" Let us try to be as wise
as Mataafa, and to conceive that etiquette and morals differ in one
country and another. We shall be the less surprised to find Samoan war
defaced with some unpalatable customs. The childish destruction of
fruit-trees in an enemy's country cripples the resources of Samoa; and
the habit of head-hunting not only revolts foreigners, but has begun to
exercise the minds of the natives themselves. Soon after the German
heads were taken, Mr. Carne, Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit
Mataafa's camp, and spoke of the practice with abhorrence. "Misi Kane,"
said one chief, "we have just been puzzling ourselves to guess where
that custom came from. But, Misi, is it not so that when David killed
Goliath, he cut off his head and carried it before the king?"

With the civil life of the inhabitants we have far less to do; and yet
even here a word of preparation is inevitable. They are easy, merry, and
pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either the most capable
or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress is a passion, and makes
a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song is almost ceaseless. The
boatman sings at the oar, the family at evening worship, the girls at
night in the guest-house, sometimes the workman at his toil. No occasion
is too small for the poets and musicians; a death, a visit, the day's
news, the day's pleasantry, will be set to rhyme and harmony. Even
half-grown girls, the occasion arising, fashion words and train choruses
of children for its celebration. Song, as with all Pacific islanders,
goes hand in hand with the dance, and both shade into the drama. Some of
the performances are indecent and ugly, some only dull; others are
pretty, funny, and attractive. Games are popular. Cricket-matches, where
a hundred played upon a side, endured at times for weeks, and ate up the
country like the presence of an army. Fishing, the daily bath,
flirtation; courtship, which is gone upon by proxy; conversation, which
is largely political; and the delights of public oratory, fill in the
long hours.

But the special delight of the Samoan is the _malanga_. When people form
a party and go from village to village, junketing and gossiping, they
are said to go on a _malanga_. Their songs have announced their approach
ere they arrive; the guest-house is prepared for their reception; the
virgins of the village attend to prepare the kava bowl and entertain
them with the dance; time flies in