo up to his grandfather in the heavens and fetch some carpenters,\nthat they might build a canoe, cross the channel and explore Savaii.\nPolu refused, but at length yielded and went up. The carpenters did\nnot care about the job, but Polu was most urgent, and would take no\ndenial. U is the word for _urge_. His grandfather asked the name of\nhis island. Polu said it had none; and on this Tangaloa said: \"Very\nwell, when you go down call it _U_polu, in remembrance of your being\nso urgent on the carpenters.\"\n\n6. MANONO, a small island, 3 miles in circumference, between Upolu and\nSavaii, has the following historic fragments:--\n\n(1.) Nono came from Fiji. He was the son of Tuiolautala, king of Fiji.\nThere came with him Sa'um\u0101, the brother of the king, and Tupuivao, the\ngod of Fiji. A family quarrel about a fish led them to come away.\nTheir canoe made the land between Savaii and Upolu. The god Tangaloa\ncame down and stood on the bow of their canoe and told them not to go\nto Savaii or Upolu, lest they should be trampled upon, but remain\nwhere they were. Then Tupuivao vomited a quantity of land he had\nswallowed at Fiji, and so made Manono and its neighbouring island\nApolima. He also appointed Sa'um\u0101 to live on the latter, and Nono to\ntake up his abode on Manono, which they so named from M\u0101 and Nono.\n\n(2.) The chief Lautala came from Fiji on a war expedition. He first\ntouched at Manu'a, and then came and conquered Upolu. After that he\nlived on Manono. He made a net, fished, and hung it up to dry. In the\nnight a number of gods came and tore it to pieces. Lautala then\nattacked the gods, and drove them off with great slaughter. He could\nnot count the number killed, but supposed them to be _Mano_, or ten\nthousand, and hence the name of the island Manono.\n\n(3.) Lautala was the name of an island at Fiji, and noted for war. It\nbroke away from Fiji, and was brought sailing along the ocean to Samoa\nby the chief Nono, who came to seek a suitable place for carrying on\nwar. He first went to Manu'a, but did not like it. He then went to the\nspace between Tutuila and Upolu, but did not fancy that either. Then\nhe came to the space between Upolu and Savaii, and thought that would\ndo, as he could attack Upolu or Savaii, whichever he pleased. He\nanchored his island there, where it now is, and named it Manono, after\nhimself. Hence it is said that Manono is not a part of Samoa, but a\nfragment of Fiji, and that of old there was no land between Upolu and\nSavaii.\n\n7. APOLIMA is a small island three miles from Manono. Manono and\nApolima were two sons of the king of Fiji. One day Manono cooked an\noven of yams for his father and brother chiefs, but served it up\nwithout a fish. His father was angry, and so off went Manono with a\nspear and speared a fish and took it to his father. His father was\nstill angry, and hurled a spear at him. He fell, pulled it out of his\nneck, and got up and ran off to Samoa.\n\nApolima remained still in Fiji, but after a time came in search of his\nbrother and found him where he now is. Before he left Fiji his father\ntold him to call himself Apo-i-le-lima, or Apolima, which means,\n_Poised in the hand_, from the spear which he held when he speared\nManono. They have been often attacked, but never conquered, from their\nimpregnable island fortress. It is a great high hollow basin-shaped\nisland, inaccessible all round but at one narrow chip in the west side\nof the basin, which can be easily defended.\n\n8. SAVAII is the largest island of the group, and the name is\naccounted for in various ways:--\n\n(1.) The king who propped up the heavens had a wife called Flying\nClouds, and two children, the one was called Savaii the Great, and the\nother Upolu the Great. Savaii dwelt on Savaii, and Upolu on Upolu, and\ngave their names to their respective islands.\n\n(2.) A couple came from Fiji, the one was named Sa and the other\nVaii, or Vaiki, according to some. They landed at the south-west side\nof the island, and lived there. Vaii, the husband, died, and then Sa\nput her name first and united the two, as Savaii, the name of the\nisland.\n\n(3.) Two brothers, the one called Vaii, and the other Polu, with their\nsister, Vavau, came from the east. The young woman, Vavau, divided the\nland--told Polu to go to Upolu, and Vaii to remain on Savaii. Her name\nis perpetuated in the word, which as a noun, means \"ancient times,\"\nand, as an adjective, is used to express ancient, perpetual, and\neverlasting.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 3: There is an island called Maatea in the Paumotu group.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nPOLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF NOTE ON UPOLU.\n\n\nOn Upolu the name of Pili has an early place among the doings of\nmortals and in the division of the lands. In one of the traditions his\nhistory runs thus:--Manga had a daughter called Sina, who married the\nking of Manu'a. They had a daughter called Sinaleana, _White of the\ncave_, because she lived in a cave in which there was also kept the\nparrot of the king. The god, Tangaloa, of the heavens looked down and\nfancied her. He sent Thunder and Storm for her; they did not get her.\nLightning and Darkness were also sent to fetch her, but they also\nfailed. Next Deluging Rain, dashing down in great egg-drops, was sent,\nbut to no purpose. He then let down a net, which covered up the mouth\nof the cave, caught her, and pulled her up to the heavens. She became\nhis wife, had a child, and named him Pili, or _Entangled_, from the\nway in which she was entangled in the net.\n\nPili grew up to manhood under the care of the gods, and was sometimes\ntold, pointing down to the earth, that that place was his. He begged\nof his father Tangaloa to be allowed to go down. The reply was: \"If\nyou go down, come up again. But if you wish to go and not return, take\nmy wooden pillow and fishing-net with you.\"\n\nHe was let down to the earth by the fishing-net, and placed on Manu'a.\nThe king of Manu'a asked where he came from, and on hearing that he\nwas his grandson, and that his mother, Sina, was still up in the\nheavens, he wept aloud. Pili went to visit Tutuila, tried his hand at\nfishing, but caught nothing, and was mocked by the Tutuilans. He then\nswam away to Savaii, took up his abode at the village Aopo, and from\nthat was called Piliopo. He quarrelled with the chief there and went\noff to the village called Palapala, where he met with Tavaetele,\n_Great tropic bird_, who had come from Aana on Upolu to seek taro\nplants. The Palapala people were generous, and presented the Upolu\nchief with 100,000 plants. The retinue of the chief made a difficulty\nabout taking so many across the channel, but Pili stepped forward and\nsaid he would bring them all over himself, which he actually did, and\nhelped in making a taro plantation, which extended from the one side\nof Aana to the other, right across the island. He remained there and\nmarried Sina, the daughter of this chief.\n\nPili and his wife had four children. First there were twins, the one\ncalled Tua and the other Ana. Tua was so named from the _back_ of a\nturtle which Pili caught at that time, and Ana from the _cave_ in\nwhich it was taken. The next born was called Tuamasanga, or, _After\nthe twins_. Then followed Tolufale, or _Three houses_, from the three\nhouses into which the mother was taken before the child was born.\n\nWhen Pili was old and dying he called his children together and\nappointed them their places and employments. To Tua, the eldest, he\ngave the plantation dibble, as the business of agriculture, and the\neastern division of Upolu now called Atua. To Tuamasanga he committed\nthe orator's staff and fly-flapper, with which to do the business of\nspeaking, and, as a residence, the central division of Upolu called\nTuamasanga: hence the name of the district there called Sangana,\n_sacred to oratory_. To Ana he gave the Spear as the emblem of war,\nand as a district, the western division of Upolu called Aana. Tolufale\nwas to live on Manono, but to go about and take the oversight of all.\nThe old man finished up his will with: \"When you wish to fight, fight;\nwhen you wish to work, work; when you wish to talk, talk.\" After his\ndeath they separated, and went to their respective places and\nemployments.\n\n1. ATUA is the eastern division of Upolu, and it again was subdivided\ninto what they called the head, the middle, and the tail.\n\n(1.) _Aleipata_ is a district at the east end of the island, and was\ncalled the head, as the titled king or _head_ of Atua resided there.\nThe name originated in Alei and Pata, a couple who were said to have\ncome from the heavens and taught their children to build houses. They\nwere very good-looking, and charged their children that when they died\nthey were to be buried in a standing posture, with their faces\nuncovered, that people might still come and look at them; and from\nthis probably originated the custom of embalming practised there.\n\nLefao was the name a chief who came from Tutuila and lived in one of\nthe districts bordering on Aleipata. When the meeting was held for the\ndivision of the lands of Atua he did not attend, but the chiefs voted\nhim the place and neighbourhood where he lived at Lepa, or the _wall_,\nwhich, of old, ran across the island and ended there, and hence the\nplace was named Salefao--sacred to, or, _the province of Lefao_.\n\n(2.) _Lufilufi._--This settlement, on the north side, was the\nprincipal residence of the kings of Atua. The word means\n_food-divider_. It had its origin in the name of a fish called Naiufi,\nwhich was cut up, on one occasion, with surprising dexterity by one of\nthe king's attendants with only a bit of the cocoa-nut stem as a\nknife. He received on that account the name of _Lufilufi_, and was\npromoted to be chief carver to the king, and to rule in all divisions\nof food on public occasions. The town was named after him, and to\nthis day in all public gatherings the distribution of the food part\nof the entertainment is committed to some of the young men of this\nplace.\n\n(3.) _Saluafata._--This village is closely attached to Lufilufi, and\nwas so named from a lady called Luafata who lived there, and whose\ndaughter married the king of Atua. Her grandchild by this royal father\nwas among the indulged, and, like other scions of royalty in Samoa,\nhad such privileges as to stand or walk about when he ate his food;\nand, while others carried burdens of cocoa-nuts, etc., he was allowed\nto march up and down with a fancy spear, and play at spear throwing.\nHe was named the Right-arm-of-Atua, and took the lead in the village\nas body-guard of the king.\n\n(4.) _Solosolo_ means _falling_, and the town was so named from a\nloose stone wall which the first settlers there built, but which\nrepeatedly fell down. Aumua and Oloatua are the names of two divisions\nof the settlement, separated by the wall. These were the names of two\nattendants of a lady called Manu, who had several Samoan suitors but\nrejected them all, and went to Tonga. Two Tongan kings made proposals\nto her. The one was good-looking, and the other was more noted for\ngood living and even cannibal preferences. Her attendants advised her\nto marry the latter, but to try and get her share of the cannibal\nfeast _alive_, and save them. She took their advice, married the\ngourmand king, and when baked human bodies were laid before her,\nbegged that, for the future, _such_ offerings might be presented\nalive. This was granted, and one after another of her share in the\nvictims was passed over, alive as she got them, to the care of her\nattendants, Aumua and Oloatua, at a place on the opposite side of the\nroad. By-and-by it became a large village of the saved.\n\nQueen Manu had a daughter called Vaetoeifanga who grew up to\nwomanhood. She was heard of in Samoa, and a lady was sent to Tonga to\ntry and get her to come and marry the king of Aana. The lady described\nhis land as a perfect paradise, with nine springs of water, and she\nwas persuaded to go and be the wife of the king of Aana. When she came\nto Samoa a number of the people from the village of the saved, with\nAumua and Oloatua, came with her, and gave the names to these places\nat Solosolo. Some of them also went further east and occupied and\nnamed some of the settlements about Fangaloa, or the _Long-bay_, as it\nis called from its running far inland.\n\nSolosolo was also noted as the residence of the cannibal _god_,\nManiloa, as he was called. He lived in a valley, and the people\nworshipped him. As they went with their offerings of food they had to\ncross a ravine, walking, Blondin style, on a thick vine which the god\nstretched across the valley. He sat himself in the middle of the said\nvine-rope, shook it as any one he fancied approached, and down fell\nthe victim dead into the ravine, and ready for the next meal.\n\nA young man called Polu-leuligana, _Polu-of-dark-speech_, son of\nMalietoa, called one day when on a journey. The people related to him\ntheir grievances, and how they were being all eaten up by Maniloa.\nThis daring youth concocted a scheme. He told them to fix upon some\none to sit concealed with an axe at the end of the rope next to the\nvillage, and that he would go round, axe in hand also, by a circuitous\ncourse, and conceal himself close by the end of the rope on the other\nside of the ravine; there he would watch till the god was again in his\nplace on the centre of the rope, rise up, shout at the top of his\nvoice, and this was to be the signal to cut the rope at each end and\nlet fall their cannibal enemy. They did so. Next day Maniloa went\nalong and sat down on the rope to wait for his victim. Presently the\nvalley rang with a shout, the rope was cut at both ends, and down,\ncrash into the ravine, went the horrid old creature, and ever after\nSolosolo was saved from his cannibalism.\n\n(5.) _Falealili_, or the House-of-Lili, is the name of a district on\nthe south side of Atua. Lili was a chief from Fiji whose mother was a\nSamoan. He and some others were driven away from Fiji on account of\nbad conduct. When he came to Samoa the land had been divided, but he\ngot his share, as _the tail of Atua_. He built a large house, and from\nthis house of Lili the district was named. It embraces a number of\nvillages and adjacent places, named after local circumstances or\nevents. _Salani_ was so called from the white coral pebbles on the\nbeach with which the women decorate the graves of the dead.\n_Salesatele_ was also called the _sweat_ of Falealili, from the\nheroism of the people of that place in battle. If the king of Atua was\non a journey, and carried along shoulder high, as soon as he reached\nthis village he had to get down and walk, as a mark of respect to the\nchivalrous villagers. _Faleulu_, or Housed-by-the-bread-fruit-tree,\nwas so named from a party who came from Fiji by way of Manu'a and\nTutuila, and who, on reaching Upolu, were benighted there and slept\nunder a bread-fruit tree. The name of _Poutasi_, or One-post, had its\norigin in a great O'a tree (_Bischoffia javanica_) which a chief\nordered to be dug up root and all, planted in the village, and made\nthe centre post of his house. _Lotofanga_ is said to have been named\nafter Loto and Fanga, who were sent by the king of Fiji to search for\na runaway son. A lagoon is said to have been there once, but was dried\nup by these first inhabitants of the place pouring hot water into it.\n\n2. TUAMASANGA is the central division of Upolu, having about sixteen\nmiles of coast on the north side, and twelve on the south.\n\n(1.) At _Malie_, in the district of Sangana on the north side, the\nchief Malietoa had his principal residence when on Upolu; and of the\ndoings there of some of these Malietoas, or \"Pleasing-heroes,\" as the\nname means, many stories are told. After Polu-leuligana had seen the\nold cannibal god dead in the ravine at Solosolo (p. 238) he returned\nto Sangana. On his arrival the first thing he heard was the wailing of\na poor lad who had just been brought over from Savaii and was about to\nbe killed for Malietoa's next meal. Polu told him to be quiet, and\npromised to try and save his life. He ordered the usual green\ncocoa-nut leaves to be plaited, and _himself_ to be done up in them,\nslung on a pole, carried by two men, and laid down before his father\nas if it were the baked victim from Savaii. Malietoa saw a bright eye\npeering through the leaflets, opened, and behold! there was his son\nPolu-leuligana. He was so touched with this extraordinary\ncondescension of his son that he not only saved the lad who was about\nto be killed, but further, to mark the day and the event, he declared\nthat from that time no more _human_ victims were to be killed for the\noven, and that _pigs_ were to be used instead. After this Polu was\nnamed Faaifoaso, or \"Downfall-of-Cannibalism.\"\n\nAnother story is told of the said Malietoa. He was annoyed at the\ndisappearance of some of his bread-fruits, bananas, and fowls, and\nsummoned to Sangana all the priests of the Tuamasanga. Twenty of them\nassembled. He told them what had been stolen, and ordered them to\ndivine the thief. After a long silence they said they could not tell.\nThey were then tied hand and foot, carried outside, and laid down in\nthe blazing sun till they could declare the name of the thief. At the\nsame time Malietoa sent off to Savaii for a noted conjurer called\nVaapuu or \"Short-canoe.\" After some days he arrived, and found the\npriests still tied up in the sun. On hearing the case he turned to\nMalietoa and said: \"Listen while I tell you the names of the thieves.\n_The owl_ has taken your fowls. _The bat_ has eaten your bread-fruits.\nAnd the _Kingfisher_ bird has made away with your bananas.\" This was\nenough. The twenty priests were liberated, went to their respective\nhomes, and told how they owed their lives to the ready reply of the\nexpert Vaapuu.\n\n(2.) _Faleata_, or the \"House-of-Ata,\" embraces a number of small\nvillages, and was so named from the chief Ata. Ata was killed in\nbattle, and his brother Too took it so much to heart that he went away\ninland, scooped out a great hollow, and filled it with his tears; and\nhence the lake there called _Lanutoo_, or \"Lake-of-Too.\"\n\nThe Faleata people were and still are distinguished for their heroism\nand clever scheming in war. In a battle on Savaii they fled before the\nSafune people, or rather _pretended_ to flee. While some fled others\nlay down among the slain as if motionless and dead; and when the\nSafune people came to search for those of their own who had fallen, up\nstarted the living Faleata people with their clubs, rushed at them,\nand again conquered Safune. Hence a _sham_ retreat in war is to this\nday called \"a _Faleata_ flight.\"\n\n(3.) _Apia_ is the name of the principal harbour in the Tuamasanga.\nThe word is abbreviated from Apitia, or _straightened_, and the place\nwas so named in remembrance of a battle, in which the Tuamasanga came\nsuddenly down from the bush on to the fleet of Manono canoes, threw\nthem into disorder, and, in their haste to escape, ran upon one\nanother in the narrow passage out of the harbour. The village inland\nof Apia, called Tanumamanono, or \"The-burial-place-of-Manono,\" keeps\nup in its name the remembrance of the slain of Manono buried there.\n\n(4.) _Laulii_ is the name of a village in the east end of the\nTuamasanga. A couple lived there called Lau and Lii, with a party who\ncame from Fiji and took up their abode in the bay there which was\ncalled \"Sacred to the gods.\" A large canoe was being built by three\nchiefs there in the bush. Lau and Lii wished to see it, as it was a\nvery superior one, and to be called, \"The canoe without a leak.\" They\nmistook the road, wandered, could not find either the canoe or its\nbuilders, and were so angry over the disappointment that they changed\nthemselves into two rocks which stand there, and in remembrance of\nthem the place is called Laulii.\n\n(5.) _Laloata_ is the name of a village inland of Apia. The word\nmeans \"Under the shade,\" and had its origin as follows:--Pai and his\nwife lived there, and had a daughter called Sina. The woman went down\nto the sea one day to fetch salt water for cooking purposes; a small\nsea eel stuck to her cocoa-nut shell water-bottle, and she took it home\nas a plaything for her child Sina to feed and keep in a cup. The eel\ngrew, and then they digged a well for it. One day Pai and his wife\nreturned from some plantation work and found Sina crying, as the eel\nhad bitten her. They concluded that it must have become the\nincarnation of some cruel god, and determined to go away from the\nplace.\n\nAway the three went eastward, but on looking round there was the eel\nout of the water and following after them. Then said the father to his\nwife and Sina: \"You make your escape, and I will remain here and raise\nmountains to keep it back.\" Sina and her mother went on ahead, but on\nlooking over their shoulder there was the eel again still rustling\nafter them. Then the mother said to her daughter: \"You make your\nescape alone, and I will remain here, raise mountains and intercept\nthe creature.\" Sina went on alone, but the eel still followed just as\nbefore. As she passed through the villages the people called her in to\nrest and have a bit of food, and once and again she offered to do so\non condition that they would try and deliver her from the pursuing\neel. When they heard that, and saw the creature, they said:\n\n\"Oh no, you had better pass on; we are afraid of that thing.\"\n\nSina gave it up, thought escape was impossible, turned round and made\nfor her home again. As she passed through one of the villages to the\ncast of Apia the people called the attention of their chief to the\nyoung woman passing, and an eel following her. He told them to call\nher in and have something to drink. She said she would gladly do so if\nthey would only get rid of the eel. The chief called out to her: \"Yes,\ncome in, and we can do that.\" She went into the house, and the eel\nremained outside. The chief gave orders to get ready a cup of 'ava for\nthe strangers, and quietly whispered to the young men to go off to the\nbush and bring all the poisonous things they could lay their hands on\nto mix with it. Soon the bowl was brought in, and the 'ava declared\nready to be served round.\n\n\"Give the first cup to the stranger outside,\" said the chief to the\nyoung men; and out went one of them with a cup to the eel, which was\nat once eagerly drank. But immediately the creature called to Sina to\ngo outside, and when Sina went out it said to her: \"Sina, I am dying.\nLet us part in peace. When you hear that they have cooked me, you ask\nthe head as your share. Then take it and bury it near the stone wall,\nand it will grow up a cocoa-nut tree for you. In the nuts you will see\nmy eyes and mouth, and so we shall be able to look at each other face\nto face still. The leaves of the tree will be a shade for you, and\nyou can plait them into mats, and make a fan also to fan yourself.\"\n\nAfter saying this the creature died. It was soon in the oven; and when\nserved up by-and-by Sina begged the head, took it home with her, and\nput it under the ground near the stone wall. It grew up to be a\ncocoa-nut tree, and she got her leaves, and mats, and fans, and nuts,\nmarked with the eyes and mouth of her departed eel, which she could\nkiss still; and there too she had a shade also when she sat down to\nwork or rest--and hence the origin alike of the name of the village,\nLaloata, and of the introduction of cocoa-nuts.\n\n(6.) _Safata_ is the name of the south side of the Tuamasanga. It is\nsaid to have had its origin in Sa, who came from Fonaui in Fiji, and\nFata of Sangana. Fata had a quarrel with his brother over the Malietoa\ntitle, and so determined to leave the family and take up his residence\non the other side of the island, and there he met with his friend from\nFiji. It contains a number of villages, and a beautiful salt water\nlagoon connected with the sea by a narrow entrance.\n\nThis circular basin is said to have been formed by the dying struggles\nof a great fish. This \"great fish\" had its habitat in the straits, and\nwas long the dread of persons crossing the channel between Savaii and\nUpolu. At length a Savaii man plotted the destruction of the monster.\nHe split up some bamboos, made small knives of them, and tied them\ntogether. He also cooked food for the journey, and went off in a canoe\nwith his two sons to search for the fish. He found it, or rather the\nfish found him, and as it rushed at him with open jaws he called to\nthe boys to crouch down lest they should be injured by the great\nteeth. Away they went, canoe and all, down the throat of the monster.\nHe then untied his bamboo knives and said: \"Now, lads, let us cut away\nhere right and left.\" It is said in one of the stories that he found\nsome other Samoans there: some were dead, but to others who were still\nalive he handed a knife each, and said that they too must help in the\nwork of destruction.\n\n\"The great fish\" was in agony, flew through the ocean towards Upolu,\nwent round the west end, along the south side, rushed in towards the\nland at Safata, tore up a passage for itself, madly wheeled round and\nround, and there and then died. The natives there looked on in\namazement, and when all was still went down to see what the great\ncarcase was. An enormous prize, and soon they commenced to cut into it\nwith their stone axes. Presently they were startled by a voice from\nthe inside calling out \"Strike gently up there!\" And who are you? \"I\nam Alo of Palauli; we have been killing this great enemy of ours.\" He\nand his sons were soon let out of their prison. Ever after he was\ncalled _I'aulualo_, or the \"Fish-enterer,\" and praised for his heroic\ndeed. Some fragments of black rock on one side of the lagoon are said\nto be the petrified bones of the great sea monster.\n\n3. AANA is the most westerly division of Upolu.\n\n(1.) _Alofi Aana, _or the \"Gathering of Aana,\" is the general name of\nthe north side of Aana, and was so called from the gathering of the\nclans there for club exercise and other sports.\n\n(2.) _Leulumoenga_, or \"Headquarters,\" is the name of the capital\ntown, and the residence of the king of Aana when they had one. Once\nupon a time when a king was wanted and they were rather scarce, two\ndaring fellows went to a village thirty miles off, and stole an infant\nof rank and made him king. They cut their hair short, disguised\nthemselves as _women_, and went to the house in the night when they\nheard the shout of joy over the birth of the young chief. One of them\noffered to nurse the baby for a little, and got it. The two slipped\nout with the child, and off they went in the dark. There was some stir\nin the house attending to the mother, and when all were settled down\nsome wonder was expressed that the baby was so quiet \"Who has it?\"\nwent round the house, but, to the amazement of everybody, no one\n_there_ could reply and say \"I have.\" It was days before they found\nout that while they were thus talking, the child and its captors were\nfar on their way back to Leulumoenga with their prize. They kept him\ntoo, and the little man lived to be king of Aana.\n\n(3.) _Fasitoouta_ and _Fasitootai_ are two large villages on either\nside of Leulumoenga. These places trace their origin to Tapuaau,\n_Swimming-Tapu_, or, as some call him, Tooaau, which means\n_Swimming-stick_. He is said to have swam from Fiji on a to'oto'o, or\nwalking-stick. He landed at Leulumoenga, married there, and had two\nsons. When they grew up he divided the wonderful stick, gave one piece\nor _fasi_, to the one son, and the other _fasi_ to the other. The one\nwent to the settlement nearest to the sea westward from Leulumoenga,\nand called it Fasitootai, or \"Bit-of-the-stick-seaward.\" The other\nwent farther away and eastward, and called his village Fasitoouta,\n\"Bit-of-the-stick-inland.\"\n\n(4.) _Other villages_ in Aana have some fragments indicating the\norigin of their names, such as _Faleasi'u_, \"House of the god Siu,\"\nwho was worshipped there. _Samatau_, \"Sacred-on-the-right-side,\" from\na large canoe belonging to the king of Tonga once anchored there, and\nwhich, owing to the illness of a lady on board, was made sacred to\nvisitors on the right side. This place was noted for a hero called\nPoila who once headed the Aana troops, and killed in single combat\nanother hero called Pepe who was the pride of the Tuamasanga, and\nwhose death was the signal for retreat. _Falelatai_ and _Faleaseela_\ntrace their names to the children of a couple from Fiji. The one was\nnamed Latai, or \"Branch-next-the-sea,\" from his having been born\nunder that part of a large tree. The other was called Seela from\nanother incident in his birth. The one lived on the north side of the\nmountain, and called the place Falelatai, or \"House-of-Latai.\" The\nother took the south side, and called his village Faleaseela, or the\n\"House-of-Seela.\"\n\n(5.) _Lefanga_, or \"The bay,\" is a name embracing a number of villages\non the south side of Aana. There is a rising ground there called\n_Taape_, or \"Dispersion,\" which is said to have been the place where a\nparty broke up and dispersed after a visit to the heavens. There were\nfive Atua men and four belonging to Aana.\n\nAs soon as they got up to the skies the people of the god Tangaloa\nlaid a plot to kill them. They prepared a bowl of 'ava for their\nentertainment, and mixed it with poison, but no one was seriously\naffected by it. The Tangaloans then prepared a game at sitting in the\nrain to see who could endure it longest, hoping to kill some of them\nwith cold. One of their party, called Mosofaofulu, that is,\n\"Moso-feather-refuge,\" covered them with a lot of feathers, and so the\nrain had no effect on them.\n\nThe Tangaloans next proposed a game at floating down a stream which\nrushed over a cataract, of which strangers were ignorant until they\nwere on the edge of the fall and tumbling over. The visitors were to\nfloat first, and Fulufuluitolo, or \"Sugar-cane-down,\" took the lead.\nHe planted his feet firmly on a rock near the fall, and as his party\ncame floating down he seized them one by one and jerked them out of\nthe stream and danger on to the land. And hence the proverb for an\nunexpected deliverance: \"Saved by Fulufuluitolo.\" It was then the turn\nof a select party of the Tongaloans to float. Fulufuluitolo held out\nno helping hand to them, and over the fall they went one after another\nand were killed.\n\nThe Tangaloans next told their visitors they were going to treat them\nto some food, and made ready accordingly. They plotted at the same\ntime to fall upon them when they were eating and kill them. The\nTangaloans went with the food in basket-burdens as usual, carried on\npoles over the shoulder, and laid all down. The strangers set to work\nand ate furiously not only the food, but baskets, sticks, and all, to\nthe utter amazement and unnerving of the Tangaloans, who only gaped\nand stared, and could not summon courage to strike a blow.\n\nAs quieter measures failed the Tangaloans proposed a game at\nclub exercise, and thought in that way to kill them off at\nonce. This too was accepted by the strangers. First of all\nTangaloaatevalu, \"Eight-livered-Tangaloa,\" or Tangaloa the\n_plucky_, stepped forward with his club, and up rose Tuimulifanua,\n\"King-of-the-end-of-the-island,\" club in hand also to fight with\nhim. Every blow was well aimed, struck off a liver, and made\nTangaloa reel. By-and-by seven were gone, and as he had only one\n_pluck_ left he called out: \"Enough, enough! I am beaten; let me\nseek something to give you for my life.\" He went off and brought\na fine mat cloth to wear round the body. Tuimulifanua put it\nround his loins, but it trailed on the ground, and had to be\nlifted up; hence it was called Lavasii, or \"Cloth-lifted-up.\" He\ncould not be troubled with the long train, and gave it to another\nof the party called Tuimuaiava, \"King-of-the-first-harbour,\" who\nkept it and brought it down to the earth. Its name, Lavasii,\nbecame a title of chief ruler, and that title has remained in\nthat particular family to this day. One of the Samoans killed in\n1876 in a skirmish with the marines of H.M.S. _Barracoutta_ had\nat that time the title of Lavasii.\n\nWhen the party returned from the heavens they came down on the rising\nground referred to at Lefanga, whence they dispersed, and ever since\nthe place has been called Taape, or Dispersion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nPOLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF NOTE ON SAVAII.\n\n\nThere are three principal divisions of Savaii:--\n\n1. THE FAASALELEANGA.--In prose and poetry this part of the island,\nand even the whole of Savaii, is often called _Sa Lafai,_ or sacred to\nLafai, and among the legends that chief, Lafai, has an early place.\nTupailelei, or Tupai the good, married a daughter of the king of\nTonga, and her father ordered that she should go to Tonga some months\nafter her marriage. She started for Tonga, but the canoe was driven by\nadverse winds to Fiji, and in remembrance of that she called her first\nchild _Vaasiliifiti,_ \"Canoe drifted to Fiji.\"\n\nShe remained there for a time, but again set out to try and reach her\nfather in Tonga, but again they missed their destination and could\nonly fetch Samoa. As Samoa appeared in the horizon her second child\nwas born, and so she named the girl Samoauafotu, or \"Samoa in sight.\"\nIt was afterwards abbreviated to Safotu. Afterwards they went to\nTonga, but again returned to Samoa with Vaasiliifiti, who was now a\nyoung man and married. They came with Fotu. When near Savaii they\ncaught a fai or skate, raised it on the mast and made a sail of it,\nand from that a son of Vaasiliifiti was called Laifai, or \"sail made\nof the fai.\" After a time they saw a fish nibbling at the fune or core\nof a bread-fruit, and from that they called another son of\nVaasiliifiti Fune or \"core.\" In after-times it was arranged that Lafai\nwas to live in one district, Fune in another, and the aunt Fotu\nbetween them to prevent quarrelling. If Lafai commenced strife, Fune\nand Fotu united to put it down; if Fune took the initiative, then\nLafai and Fotu united in restoring peace.\n\nLafai lived in the place subsequently called Lefaasaleleanga, and\ndivided it into three parts among his three children. Fotulafai\noccupied the central and leading part. So Talalafai was apportioned\nIva on the one side, and Muliangalafai on the other.\n\nWhen the Tongans were victorious for a time in Samoa they lived on the\ncommon at Safotu, and thither the people flocked with food and sundry\nother articles of tribute to the chief of the invaders, Talaaifeii.\nTuna and Fata, two sons of Malietoa Savea, or Malietoa I., went with\ntribute, but before returning tore up the le'ale'a, or iron-wood\nmooring-stick to which the Tongan king's canoe was fastened, and took\nit away, which was alike an insult and a declaration of war. With\nthis they made a club, roused all to battle against the invaders,\ngained a victory over them, which ended in their leaving, after\nforming a treaty of peace between Samoa and Tonga, which for upwards\nof twenty generations of the Malietoa family has remained unbroken. To\nperpetuate the remembrance of the victory, the Salafai district was\ncalled Lele'ale'a, or the \"Mooring-stick,\" and further merged into\nFaasaleleanga, or \"Made sacred to the mooring-stick.\" When the\ndistrict after that time united to raise war it was called the lifting\nof the Le'ale'a club of Malietoa; and all the Faasaleleanga people\nrose and followed wherever Malietoa and the club preceded.\n\n(1.) _Sapapalii_ is the name of the principal settlement of the\nMalietoa families, and had its origin in one of family heads called\nPapalii. The celebrated le'ale'a club disappeared about the time when\nthis chief lived, but the deeds and dynasty passed on to posterity.\n\n(2.) _Safotulafai_ is the political capital of the Faasaleleanga, and\nthe place where their representative parliamentary gatherings are\nheld, especially in times of war.\n\n(3.) _Iva_, as already referred to, is one of the three divisions of\nthe Faasaleleanga. It is the name of a village to the south of the\ncapital which, with some neighbouring settlements, takes the place in\nbattle of the advance or attacking party. Iva means _tall_. It is\nsaid the name originated in a man who undertook to build a house\nwithout scaffolding, and from his continued stretching upward added to\nhis stature, and gave a name to the place.\n\n(4.) _Amoa_ is the name of a district in a northeasterly direction\nwhich protects the capital on that side. Some say its name originated\nin the fort of the chief Moa which was there during the Tongan\ninvasion; others trace it to a foreign courtship. Of old, they say,\nthe women courted the men, but now it is the reverse. A lady from Fiji\ncalled Moa came to seek a husband, and found one in a chief called\nNonu, and hence the place was called Amoa, or the settlement of Lady\nMoa.\n\n2. O LE ITU TAOA, the side of Taoa, was the name of the north side of\nSavaii. Latterly it has been called _the side of men,_ from their\nbravery in the war against Aana in 1830. But before that it was called\nthe side of Taoa, after a chief of that name of Fijian descent. Tao\nmeans a _spear_, and was regarded by the people as an emblem of their\nheroism as well as their name. When they went to Manono to fight for\nthem in avenging the death of Tamafainga, they laid down a heap of\nspears in token of their alliance.\n\n(1.) _Saleaula_ had its origin in a chief called Aula, of the ancient\nhouse of Lafai, who, having distinguished himself in battle, was\ninvited to live there, and take the lead in politics and war; and\nhence it became the name of the village, and the principal place for\npublic meetings on that side of the island. He had a brother called\nTufunga, or _carpenter_, who acted as premier in the Faasaleleanga\ndistrict.\n\n(2.) _Lealatele_, or \"the great road,\" is the name which embraces a\nnumber of villages to the east of Saleaula, and had its name from the\nten-mile stretch of level road there.\n\n(3.) Matautu is to the west of Saleaula, and is the district which\ntakes the lead in the attack wherever war is determined on. They trace\nthe origin of the name of their place to Lautalatoa of Fiji, whose\nson, called Utu, resided there.\n\n(4.) _Safotu_ and _Safune_ were named after Fotu and Fune, the\nchildren of Lafai already referred to. The people of Safune once\nfought at Faleata on Upolu. Many of them were killed, and the place\nwhere their bodies were buried was afterwards called Safune, in\nremembrance of the slain. Fune had the epithet feai, or _savage_,\nadded to his name, from the habit which he had of biting his\nfinger-nails when he went to battle.\n\n(5.) _Aopo_, a small inland village, was named after a chief called\nAopo. It is said that the god Tangaloa of the heavens once gave the\npeople there a choice of two things. First, a heap of whales' teeth,\nor, secondly, a stream of water. They chose the former. The god said,\n\"No; you had better have the water.\" They still persisted, however, in\nwishing No. 1, and got it, but it turned out to be a heap of _stones_!\nThey repented and wished the stream, but it was too late. The stream\nwas given to Saleaula, and is called Vaituutuu, or \"Given water,\" to\nthis day.\n\n(6.) _Falealupo_, or the \"House for Lupo,\" is a settlement in the west\nend of Savaii. A couple from Tonga lived there. They had a son who was\nlame, and who could only sit on a rock with a fishing-rod and catch\nsmall fish called Lupo. They built a house for him there, into which\nhe threw the lupo as he caught them. The god Salevao and his\ntravelling party in passing there one day admired the house, and\ncalled it Falealupo, or a house for lupo; and hence the name alike of\nthe fish-house and the settlement.\n\nThere were two circular openings among the rocks near the beach at\nthis village, where the souls of the departed were supposed to find an\nentrance to the world of spirits, away under the ocean, and which they\ncalled Pulotu. The chiefs went down the larger of the two, and the\ncommon people had the smaller one. They were conveyed thither by a\nband of spirits who hovered over the house where they died, and took a\nstraight course in the bush westward. There is a stone at the west end\nof Upolu called \"the leaping-stone,\" from which spirits in their\ncourse leaped into the sea, swam to Manono, leaped from a stone on\nthat island again, crossed to Savaii, and went overland to the _Faf\u0101_\nat Falealupo, as the entrance to their hades was called. The\nvillagers in that neighbourhood kept the cocoa-nut leaf blinds of\ntheir houses all closely shut down after dark, so as to keep out the\nspirits supposed to be constantly passing to and fro. There was a\ncocoa-nut tree near the entrance to those lower regions, and this tree\nwas called the tree of Leosia, or the _Watcher_. If a spirit struck\nagainst it that soul went back at once to its body. In such a case of\nrestoration from the gates of death the family rejoiced and exclaimed,\n\"He has come back from the tree of the Watcher.\"\n\nLua\u014d, or Lua\u014d\u014d, which may be translated \"Hollow pit,\" is another name\nfor the place down which the spirits of the dead were supposed to\ndescend on the death of the body. \"May you go rumbling down the hollow\npit\" was the common language of cursing. At the bottom of this pit,\naccording to the tradition which describes it, there was a running\nstream which floated the spirits away to Pulotu, the dominions of\nSaveasiuleo. When they touched the water they were not to look to the\nright or to the left, or attempt to make for either side. Nor could\nthey come back, as the force of the current rendered that impossible.\nThere was a continued and a promiscuous company of them. Those who had\ndied of various diseases--the good-looking and the unsightly, the\nlittle children and the aged, chiefs and common people--all drifted\nalong together. They were, however, little more than alive, and this\nsemi-conscious state continued until they reached the hades of\nPulotu, where there was a bathing-place called Vaiola, or \"The water\nof life.\" Whenever they bathed here all became lively and bright and\nvigorous. Infirmity of every kind fled away, and even the aged became\nyoung again.\n\nIt was supposed that in these lower regions there were heavens, earth\nand sea, fruits and flowers, planting, fishing and cooking, marrying\nand giving in marriage--all very much as in the world from which they\nhad gone. Their new bodies, however, were singularly volatile, could\nascend at night, become luminous sparks or vapour, revisit their\nformer homes and retire again at early dawn to the bush or to the\nPulotu hades. These visits were dreaded, as they were supposed to be\nerrands of destruction to the living, especially to any with whom the\ndeparted had reason to be angry. By means of presents and penitential\nconfession all injurers were anxious to part on good terms with the\ndying whom they had ill-used. In one place there was a hadean town\ncalled _Nonoa_, or Bound, where all the spirits were dumb, and could\nonly \"beat their breasts,\" expressive of their love to one another.\n\nSaveasiuleo, or \"Savea of the echo,\" was the king of these lower\nregions. The upper part of his body was human, and reclined in a house\nin company with the chiefs who gathered around him; the lower was\npiscatorial, and stretched away into the sea. This royal house of\nassembly was supported by the erect bodies of chiefs who had been of\nhigh rank on earth, and who, before they died, anticipated with pride\nthe high pre-eminence of being pillars in the temple of the king of\nPulotu.\n\nFalealupo is also strangely associated in Samoan story with Tapuitea,\nor the planet Venus. Tapu was a man who, with his wife Tea, lived\nthere and had a daughter named Tapuitea, from the union of the names\nof her parents. The spot on which their house was built they called\nLeviuli, or \"Black apple,\" from the appearance of the sun one day when\ncovered with a cloud. When Tapuitea grew up she became the wife of the\nking of Fiji, and went there to live. She had a son, and was wondering\none morning what name to give him, when some canoe-builders passed\nalong with their tools rattling in the baskets which they carried over\ntheir shoulders. From the rattling of the tools she named her son\nToi-va-i-totonu-o-le-ato-a-tufunga, or, as some would write it,\nToivaitotonuoleatoatufunga. The formidable polysyllable simply means,\n\"Hatchets rattling inside the baskets of the carpenters.\" It was\nabbreviated, however, as in all such cases, and the lad was known by\nthe name of _Toiva_. She had another son, and called him Tasi, which\nmeans _one_.\n\nAfter a time Lady Tapuitea became wild, horns grew out of her head,\nshe ate human flesh, and ten to fifteen Fijians were used up on her\ncannibal appetite. The king looked aghast when he saw the horns on\nthe head of his wife, went and told Toiva and Tasi that their mother\nhad become a cannibal demon, and that they had better make their\nescape to Samoa. This they did. Toiva and Tasi were soon missed by\ntheir mother. She went about inquiring after them; her husband said he\nknew not where they were, and after searching all over Fiji she\ndiscovered their footprints on the beach in the direction of Samoa.\nShe jumped into the sea, swam to Samoa, and reached Falealupo. She\nwent right into the bush and lived there, but renewed her cannibal\nindulgences when she could secure a victim. Many of the Falealupo\npeople fled from the place. Tasi became so afraid of his mother that\nhe begged his brother to bury him alive. Toiva did so, and hence the\nname of a stone there which is called _Tasi_.\n\nOne day Tapuitea, on going down from the bush towards the sea, saw the\nfootprints of her son Toiva in the sand, followed them to a pool of\nwater, and there she saw the shadow of Toiva in the water. She was\nfrantic with joy--leaped, and laughed, and screamed, and then tumbled\ninto the pool, clutching in vain the shadow. As she dived her horns\nstruck against a piece of rock and broke off. She was soon on the\nsurface again, however, and Toiva, sitting up in a pandanus tree,\ncalled out, \"Look up!\" She looked up, and there at last was the real\nbody of her missing son. She wept aloud, implored him to come down,\nand said he had been very unkind to her. He, on the other hand,\nscolded her, blamed her for the death of all their friends, \"and now,\"\nsaid he, \"you are going to eat me next.\" She admitted that she had\nbeen cruel, and had been the death of many of the people, but all that\nwas now about to end; she had determined to go up to the heavens, and\nnever again to return. \"Go,\" said he, \"go,\" and away she went. But\nbefore going up she promised to shine down as an evening star and give\nhim light for his evening meal. She promised also to give him light in\nthe morning, when he went into the bush at the season of\npigeon-catching. Having said this she went up to the heavens, became\nthe planet Venus, which is called Tapuitea. When seen in the morning\nit is called the Fetu ao, or _morning star_, and is said to have\n\"crossed the heavens.\" The reason alleged for the star not rising\nhigher was that Tapuitea did not wish to shine higher than the tree on\nwhich her son Toiva was accustomed to sit. After she went to the\nheavens Toiva went and called all the people back from the bush and\nelsewhere, telling them that his cannibal mother had gone to the\nheavens, and that there was no further danger to any one. The names of\nTasi and Toiva are still perpetuated in family titles at Falealupo.\n\n3. O LE ITU O FAATOAFE, or the side of Faatoafe, was the name of the\nsouth side of Savaii; but it is now usually called \"the side of\n_women_,\" in contradistinction to the north side, which has been\nnamed \"the side of _men_.\" The principal political gatherings are held\nat the bay called _Palauli_, or \"Black mud,\" from the dark mud flats\nwhich appear at low water.\n\nFaatoafe, was the name of one of the chiefs of that side of Savaii. He\nmarried the daughter of the king of Manua, and resided at Manua for\nsome time. When he was arranging to return to his village on Savaii he\nrequested as a favour, and was presented by the king of Manua with an\norator's staff--a long one, reaching to the shoulder, and which the\nking himself was accustomed to lean upon when addressing public\nmeetings. The king of Manua on handing it to him begged him to speak\nwith it at all the village meeting-places on his way along the coast\nof Upolu to his residence on Savaii, and exhort the people to \"plant\nthe ti-root and sugar-cane, and give up stealing.\" Faatoafe accepted\nthe staff on those conditions, and was faithful to make \"planting and\nnot stealing\" the theme of his addresses to the people as he went on\nfrom Manua to Savaii.\n\nFaatoafe had a son called Tupai, who ignored his father's teaching,\nand contrived to be a clever thief as well as a hard worker. He went\nto a village several miles away on a common errand of begging taro\nplants. A large contribution was made for him, but, instead of taking\nthem to his own home and plantation, he feigned sickness, and asked\npermission to plant them there for a time instead of taking them to\nhis own settlement. This was granted, but when the taro was ripe he\nnot only took it all away, but claimed the ground for further use, and\nkept it ever after.\n\nNear to the place where Faatoafe lived there are two hills, which are\nsaid to be the petrified double canoe of _Lata_. Lata came of old from\nFiji, was wrecked there, went on shore, and lived on the land still\ncalled by his name in the neighbourhood of the settlement of Salailua.\nHe visited Upolu, and built two large canoes at Fangaloa, but died\nbefore the deck to unite them had been completed. To Lata is traced\nthe introduction of the large double canoes united by a deck, and\nwhich were in use of old in Samoa. Seu i le vaa o Lata, or\nSeuilevaaolata, \"steersman in the canoe of Lata,\" is a name not yet\nextinct in Samoa; but the person who bears such a sentential\nappellation seldom gets more than the first syllable. As in the case\nreferred to, the youth is known and called by the name of Seu.\n\n_Salenga_ is a name which embraces a considerable part of the\nsouth-west side of Savaii. Three Fijians came to Samoa, viz. Utu,\nTaua, and their sister Lenga. Utu took up his abode, as we have\nalready noted, at Matautu. Taua went to a district farther west, now\ncalled _Sataua_, and Lenga went to the south-west side, and from her\nit is still called Salenga. A rock a short distance from the shore was\nthe principal god of the place. An unusually hollow sound, from a\nchange of wind and current, was a call from the god for offerings; and\nfor a time the fish were untouched and sacred to this Samoan Neptune.\n\nA story is told of a chief in this neighbourhood called Ato, who once\nsaved his people from the wrath of Malietoa. Malietoa and his retinue,\nwhen on a journey, called at the place, and as usual had a day's\nentertainment. Some of the people were heard grumbling over the\nquantity of food necessary for the royal visitors. This was noted, and\non reviewing their travels at the end of the journey they decided that\nthe grumbling indignity must be punished. An armed party was selected,\nand off they went to plunder and burn the settlement, and kill all\nbelonging to the place who fell into their hands. In the midst of the\npanic which the news of the projected attack threw the people into,\nthe chief Tuato ordered all to be quiet, and do what he told them. He\ncalled for cocoa-nut leaves to be plaited, as if for the baking of a\npig, lay down on the top of them, told them to enclose his own body in\nthe leaves, sling him on a pole, and carry him and lay him down in\nthat state on the road at the entrance to the village. When the\nMalietoa troops came up they found, to their astonishment, the chief\nTuato done up in leaves and lying across the road all ready to be\nkilled as a sacrifice and put in the oven, to avert the wrath of the\nking and save the lives of the people. This was sufficient amends to\nthe king. Tuato and the settlement were spared, and his name handed\ndown to posterity as the _saviour_ of his people.\n\nAnother story is told of a man of this district who had been long on\nTutuila, and wished to return to Savaii, but was always refused a\npassage when a canoe happened to be going. He implored the god Moso to\npity and help him. \"Come on my back,\" said Moso; and away Moso went\nwith him, and after a swim of a hundred miles set him down in the\nevening on the rocks at his own place. \"Go and bring me a bunch of\ncocoa-nuts, that is all I want,\" said Moso; but the ungrateful man\nwent on shore, and when he got among the houses and the people forgot\nall about his benefactor, who was waiting patiently for the\ncocoa-nuts. Moso could bear it no longer, and, when close upon\ndaybreak, went on shore and searched from house to house, feeling for\na man whose body had not been freshened by a bath the night before but\nwas rough with saline matter from the ocean. He found him, dragged him\naway, killed him, and smote at the same time all the people of the\nplace. In the morning they were found dead with their heads on their\npillows just as they went to sleep, and hence the phrase \"long on the\npillow\" was used to express _sudden death_.","title":"Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":63510}