Price of provisions. 



SAMOAN GROUP. War song. Mode of living. 



1)1 



He ordered a pig, taro, bread-fruit, &c. &c., for 

 our entertainment. These were cooked in the 

 universal Polynesian mode, by being covered up in 

 a hole with hot stones. We were soon told that 

 the feast was ready, but having had some expe- 

 rience of their cooking, we desired it might remain 

 in the oven a little while longer. Their usual 

 custom is to take it out the moment that the taro 

 is cooked, and from daily practice they are well 

 acquainted with the time required to cook it. This 

 is scarcely sufficient to give the pig time to be 

 warmed through. Our request prevailed, and in 

 the course of half an hour we were summoned to 

 the council-house or fale-tele, where strangers are 

 always entertained. We were shown our seats, on 

 one side of a circle, while Toa, with his family and 

 friends, occupied the other. The mats, except 

 one, were not very clean. The pig, which must 

 have weighed one hundred pounds, was brought 

 in, and laid with the taro and bread-fruit on banana- 

 leaves. A butcher's knife was all that we pos- 

 sessed to carve it with. The whole village, old and 

 young, men, women, and children, who were wait- 

 ing in anxious expectation for their share, now 

 surrounded us, and made it uncomfortable to eat, 

 with so many hungry expectants ; I made haste, 

 therefore, to divide it, and with it they soon dis- 

 persed. The taro was exceedingly well cooked, 

 dry, and farinaceous. The bread-fruit they said 

 was too young, and not being considered good by 

 them, they objected to giving us any of it, but did 

 not hesitate to eat it themselves. A pig is a great 

 treat to them, for although they have plenty, they 

 prefer selling to eating them. 



All kinds of provisions in these islands are en- 

 hancing in value, and will continue to do so. It is 

 remarkable how the prices fluctuate. On some 

 days provisions of all kinds will be exceedingly 

 cheap, and almost any article will be taken in 

 exchange; and then again nothing can be found to 

 please the natives, or induce them to trade, although 

 the quantity for sale is equally as great. It was 

 not a little amusing to see the natives sitting whole 

 days to obtain the price of their fowl or pig, and 

 persisting in their refusal of the offer made; and 

 this was sometimes done by a large number at the 

 same time, all remaining true to each other until 

 their poe or food became exhausted, when they 

 would take the earliest opportunity of disposing of 

 their different parcels. 



In the grove near the village we saw several 

 piles of stones. I was told they were the graves 

 in which they formerly buried the dead, just below 

 the surface. On the top were placed stones, form- 

 ing a high pile. Now they bury their dead in 

 graves about three feet deep, and enclose them 

 with the dracsena, which grows rapidly, and forms 

 a pretty and neat trellis. 



Toa became quite communicative, and as he 

 showed me about his village, he told me, through 

 the interpreter, that before the missionaries came, 

 the chiefs all had their "aitu" or spirits, which 

 they worshipped, and that they felt themselves 

 obliged to do every thing they commanded. His 

 aitu were fresh-water eels, which he constantly 

 fed in the brook near the village. I visited it, and 

 requested him to catch one, which he attempted to 

 do; but after a long search, turning over large 

 stones, and examining holes, he was unsuccessful. 

 He said there were many in it formerly, and quite 



tame ; but since he had embraced Christianity, 

 they had all been caught and destroyed. On further 

 questioning him, he told me that he had himself 

 eaten them; and that formerly if any one had 

 touched, disturbed, or attempted to catch one, he 

 should have killed him immediately. He said his 

 eels were very good to eat, and was sorry he could 

 not find any more ; and laughed very heartily when 

 I spoke to him about eating his aitu. I mention 

 this circumstance to show the powerful effect the 

 Christian religion has had upon the ancient cus- 

 toms of this people. 



After much persuasion, they were induced to 

 sing some of their old war-songs. 



A translation of one of their songs was made 

 by an interpreter, and is as follows. 



A chief of Samoa attacks an enemy on another 

 island and conquers. After the victors have em- 

 barked safely for their island, they sing as fol- 

 lows: 



" Keep her away, and mind the helm." 



And when they get home, the people sing, 



V " We are glad you have come to your island of plenty, 

 We have waited a long time for our chief and canoes." 



Toa, after his unsuccessful search for his favourite 

 eels, went into the brook for a bath, which he told 

 me he very frequently did during the day ; and it 

 was delightful to see the pleasure he took in it. 

 The natives, indeed, are almost constantly in the 

 water, and, consequently, very cleanly in their per- 

 sons. Finding that it occupied too much of their 

 thoughts on the Sabbath, bathing on that day has 

 been forbidden. 



Towards evening, we took our leave of Toa, 

 thanking him warmly for his kindness; we were 

 escorted to the outside of the village by his friends 

 and relations, whilst Toa himself accompanied us 

 to Pago-pago. 



The natives have no fixed time for meals, eating 

 whenever they feel hungry. Their food consists 

 of pork, fish, bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas, &c., 

 but principally of taro. All of these are produced 

 in abundance. Water is their common drink, and, 

 notwithstanding cocoa-nuts are so abundant, the 

 milk is seldom used: the trouble of procuring them 

 is too much for them. They use ava made from 

 the piper mythisticum, and it is the only intoxi- 

 cating drink they have*. It is never used to 

 excess, although old and young, male and female, 

 are very fond of it. The taste, to one unaccus- 

 tomed to it, is not pleasant, being somewhat similar 

 to that of rhubarb and magnesia. Their mode of 

 preparing it is the same as has already been de- 

 scribed. 



They sleep on the large coarse mats with which 

 they always cover the floors of their houses. Over 

 these they spread coloured tapas, some of which 

 are also used for nets of protection against the 

 numerous musquitoes. For a pillow they use a 

 piece of bamboo supported on small legs. Their 

 hair is frequently shorn close, and coral, lime, or 

 ashes sprinkled over it to destroy the vermin, 



* The ava does not, according to the whites, intoxicate in 

 the same manner as ardent spirits, but produces a tem- 

 porary paralysis, tremors, and a confused feeling about the 

 head, indistinctness and distortion of vision, somewhat 

 resembling the effect of opium. 



