228 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



of South Sea beauty which met my eyes as I looked seaward 

 from this Samoan outpost of the Holy See ? Surrounding us 

 on all sides, and descending to the snow-white beach, was the 

 dense mass of evergreen foliage, varied here and there with the 

 yellow, red, and white of scented flowers. The blue sea was 

 just laving the outward edge of the coralline sand, and beating 

 with fury against the coral breakwater beyond, and from that 

 it spread as far as the wistful eye could reach. I sat down, 

 and revelling in that living dream of Paradise, I reflected on a 

 certain passage of Holy Writ which says, ' Eye hath not seen, 

 nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to 

 conceive ' what that celestial glory is, which is promised for the 

 just, when time has given place to eternity. 



A few days later I was invited by my friend Patioli to a kava 

 feast, and after agood gallop, in company with himself, his charm- 

 ing sister, the British Consul (who is, I regret to say, now no 

 more), and a few other friends, including a gallant naval officer, 

 we adjourned to his house. We, the Europeans, were seated on a 

 pile of mats at one end of the house, and all round, a little 

 below us, were some twenty chiefs. A large wooden bowl 

 standing on four legs was brought in, and ceremoniously placed 

 in front of the princess and one of her cousins, who then took 

 small pieces of the root, which a lad had carefully sliced, and 

 after rinsing their mouths and fingers with a little water, 

 thoroughly masticated (shall I say ruminated ?) a few mouthfuls 

 of the root, and delicately placed the lumps, each about the size 

 of a walnut, into the bowl, which was then almost filled with 

 water. This was well mixed, and the fibre deftly strained 

 away with a bunch of the long fibres of the inner bark of the 

 hybiscus. A half "cocoa-nut shell was then filled by a dexterous 

 twist and squeeze of the bunch of fibre, and handed to us each 

 in turn, as our names were mentioned, with great ceremony. 



