Morris tribune., 1889-02-13
The Samoan Islands.

|
igator islands, a rich and fertile coun-
try, which through German intrigue
and the neglect of other interested
powers, especially the United States,
haye for year or more past suffered
the woes of civil wars. The natives
are but little more than half civilized,
but are said to be tractable and intel
| ligent. They have fine physique,
straight and broad shoulders and
powerful muscular development.
| Their color is light brown. Many OF
| the women are very handsome, both
| in form and feature, and almost all
are fine looking, butdetract from their
appearance by wearing their hair in a.
huge bushy mass, slightly tinged with
red by coloring. One of the customs
of the natives Is the tattooing of the
body. No one, male or female, Is ex-
empt from this. They are inclined to
be INDECENT, hunting and fishing and
tilling the soil little. Raise few
pigs and fowls, but depend chi efy for
their food on what nature supplies:
Bananas, oranges, pine-apples ana
other tropical fruit.
The houses of the Samoans are mere
frame work of poles covered with
thatch.
The dress OF the natives consists at
most of two pieces-the lava-iaVa and
the tupulza. Before the coming of the
missionaries and calico the lava-lava
sufficed, This is sometimes made
from reeds and grasses, sometimes
from tapa cloth and sometimes from
calico. 1t is nothing more than u
sheet wrapped around the ioins, with
one end tucked in to secure it, and
reaches to the knee or to the ankle
according to the taste of the Wearer.
The other article of dress, the tupuka,
consists of piece ofcloth about eight
teen inches wide and of varying
length, with a hole III the middle large
enough to put the he'd through.
This they>wear over their shoulders,
the ends falling down over the back
and breast. This Is almost exclusively
feminine garment. Nowadays,
however, it is not rare to see worn by
the women calico dresses pure and
simple.
Since the advent of missionaries
they have become extremely religious.
They are earnest in their religion and
the great majority OF them are pro-
fessed Christians. Nightly do they
read in their native Bibles and sing
hymns, and in their daily life they |
live we'll up to the teachings of the
Bible. No more chaste or honest set
of people can be found. All this APP
plies to the people as they appear III
their native villages, and does not APP |
ply to Apia, where, under the civiliz-
ing influence Of the white man, their |
morals have degenerated. In justice,
however, it must be said that this |
lowering Of the standard of morality |
is due to the class OF white men that |
the natives see most of in Apia, |
namely, rough sailors and low traders. |
All the natives, male and female,
young and old, are splendid SWIM
mers, seeming to be nearly as much at |
home in the water as on land. They |
swim out to ships from the shore, and |
any time they wish to leave the ship, |
quietly jump over the side and swim
away. Equally skilled are they in
handling their canoes. In fact, the
islands are known as the Navigator
islands because of the proficiency of
the natives in this direction.
One of the most curious and anus
ing customs of the Samoa girls is their
formation of friendships" with the
strange white men who come in ships
to visit the islands. No sooner does a
ship come to anchor in the harbor
than dusky faces appear at the air
ports, and in soft accents generally
girls) inquire: "You felengi me?"
In 9th Ell words, will you he my friend
BY this is meant that you are request
ed to form sort of society of two for
| mutual benefit. You are to give your
| friend hard-tack, tobacco, cotton BAN
| dannas, knives, or anything else in
| the ships stores or your own poses
| sion that your friend may fancy and
| you care to part with, and in return
| your friend will BRING off daily I'M
| limited cocoanuts, bananas, oranges,
etc., will make fine war club, give
you yards of tapa cloth and such
other articles as you may desire. And
you must be faithful to this friendship
once entered into. Almost without
exception you will find them SO, and
to their friends only do they attend.
Should you, on the other hand, show
| favor to any one else, you will, when
discovered, be treated with infinite
scorn and contempt by the injured
one. The breach once made can never
be healed, and excessive GOODNESS will
take the place of former warmth. ;
The Samoan language is very mus
ical, every word ending in a vowel.
The chief product OF the islands, III
fact, the only staple, is "copra, which
| is the dried meat of the c0c0anut, and
from which cocoanut oi is expressed.
Hundreds OF tons of this are annually
shipped to Germany. The islands
abound in rich low lands, on which
could be raised tropical productions
i of every kind. sucil as sugar cane,
rice and cotton. The, climate is gem
orally fine, though rather disagreeahle
during the rainy season.
Il Apia is the commercial port, and
only settlemement of any size on tile
islands. Its population is about $500
and there is large sprinkling OF
Europeans and Americans. The place
is laid out in streets, and frame houses
abound. There is hotel, some few
general stores and numerous drinking
saloons. Two or three merchant ves-
sells and one or two men-of-war are
almost always in port.
There are many fine harbors in the
, islands; that at Pango Pango, where
j the United States has a coaling sta
: ton, being particularly SO.
For many ofthe above facts we are
indebted to the New York Tribune, in