92 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
out of this. What do they want swarming into 
the place like this ? Tell them that I won’t talk 
about servants till to-morrow morning. And, 
besides that, I want to eat my supper, and I can’t 
eat it with fifty women staring at me in a circle.” 
Old Lupo stroked his bald brown head and 
coughed apologetically. “ If you please, sir, 
these Niue womans all very much want to 
know who you going to get for nurse-woman 
for your little girl.” 
On my refusing, with some warmth, to dis¬ 
cuss the matter with them at that moment, and 
requesting them to clear out, they unanimously 
stated that I was the worst and most ill- 
mannered white man they had ever seen ; 
furthermore, that if I engaged a single servant, 
male or female, from any other village than 
Avatele, the blood of that person would be on 
my head. However, they would, they said, 
come again in the morning with some friends 
and talk the matter over with me. 
A few weeks later, my trading colleague, who 
lived ten miles away on the other side of the 
island, came along to see how I was getting on. 
He had heard that there was some ill-feeling 
