JJPOLTI. 77 



Dining at one, they spend the rest of the day in amuse- 

 ment, and after supper go to bed at nine. The men do all 

 the hard Avork, even the cookery, which is varied and com- 

 plex, the women simply preparing the food. The latter, 

 who are treated with great respect, imdergo no drudgery, 

 but take care of the houses, and exhibit great industry in 

 making mats and tapa. Their attention to order and neat- 

 ness surprised Captain Wilkes, who says he had seldom seen 

 a place where more attention was paid to cleanliness than 

 at Sagana. A similar regard to neatness he found prevail- 

 ino- in the walks about the village, and in the cultivation 

 of taro, melons, and bananas, whicli is carried on in the 

 immediate vicinity. A broad path leading to the cultivated 

 grounds passes through fine shady groves, and the careful 

 preservation of tliese paths appears to be, we are assured, 

 rather an amusement than a labour to the villagers. Captain 

 Erskine furnishes evidence of the same kind.^ The descrip- 

 tion he gives of the Samoan villages in general affords a 

 pleasing impression of the existence of much industry and 

 order. They are usually in the midst of cocoanut groves, 

 (the certain indications of inhabited places), and the 

 approach to them is by a neatly kept path through 

 provision grounds enclosed by low walls of broken coral, 

 and containing bread-fruit trees, bananas, yams, taro, and 

 ava. The huts are regular and detached, the communica- 

 tions between them kept cleanly swept, as is also the open 

 space before the Fala-tele. In some places the missionaries 



' ' Craise of the " Havannah," ' p. 45. 



