SAMOA : NA VIGATORS ISLANDS 



209 



STREET IN APIA 



the necessary irrigation for the rank vegetation growing on every 

 available spot, from the beach to the highest pinnacles of the 

 mountains that rise from every island of the group. 



The Samoan language bears a strong family likeness to those 

 of many of the other Pacific islands, but its resemblance to the 

 Hawaiian tongue is so remarkable as to induce the belief that 

 the two were derived from a common parent stock. It has 

 been observed, however, that any attempt to ascertain which of 

 the Polynesian dialects can be considered the mother tongue 

 must prove fruitless, as the absence of a record of ariy sort, be- 

 yond the transmission of crude history through tradition, effect- 

 ually blocks the road to investigation. By some writers the in- 

 sular language is regarded as original, in the usual acceptation 

 of the word, implying no more than such a degree of obscurity 

 as would render useless all attempt to trace the line to its deriva- 

 tion. The Hawaiian and Samoan natives are able to converse 

 understanding!}' on the subjects involved in their simple life, but 

 each claims that the differences from his own existing in the 

 other are merely corruptions of his own speech. In this respect, 

 however, these islanders are not unique. 



The food of the islanders is mainly vegetable; bread-fruit, taro, 



