my head was bursting with pain, I watched her with interest,
noting the tenderness with which her smooth, brown fingers touched her
companion's body. When she had finished she rose, carefully washed and
dried her shapely hands, and came over to me.

"Give me thy hand," she said in the native dialect, as she knelt beside
my couch.

I gave her my left hand. She clasped it firmly but softly, and then the
fingers of her right hand gently pressed down my eyelids.

"Sleep, sleep long."

As I felt the gentle pressure of her hand down my face, my throbbing
temples cooled, and in a minute, or even less, I sank into a dreamless
and profound slumber.

When I awakened it was past nine o'clock, and I found that my own two
native servants, who slept in the village, had prepared my breakfast,
and were seated beside Tematau, talking to him.

"Where is Niabon?" I asked.

They told me that she had gone away in search of some plant, or plants,
with which to compound the medicine she was making for me. She returned
early in the forenoon, carrying a small basket in which I saw a coil of
the long creeping vine called '_At 'At_ by the natives, and which grows
only on the sandiest and most barren soil.

"Have you been sleep well, Mr. Sherry?" she inquired.

"Indeed I did sleep well," I replied, "and, more than that, I have eaten
a better breakfast than I have for many weeks."

She nodded and showed me the contents of her basket, and then seating
herself at the table, ate a small piece of ship biscuit and drank a cup
of coffee. It was then that I noticed for the first time that she was,
if not beautiful, a very handsome woman. Her face and hands were a
reddish brown, darkened the more by the sun, for I could see under the
thin muslin gown that she was wearing, that her arms and shoulders were
of a much lighter hue, and I felt sure that she had some white blood
in her veins. Her hair was, though somewhat coarse, yet long, wavy, and
luxuriant, and was coiled loosely about her shapely head, one thick fold
drooping over her left temple, and shading half of the smooth forehead
with its jet-black and gracefully arched eyebrows. This is as much as I
can say about her looks, and as regards her dress, that is easy
enough to describe. She invariably wore a loose muslin or print gown,
waistless, and fastened at the neck; underneath this was the ordinary
Samoan _lava lava_ or waist-cloth of navy blue calico. Her gown,
however, was better made,