The women wear their hair differently from the men, generally cutting it rather short, and combing it back. It is then powdered with fine lime made of burning coal, which has the effect of staining it of a reddish purple hue, which is thought to be the most fashionable color. After this is done, a Samoan belle merely twists a wreath of scarlet hibiscus flowers among the hair. In both sexes great pains are taken about the hair, and in order to promote its growth in after years the head is kept shaved in childhood, the boys having a single lock of hair on one side, and the girls one on either side.
There is a slight distinction of dressing the hair in the different islands of the Samoan group. In some of them the women separate the hair into multitudinous ringlets, each bound with cocoa-nut fibre, and cut square at the bottom, much like the ancient Assyrian fashion. As if to carry out the resemblance still further, the men preserve their beards, and dress them almost exactly like those of the figures on the Nineveh marbles.
In bodily form the women are by no means equal to the men, the latter being truly magnificent specimens of humanity, while the former are rather short, and stoutly made, with features that are pleasing in expression, but have otherwise little beauty. They are as well treated as in Tonga, and are not expected to do hard work. In fact, the men seem to take a pride in assisting the weaker sex. Mr. Pritchard writes on this subject as follows:—“We saw several women sitting quietly in their canoe, whilst their cavaliers swam alongside, towing them through the surf, not because they are at all less at home in the water than their husbands and brothers, as we saw this afternoon, when a large number of girls were alongside, who were as often swimming about, laughing and talking, for about half-an-hour at a time in the water, or sitting in their boats, which they are constantly upsetting.”
When the husband of a Samoan wife dies, his widow is not sacrificed at his funeral, but is usually taken by his brother, after the ancient Jewish custom. It is remarkable, by the way, that many of the Mosaic laws still exist in full force among the Samoans. In time of war no male captives are taken, all being killed. Their female relatives, whether wives or sisters, are considered as the property of the victors, and mostly become their wives. Thus it often happens that women are related to both sides, and, as they are by courtesy allowed to visit their relatives, all the designs of one side are speedily told to the other. So, whenever the principal chief prepares any plan of action, some of the women who have relations on the opposite side, immediately go off and tell them about the proposed movements. Still, the Samoans seem to make it a matter of honor not to take advantage of this knowledge, and to allow the enemy to execute his movements without interruption.
The women seem quite at their ease in warfare, and mostly accompany their husbands to the wars, in order to supply them with necessaries, and to nurse them if they should be wounded. Mr. Pritchard says that he has seen them in the heat of action, carrying water to the wounded, and seeming to care less for the thickly flying bullets than the warriors themselves.
Before passing to another subject, we will complete our notices of dress. The reader may remember that on [page 977] was given a full account of the various processes by which the inner bark of the paper mulberry is made into garments. The Samoans employ the same method as the Tongans, but are even more careful in the manufacture of the cloth, which is in great request throughout many parts of Polynesia, and can be recognized at once by a skilful eye.
The women are the sole manufacturers, and are wonderfully skilful and patient over their work. In the first place, for the finest cloth they always employ very young trees, not more than fourteen to fifteen months old, and only two or three inches in diameter. They begin their work by cutting down the trees, peeling off the bark, and steeping it for eight and forty hours in water, so as to enable the rough outer bark to be removed from the thin and delicate inner bark. The well-known “bass,” with which gardeners tie up flowers, is a familiar instance of “liber,” or inner bark, procured from the lime tree. By constant beating, this substance becomes greatly increased in width and reduced in thickness, and, like gold leaf, it can be beaten out to almost any extent.
As the strips of bark are only ten or twelve inches wide, a number of them are united by overlapping the edges and putting between them arrow-root dissolved in water. The united pieces, while still wet, are again beaten, and after a while the two pieces become incorporated into one, and all signs of the junction disappear.
When a piece of sufficient size is made, printing and staining are the next processes. The dyes are generally of three kinds, red, brown, and yellow. The two first tints are obtained from clays, and the third from the ever useful turmeric. The women who make and print the cloth do not prepare the dyes, that being a separate occupation, and in these islands the different professions are strictly limited to certain families, just as is the case with the castes in India. The printing is done on exactly the same principle that is employed in rubbing brasses in this country. The pattern is made by fastening the flexible ribs of the cocoa-nut leaf on a board. When the ribs are quite hard and dry the cloth is stretched over them, and the dye rubbed over it with a stiff brush, so that it only adheres to those parts of the cloth which press against the raised pattern below. For patterns of a larger description a softer bark is used, which holds a quantity of color.
There are in my collection several specimens of Samoan bark cloth; one is very fine, pure white, six feet long, by two wide, and ornamented with a fine fringe all round it. Another is thicker and stronger, being made of four layers of bark, one placed upon the other. In some places the junction has not been completed, and the different layers are quite distinct. It measures rather more than seven feet in length and three feet ten inches in width. It has a deep-colored border about eighteen inches in width, composed of a diamond pattern impressed upon a number of perpendicular parallel lines and dots. This border is a light red in color, and upon it are several circles of dark brown. Circles of a similar kind are scattered over the uncolored portion of the robe, which is of a creamy yellow hue.