ttack persons until after a residence of eight or ten
years. There is no known cure for the disease, unless one leaves the
region where it is developed, and even then it requires a surgical
operation to remove the enormous protuberance which usually forms upon
the lower part of the body or the limbs. We saw some photographs taken
from life of sufferers through elephantiasis, which exhibited swellings
upon the limbs and body half as large as the individual's body itself.
Nowhere else in the world do malformations caused by this peculiar
disease assume such tremendous proportions as here in Samoa. Quinine is
freely used to check the development of the affliction, as it is known
to prevail most in low-lying and marshy neighborhoods; and yet what we
term malaria is absolutely unknown among these islands. A German
resident took passage in our ship on his way home to Berlin, who had
lived some dozen years at Apia. The disease had begun its development in
his ankles, one of which was swollen as large as his thigh. The local
physician had advised his departure at once, and that a surgical
operation should be performed in another climate. Singular to say, these
protuberances can almost always be safely severed from the body by a
skilful surgical operation, enormous though they be; nor are they liable
to return if the patient keeps away from the climatic influences which
caused them.

"The Samoans have no authentic information in any form concerning the
past," said our intelligent friend the missionary. "It is to them quite
as unknown as the future. They possess traditions, but such as are only
fragmentary and unreliable, probably the inventions of their designing
priests. Their origin and history are in fact clouded in utter
obscurity." Their language seems to be an offshoot of the Malay, and
does not resemble especially the Hawaiian or Maori languages, which are
almost identical with each other. This seems rather strange, as their
ocean home is situated in a direct line between the two, which should
indicate, one would think, a similar origin of the races. "They live
under an iron bondage of superstition, which seems inherent in their
nature," said our informant, "and which no attempt at Christian
enlightenment appears to dispel."

One instance was related to us relative to their blind simplicity, but
which at the same time evinced a degree of shrewdness. A chief, old and
decrepit, who realized that he was near his end, after