SAlNfOA. fi43 



tower. This rook is liollow in tiie fniitre, with an aperture 

 at the top. A large iimnber of skeletons, more or less 

 dilapidated, may be seen within this enclosure. 



Mourning- was represented by the natives goino; naked with 

 their bodies smeared with i)i]>e('lay and wood-ashes. This 

 mourning was oflen eontimu^d for a long period. Widows 

 were required to remain in the husliaiurs family ; and when 

 any w^ent home to their own tribe, the chihlren were retained 

 as meml)ers of the father's family. 



Spirit World. 



Sanioans were great believers in the existence of spirits 

 (aitu), superior and inferior. They viewed the air, the 

 sea, and the bush as inhabited ))y these beings, some as 

 " wandering about seeking rest and finding none." Certain 

 bird?, fishes, and animals wei-e supposed to be representatives 

 and embodiments of these. Men and women at times 

 imagined tiiey were ]>ossessed by the ^/7?/,and would act and 

 speak as though under demoniacal ])ossession. Persons 

 afflicted with epile]>sy were commonly believed to be under 

 the influence of an ««7m. Consumptives were also supposed 

 to l)e similarly affected. A near relative of the sick one 

 would arm himself with a spear, and pretend to attack the 

 spirit in order to ex])el it. In the case of sudden death it 

 was said that an aitu had devoured the victim. 



There was a Hades, or spirit world, to Avhich the soul was 

 taken soon after death. Samoanshad the idea tliat a death- 

 bed was surrounded by spirits, waiting to bear off the soul 

 immediately on its leaving the body ; hence, they were afraid 

 to go abroad at night lest they should be caught by these 

 aitu waiting for the dead, and be hurried away in their 

 stead. 



The Hades (called the Fafil) was said to be subterranean 

 caverns below the sea, and had its entrance in two circular 

 basins at the far end of Savaii, the western island of the 

 group. One entrance was for the spirits of chiefs, and the 

 other for those of the commonalty. The disembodied spirits 

 of the eastern islands had to travel over these islands to 

 Savaii. At the w-estern end of Upolu there stands a rock 

 called by the natives " the stone of leaping." From this 

 stone the spirits leaped into the sea and swam to the adjacent 

 island of Manono, at the far end of which was another 

 similar stone ; from this they leaped and swam to Savaii, 

 then Qrosse4 \\^^^' island to the Fafa, the entrance to whicl\ 



