SAMOA. 621 



in the families of botii husband and wife ; but the condition 

 of the woman made no change in the intercouj'se of the 

 mai-ried couple. In the Loyalty Islands (Papuan) the 

 woman was then considered taha, and the husband did not 

 cohabit with her till some time after the birth of the child. 

 In Samoa, the husband, sometimes in conjunction with the 

 wife's fatliei-, would make offerings to the family god, praying 

 tliat a favourable time might be granted to the woman, and 

 that a male child might be born. Many promises would be 

 made of what should be done for the god if he were pro- 

 pitious. The priest also was frequently visited, and valuable 

 presents taken him to secui'e his intercession and favoui*. 



The wife's mother, or some other female near relative, 

 became the helper at the birth. Generally very little help 

 was required ; these children of nature often managed quite 

 alone all that was requisite. The woman would go aside to 

 some secluded spot in the bush, and afcer the birth would her- 

 self carry the babe down to the river or spring, wash it and 

 herself, wrap the infant in some soft native cloth (slapo), and 

 then )-eturn to the house. Some superstitious observances 

 were practised with reference to severing the umhilicus ; in 

 the case of a boy it was cut on the blade of a club, with the 

 view that the child should become a warrior ; and of a girl 

 the cord was severed on the board used by the women in 

 beating out their cloth made from the bark of the morns 

 papyrifera, that the gijd might grow up to be an industrious 

 woman. 



For the first two or three days the mother refrained from 

 suckling the child, but it was nourished by the juice of the 

 cocoa-nut or sugjir cane. The kernel of the nut was prepared 

 by finely scraping, or it was chewed by the mother or a female 

 attendant, and then placed in a fold of some fine native cloth 

 and thejui(re expressed therefrom into the mouth of the babe. 

 The mother continued to suckle her child until it Avas two or 

 three years old, although it was taking freely of solid food. 

 This foohsh custom, among others, very much impaired the 

 health and appearance of the Samoan women. When a 

 child lost its mother in early infancy, it was vei'y difficult to 

 obtain a woman to nurse it, from a superstitious notion pre- 

 vaihng that the child of the nurse would die in consequence. 



Infanticide, so prevalent in the westward islands, and ages 

 ago in Tahiti, was not pra(;tised in Samoa. Abortion was 

 frequently ])roduced mostly by unmarried females. Various 

 expedients were resorted to for this horrid purpose, as in the 



