SAMOA: NAVIGATORS ISLANDS 



213 



and the thrower casts the same rod each time. The distance to 

 which a skillful player will throw his rod is astonishing, the one 

 making the longest throw a certain number of times in succes- 

 sion being the winner. One of the results of contact with the 

 white man has been the introduction of card-playing, especially 

 of casino, or " Sweepy," as the natives call it. Cricket has taken 

 a strong hold upon the pleasure-loving native, and so all-pervad- 

 ing was the influence of this game during the reign of Malietoa 

 that it was no uncommon experience for us to come upon a 

 native village utterly deserted by its inhabitants, for the entire 

 population would be in a neighboring clearing, watching or tak- 

 ing part in the favorite game of the British, from whom, of course, 

 they had learned it. 



In the construction of his simple water craft the native follows 

 the time-honored practice described so graphically by De Foe in 

 " Robinson Crusoe." It is a dugout, made partly with fire and 

 partly with the rude chopping implements his skill has enabled 

 him to manufacture. This frail craft can be navigated with 

 safety through heavy weather which would swamp more pre- 

 tentious boats, and is to be found on far-distant voyages among 

 the islands of Polynesia. 



Considerable romance has always attached to that singular 

 material called by the natives ttipa. Though called a cloth, 



-.fifty ■ "*- "* r^ ..—---• r j >•■•.',..-• •■ ^-s»r - ,'1B 





8AM0AN NATIVE CANOE — DUGOUT 



