| Show ON A SOUTH SEA FARM siupapa upolu samoa july 28 1897 after meeting was dismissed last sunday afternoon brother olsen and I 1 were invited by Mose sone of our native saints to visit his farm some day this week and as we had a desire to see how the farming industry was conducted by samoan natives we accepted his kind invitation and today wednesday was decided upon as the day that we should make the visit this morning almost before the gray dawn of day was beginning to break upon this land of perpetual summer we w were ere startled from a sweet dream of home by a rapping on the wooden window near where we were sleeping and a voice crying out in broken english through the cracks of the bamboo wall miss ma filo do you want to visit my farm today I 1 it was moses who had come to ascertain if we were still desirous of fulfilling our promised visit we reassured him that we would be pleased to be honored as his guests guest 9 for a little sightseeing and dinner as soon as our morning school was over and as he left he promised to have his boy on the ground to guide our footsteps in the right trails in order to arrive in safety at his farm school over and armed with a cocoa nut wood cane with telona mosess boy as our guide we commenced the journey telona is a boy of about 8 years of age has a shaved head one black eye the other having been removed some years ago on account 0 of f being diseased and a big sore on one foot which makes him walk in a very much crippled manner and with his Iava lav alava lava around his neck where you will usually find it instead of around his loins where it belongs he is indeed a picture starting from the meeting house here telona hobbled along leading the way through a part of the almost continuous cocoanut coco anut grove that follows the beach of the great pacific the entire distance around the island and after walking for probably feet over a very sandy trail we emerged as aa it were from a jungle and beheld the village of siupapa laying before us this village consists of just nine oblong and round thatched roofed native houses having the usual cobble rock floors and boasts of inhabitants not to exceed fifty persons the houses are scattered along the beach with seemingly no idea as to order of position and none of them are to exceed feet from the waters edge following our guide to the back of these houses being attracted on our way by innumerable samoan dogs where I 1 use my cane to very good advantage by shaking it at one and making a lunge at another but missing it by a good ten feet we arrived at an old rock wall about three feet in height which probably for ages has served the double purpose to this race of people of keeping the pigs which run loose in the village out of their umu or cooking houses which stand immediately behind it and away from their talo and banana patches which are all found inland climbing over this wall we were led towards anal most perpendicular precipice of probably some feet in height and were told by our guide that his fathers farm was on top over this precipice and down a cliff of volcanic stone for a distance of some 70 feet trickles a small stream of water having for its source a small spring on top it falls into a rudely formed bathing pool of about feet in size in which the water stands waist deep it is in this pool that we have our daily bath and from which we obtain our daily supply of water as do also all the ika natives tives of the village nothing could be seen of this precipice from our position near the wall but a solid embankment of green trees and underbrush which I 1 indeed looks impassable but as we approach nearer we ascend for a short distance a very steep s slope lope and then there opens before us a kind of natural stairway winding back and forth and up the cliff which we began to climb prom from rock to root and root to rock we struggle up seeking assistance by grasping a friendly branch or root which served us the double purpose of helping us up and securing our balance from a fall that to is anything but pleasant to contemplate we at last reached the top out of breath and several pounds lighter from thib the loss of perspiration it is down this dangerous and difficult trail that the natives carry and have carried their dally daily food for ages but still the present generation seems in no way inclined to spend a little energy in placing it in a condition of safety and easier of access while we wiped the perspiration on off our dripping faces and sought a cooling breeze from our hats which we kept in rapid motion we looked down into the village we had just left as one from a housetop looking down into his garden the roofs of village houses can be seen here and there through the thick growth of cocoanut coco anut trees that surround them next is seen the white sandy beach then the coral rw reef appears less than feet from the shore against and over which the great waves of the pacific constantly roll forming one long and bea beautiful L I 1 ticul line of white foam and causing a continuous roar which sounds not unlike that of an engine in the act of discharging steam next we saw the grand pacific whose color to Is of the deepest indigo stretching to the south douth until it joins hands with some gray floating cloud and sight is lost losi in ocean clouds and sky passing along over what appears to be a sort of table land walking on a green carpet of ferns and other small mall shrub shrubbery bev climbing over fallen trees and piles of decaying cocoanuts cocoa nuts which in themselves would make a a samoan wealthy if taken care of in the course of a few moments walk we reached our destination and right in the midst of this chaos we found the farm of moses no barns no cattle no horses no farming implements in fact nothing is visible that bears any resemblance to a farm excepting a few chickens and two small scrawny flee eaten dogs we found our host engaged in his talo patch of something less than half an acre digging around the roots of some of the talo plants with a dangerous looking two bodt butcher knife which serves our friend the double purpose of farming implement and cooking utensil our host moses is a man of probably 50 60 years of age stands about ave anve toot foot six of med medium I 1 um bu build I 1 id h has as a few short gray bristles on his upper lip in place of a mustache and wears short black hair streaked with gray whick which stands out all over his head like the bristles on a shoe brush he has a jolly face and a merry laugh and his long tobacco colored teeth are brought into plain view as he shakes his merry old sides with laughter on our approach he immediately left off work and escorted us to his little low thatched roof hut situated in the center of his bis talo patch where we were given an old greasy mat to sit on the best on the premises both dogs made their presence known one by barking viciously and the other by endeavoring to lick our faces when again my cane was used to good advantage in keeping them at a respectful distance and there was mosess farm consisting of not more than half an acre of talo and probably two dozen hills of sugar cane surrounded by a jungle of cocoanut coco anut bread fruit ast asi or apple and innumerable kinds of unproductive trees and brush A few feet from the house in which we sat stands another but much smaller hut of similar construction called the umu or cooking house and as it is customary with us to expect a feast when we visit a farm our interest natu raly center in this in I 1 n t the he center of this umu hut stands a pile of volcanic cobble rock gray in color from having been heated so many limesand time sand on a closer inspection of the pile we found that it rested upon a number of sticks of wood which latter fill a shallow hole in the earth underneath while moses grated several cocoa nuts and rang the milk from the pulp with the assistance of a bunch of co chanut fibers telona lighted the wood under the pile of rocks and soon prospects looked very bright for securing our expected feast cooking utensils utensil consi consist Fit of the aforementioned butcher knife one wooden dish holding as much as a small bread pan and a good supply of banana and breadfruit leaves A few well matured breadfruit were placed upon the pile of ro rock ck which in the course of a few moments are thoroughly cooked by the flame that went creeping up around them Vf When done they are peeled with a small stick in the hands of moses Mose sand and being placed in the wooden pan were thoroughly mashed with a green breadfruit on the end of a stick in very much the same manner that potatoes are mashed the mixture then resembles a pan of dough over this were poured the cocoa milk or juice mixed with a little sea water in which our host plunged his hands breaking the dough into small eatable we e held our plates which in this c case ase were small banana leaves and received our portion of tau folo the dain faintest test of samoan dishes As we finished this first course of our meal a young man and his wife of the appeared on the scene bringing with them a basket of ripe bananas and one of asi and joined the preparation of the articles to be cooked while moses prepared some breadfruit the young man peeled some ast which he sliced and wrapped in banana leaves and the woman busted busied herself by making palusami saml which is done by holding half a dozen small talo leaves in such a manner that they will hold liquid into which she poured a small quantity of cocoanut coco anut juice and sea water wrapped ohp whole alternately in banana and bread truit lea leaves by the time the food is prepared the wood is consumed under the new red hot rocks letting them down so that instead of forming a pile they line the sides aides of the shallow hole on these rocks were placed the several articles it food to be cooked including some chestnuts an abundance of which ate are found at this season on top of the food is first placed some fresh clean banana leaves the whole being covered with several of dried leaves and rubbish it takes about an hour tor for our meal to thoroughly cook which when done we sat cross legged around in the little hut and en joyed without seasoning other than the little salt found in tide the palusami saml in conversation with moses we learned that he is now living with his or wife he does not remember which and in all his marriage experiences he has had but two children boys both of whom are dead so we find that telona Mosess boy is not mosess boy at all but some other fellows boy in years past this man lived in pago pago tutuila where is located the best harbor in the south seas in which the many men of war that tour these waters sometimes lay for weeks and months it was here while acting as a sort of provision agent that he picked up a number of english words a few of which are quoted above he has many letters of recommendation in his possession from the captains of the several one of which reads as follows pago pago tutuila 1896 steamship the bearer of this moses having supplied us with many samoa luxuries for which he has duly received cash in hand we cheerfully recommend him to all desiring his services as being the greatest lyer in the south seas we know not whether to attribute this to his ignorance or to a sheer desire or on his part to sin we only know that the evil is present with him to an alarming extent captain but moses is a much better man nowadays than this represents him as being N G |
