The times., 1898-09-18
thinks anything about them. Here the.
are matters of affecfaiion

Shortly after the Papasaya picnic | was
! invited to be present at the marriage OF
| an Englishman named Tat.ersall TO ma
| tive girl of high rank. The United States
! ship Iroquois, Capt. John j. Reed, was
| in the harbor at the time, and Capt. Reed
| and most of his officers were among the
| guests Again on this occasion l was es-
| corted by the Princess Suane who called
| al my hut for me. Suane was fearfully
and wonderfully arrayed. The wife Of the
British consul had given her pale blue
| silk dress and a pair of high -heeled
| French shoes. The dear girl had never
felt the pressure of a corset in her life,
and the agony of tight shoe was among
| the horrors to her unknown. Yet Suane
came for me clad in pale blue silk and
! wearing dancing shoes at least two sizes
100 small for her slapely feet. We went
to the wedding, and after the ceremony
| and supper we danced. the music being
| furnished by the men of the Iroquois.
say we danced. Suane had never danced
anything but the silva silva before that
night. THE silva is danced sitting down.
and we tried to waltz. Before the first
dance was finished Suane said she was
/ tired. -
Long before the festivities were finished
| Suane said she wanted to go home. 1t
was my duty of course to see her safely
inside her own door. Suane excused her
self for a moment and disappeared into
| the dressing room, which was an annex
to the main hut where the ceremony had
taken place. When the princess reap
! peared upon the dancing floor she was
carrying her pale blue silk dress over her
| arm, and had her shoes in her hand.
Bue Suane was not the most beautiful
Samoan girl that / saw. Ema, the
daughter of the Abejo chief, far
more lovely, although 1t is perhaps un-
kind TO say SO. Ema wanted to go from
the island of Tutuila to Upolu, and the
captain of the little thirty-foot schooner.
Louise charged $40 for the passage of a
hundred miles or So Ema had not a
penny, and l paid her fare. She was
very grateful.
Ema, / should explain, had been decoy-
ed into an alleged marriage with white
man, and had been taken by her betrayer
as far as San Francisco, where she had
been deserted When l first saw her
on the steamer going south from the
Golden Gate she was dressed in the most
approved European fashion. corsets, shoes
and all. The Monowai stopped off the
: Island of Tutuila merely 10 exchange
mails andrto let Ema and l get ashore.
| We went on board the Louise at o'clock
that night and at once set sail for Apia.
, | There was only one cabin, with two
berths, one of which was for Ema and
the other for me. l tried TO sleep in the
| Sluly HItle DUNK, Dul llG c0chFOdcncS
were so pestiferous that l clambered on
deck and begged the skipper to permit
. me to lie on the after hatch. He COM
| piled with my request, and fastened a
rope around me so thar l would not pitch
| overheard.
In the morning at daylight Ema came
on deck with her fine clothes in her
hands. She tossed the bundle overheard
. and wrapped a towel about her waist
/ N 1ll of fr.1r,t ea,l f.1r fa-r
, which was all the clothing she wanted or
needed Going 10 the bow of the schoon-
er she swung herself overheard keeping
firm hold meanwhile of the port rail.
The plunging of the vessel through the
heavy swells gave her as lively bath as
could be imagined. Her perilous ab.u-
! tons finished she came back to where
was suffering from the intense heat OF
the equatorial sun. WITH her own hands
, she rigged an awning over my head and
all that day and the next she bathed my
brow with the cool water Of the ocean
, When We reached Apia she set about to
, find lodgings for me- and to arrange for
: food Every morning while l was on that
: island / found Ema sitting by my door
having guarded me as l slept. She fol-
lowed me about as a dog does his mas
5 ter, grateful for an occasional kind word
She was always modest, never obtrusive
and as willing as the day was long
Samoan girls all have sweet dispositions
, They will fetch and carry for Il stranger
and appear 10 regard il as a privilege
/ met three American traders in Apia
who had married native girls, and they
all declared that their home life had beer
ideally happy. The half-caste girls
, daughters of white fathers and native
. mothers, are rule marvelously
beautiful.
The Social Life.
+ So far as my own observation went
{ found the morals of the native womer
to be exceptional The young girls ar,
under the protection of every grown per.
son of their respective tribes until they
are married. ANY man who should Vic.
late one of them would be torn to pieces
/ After a girl is married she is then under
4 the protection OF her husband only
5 Should she depart from the path of yir-
5 tue after marriage, her husband is helc
to be responsible, in a measure, for il
is argued that If he had been as good Z
husband as he should have been his wife
would never have yielded to temptation
Widows are exempt from the strict socia
laws, as applied TO young girls and wo.
men whose husbands are alive and they
do not lose caste because of their manner
: OF living. On the contrary. their socia
status is fixed by official sanction
Life in Samoa is languorous, drowsy
] existence. The climate is very hot but
there is always d fine breeze and there
t is invariably a delicious coolness in the
shade, and the nights are pleasant. The
) trade winds blow directly over the grouI
r ten months of the year Nobody does
anything in the middle of the day but
lie in a hut that is open on all sides anc
r read and smoke. Occasionally a native
t will bring you a young cocoanut fresf
{ from the tree, the milk of which is coo
: and refreshing. A cocoanut pIucked be.
! | fore the milk mas turned into hard ker.
mel is one of the greatest of delicacies
The native drink, kaya, is a wonderful
concoetion, and It's preparation is ac.
companied by much ceremony A kava
drinking party was given in my honor
by the village of Poloa, Tutuia To.
wards evening all the men in the village
assembled in the large hut known as the
House of the Strangers All hands
squatted down, seated Turkish fashion
, on the ground 1t looks easy enough tc
} assume that position, but l found it ex
] tremely difficult. and, after awhile, de-
} cidedly painful. As the guest of the occa.
) sion, I was placed on the right hand Of
5 the chief of the village, who was, OF
course, master of ceremonies. When al
had taken their places, the chief clappeC
! his hands and six of the prettiest girls
. in the village entered the hut carryine
huge wooden bowls and water gourds
Each girl seated herself on the ground
beside her bowl, and then six others came
in and stood behind the seated ones. The
first six now began TO chew the kava root
and when it had been reduced TO pulp
, spat the mass into the bowls. This chew
ing process OPcuuied abolIt half an bour