178 Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
And then one old dame bent forward, and 
put the question : 
“ Why does the American man-of-war come 
here ? Has.she come to help our king Malietoa 
to fight the rebels and drive away the Ger¬ 
mans ? ” 
I could only say that I could not tell; for 
I had been away from Samoa for more than a 
year. 
The ancient lady rolls herself a cigarette in a 
meditative manner, and then looks gloomily out 
before her upon the sea-front. 
“ Lah ! ” she says at last. “ It is always the 
same, always, always. ’Tis all talk, talk, talk. 
One day it is, ‘ Ah, next moon American and 
English soldiers will come, and they will set up 
Malietoa, and the flash of their bayonets shall 
blind his cruel enemies, so that they will shake 
and turn pale ! ’ ; or, ‘ Not next moon, but the 
one after, a big man-of-war will come from 
Peretania, and bring hundreds of red-coated 
fighting men, whose chief will draw a line with 
his sword on the beach at Matafele, and say 
to the Germans, ‘ Keep thee all there, beyond 
that line, and within thine own bought land ; 
step over but a hand’s space and thou shalt hear 
