* I was told that the poor children were led away as they
thought to be given si mea ai vela—“something hot” (to
eat).—[L.B.]
When I first saw the dreadful Tito (pit) of Moatâ, it was at the close of a calm, windless day. I had been pigeon-shooting in the mountain forest, and was accompanied by a stalwart young Samoan warrior. As we were returning to Fasito'otai, he asked me if I would come a little out of the way and look at the “Tito,” a place he said “that is to our hearts, and is, holy ground”. He spoke so reverently that I was much impressed.
Following a winding path we suddenly came in view of the pit. The sides were almost covered with many beautiful varieties of crotons, planted there by loving hands, and it was very evident to me that the place was indeed holy ground. At the bottom of the pit was a dreadful reminder of the past—a large circle of black charcoal running round the sides, and enclosing in the centre a large space which at first I thought was snow-white sand, but on descending into the pit with uncovered head, and looking closer, found it was composed of tiny white coral pebbles. Hardly a single leaf or twig marred the purity of the whiteness of the cover under which lay the ashes of nearly five hundred human beings. Every Saturday the women and children of Fasito'otai and the adjacent villages visited the place, and reverently removed every bit of débris, and the layer of stones, carefully selected of an equal size, was renewed two or three times a year as they became discoloured by the action of the rain. Encompassing the wooded margin of the pit were numbers of orange, lime and banana trees, all in full fruit. These were never touched—to do so would have been sacrilege, for they were sacred to the dead. All around us were hundreds of wood-doves and pigeons, and their peaceful notes filled the forest with saddening melody. “No one ever fires a gun here,” said my companion softly, “it is forbidden. And it is to my mind that the birds know that it is a sacred place and holy ground.”
CHAPTER XXII ~ VANÂKI, THE STRONG SWIMMER
On the afternoon of the 4th of June, 1885, the Hawaiian labour schooner Mana, of which I was “recruiter” was beating through Apolima Straits, which divide the islands of Upolu and Savai'i. The south-east trade was blowing very strongly and a three-knot current setting against the wind had raised a short, confused sea, and our decks were continually flooded. But we had to thrash through it with all the sail we could possibly carry, for among the sixty-two Gilbert Islands “recruits” I had on board three had developed symptoms of what we feared was small-pox, and we were anxious to reach the anchorage off the town of Mulifanua at the west end of Upolu before dark. At Mulifanua there was a large German cotton plantation, employing four hundred “recruited” labourers, and on the staff of European employés was a resident doctor. In the ordinary course of things we should have gone on to Apia, which was twenty miles farther on, and our port of destination, and handed over my cargo of “recruits” to the manager of the German firm there; but as Mulifanua Plantation was also owned by them, and my “recruits” would probably be sent there eventually, the captain and I decided to land the entire lot at that place, instead of taking them to Apia, where the European community would be very rough upon us if the disease on board did turn out to be small-pox.
As the skipper and I were standing aft, watching the showers of spray that flew over the schooner every time a head sea smacked her in the face, one of the hands shouted out that there was a man in the water, close to on the weather bow. Hauling our head sheets to windward we head-reached towards him, and in a few minutes the man, who was swimming in the most gallant fashion, was alongside, and clambered on board. He was a rather dark-skinned Polynesian, young, and of extremely powerful physique.
“Thanks, good friends,” he said, speaking in halting Samoan. “'Tis a high sea in which to swim. Yet,” and here he glanced around him at the land on both sides, “I was half-way across.”
“Come below,” I said, “and take food and drink, and I will give you a lava-lava (waistcloth).” (He was nude.)
He thanked me, and then again his keen dark eyes were fixed upon Savai'i—three miles distant.