The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-06

around the foot of the low cliff over against
the island, and at once the Trade strikes
you full, the sound of the sea redoubles.
the air smells suddenly salt, and you
see before you the heads and the open
ocean. A beach curves toward the nearer
headland bordered by groves of palm;
four scattered houses, one of them IN
ruins, mark the site of decaying hamlet,
and two streams meet the sea, inconsider-
able runnels, easy to be overleaped such
as may reach maturity in so narrow an
aisle. The place is very desolate and very
noisy with the wind and sea. The judge
and | were one day Joined upon this beach
by boy. an old ally and satellite, Maua
his name, q slender, shrewd, gentlemanly
creature, whose pleasant eyes and manners
had engaged US heretofore. Presently,
at the far end of the beach, be-
yond the houses, We sat down, and
with the common instinct of all ages
and races of men, elderly whites and
S-year-old Samoan boy. began to dig
among the sand. Maua designed ship
in section. 1t was our ship. he told us,
distinguished party. Here was the Judge
by the helm. here the Measurer of Land,
there the Writer of Tales. '.And where is
Maua HIMSELF" We asked. The figure of
Maua was added at the masthead, spying
for some promised land. | was struck
with profound sense of the unity of man
and mans romance and play: how often
in the past I had taken part in similar
business, and on how many beaches of the
world similar scene was then enactlng.
Fate laughed at my conclusions even as
thought, for Maua began presently to mod
ell in relief; the human form was his subject,
and he expounded his work as he went on
with it to the Judge and the Writer of Tales.
There are some tales not to be written, and
the doings of Maua and his comments fall
among the number. | wondered, and l
was the more foolish. But night or two
before had seen for the first time an in
decent Samoan dance The house was
full of spectators, among the rest children
of all ages. who soon began to join in the
singing and beat time. 1t was singular to
look around on all these shaven heads of
children wagging and little hands clapping
the tattoo; to hear the shrill young laugh
ter rise ill-favoredly, and to remember the
jest they laughed at was the exposure of
their sisters. In such scenes Master Maua
had grown up. and such experience made
the child secure of sympathy from his
elders.
We fingered in Pango-Pango with pur-
pose; we were there indeed to MAKE his
tory, which has always been the work of
time. The admirable harbor one of few
really good roadsteads in the whole extent
OF the South seas, was long since ceded to
the states; it remained to acquire upon
its shores the necessary land for an estab-
llshment; and in this, which the Judge
had come to settle, an uniooked-for diff
Guilty arose. Swimming point is a knoll,
projecting into deepish water, clothed in
thick bush, and, after a common fashion,
long the burial place of chieftains. These
graves were the stumbling block in the
beginning and remained SO till the end.
And even after, even when the bargain
was made, the land sold, the money
counted counsels were still divided and
eloquence still flowed on the question of
the ancestral relics.
1t was dusk when we came to the village
of Fangatonga to conclude this affair.
Lights were in all the houses, the evening
hymn was singing, the dinner ready but
not yet eaten. An emissary was still
securing to raise money-Chile dollars and
half dollars, English shilIings, American
twenty-cent pieces, the maddening cur
rency of the islands. An hour later we
were summoned to the presence of the
chiefs, and went, bearing the price In a
bag. A Samoan house is oval in plan,
and consists of high-pitched roof of
thatch, sustained by an elegant frame of
bread fruit and supported by many ex-
ternal pillars and one triple roof post in
the midst. The spaces between the ex-
ternal pillars may be closed with rude
Venetian blinds, the stats of mating The
floor is of smoothed gravel, the external
boundary is demarked with a coaming of
considerable stones. The blinds in the
house to which we were now led were
mostly down, and it was close. The fire
mad not been lit, and the single petroleum
lamp scarce enabled us to see the faces of
the four chiefs and the two girls who
squatted there upon the mats, passing to
and fro banana leaf cigarettes.
Four chiefs, and there should have been
five. Messengers were dispatched Tor so
it was pretended) to summon the fifth; he
did not come, but you may be sure we
were supplied instead with civil excuses
We are here in the homelands of excuses.
When one'of your boys gets news of the
illness of a parent and asks leave for day
wiring him by the hand-you will see him
no more; this is the elaborate Samoan
way of giving warning; he is now going
to be happy, and lie on the floor of a
house for months. Whatever the chief
might say, or his colleagues say for him,
the cautious foreigner could make but one
deduction-that the chief was unwilling
to appear. The suspicious foreigner was
free TO suppose that he did not approve of
the sale, or that the whole company were
playing fast and loose and secretly manu-
featuring flaw in the bargain.
The money was deliberately counted
out by Wenley Forster, the boat
builder, and the four chiefs plunged
in the meanwhile into their favorite diver
sion of public speaking. Solemnlv thew
arrayed their phrases and repeated their
arguments; solemnly they encouraged
each other with "lelei"-the Samoan
''hearV The solemnity was indeed laugh
able if you remember their audience con-
sisted of two girls and one interpreter.
The ground of the dispute was noteworthy,
The bones were to be dug up from SWIM
ming point before tradition; but suppose
they should now accept the purchase
money, were they not .constructlvely sell
ing the bones of their ancestors? This
fine scruple prevailed; the bargain was
signed, but the money was handed over to
4 trustee until the bones should be re-
moved. Then kava was made and public
speaking resumed IN more playful key;
We were each praised and introduced bv
the Chauncey Depew of Fangatonga. each
drained his bowl bravely. Nor was the
bravery needless; for the kava was made
in the ancient, almost obsolete, manner.
an offensive process
7