is this (high chief) gathering." This pagan practice
is very queer. I should say that the prison ava was of that not very
welcome form that we elegantly call spit-ava, but of course there was no
escape, and it had to be drunk. Fanny and I rode home, and I moralised
by the way. Could we ever stand Europe again? did she appreciate that if
we were in London, we should be _actually jostled_ in the street? and
there was nobody in the whole of Britain who knew how to take ava like a
gentleman? 'Tis funny to be thus of two civilisations--or, if you like,
of one civilisation and one barbarism. And, as usual, the barbarism is
the more engaging.

Colvin, you have to come here and see us in our {native / mortal} spot.
I just don't seem to be able to make up my mind to your not coming. By
this time, you will have seen Graham, I hope, and he will be able to
tell you something about us, and something reliable. I shall feel for
the first time as if you knew a little about Samoa after that. Fanny
seems to be in the right way now. I must say she is very, very well for
her, and complains scarce at all. Yesterday, she went down _sola_(at
least accompanied by a groom) to pay a visit; Belle, Lloyd and I went a
walk up the mountain road--the great public highway of the island, where
you have to go single file. The object was to show Belle that gaudy
valley of the Vaisigano which the road follows. If the road is to be
made and opened, as our new Chief Justice promises, it will be one of
the most beautiful roads in the world. But the point is this: I forgot I
had been three months in civilisation, wearing shoes and stockings, and
I tell you I suffered on my soft feet; coming home, down hill, on that
stairway of loose stones, I could have cried. O yes, another story, I
knew I had. The house boys had not been behaving well, so the other
night I announced a _fono_, and Lloyd and I went into the boys'
quarters, and I talked to them I suppose for half an hour, and Talolo
translated; Lloyd was there principally to keep another ear on the
interpreter; else there may be dreadful misconceptions. I rubbed all
their ears, except two whom I particularly praised; and one man's wages
I announced I had cut down by one half. Imagine his taking this smiling!
Ever since, he has been specially attentive and greets me with a face of
really heavenly brightness. This is another good sign of their really
and fairly accepting me as a chief. When I first came here, if