Old Samoan Days. 
197 
were being summoned together to make prepa¬ 
rations. Soon we gained the outskirts of Safata, 
and from every house we received invitations 
to enter and rest till the rain ceased, but we 
pressed on, and a quarter of an hour later 
entered the village itself, where we were warmly 
welcomed by the chief of the place. The three 
ladies found the missionary and his wife awaiting 
them, and promising to call upon them at the 
mission-house on the following day, the doctor 
and I bade them goodbye, and took up our 
quarters with Gafalua and his two children in a 
house specially set apart for us. A bowl of 
kava was being prepared, and this we drank 
with our entertainers, and then prepared to 
make ourselves comfortable for the night. As 
the mosquitoes were bad, our host had rigged up 
a screen of fine muslin for each of the white men, 
a large one for Gafalua and his children, and 
many smaller ones for the rest of our company. 
During the night the rain fell in torrents, but 
we heeded it not, for we were tired out with 
our twenty miles’ walk, and the natives per¬ 
ceiving our fatigue left us to ourselves at an 
early hour, after arranging a shooting and 
fishing excursion on the following morning. 
