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Show Samoan Festival Native life is unusually picturesque pictur-esque in the Samoan islands. Nearly all of the 44,535 inhabitants of the islands are pure Polynesian. These islands, it Is contended, formed the center from which Polynesian peoples peo-ples spread over all the islands of the south Pacific. The Samoans have maintained many of their native ceremonies and dances. It Is a colorful color-ful festival, indeed, when the villagers vil-lagers garland themselves with flowers flow-ers and are led in their formal dances by the "taupo," or chosen village virgin, vir-gin, who wears a towering headdress head-dress of human hair adorned with a fillet of nautilus shells, precious red feathers from Fiji, and shells of pearl to Indicate her high rank. |