THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

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Samoan flag in the center, and on each side of the boat handkerchiefs with bright borders were tied in the branches, and filled in between with boxes of matches, cans of meat, biscuit, etc. In the bottom of the boat was any amount of taro, casks of beef, large tin boxes of biscuit, roast pigs and fowls, fish, bananas and cocoanuts. Next came a native leading a handsome white heifer followed by a crowd dragging by ropes two canoes lashed together, and filled to the brim with native food, ail sing­ing as they came. Then came nine men, followed by others, bringing on a kind of frame a cooked hog, weighing at least three hundred pounds. And so they came until the ground was covered with gifts. They said there were as many as one hun­dred casks of beef, weighing from thirty to fifty pounds each, and two hundred cooked pigs of different sizes. One chief alone brought six hundred taro; another three hun­dred taro , seven casks of beef, yams, etc. After all had arrived and been called off, the principal men and women of the villages withdrew to a neighboring bush to com­plete their toilet and put on the finishing touches to their gorgeous array, a toilet con­sisting of the best which they can secure in the way of a lava-lava of fine mats or painted tappa. The chiefs are particularly dressed in full war paint, a gorgeous dis­play of head-dress of human hair standing two feet high above a band of shells around the forehead. In the center of the hair plume is fastened a round mirror, sur­mounted by a bunch of long red feathers of the boatswain bird. Their bodies above the waist are bare, shining with strongly perfumed oil (well rubbed in by the women), the inevitable necklace of scarlet pandanns hanging to the waist or below, while over the lava-lava is worn a girdle of streamers made from the leaf of the fou tree. The taupou, or “ village maid ” (always a girl of high rank), who invariably accompanies the chief of the village on state occasions, is, like the chief himself, bare to the waist, well oiled, her beautifully rounded shoulders shining under the tropical sun, dressed in her finest mats, while her head-dress is of distinguishing height and magnificence. At the side of each division marches and dances the grotesque funny man, a cross between a clown and an American drum-major, at whose antics and jokes all are expected to laugh. The passing of the column occupied an hour or more. On the arrival at the Malie the chief tu-la-fa-li (the talking man), steps forward, throwing his fly-trap (an article used to drive away mosquitoes and flies, which are unusually numerous in Samoa), across his shoulder, and leaning with both hands on his long staff (which is his badge of office), proceeds to deliver a lengthy speech, in which he usually apolo­gizes for the poverty of the country, etc. Then other tu-la-fa-li make their speeches very similar to the first, a proceeding much enjoyed by them, as all Samoans consider themselves born orators, and then comes the ceremony of dividing all this food among the different chiefs. How this is accomplished is astonishing, for it has to be done with great care as to quantity, certain portions belonging to certain ranks. We were told that some of their wars were started by the unequal distribution of food on these occasions. There were at least twenty-five hundred natives at this talolo , and it was exceedingly interesting.

The taupou , or village maid, is a peculiar Samoan institution. She is chosen by the old women, and is generally a daughter by birth or adoption of the chief, and must be beautiful and exceptionally attractive. She has certain responsibilities. She leads the siva, or native dance, presides over the house provided in every village for the stop­ping place of visitors from neighboring islands, is conspicuous on all ceremonial or state occasions, has several less prominent sisters to do her bidding and to follow' her wherever she goes, apd several older women vffiose special dut5^ it is to see that she is not led astray, for a taupou must be perfectly chaste and pure. She is eligible to marry a chief who seeks her for her attractions and dowry of fine mats. Of late they are quite ambitious to marry a white man. Suega, a taupou v r e knew quite well, much prefers to dress like European women, and is very much averse to appearing in public dress “ a la Samoa,” but the requirements of the Samoans in that regard on certain ceremonial occasions are inexorable, and must be complied with in order to retain caste or position.