brains with a club; and she knew that, and liked him the better for it. Do you know what the old chief Finow did when there was a dispute about some women captives once? He had never heard of King Solomon, but he ran the old Hebrew pretty close in his judgment. Six women were captured in a fight against the Vavau people, and, as they were very young and pretty, dispute waxed high as to which men were entitled to them by the laws of war. The actual capturers naturally claimed them, but the superior relatives of the capturers, ie, those blood relations who were elder and also in a higher rank, revived a not-often-exercised old custom, and insisted on the women being handed over. Finow could not ignore the ancient right of the superior relatives, but not wishing to anger his warriors, the capturers, he ordered the six women to be cloven down the middle, and the left sides to be given to the superior relations, and the right sides to the capturers. This brought the disputants to their senses, and the matter was 'arranged out of court.'

"Don't you believe, however, for a moment that the married women as a body were unhappy. Why? Tongan women were so honoured in the old days, that they were never put to hard labour; and a child took its rank from the mother, not from the father. Even in Fiji the health of wives and children was so thoughtfully cared for, that whenever one of them bore a child she was tapu (i.e., set apart as sacred) for two years, thus giving her health and strength, and time to nurse and bring up her child to be strong and healthy also.

"Not only married, but also single women, had lots of pleasure and social intercourse together. Engaged modern girls needn't think they have invented anything new when, just before marriage, they invite their girl friends to an 'afternoon tea' or 'at home,' where presents are displayed. Tongans, and Samoans too, did it before Susan, and Mary, and Gretchen were born. Only instead of tea the betrothed hostess gave them sweet drinks; and they piled before her white ngatu (printed tappa) rugs, covered with black pictures of the beka, and made by the women of sacred Hihifo, the shrine for the making of kings and the home of that great tabooed bat, the beka or flying fox, hundreds of which slept hanging in strings reaching nearly to the ground, one holding on by the claws to another from four big banyan trees, and impregnating the whole surrounding atmosphere with a repugnant odour. Many other presents did her guests bring to her, such as fine mats and tappa cloth, and embroidered sisis, and cocoanut wristlets, and flowers. Being thoroughly well up in the subject they talked, no doubt, about lovers and men and, as a distinct branch of experience, all about marriage, and had a good time generally.

"Of course the virgin maid of the village, the adopted daughter of the biggest chief, was there too, and her experiences of the attentions paid to her by the latest visitors, whom it was her proud duty to entertain, would be worth hearing. They told each other yarns about the ways of the wonderful white men with some of their girl companions the beginnings of the papalagi's attentions to one in the manner so forcibly pourtrayed by Lui Becke, and the horrible endings of such another, as he tells in that creepy, shuddery style of his, that

You

seems to cling to one's memory, whether one will or no. remember the two stories I mean-one where the girl is 'cotched' by the roll of Turkey-red twill thrown to her, and starts housekeeping for her drunken lord by 'bashing the mosquitoes' off his sleeping mats; and the other, when the terrified wife is made to carry her lover's bloody head in her arms, and sing in a quavering voice his seducing song, Marriage hides the tricks of lovers."

"Perchance, sitting in a circle in the open air before the doorway, the betrothed hostess and her girl friends played a game of cat's cradle,

THE MAID OF THE VILLAGE LEADING, THEY PERFORMED A 'LAKA LAKA. or lafo, or fise, and threw oranges, and smoked the wonderful new cigarettes of tobacco wrapped in banana leaf, and sang, all together, the sibi or love song we were trying on the piano last night; or, the maid of the village leading, they performed a laka laka,1 and laughed merrily and innocently, while all around from hut to hut, among the motionless feathery coco-palms, rang out the cheery tap, tap, tap of the tappa hammer. That was in the good old days, before the reign of the Reverend Mr. Shirley Baker. Now they must have a piece of paper before they marry; that's all the difference. I will tell you a good story about that.

"One evening in Apia, the Consul's clerk was dining with the German firm's clerk. Looking out they saw, among a number of girls sitting about on the grass under the cocoa-nut trees, playing and talking, one very pretty girl. It was Fanini.

"I should like to marry her,' said the German clerk. 'Let us have some fun. You shall be consul. Here's paper, pen, and ink; write out a certificate, and we will have a mock marriage. Now I shall go and ask her.'

"Can you tell us the name of the German firm's clerk?' sneaks in the grave man! We all laugh, for it seems a palpable hit. "Never mind his name. Don't interrupt me.'

"Yes, go on, please Mr. Müller,' we cry.

"Fanini, the girl, was quite agreeable-a pretty little thing she was. I will show you her photograph another time (which he did; and here it is on page 41). She was at once escorted home, with singing and laughter, by her playfellows. The whole family and all the relatives turned out, and after rubbing Fanini all over with cocoa-nut oil till she glistened the oil being rubbed in so hard that her skin became soft and smooth, and dry as satin-and dressing her in a handsome bridal loin mat, which showed her shapely figure to advantage, they brought her to the door of the house where the two young men were waiting. "Are you going to be the Consul?' said the father.

"Yes,' said the Consul's clerk.
"Then write the paper, and give it to me.
"How much shall I say?' asked the clerk.
"Ten dollars,' replied the father.

I keep it.'

"So the paper was filled up. The German clerk engaged the girl as servant for one month, for ten dollars; the father pocketed the paper and the money, and everyone was satisfied. Then the leetle bride, carrying herself proudly erect, smiling, showing her white teeth and her shapely bosom and limbs, vas brought up, and handed over to the young husband. Ach! vat a beautiful sight!"

"What about the cocoa-nut oil?" shouts the whole smoking-room.

"De cocoa-nut oil is scented mit powdered sandalwood. You get to like it. Why, some men are so fond of the native women that they can't bear the smell of a white one! Moreover, it is wrong to bring a white woman to these islands. They cannot stand the climate. Their complexion changes to an anæmic paleness. They fade away and die, and so do their children."

"Talking about dying now. world long to die and cannot !"

How many white men in this wicked

"I shall feel that way in a bit if this beastly weather continues much longer," interrupts the grave man with a growl.

"Mr. Blackmore, de European can growl and curse, but he can't die," retorts our German friend. De native can die when he likes. I remember two Solomon Island boys who worked for me died in that way. The Solomon Island natives are very fierce, and look very formidable in their war costume, and so does the Gilbert Islander in his coir-matting armour, coir head-shield, and carrying his tukalau, or shark's-teeth sword. One of them can fight a dozen Tongans, but

they are very good workers and faithful fellows, and they dance and sing, and are generally light-hearted and merry. They turn out great swells when in full dancing costume. One of these Solomon boys suddenly refused his food, lay down on his mat, turned his face to the wall, and in a few days died. I was very kind to him, gave him delicacies, forced him to eat some rice, and brought the doctor to see him. The doctor said that his temperature was a little higher than usual, but that

there was absolutely nothing the matter with him. All I did was in vain. He had no what we call illness, not even nostalgia-homesickness-that complaint so fatal to Solomon Islanders.

"You see, fevers are almost unknown in these islands. The only disease they get is a very light attack of measles. The moment they

feel ill of measles they jump into the water, and you can't stop them. Then the chill kills them. If you can keep them in their huts (which is almost impossible unless you chain them down; one employer saved forty of his men in that way) they will recover.

"Well! he died and was buried. Next day I missed another of the Solomon boys, and found him in his bed of mats stiff, cold, his face turned to the wall. I shook him; I spoke to him; he would not move or answer. So I asked the other boys what was the matter with him?

"Don't you know, master?' said they. 'He and Maui' (the one

who died) 'all as one like Sammy and Gussy' (my two little boys). 'Maui die, he die too.'

"Yes, they were brothers. So he died too.

"Nothing the matter with him at all, the doctor said; only he chose to die.

"They have a very weak hold of life, and yet they are brave beyond belief. Once I remember my horse got loose, did some damage to a native garden, and was put into the pound-forty-eight dollars damage. It was all Spanish and Mexican dollars in those days. Now English