FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept, 30, 1899. 
The Vampires of ttie Ttiasivi. 
While Uiis is a story of good hunting on the nioun- 
liain peaks of Samoa, it is onlj' proper that it should 
begin where the event itself really did begin — with the 
pigs of Vaiala on tke ocean beach of Upohi. If the 
Tillage swine had not put the idea into lalolo's active 
brain I might never have had the moonlight shooting at 
Suatele's clearing, on the very top of the momitain over 
which i had often watched the frigate birds disappearing 
every evening as the sun went down. 
The Sauioan pigs, native to the soil and in several 
particulars dilTerent from the civilized hog, were a great 
nuisance. Even a six-Avire fence was of no sort of use 
k\ keeping them out of the compound which surrounded 
the consulate; in fact, the closeness of the lower wires 
.seemed only to attract them to the more earnest effort 
to scfa$)C through the barrier. As an abatement of the 
nitisattice, I took a leaf from Robinson Crusoe's book 
and planted a hedge. My hedge was planted just as 
the great exile's Avas; 5tt. stakes were driven into the 
^rosnd. Within a week they were all growing in the 
n'tost equatorial luxuriance, and before the month was 
over the hedge was a wall of green already crowded with 
flowers. It was an interesting feat in horticulture; it 
availed to restrain tlie mature and elderly porkers, but 
the little pigs scraped through and laughed at me, It 
is really exasperating to be laughed at by a young hog. 
I found by actual measurement that a pig aft. long 
could scramble between two stakes in my hedge 4in. 
apart. Just how this happened I must leave to anato- 
mists to explain. 
Whenever official life and Samoan affairs seemed out 
of kilter, I called in Salatemu, because she seemed to 
1»9 the most permanent and abiding of those whom I 
lea^^ned to recognize as the wives of Patu, the portly 
chief of Vaiala village, which lay about all sides of my 
compound, except the seaward aspect. She looked the 
situation over and referred the subject to her hord and 
laaster. Patu pufe his administrative brain to work upon 
the problem, and finally settled it. The tabu which he 
had set for all Samoans on the premises should be ex- 
tended to all pigs as well. The owners of pigs should 
be notified that n^ premises were sacred, 'and any pigs 
found trespassing were to be killed ruthlessly. I have 
often wondered if Patu meant that I was entitled to 
."5hoot his tres^ssing Samoans as well as their pigs. 
At any rate I never tried it, for it is so dreadfully easy 
to stir up an international complication in that worri- 
some kingdom. The only stipulation that Patu made 
was the provision that I was to allow one of the villagers 
to enter the compound for the purpose of removing any 
pig which I might shoot. Thereupon Vaiala dined with 
great ^ee on the assassinated pork. I have some reason 
to suspect that the boys in Vaiala organized a system 
of stampeding the young pigs of the Matautu village, a 
quarter-mile along the beach, driving them into my 
compound for me to shoot and then holding their own 
feasts over the delicacy. Toomalatai, the one-handed 
fihief of that neighboring community, made complaint 
that such a reprehensible game was being played. The 
only answer he got was that any pig in the garden was a 
pig shootable, and therefore shot, for close watching had 
convinced the Samoans that I never missed a shoat among 
my struggling flowers. 
One morning while we were at breakfast, my own 
particular boy, Tanoa. came to me breathless with the 
whispered warning, '''Tamaitai e, manuvaefa e tolu i le 
lotoa," conveying the information that three "four- 
legged animals" were in the garden, for Samoan 
courtesy will not admit of using "pua'a," the name of so 
vile an animal as the pig, in speaking to a superior. 
Tamoa had brought my single-barreled Winchester shot- 
gun, already loaded, and two extra shells. The first pig 
was easy, for he stood and snouted at me. The other 
two were better shots, for the fate of the first pig sent 
them careering around in wfld commotion, and it was 
quick woRk to break down the gun and reload. The 
last pig was killed just as he was struggling in the 
hedge, and another minute would have taken him beyond 
my right to slaughter. The usual shout arose in the vil- 
lage at the prospect of baked pork for diliner, and little 
Fuatino promptly appeared for the purpose of dragging 
eut the slain, a considerable task for so small a girl. 
After the commotion was over and I had settled down 
i«i ni,y shady corn-er on the veranda, I was surprised 
a' warlike figure with a long gun sitting on the 
wKcd^.d mast of the old warship Trenton. whio<i lay 
at the, foot of the flagstaff. It was my young friend 
Talolo, making a front after his own fashion. When 
he felt that he Had produced the impression he sought to 
make, he came through the gate and took his seat on the 
floor of the veranda with his customary polite saluta- 
tions. The gun he carefully stood under the consular 
coat of arms. Somehow, m his mind, that seemed to 
make it oi^ficial and proper. 
"What are you going to do with the gun, Talolo?" I 
asked. "Tau le taua? Are you going to fight the 
Asmr?" 
: "Please, no." The lad seemed hurt that his intentions 
.•were misunderstood. "This the good season; no war 
in good season ; bimeby the bad season come, then fight 
'the war. That my shootgun. When I fight the war I 
' have head-chopping knife and big rifle-gtm and kill 
. rebels. Mebbe Patu he rebel perhaps, then T kill the 
government. Always fight in rainy season, the- Vaipa- 
iolo. You want go shotting, for me .for yon tp-night; go 
, shotting pe'a?" • 
, Any one who has passed a sleepless night hstenmg to 
"the vampires nr flying foxes quarreling in the mango 
tree when the fruit was ripening would be glad to go on 
an expedition of revenge and extermination, or, as Ta- 
lolo worded it "To ^o shotting pe'a." 
But lately there had been few vampn-p^ about the 
beach. The manager of one of the la^'ge German plan- 
tations had drawn on the resources of science and had 
inoculated them with the germs of mice tynhoid, and 
they had died off very completely. But Talolo said the 
^kiknmt had not extended back into the b«,sh, and ther« 
were just as many as ever on the mountains where the 
berries were now ripening. 
"Fa'amolemole, Tamaitai," continued Talolo, "smooth 
out the wrinkles of your heart, lady, I give for you for 
me my shootgun in love." 
I had to spend a great part of my time in turning 
down Talolo's loving gifts, for he was adept in the 
Samoan art of making presents in order to receive ten- 
fold in return. The gift of his "shootgun" would mean 
only that I should give him my own light Winchester. 
Thoa-e were several reasons why I shouldn't do that. 
One was that I should be helpless with a muzzle-loader 
"made in Germany" and with the bore of a lead pencil. 
The other was that the consuls visited heavily any traffic 
with the natives in firearms, and as one of the few 
white women in this outpost of civihzation among the 
savages, I had no wish to add to the dangers of life. 
What these might become, I had already had a taste of 
in the last rainy season, when 1 was left alone in the 
hotise with a hundred stand of rifles, and Muliufi and 
his crowd of rebels had surrounded the place from mid- 
night to dawn, hoping to get the weapons, yet afraid to 
face my rifle, as I patrolled the veranda against them. 
But savage etiquette prescribed that I should look the 
odd gun all over and appear to return it reluctantly as 
too rich a gift for me to receive. After careful inspec- 
tion, I gave the "shootgun" back to Talolo and made 
him happy by the announcement that I would give him a 
tin of powder, a box of caps and a supply of shot for his 
use on our trip after vampires that night, "as my servant 
shooting food for me," which is a way of getting around 
the law which even consuls have been known to wink at. 
Thus for about the thousandth time Talolo got not 
only more than he deserved, but twice as much as he 
expected. I knew, and he knew that I knew, that all of 
this provision he could save out would be used for the 
making of Mauser cartridges for the next war. But that 
is Samoa. 
As our expedition was a hard one, I needed more 
assistance than Talolo could give, for I knew that I 
should be out all night after the vampires, which in 
other lands would be regarded rather as carrion than 
as game. Our shooting ground was eight miles away, 
nearly 4,000ft. nearer the sky and accessible only by a 
difficult trail. Accordingly, I must have Tanoa, whose 
afl'ectionate middle-aged heart would be broken if I 
should count him out of any of my adventures. He 
was willingness personified, and could be of asistance if 
only he understood what was wanted. My maid, Tonga, 
was also to be of my party. Between them a sufficiency 
of supplies could be taken to meet my needs, and also to 
have some presents for the chief Suatele, at whose 
mountain-top home we should pass the night. 
Talolo and Tanoa were sent on ahead with orders to 
await us at the end of the road, some three miles in- 
land, with a boy to bring back my horse and cart. At 
noon Tonga and I< with the provisions, set out in the 
cart. 
At the end of the road there was no gradual cessation 
of the means of travel. The road cut itself off square 
at the edge of unbroken jungle, and all that was left 
was the narrowest kind of a trail, where the bare feet of 
Samoans kept down the weeds which otherwise would 
soon obliterate the stony path long ago marked out as the 
Ala Sopo, the "cross-over road." It is little more 
than a foot in width, nothing but jagged lumps of lava, 
Avhich may be easy enough for ttie tough bare feet of 
Samoans. but difiicult for any shod foot. As usual in the 
islands, it follows the highest crest of the ridges. And 
it is hot- — how hot can only be anpreciared by one who 
is familiar with the cool shade of the American woods. 
Overhead and all around the monster trees interlace 
their obscuring leaves', and branch is tied to branch 
with long lianas. High overhead is a thick green ceil- 
ing which cuts off the light of the sun and lets all the 
heat sift through into green sweltering arcades, where 
no bre«ze ever penetrates. From the leaves above the 
moisture patters down on the leaves beneath, and as one 
mount;: toward the summit the sudden afternoon 
showers come pelting down. Not a bird is ever seen 
in these solitudes. The mournful cooing of the manu- 
tangi dove faintly echoes along the tangle of trunks, but 
the bird itself is on the upper surface of the canopy, 
which the eye cannot pierce; the lupe pigeon sometimes 
sounds his long roll and Talolo fruitlessly points his 
iMuply "shootgun," but he knows that at this time of 
day he can see no game. In the path the muffled rustling 
of soggy leaves gives token of the presence of the blue 
pili lizards scuttering out from underfoot. Talolo does 
not mind the pili when they are underfoot, but he takes 
all a boy's delight in telling how his mother's brother 
was walking on this very Ala Sopo and a pili dropped 
on him from a tree and he died and then turned blue, 
for that is the superstition. And Tanoa tells weird 
tales of the aitu, ghost devils, that are known to haunt 
this spot. There is the lady devil who lies in wait for 
handsome young men to rub noses with them and then 
the}' die. There is Sooalo. who nets men and women 
from his tia or stone hunting platform which we mtist 
pass, just as a century ago he netted lupe. His body 
is buried on the very summit of Mount Vaea, but his 
soul has never found rest. Some of the tales pass my 
comprehension of the Samoan, but Tonga is ready to 
translate for me. "Fool man," she says, by way of 
comment on the wild tales of the woodland demons; 
because she has traveled, because she has been to Amer- 
ica with Barnum's Circus and the Midway Plaisance, she 
would haye me think that these old tales have no terrors 
for her. "Fool man," she says of Tanoa, but her lips are 
blue and her teeth are chattering, and =shfe iceeps close 
to me. The circus and the Midway cannot altogether 
destro}'^ the faith of a lifetime. ■ *. 
We pass the tia of .Sooalo in safety .\yithoht being 
netted, we hear the roar of the Holy' Cataract of the 
Vaisingano and escape the black-boy cannibals who have 
run away from the German plantations and have made 
their wild abode near that waterfall. We reach the 
bank of one of the confluent brooks of that stream and 
sit down to rest in a little open space, where my 
Samoans recover their spirits sufficiently to eat a tin 
of salmon apiece and to point out to me the path of the 
crowing snake, and speculate on the length of time 
since he last passed that way. Then on again up the 
ateep mountain, until we reach the flat miJa of summit of 
the pass. It rained yesterday; it is raining now; it will 
rain to-morrow; it always rains by daylight here, and 
the mountain top is a sour morass feeding the rivers that \ 
run north into Apia Harbor, and those that run south on 
tlie other slope to meet the sea in Safata Bay and at 
Siumu. The last stretch is the worst; the going is some- 
thing frightful, now striding from one slippery root to 
another, and now missing the footing and plunging- 
waist deep into yellow mud. There is just a mile of 
this, the Palapala Tele, which means the big muds. 
Every step is a burden of mire or the risk of a sprained 
ankle; it is just as hard for the Samoans as for me. At 
the further side of the morass Ave can look doAvn for one 
brief glimpse on the long slope of jungle to the South- 
ern Sea, the first view of the whole trip. Just here a dry 
trail picks itself out of the mud and makes off toward 
the east. A few minutes bring us to a clearing at the 
head of a pict-uresque valley with a waterfall dashing 
spray over the scene. At the end of the path is a loft. 
trunk of timber, half that in diameter, a thatched shed 
roofing it over to keep the rain out of its hoUowed-out 
interior. All fatigue forgot, Talolo rushes onward and 
beats on the log with a stick, evidently trimmed for 
that purpose. The soft, yet distinct, notes of this Avooden 
drum ring out over miles of mountainside to advise 
Suatele that visitors have arrived whose rank entitles 
them to smite his drum. 
The house lies just beyond, the only native house in all 
Samoa which has its sides closed in. Here lives Suatele 
,on the Tuasivi, the backbone of the mountain. It is 
right that his house should be closed in, for it is cold at 
this altitude, and when one comes from the sea it is 
hard to bear the lower temperature. But Talolo finds 
some dry wood and Tanoa gets out dry matches from 
my rubber-cased traveling bag, and soon we have a hot 
fire crackling in the open fire-box in the middle of the 
floor. It seems odd to write of the comforts of a 
bright fire in the tropics, but the chill of the Tuasivi is 
too great to bear in soggy clothing. Tonga lets fall a 
screen behind which I may change into dry garb, and 
then, as I lie on the only raised bed that can be found 
in any Samoan house, she kneads me from head to foot 
after the ancient Samoan fashion of "lomilomi,"' which 
is the most perfect of all massages, and the tired feeling 
leaves me altogether. Soon after this is completed 
Suatele comes back from his Avork in ansAver to thc- 
summons of the drum, and extends the courtesy of his 
mountain home. Savage though he is, it would be hard 
to find any man more polite in every little one of the 
oftentimes Avearisome details of Samoan etiquette to a 
guest. There is none in all Samoa Avho can compare 
Avith liim in this punctilio except Mataafa and his son 
Tupuola of Amaile. From the mystery of Samoan 
housekeeping he sets food before us, cold yams and taro, 
a fish toasted in its leaf wrapper and a piece of pork cut 
straight across the back behind the shoulders, Avhich 
is the proper dainty for those of rank. Tanoa, already 
■ trained in foreign cooking, has warmed a tin of beans 
and beef and salmon for the people, together with a pot 
of chocolate, which all appreciate. The first duty of the 
occasion is complete when I have overborne all of 
' Suatele's polite objections and have induced the chief to 
share my meal. When we have finished and the water 
for the washing of our hands has been pas.sed, his people 
and mine cluster about the abundant supply and make 
their meal Avith Tonga as hostess of the feast. 
It rains steadily till the moonrise, but at 9 o'clock the 
clouds suddenly vanish, not breaking away, but sinking 
doAvn the slope to the lower levels and to the coast. "The 
moon, just past the full, makes the scene as light al- 
most as the day. It is time for our vampire hunting. 
Talolo has his remarkable German "shootgun" with its 
thread-like bore. I am armed with the only Aveapon I 
ever cared to use in that tiying climate, a light, single- 
barreled Winchester. Tanoa has brought another of 
niy breechloaders, Avhich at my order he exchanges for 
Suatele's muzzleloader, so that the chief may have bet- 
ter sport. Tonga takes charge of all the ammunition 
except the shells. I think she intends to keep strict 
Avatch over its use in the hope of saving as much as 
]iossible Avherewith to make cartridges for her warrior 
husband to use in the next Avar. 
We have not far to go. only to the clearing outside 
the house. There is fruit groAving there, and Avhere 
fruit grows the flying foxes gather. They are there 
ahead of us, the night is filled with their squealing. Sud- 
denly Suatele gently touches my arm to direct me toward 
the moon. The vampire was out of range, but for the 
moment the scene lasted it Avas a marvelous picture. 
The great bat Avas soaring soracAvhere between me and 
the moon, and for a second or more Avas outlined fairly 
within the bright disk of radiance. Every detail Avas in 
perfect silhouette, even to the eager head and snapping 
jaAA's, and the claws at the last joint of the wings seemed 
to catch on the very edge of the moon. It Avas only a 
glimpse, but while it lasted it was a perfect picture. 
When the shooting began it AA'as evident that Talolo 
had, through some mischance, told the truth as to the 
number of vampires on the Tuasivi. Really, I do the lad 
an injustice; he could not aA^oid lying about the ordinary 
affairs of life on the beach, buit his bush information was 
always accurate. Talolo and Tanoa stalked their game 
and took none but pot-shots at the bats Avhen feeding. 
Suatele tried to imitate me and shoot them on the 
Aving, but AAdthout much success, and it Avas hard to say 
Avhich caused him the most chagrin, the missing the 
vampire or the waste of so precious a commodity as 
powder is to the Samoans. In a little more than an hour's 
■ shooting we killed three 'score bats to four guns, and it 
' was all done without leaAdng our stands. In size they 
. averaged from 3 to 4ft. of wing spread, only one falling 
as loAV as .3oin., and several spreading over 5oin. The 
bodies of these large ones Avere about the size of black 
and tan terriers. They take a lot of shooting, for a 
charge of shot merely through the Aving does little 
damage. 
When our game Avas brought back to Suatele's house 
it Avas at once cleaned and skinned. As fast as each 
bat Avas dressed it Avas stuffed with leaves, tightlv 
wrapped in leaves of another plant and buried. This, it 
was explained, was necesparv I0 prepare them for food, 
as otherAvise the ts'^te wotild be too rank to be borne 
As the rats abound on the mountain and have a lively 
appetite for meat of all sorts, it Avas necessary to set a 
