S4 



THE MUSEUM. 



in the alternoons they are most apt to 

 be asleep, and as we passed on through 

 their villages I saw many things that 

 were of interest to me. A woman was 

 spreading something on a piece of cor- 

 rugated iron roofing which was lain on 

 two supports, so that one end was 

 slightly lower than the other. We 

 stopped to watch her and through my 

 interpreter I learned that she was pre- 

 paring cocoanut oil The meat of the 

 dry nuts is scraped up fine and mi.xed 

 with the pulp of another nut called ifiifi, 

 whTch gives it a pleasant scent, and is 

 then spread on the iron in the sun. The 

 powerful rays of the sun extract the 

 oil from the pulp and as it tickles down 

 is caught in a wooden bowl. The oil 

 although often made to sell is always 

 kept in a Samoan house, for with it 

 they are in the habit of rubbing their 

 bodies to give them a sleek appear- 

 ance, a pleasant scent, and also prob- 

 ably to protect the skin against chang- 

 es of temperature. Another woman 

 was sitting in a pool of water scraping 

 a strip of bark on a board with a cock- 

 le shell, and a little farther on in a 

 house we heard the tap, tap, tap, of 

 the mallets with which similar strips of 

 bark were being hammered out thin 

 preparatory to being pasted together 

 to farm the "tappa" cloth with which 

 they dress themselves. Out in front 

 of the house on the pure white coral 

 sand a large piece of the tappa cloth 

 is spread and women artists with their 

 paints in cocoanut shell pots, and 

 brushes from the ripe pandanus fruit 

 are putting on spots and figures in var- 

 ious colors, with some skill and much 

 comfort, their tongues meanwhile per- 

 haps working much faster than their 

 hands. 



At other places we saw them weav- 

 ing mats of cocoanut or pandanus 

 leaves, or stringing sugar cane leaves 

 into sticks a yard long with which to 

 thatch some newly constructed house. 

 But the women do not do all the work 

 in this land of sunshine and song, for 

 we often saw the men preparing the 

 meals in the little square cooking sheds 



at the rear of the houses. They, too, 

 build the churches, bringing the coral 

 blocks from the reefs to butn for lime, 

 and the timbers from the i.iiests, and 

 this morning we saw several men 

 plaining and sawing and nailing, well 

 along in the construction of a war-canoe 

 or long-boat. It was fully 50 feet in 

 length and was arranged for 24 oars- 

 men. Adjustable sailing gear was al- 

 so to be shipped. It is in these that 

 they go on their "melanges," or visits, 

 to Apia to take their produce. It is a 

 scene to which I cannot do justice 

 in description, to be out in a boat and 

 be passed by one of these long slender 

 war canoes, propelled by 24 powerful 

 pairs of arms, some 25 or more gayly 

 dressed men, women and children be- 

 sides the rowers, crowded into the boat 

 and all singing a lively chant in perfect 

 measure with the oar-stroke. 



In the village of Sasai we entered a 

 house to inquire the path to Tapueleele 

 and to rest awhile. We were greeted 

 with "talofas" and hand shakings all 

 around and then seated ourselves on 

 the clean matted floor. The Samoan 

 houses are encumbered with no useless 

 furniture, the floor of its only room 

 serving as a place to sit, eat, and sleep. 

 It is said that a person can accustom 

 himself to most anything, but I never 

 succeeded in accustom.ing my some- 

 what lengthy legs to Samoan life. Af- 

 ter greetings I presented my hosts with 

 some bits of kava root. I was soon 

 asked if I would like some kava to 

 drink, and being very thirsty after the 

 morning's walk in the hot northern sun, 

 I readily assented. As it is always the 

 duty of young girls to prepare this 

 cooling drink, and there were none in 

 the house, one was called in from a 

 place near by. The root is ground up 

 on a flat stone and then soaked with 

 water in a wooden bowl. Afterwards 

 the fibre is strained out leaving a dirty 

 looking liquid which tastes very much 

 like soap-suds. It is passed around in 

 a cocoanut cup, and must be gulped, 

 not sipped, I soon became used to the 

 taste and found it very refreshing. 



