282 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 13, 1900. 
Some^South Sea Hoodoos. 
In these random narratives of fin and feather in the 
South Sea, under tropical skies, in the evening calm and 
the steady daytime blast of the trade-wind, in sun and 
torrents of the furious rain, it is only fair to anticipate 
one comment of the friendly critic. It may be thought 
that the game comes to bag too easily; that the per- 
centage of kills is too high to be altogether real; that 
jif the fish refuse the bait they always get into creel by 
some other device of net or trap. In the course of the 
tales various Samoan associates in the free life of the 
sea and jungle have been introduced; the aver faithful 
Tan®a has been aroused from his naps to render some 
needed service, the vivacious young Talolo has led the 
way to mountain nooks, and has been content with the 
opportunity to use the "shoot gun," and has made his 
plaintive appeals for something to stay his appetite; 
chiefs and common folk have contributed to the sport. 
They arc all real personages, their characteristics are 
drawn from the life just as I learned to know them and 
to use their several talents. So, too, with the hunting; 
it is all the record of real experience, the few bright 
spots in an official position which was after all but an 
exile. The fish were indeed taken, the birds were indeed 
killed; it is all fact. But to meet this criticism that all 
was too easy to be true I must devote this chapter to 
the adverse influences that all of us recognize as condi- 
tioning the sport of rod and gun. By this I do not mean 
the bird that is cleanly missed, the fish that breaks the 
tackle, the gang of hooks that get snarled in the coral. 
These are but accidents of sport that might happen to 
anybody and anywhere. Those which I mean are the 
hoodoos that spoil all the sport of a day. We can reason 
them aside as absurd superstitions in our country, but 
we must acknowledge their power; but among the simple 
savages there is no chance to reason thena away — they 
are very present realities, and when we meet them in 
South Sea waters, and on the island mountains, none 
of our acquired wisdom can expunge their power. 
In the islands the old gods are still very close to 
present life, despite the vigorous profession of the newer 
faith which the missionaries have introduced. On vil- 
lage greens the stone churches rise into prominence; the 
people are unremitting in their attendance upon the 
services, wearing clean Avhite shirts and gaudy bonnets, 
according to the sex of the worshipers, and carrying 
their Bibles and hymn books wrapped in spotless hand- 
kerchiefs. But in the jungle and on the waters no 
Samoan quite forgets his ancestral gods, the powers 
of nature, and in the domain of the hunter and the 
■fisher these old gods reign supreme. Moralists may 
not assume to blame them as untutored savages prec- 
ticing absurd superstitions of an inferior race, for if any 
moralist will only go a-fishing with people of the 
infinitely superior Caucasian race, he cannot avoid seeing 
a few practices which may not be superstitions, but 
which are certainly believed necessary to luck. What 
the boy does to the worm after it is on the hook and 
before it goes into the stream is proof that there is 
kinship in practice between the savage and the cultured 
sportsman. 
These, then, are a few of the conditions which make 
or mar the success of the hunter and the fisher in Samoa. 
_ There is good luck in the tiny island parrot that nests 
m the coronal of the cocoanut trees. It is a bird no 
larger than the English sparrow, and quite as compan- 
ionable. It IS an impertinent bunch of brilliant plumage 
green and red and blue; it chatters all the day in the 
trees, and it flies fearlessly down about the houses and 
has no fear of people. Common as it is, it is credited 
with any amount of "mana" or supernatural power, and 
Its movements are carefully watched. There is a long 
and tiresome song in Manu'a, which is now in the 
United States, that arouses the anger of all the bicl«ring 
Samoans in the westward islands of Tutuila and Upolu 
and Savai'i, where the people think their kings amount 
to something, yet have to confess the superiority of the 
kmg of Manu'a. It rehearses the distant flight of the 
parrot from the mountain of Tau. how it passed over 
each island but did not alight, and therefore left none of 
Its magic power. Then the song finishes with the ques- 
tion, Mahetoa, is that thy parrot? Why not catch it as it 
files and then the magic power will be thine ? But the parrot 
wings homeward to Manu'a without alighting and seeks 
3ts nest on the mountain of Tau." This is 'enough to 
start a fight when sung in the hearing of one of the 
Mahetoa clan. But even outside of Manu'a the parrot 
brings luck, particularlv to such as gn to the bush or 
out upon the reef in search of game. If when a party is 
setting out a parrot should fly down among them or 
should alight upon any of their tackle success is assured 
tor this reason prudent sportsmen sit in the shade and 
wait tor th€ parrot to bring them luck. 
Good luck IS brought also by the little gecko lizard the 
mo o, that runs about the houses in search of its food 
the eggs and larvae of insects. No one ever harms them' 
and they chase in and out among all one's belongings' 
ihey are timorous little animals, only two or three 
inches Jong; and a finger suddenly pointed at one will 
'^t'if'} ^? -f ""'f ^.^V^y ^'^^ ^ of I'g'it find probably 
shed Its tail to facilitate its escape from the threatened 
dangen SUll_ if a mo o is found in the creel or game 
bag when It is taken down for use it is a sure sign of 
success. Thejr are pretty little beasts to look upon when 
they are pnised for instant flight on the rim of the creel 
Jiead in a,r as if ro scent the danger, their eyes mere 
Y^tical shts of deep purple in bands of orange, their 
little hear?ts """'^^""^ '^''^'^ beat of the excited 
wS^'-nll!-^ effect of the other lizard, the 
k V .u"^^^ '"^^^ Fortunately it is 
IZJu^A ' ''T/'. ° T"- ^lt^^°"gft common'in the 
woodland ways If it is found in any of the gear of 
i-Vn^'TU^'L'' u'^'"^ '"•^'^t 3^ well give up the 
m^, Tf?f liast that can happep f.s failure : it is more than 
likely that some distressing accident will follow the dis- 
regard of this warning. It is not only in sport that the 
malign influence is felt. If a blue lizard should drpp 
upon the head or shoulders of a man under any cir- 
cumstances, it is his death warrant, and it is very easy 
for these Samoans to lie down and die from such a cause 
as this. Luckil}^ the mere meeting of the pili on the 
path is innocuous, for within the limits of the jungle, even 
to the summits of the highest mountains I have scaled — 
and they are nearly a mile up above the sea — it is im- 
possible to avoid the lizard that scampers across the 
path. The pili plays a most important part in the legends 
of Samoa. His original was the child of the high gods 
of the ninth heaven, and that is as high as one can go 
in the island succession of heavens. He had the power 
of transforming his shape and of living in the sea and 
in the rivers and in the springs and in various parts of 
the land. From each transformation various high native 
families trace their descent. But for the fisher and the 
hunter he is always bad medicine. 
The majestic frigate bird is another that brings bless- 
ing and curse according to circumstances. When fishing 
the frigate bird is all that could be desired. If he is seen 
winging his untiring flight over a fleet of canoes, and 
the fishers pray him to grant them fair wind, they feel 
that they are sure to have the wind and to come home 
with their canoes laden with the fish of the deep sea. 
But ashore it is different; the frigate bird brings a bale- 
ful influence on the sport of pig-eon netting. Every 
night and morning the frigate birds are seen high in air 
crossing the mountain ridges of each of the islands. It 
is a straight passage, for these are birds of the sea and 
are nevr known to alight on any Samoan island. They 
come in from sea at such an altitude that it is hard to 
discern their clear whiteness, but that altitude brings 
them close to the tree tops over the central ridges of the 
islands. These are the spots which, before fire arms were 
introduced, were most affected by the netters of the 
island pigeon. That hunting was a very solemn cere- 
monial. It engaged for days at a time the whole popula- 
tion of the seaside villages, and was conducted in strict 
accordance with ancestral rules. It a pigeon party which 
had taken post on the stone platforms in the earliest 
dawn found a frigate bird swooping close to their nets 
as the day dawned, it was obligatory to relinquish the 
sport for that day. Not a pigeon could be caught, for 
the will of the mountain gods was distinctly adverse. 
Against such a calamity it was necessary to pray hard 
and long in the last hours of the darkness, and to- take 
scrupulous pains that the stone platforms should lae free 
of all persons or things that were suspected of being out 
of luck. 
The same idea of good luck afloat and bad luck ashore 
attaches to the albinoes. There are not many of them 
in Samoa, and they are ghastly sig-hts, with their flaxen 
hair and pink eyes, and white skins that the sun can 
never tan. It is hard to understand why these few 
sports of nature should be considered lucky on the sea, 
for in the brilliant glare of the sun they are almost blind, 
while in the depths of the jungle their vision improves 
m proportion to the obscuratioii of the light. That this 
commonly recognized feature of albinism has not passed 
the recognition of the Samoans is brought out clearly 
in one of the legendary tales that Tanoa once recited to 
me. In ancient times a village only a little way up the 
coast had a large number of albinoes, who seem to have 
carried things with a high hand, and to have made a 
nuisance of themselves by ruHng the people of the ordi- 
nary coffee color. There was no respite until the legend- 
ary hero Polu came that way in the course of his 
self-appointed to-ur to wipe out the various demons 
which then infested Upolu, a sort of South Sea Jack the 
Giant-Killer. He told the people of this hag-ridden 
village to call a "fono" or town meeting for sunrise the 
next morning, and in the great house of the town to 
make a show of yielding to their blanched and pink- 
eyed disturbers of the peace by yielding them the post 
of honor at the west end of the house. As it was cannily 
ordered by the hero, so was it done. The albinoes came 
to the "fono," and were duly gratified to find that the 
place of dignity was yielded to them without demur. 
But Polu asked that the screens about the house be 
drawn up. Then the east was lit with the glory of the 
dawn, as the deliberations began. At first the albinoes 
directed affairs with their usual high hand, but then the 
sun itself arose out of the morning twilight, and its level 
beams entered at the eastern end where the screens were 
tied up, and fell sharply in the pink eyes of the albinoes 
and blinded_ them. While they were thus helpless by 
reason of this clever play upon their infirmity the hero 
and the people fell upon them and slew them. Ever 
since that time the few albinoes have been lucky to 
have along when fishing but unlucky companions on a 
hunting trip. Just why this should be so no one knows, 
Tanoa's only explanation is that it is an ancient legend, 
and he lets it go at that. 
There is nothing in all the five islands that can bring 
better luck than the spider; not the small hunting spider 
that scurries over the walls of houses in pursuit of flies, 
but the large one, as big as the palm of one's hand, that 
never builds a nest, but clings head downward on up- 
rights, and watches the course of events with eyes that 
gleam mildly blue. What a spider does for a living I 
never have been able to discover. It moves but slowly, 
it is never seen to bother a fly even at its very jaws, and 
It most certainly is harmless, even though terrifying by 
reason of its size. But it is lucky to have this ugly 
monster about one's hunting gear. It seems fortunate 
that it is lucky, for the spiders seemed to have a great 
liking for the barrels of my shot gun. I became so used 
to It that I never handled the gun without breaking it 
down and first blowing through the barrels to dislodge 
the lodgers which I knew I should find within. 
Other devices which bring kick are the free use of 
cocoanut oil on hooks and lines, and the careful obser- 
vance of old rites in connection with every canoe and 
line and paddle that is used in the bonito fishery. That 
<s very complicated sort of thing indeed, and as the 
bonito are by no means easy to catch, it 15 just as well 
to havg somp gucb ?xcHse to fall baek on, " " " 
Now for the things which bring ill-luck and queer 
one's sport afloat or afield. They are well nigh infinite. 
One must be forever on guard against the chance of 
meeting with a hoodoo of the most enduring conse- 
quences. 
The night before you must keep a watchful eye for 
shooting stars. They are a distinctly bad omen in 
general. They signify death of some chief indefinitely 
in the direction of their travel, and the death of one of 
the mighty is a bad thing. It forbids all fishing in that 
direction toward which the meteor flies, it forbids all 
hunting in the direction from which it comes. Even if 
one accords strict observance to these rules it is just as 
well when hunting along the course of the shooting star 
or fishing against it to take the precaution to knot into 
a corner of one's garb a black pebble and a white one 
just to ward off possible mishaps. 
The foot long centipede is an unpleasant companion at 
any time. Some one has described him as "an unpleasant 
chain of disconnected circumstances." His effect upon 
the skin gives a general impression of a tug of war team 
of angry wasps. When such a beast drops from the 
rafters of the house upon a party about to set out for 
the seaward fishing, or touches any of the gear, it is 
just as well to postpone the trip, for lines will break, 
hooks will catch in the coral and be lost, nets will suiely 
be torn and the fish escape. But if the trip is planned 
inland, whether for fish or birds, the hoodoo of such a 
mishap may be wiped out by crossing a patch of growing 
taro. What with the mud underfoot and the wetness oi 
the great leaves of this plant, it is easy to see that the 
walk across an acre of such plantation really should have 
some good effect to counterbalance its discomfort. 
Fishermen must observe one precaution as to the tide, 
if they set out on the young flood they will have no luck. 
Slack water ebb is all right. Even the half flood has no 
bad effect. But when the tide just begins to make, no 
canoe must ever start out. It spoils a fishing trip also 
to launch a canoe bow foremost. That is true of all 
water trips, whether after fish or on other business. I 
have watched the crew of our own boat take it from its 
storage beneath the house and set it in the water hundreds 
of times, and never once did I see them launch it other- 
wise than by the stern. To cough in a boat afloat is a 
danger that must be averted by prompt action. If under 
oars or paddles the crew immediately break stroke; if 
under sail the man at the tiller makes it a point t® spill 
the sail. Yet a sneeze is absolutely harmless. To ex- 
pectorate from the boat into the sea is another dangerous 
thing to do. A fishing trip when this happens might just- 
as well be given up, for there is no hope of any catch. 
It is not permitted to bail a boat in white water, except 
it be on or within a reef. 
With the superstitious in this country it is lucky to 
meet a hunchback, particularly if one touches the hump. 
In Samoa it is the worst of luck and no one would ever 
dream of fishing or hunting in such company. After 
such a chance encounter, the only way of obviating the 
evil influence is to turn backward to the house last passed, 
enter and sit down and take some refreshment, even it 
it be only a draft from a fresh cocoanut. This is all 
the more strange for the reason that there are very few 
such cripples, and they are treated with invariable kind- 
ness, being commoly used as jesters in the train of chiefs 
aiid village maids. 
It spoils fishing to encounter a rat in the water, and 
the same is true on the reefs when the devilfish throws 
one of its tentacles about the shin. As the common devil 
fish of the Samoan reefs has tentacles two and three 
feet long closely beset with suckers from the size of a 
two-bit piece down and a considerable power to cut 
the flesh, the latter incident is not only a hoodoo but a 
distinctly unpleasant event. Just why the rat and the 
devilfish spoil sport was explained to me by Tanoa in 
another of his tales. Very long ago it happened that 
the bat and the devilfish and the rat met on a dry portion 
of the reef. They fell to a discussion of their relative 
speed and challenged one another to a race to the beach. 
The bat took wing and easily beat the others, but in the 
contest for place the rat did not play fair. While it was 
swimming shoreward it looked down in the water and 
saw the devilfish swimming backward. The rat being 
well tired out dove down to the devilfish and seizing hold 
of it brought it to the surface. Thus the rat was ferried 
to shore, and when the devilfish grounded in the shallow 
water the rat leaped ashore and claimed second place. 
Just why this account should explain the hoodoo which 
these two animals put on the fishermen is more than I 
could understand, but it seems to be quite plain to the 
Samoans. At any rate, when I expressed my doubts 
Tanoa clinched matters by getting a devilfish for my 
inspection and pointing conclusively to the marks upon 
its pouch which were left by the ancestral rat which 
played this trick. 
Of all malign influences the Avorst is the aitu, the old 
Sarnoan god of place or family. Many times in these 
stories of lagoon and mountain jungle I have reported the 
dangers of aitu and the harm that they are capable of in- 
flicting on the timorous islanders. All signs may be 
favorable for good sport, yet all of a sudden some busy- 
body aitu interferes and queers the whole business. The 
white person never learns just how to recognize the com*- 
ing of the aitu, but to the Samoan it is painfully clear. 
There was only one of the simplest signs of all that f 
ever learned to recognize, and that was the knotting of 
the grass across the pathway. I have no idea what could 
knot gra.ss in this way. though there must be some simple 
explanation; but to the Samoan intelligence it is proof 
positive of the passage of a malevolent demon of their old 
mythology. But whether it is a knotting of the grass or 
some of the more obscure signs, as soon as the Samoans 
have recognized the presence of an aitu the trip might 
just as w^ell be abandoned, for the obstacles will multiply 
beyond all power of surmounting. 
Some one or other of these signs made for the success 
or failure of all my trips with rod and gun in the paths 
of the Samoan forests and streams and out unon the oper^ 
