72 JOHN FRASER. 



said, 'I do not know the family of your father.' Then he remained 

 awhile and went away. Then Sa'umani repented that his com- 

 panionship with Le Fe'e had been broken off. 



That is the Sa'umani to whom offerings 9 are made, where is the 

 stone in the road between Tau 1 and Falea-sao. They say that 

 this stone was the stone of the net of Sa'umani. 



Notes. — 1. Tau is the largest island of the Manu'a group in Samoa, 

 and Tau and Falea-sao were villages in it. 



2. Le Fe'e is ' the octopus '; he is a prince in the Samoan Hades, which 

 is called the home of Sa-le-fe'e, ' the family of the octopus/ 



3. Casting of the net. The Samoans, like the other islanders, are keen 

 fishers. They catch fish in various ways — with a large drag-net, with, 

 smaller nets, by hooks on a line, by artificial fly -hooks, by fish-spears, 

 by fish-traps ; to catch sharks they put out a bait, use a rattle of cocoa- 

 nuts to attract the 'fish/ and when it comes to the bait, they slip a noose 

 over its body. The nets are made of the stringy parts of the bark of the 

 ' fan' tree, which are scraped, then spun into cords by twisting them 

 with the hand on the knee, in the usual way ; there is however a pecu- 

 liarity in the making of the meshes of the net. For fishing, two men 

 in a ' dug-out ' canoe launch from the beach ; the one pays out the drag 

 net ; the other, when the boat is far enough out, enters the water and 

 paddles round till he brings the other end of the net ashore ; the whole 

 village then joins in hauling the net and its contents to land. This for 

 larger kinds of fish. Other fish that take refuge within the reef are 

 caught with small nets ; and, to this end, the villagers rear piles of stones 

 within the reef, or they stretch a net across any opening there. The 

 bonito and other smaller fishes are caught by a fly -hook ; the hook is 

 made of tortoise-shell rubbed into shape with incredible industry, and 

 the shank is of mother-of-pearl. 



4. Malae-a-Vavau. The word e malae' is often part of the name of a 

 village ; it means ' the open space in the village where the people hold 

 their public meetings/ A general council of natives for one locality, or 

 from several districts, is called a 'fono.' 



5. Fe'e was angry. This is a touch of human nature, not peculiar to 

 to Samoans. Fe'e had blundered, and he was angry with the man who 

 was more skilful than himself ; so he withdrew in a pet. 



6. Hung it along. The Samoans do not take their nets inland, as Le 

 Fe'e did. The large and heavy ones they carry on hand-barrows to 

 strong stakes fixed on the beach ; there all nets are hung up. But in 

 Karotonga (Hervey Islands), it is usual to hang up long nets on trees 

 near the house of the fisherman, or near the fishing ground. I imagine 

 that, as Le Fe'e is the prince of Hades, he hangs up his net inland, in 



