| Show THE SAMOAN MISSION ay the time this reaches you wina I 1 io 11 utah will be disappearing ud cwi we hope by that time that sum vwe in samoa will be doing likewise the natives tell us that there s cool weather coming and that it is opposed ou I 1 up posed 1 to remain during th the e LP ailt from rom march until july we qa r hope this is true as most of us lwe not experienced any cold ther since the spring of 1888 some of our number much longer alao that occasionally we have a W of cool weather produced by hand and strong sea breezes which avor ever last more than a day or two such times the natives drop the matting all around their houses na make a fire on the inside as hotl Q would do at the approach of w winter every change in the weather ther oi of this kind is hailed with joy 4 bv the white people but it has hab baa 0 effect upon the natives as is ah wn by coughs and colds that al bet universally prevail among th ws arll at such times that is the fy time in a samoans Sa Samo moans alls life when 4 can wear clothing enough to cover ave his entire body and at the mame time feel comfortable I 1 am ased ased to say that I 1 think it will 1 I be e a question of f a few years aal the samoan people generally ill S wear clothing after the style of europeans Uro w with ith the exception that A will be none worn but what is M g Sol necessary to cover the y as this climate does not pera of it bet being otherwise with any ave aa ee of cohort comfort to the wearer j t were surprised to find that the koolis kO oan OLIM ladies are very good at plain bilig and occasionally we see a fladd of ad wing sewing machine in the houses the me well to do the native women b k me to our sisters and are shown y them bem how to make their cloth clothing ng 46 11 result we often see a native lady larj 00 4 ming to meeting dressed in a neat or loose fitting wrapper waw mado out of calico 1118 samoan agoan cloth is made out of ton bark ot of a willow which is te BS and aad roped scraped until it looks ah obber thick tissue pap erand is in large 41 toa of all shapes these sheets elk 3 pasted together until the desired ta thickness are obtained when coakers makers trim the edges 0 on n the tare and print a pattern of which haave have V quite a variety with a gp tit stamp engraved on wood they pur belr 18 their own dyes for coloring a cannot caillot ca allot refrain from admiring the samoans Sa moans ingenuity as displayed in the making of cloth mats and canoes their mats are made out of rushes and willow bark braided and are worth from twenty five cents to two hundred dollars each the ordinary mat that is used for flooring is worth about a dollar much finer ones being used for sleeping purposes but the samoan extra fine mat is the work of the greater part of a life time and is worth examining closely it is impossible to conceive the amount of labor it takes to make one of these tine fine mats unless you should watch a native woman braiding for hours ho urs on one and notice how little space she covers the strands with which they are made are as fine as a blade of grass this is the country for womans comans rights with a vengeance the men man and boys do all the cooking as well as raising the food and preparing it for the oven I 1 do not mean to say that they cook three meals meala a day they have improved on our betm method and add only cook once every other day but never cook food on sunday the sabbath day is strictly observed as a day of rest and worship in fact by noon on saturday the natives usually have their weeks work done and are clean and ready for the sabbath we follow their example in this respect and wish that all the world would do likewise our sisters say that when we go home there will be no more cooking of hot dinners on sunday by them the samoan women old and young spend most of their time making cloth and mats while the little girls part of the household work consists of carrying water from the village well in vessels made of cocoanut coco anut shells with two small holes in one end the natives of both sexes and all ages smoke tobacco either in the form of cigarettes or in clay pipes I 1 will leave you to 10 imagine how a native woman looks with a clay pipe in her mouth due respect is paid the aged who are waited on by the young every village is governed by chiefs or heads of families and all things are done by the common consent of these chiefs in their councils for instance at the present time nearly all of the natives of this village are indebted to the village storekeeper the chiefs called a council and there they decided that the entire village should stop eating cocoanuts cocoa nuts until their debts were paid as the selling of popo which is m made ade out of the cocoanut coco anut is about their only source of income As a result cocoanuts cocoa nuts are casa sa 11 which is a native name dame for anything sacred or forbidden and even the missionaries will wili long ong for cocoanuts cocoa nuts and not get them hem until the village debts are paid we hope they do not owe very much they proceed in like manner whenever there is a scarcity y of any particular article of food it becomes I 1 iball sa until there is plenty when the ban is removed and all can eat of it again it would be difficult to find a samoan village that does not own at least one good sail and row boat that will hold from 20 to 30 persons besides any amount of single and double canoes fishing excursions are very frequent at present with the men of this village they take the village boats and leave here about sundown arriving at the fishing grounds on the op opposite poste side of the island by dark they remain emain all night in the open boats and fish they seem to always be successful and usually return soon after daylight the next morning on one of these trips they caught nineteen sharks of a very small species weighing g some ten pounds each the natives are very fond of these and whenever a boat returns laden with sharks a native stands on the prow and yells continually at the top of his voice voice at the same time swinging a paddle and making an effort to dance which the rocking of the boat causes to appear very indi ludicrous di crous instead of the young men dividing the fish among themselves they are divided among the chiefs or fafel missionaries so that we always get our share during these times of war there are many fonos 11 or councils held which are always accompanied by feasts and the natives never forget to send us some delicate part of the edibles we have heard many rumors of war between the two factions on this and the island ot tutuila but so far there has not been any fighting except on the island of upolu we had a genuine scare on new years morning at 1 a m we were awakened by a chief who said that a german man of war was coming to burn the village and that all the able bodied men were going goin to cross over to the larger island island of tutuila they brought us their boxes and valuables to take care of in ewe case their houses were burned and by sunrise the village was deserted by its male members we had the stars stan and stripes flying over our house this alarm like many others before and since proved to be based on a false report in the samoan hones of january I 1 read the consul general of germany germanas Germ anys Is statement of that coun dryps position on the samoan war question which was to the effect that they would punish according to martial law any person irrespective of nationality found assisting the rebels Malea toas or Mataafa Mata afas ls party unless england or america interferes we expect to soon hear of the war being settled in favor of Tama sese who is not the peoples peopled choice and therefore will only rule while backed by a stronger power nature in bestowing her gifts of beauty did not forget even this out of the way place on our little island home we have many a nook and corner that could be truthfully called buti beautiful ful spots we have hills and valleys with many a running stream on the larger islands but how we long for a drink of booi cool mountain water from utah we have a nice sail and rowboat row boat of our own that we use in going from place to place there being no inland villages worth mentioning we have named our boat faaaliga Fao aliga which is the native name for revelation we have one advantage over you that I 1 must mention in our little garden cucumbers and musk melons are ripe and we had string beans for christmas and now new years yearns dinners tho the vines are loaded with tomatoes and in the near future we expect to nave beets cabbage turnips and squash NEMO samoan islands february |
