Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-03-12
TRIP TO THE Orient
Clarence E. EdwurdS Touring the
Eastern Countries.
he Is OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
INTERESTINGLY WRITTEN IN WEEK
LY LETTERS, WHICH WILL Ap.
PEAR IN The RECORDER.

| PEAR IN HE
Apia, Samoa, September 81
Samoa is a country of most facinat-
ing interest, but it's charms cannot
even be guessed at by day or two
of hurried driving about the port
and neigbborhood. Do not forget
that this is land of delicious idle
ness and that hurry is as impossible
| as it is undesirable. To all readers
of Stevenson's delightful fiction
first interest centers about his form
err home and his grave. Vaillma,
as his home is called, is about an
hours drive from Apia over a beau
tiful road shaded by cocoanut,
bread fruit, mango and other trop-
ical trees. The house is specially
built to meet the requirements OF
the tropics, and is fronted by i'm
mense verandas. A thousand feet
above the town rises the lofty hill
where Stevenson's grave was dug
by his own request. He even Sc
lected the exact spot. He had al
ways wished to lie at last on that
airy summit, overlooking the blue
harbor and palmy shore he loved so
well.
The climb to the grave is long
and hot, and one wonders how a
coffin was carried up, and the won
der increases when remembering
that at the time of Stevenson's
death no path whatever existed. 1t
was the love of his Samoan friends
that overcame all difficulties. On
the day that the coffin was closed
the chiefs called out five hundred
men and set them at work, and in
few hours a wide pathway was
cleared through dense tropical bush
to the very top of the hill. The
chiefs themselves, who as a rule
shun all manual labor, carried the
coffin on their shoulders to the
top. Such was Stevensen's funer-
al, and the road to this day is call
ed by the Samoans "The Road of
the Loving Heart"
The people of Samoa are the real
attraction of the place, and they
cannot be known by remaining in
the vicinity of the capitol. One
must 90 inland, or visit another ISL
and to understand the Samoan
character. I left Apia early in the
morning on horseback, for carriage
roads disappear a short distance
from Apia, and soon white popula-
ton suddenly ceased. All the viii
lagos are Samoan and all speech is
native. Handsome bronze figures,
clothed in bright lava-lava and
flowers, called out as we passed,
"Talofa," the universal greeting
here, meaning exactly the same as
"Aloha," in Hawaii. At every
house we were invited to stop and
partake of hospitality, and as we
went along men would rush from
the houses and call eagerly for us
| to come in and eat. At one place
we stopped and mat was spread
| for us to sit on. In front was plac-
ed a small dinner mat with a green
banana leaf for plate. Smoking
hot fresh water cray6sh and pig
con, bread and milk made of bread
fruit, connection of tare and CO.
coanut milk and a green drinking
cocoanut forms the meal.
Hospitality is supposed to be
free to all, and in early days even
the suggestion of a gift would have
been taken as an insult, white in
| Auence, however, has changed con-
ditions here, as everywhere else,
and a present (never money! is al
ways expected by the entertainers
on the departure of the guest.
Largo bath towels are most appre-
ciated. The amount and value Of
the present should be regulated by