180 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
genial social qualities will long be remembered 
by those who knew him, his foolish official acts 
made him many enemies, and caused intense 
bitterness of feeling among the natives. 
The grey-haired dame smoked on in silence, 
and then a tall, lithe-limbed girl rose from 
beside the old woman, and came over to me, 
and, taking the inevitable cigarette from her 
lips, offered it to me. “ She is my son’s wife,” 
explains the old woman, as the pretty creature 
seats herself again; and then this soft-eyed, 
sweet-voiced girl says, with an innocent, childish 
laugh : “ Tah ! I love to hear the pa fana (firing 
of guns). My husband took two heads at 
Mulinu’u once. Fighting will come by and 
by, my mother, and your son shall bring you 
‘ red bread-fruit ’ to look at again.” 
For the edification of my readers I may 
explain that the term “ red bread-fruit ” was 
then the Samoan slang for decapitated heads. 
This amiable young lady evidently had a full 
share of the Samoan women’s spirit that causes 
them to very often leave the care of their 
children and houses to the very oldest of their 
sex, and follow the fortunes of their husbands 
or lovers to the camp. 
