Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
man he will weigh, say, some 10,000 lb. or 
20,000 lb. of copra, and then leave off weighing 
and go behind his counter and pay for it before 
weighing any more. If he is married, his wife 
pays for each lot as it is weighed. Before he 
proceeds to weigh the first lot, however, he may 
call out—“ Do any of you people here think I 
want to cheat with this fua (scale) ? ” 
Immediately some one will answer, “ Yes.” 
“ Mitaki (good). Then let some of you come 
up and try the scale.” He does not get angry 
—not unless he is new to the cheerful candour 
of the Niue people. 
A basket of copra is brought up and placed 
on the scale. The trader weighs it, and appar¬ 
ently takes no notice of some half a dozen natives 
who stand by with pencils and note-books. They 
are missionary pupils— i.e ., sucking ecclesiastics. 
He knows just as well as they do that that basket 
of copra has been weighed half a dozen times by 
as many native teachers, and its weight carefully 
noted. Every teacher has a steelyard, and every 
bag of cotton, or fungus, or basket of copra, that 
goes out of any village is weighed on that steel¬ 
yard before it is sold to a white man. Born 
cheats themselves, they trust no one. 
