SAMOAN GROUP. 159 



These wars, like those of all savage people, were attended with 

 great cruelty, and neither old nor young of either sex were spared. 

 It is related that after the last battle in Aana, a fire was kept burning 

 for several days, into which hundreds of women and children were 

 cast. 



Their wars were seldom carried on in open fight, but stratagem 

 was resorted to, and all enemies that could be attacked were killed, 

 whether in their houses, or when accidentally met with at their work 

 in the taro patches. 



Their arms consisted of clubs and spears, made of the iron-wood 

 (Casuarina), bows and arrows, and of late years the musket. The 

 man who could ward off a blow and at the same time inflict a wound 

 on his adversary, was considered the best warrior. Each village had 

 its separate commander, and there was no general, their operations 

 being from time to time decided in council. Their spears were 

 pointed with the sting of the ray-fish, which, on breaking off in the 

 body, caused certain death. 



The olos, above mentioned, were usually on the top of some high 

 rock, or almost inaccessible mountain, where a small force cotild 

 protect itself from a larger one. One of these olos, or strongholds, of 

 the people of Aana, during the late war, was on a high perpendicular 

 ridge, which forms the western boundary of the bay of Faleletai, 

 and it was the scene of many a bloody contest. The Manono people, 

 coming by night, would land at the foot of the hill, and attempt its 

 ascent, while those on the top would roll and hurl down stones, 

 generally overcoming them with ease, and driving the invaders back 

 with great slaughter. The latter, however, took a fearful and truly 

 savage revenge for their various defeats. Laying in wait until the 

 women came down to fish on the reefs, they set upon them, and 

 massacred them all. The burning of houses, the destruction of the 

 bread-fruit, cocoa-nut trees, taro patches, and yam grounds, &c, were 

 the ordinary features of these conflicts. 



Prisoners were sometimes spared, but they were usually held as 

 subjects of retaliation, in case of any of the adverse party being 

 killed. 



Upon the occurrence of a cause of war, the parties sent to their 

 respective friends in the different towns to solicit their aid. Such 

 solicitations usually resulted in the whole district, and sometimes the 

 whole of the island, being engaged in a civil war. 



On going to war, they were acctistomed to cast their hair loose, or 



