84 JOHN FKASEK. 



cocoa-nut is also cooked with salt water ; fish, fowl, &c, that are to be 

 cooked, are first wrapped up in banana and cocoa-nut leaves. 



11. Swamp water. The islanders are often in the sea water, but its 

 saline particles irritate the skin ; hence the need of fresh water to bathe 

 in. If they can find a swamp near the shore, they scoop it out to some 

 depth with cocoa-nut shells, and bathe there. 



12. Ve'a is also the name of a bird ; the Ballus pectoralis. Such an in- 

 cident as this in Ve'a's history is nothing 1 uncommon in Samoa, and is no 

 disgrace. A sister goes to a sister's house to nurse her in a time of ill- 

 ness, and becomes the husband's second wife ; but she occupies an in- 

 ferior position, and is something like a concubine. The word used to 

 express this is fa'a-nofo, ' to cause to sit up or live with, as wife/ and, as 

 a noun, it means ' a second wife' introduced by the first wife. In the 

 story, Ululepapa makes all the arrangements for her husband,- for she 

 is childless. 



13. Towards the sea. One of the first things the mother does is to plunge 

 into the sea with her babe, and bathe. 



14. When the child is born; lit., ' when the navel-string- is cut.' 



15. Broke the rock. That well is still to be seen. See p. 86. 



16. Perched, upon his father. Ti'e-ti'e is a, verb that means 'to be seated 

 on something above the ground/ ' to be perched aloft.' Mothers carry 

 their children on the hip, but fathers on the shoulder or astride on the 

 neck. Ti'e-ti'e, being his father's pet, was often allowed to fall asleep 

 there. 



17. Plaited a girdle. This must have been a girdle of string, so long as 

 to be wrapped many times round the loins. The Samoan girdle, ' titi,» 

 is made of ' ti ' leaves, fastened on a stout cord. The ' lava-lava/ worn 

 by Samoans, is now of calico, originally of ' siapo ' (native cloth) ; the 

 ' malo/ used in war, is narrow. The boy's girdle in the text was the 

 '. malo.' 



18. A fathom, in Samoan, is ' gafa'; it is measured by the full stretch 

 of both arms. 



19. The boy is tiresome. 'Ah! ' o le tama lenei fa'alavelave, ' this boy is a 

 hindrance.' Samoan children, it seems, do ask inconvenient questions. 



20. When the cock crew; toa, 'acock'; ' a warrior.' The Samoans have 

 a native breed of domestic fowls, small like the Bantams. Even the 

 imported Brahmapootra stock becomes, after a few generations, small as 

 the ' toa.' The only indigenous animals in Samoa were the cock and hen, 

 the small black rat, the lizard and the snake. The snake is not venom- 

 ous. 



21. Reed/vL,' rock, 'papa.' I understand the command ' Open, sesame/ 

 when addressed to the ' rock/ but I do not know why a ' reed ' should 

 be ordered to split open. But see note 34. 



22. Swamp apple or 'Malay apple' is the Eugenia Malaccensis; it is 



