220 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



their bodies from the waist to the knee, which are entirely 

 black for the most part, except where relieved by some grace- 

 fully executed stripes and patterns. Of these they are very 

 proud. At a little distance you would think they wore black 

 knee-breeches. The clothing of both sexes is, as in Fiji, a 

 piece of calico or native cloth wound round the waist and 

 reaching to the knees. The women generally adopt a pair of 

 coloured handkerchiefs for their breasts and shoulders. Many 

 of the girls and women wear the elegant sacque, a garment 

 plaited at the neck and trailing a little behind. Some adhere 

 to the lava-lava, or waist-cloth, which is made of a fathom 

 of cotton print, generally of a gaudy pattern, twisted round 

 the body from waist to below the knee ; and on Sundays and 

 holydays they wear a pinafore elaborately got up with satin 

 and lace. The chieftesses wear in addition to this, grass mats 

 of beautifully fine texture, hand made, and almost priceless in 

 value. All carry the inevitable fly-flap and fan. When 

 at work on plantations, or in the bush, or fishing, they wear a 

 kilt of the long, handsome leaves of the Ti (Draccena terminalis 

 Cordyline). If there is one thing in which the Samoans 

 take pride, it is their mats ; and they are really fine specimens 

 of art ; in fact, they esteem these mats more highly than any 

 article of European manufacture, and the older they are, the 

 more they are regarded. Some of them have names known 

 all over the group. The oldest is called Moe-e-fui-fui, or being 

 interpreted, ' The mat that slept among the creepers.' It got 

 this title from its being hidden away for years among the 

 creeping convolvulus that grows wild along the sea-shore. It 

 is known to be two hundred years old, as the names of 

 its owners during that long time can be traced down. The 

 possession of one of these old mats gives the owner great 

 power over families and land ; in fact, it is a title-deed to rank 



