A short distance from Levuka we came to a native village. Between the front rows of huts was a street, 150 feet wide, covered with grass. On visiting one of the huts, the husband pointed to a bed, which consisted of a dozen mats piled on the floor, inviting me to sit down. A moment later he bethought himself of the baby sleeping in the part of the bed where he had invited me to sit. He pointed to a little mound under the mats, laughed, and indicated that I sit in another place. Scanning the tidy enclosure, to my surprise, a large picture of Jeffries, the ex-prizefighter, hung from one side. It pleased the native to see the interest I took in the poster, for he laughed aloud, and, pointing to it, said something that sounded like "Ugh!"
Visiting another hut, it was also found very neat, the floor being covered with cocoanut mats; the mat bed was the visitor's seat here also. This Fijian could speak no English, and we had not been long enough in the islands to acquire a speaking knowledge of the native language. At our approach the wife came to the center of the hut, but a few moments later, much to our surprise, she sat on the floor and began turning a handle to an American-made hand sewing machine that rested on a soap box.
It is possible for a Fijian to march 40 miles a day, heavily loaded, without food; but sometimes he takes twelve hours to travel only twelve miles, and eats half a dozen big meals during the journey. He is said to have a more pronounced weakness for yanggona, the native liquor, than have any other of the South Sea Islanders. This beverage is made from the root of a tree and, when drunk to excess, intoxicates. Each native must pay a yearly government tax of $5.
So that the reader may gather some idea of the scope of the planet on which we live, it may be of interest to note, before leaving Levuka, that this small port is located 11 hours and 59 minutes east of Greenwich, England, from which point the time of the world is computed.
CHAPTER IV
Traveling through still, blue-water channels, resembling wide esplanades, if the term be allowed, formed by heavily verdured tropical islands on each side, with curly coral reefs peeping out of the sea from time to time, we sailed for 150 miles through what may be termed an ocean park, when the ship entered the Koro Sea, and two days later reached the Samoan Islands. Sixty miles east of Levuka we crossed the line of the 180th meridian, where time changes 12 hours.
A red stream of lava, running from the mouth of a volcano down a mountain course 15 miles in length, and emptying into the sea, is a strange phenomenon. This volcano is located on the island of Savaii, the largest of the Samoan group. The distance from the shore to the mouth of the crater is seven miles, but the circuitous course of the stream is double the direct distance. The volcano burst into activity in 1905, and a foreshore of lava a quarter of a mile in extent bears evidence of the crater's outpourings since that time. In daytime the molten stream is white, and at night it resembles a great flaring serpent as it angles its way about rocky obstructions down the mountainside to the sea. Not far from the shore the lava bored a tunnel through a hillock that interfered for a time with its flow, and day and night the stream is red when passing through that opening. The cloud of steam that rises as the lava enters the water resembles a great volume of spray from a large waterfall. It is said the sea is a mile deep where this lava stream empties into the Pacific Ocean. Ships stop opposite the crater to allow passengers to view this unusual spectacle.
Passing through a coral reef channel, we arrived in the harbor of Apia, capital of the Samoan Islands. The little town stretches along the bay, cocoanut palms lining the shore at places, the trees and heavily verdured hills in the foreground giving the Samoan capital a high position in the list of pretty places. The ship was soon surrounded by natives, who offered for sale fans, shells, corals, beads and flowers.
The Samoan is the native aristocrat of all peoples. In bearing, looks, manners, tidiness, hospitality and pride he leads the world. He is the Polynesian, together with the Maori, the Tongan (Friendly Islander), the Kanaka (of Hawaii), and other tribes living on some of the South Pacific islands. The Samoans number 40,000, about 500 Europeans living in the group.