k and
children melted away and left us alone with To'oto'o, whose ferretty
eyes betrayed no small degree of curiosity and alarm. This man was one
of the few Samoans I never liked. He was a gaunt, dangerous,
crafty-looking customer of about fifty, and I never had had any use for
him since he had stolen my tethering rope one evening when I was calling
on the king. Well, to get on with my story, we talked about the weather,
and the war, and what an ass the Ta'ita'ifono was, and finally got round
to the matter in hand.

Seumanutafa began mild, for he was a past master in the art of
graduation, and thought to go slow at first. To'oto'o was informed that
he had to make _ifonga_ for the death of O and be carried on the morrow
by the _taulelea_ to Papalangi Mativa's house behind the bakery. This
_ifonga_, as they call it, is a sort of public humiliation to expiate a
fault, and nobody's very keen about doing it unless they have to--for it
involves rubbing dirt in your hair, and singing small, and suffering a
sort of social eclipse for a week or two afterwards. To'oto'o's face
grew several shades darker at the suggestion, and though I promised him
twenty dollars out of hand for himself and two kegs of beef and three
tins of biscuit by way of peace offering to Papalangi Mativa, he hemmed
and hawed and finally said no.

Then Sasa bore a hand and spoke beautifully of Rosalie, and how this
unfortunate business of O's head had divided her from Silver Tongue.

"If thou makest peace with his _ainga_," said Sasa, "lo, what is there
left for the white man to say? His bond is that of marriage; theirs,
that of blood; and if the last be satisfied, what room is there for the
former to complain?"

"But to be carried like a pig through the public street!" cried
To'oto'o. "Preferable far would be death itself than that the son of
chiefs should be thus degraded, and his name become a mock throughout
the Tuamasanga!"

"O To'oto'o," said Seumanutafa, "we know thee for a brave man, and that
thou tookst this head in open battle, even as David did that of Goliath,
and I swear thee thy honor shall remain undimmed for all the seeming
appearance of humiliation. Besides, is it not written in the Holy Book
that thou shouldst turn the other cheek to the smiter? Is it not said
also that blessed is the peacemaker, and that the meek shall inherit the
earth?"

"Weighty is my grief and pain," said To'oto'o, "but what your Highness
asks of me is impossibl