ood, and fifty cartridges for my gun. "Sui," as
he was called for brevity, was an old acquaintance of mine and one of
the most unmitigated young imps that ever ate _taro_ as handsome "as
a picture," and a most notorious scandalmonger and spy. He was only
thirteen years of age, and was of rebel blood, and, child as he was, he
knew that his head stood very insecurely upon his shoulders, and that
it would be promptly removed therefrom if any of King Malietoa's troops
could catch him spying in _flagrante delicto_. Two years before, he had
attached himself to me, and had made a voyage with me to the Caroline
Islands, during which he had acquired an enormous vocabulary of sailors'
bad language. This gave him great local kudos.

Sui was to accompany me to the top of the range, and then return, as
otherwise he would be in hostile territory.

By four o'clock in the afternoon we had gained a clear spot on the crest
of the range, from where we had a most glorious view of the south coast
imaginable. Three thousand feet below us were the russet-hued thatched
roofs of the houses of Siumu Village; beyond, the pale green water that
lay between the barrier reef and the mainland, then the long curving
line of the reef itself with its seething surf, and, beyond that again,
the deep, deep blue of the Pacific, sparkling brightly in the westering
sun.

Leaning my gun against one of the many buttresses of a mighty _masa'oi_
tree, I was drinking in the beauty of the scene, when we heard the
shrill, cackling scream of a mountain cock, evidently quite near. Giving
the boy my gun, I told him to go and shoot it; then sitting down on the
carpet of leaves, I awaited his return with the bird, half-resolved to
spend the night where I was, for I was very tired and began to feel the
premonitory chills of an attack of ague.

In ten minutes the sound of a gun-shot reverberated through the forest
aisles, and presently I heard Sui returning. He was running, and holding
by its neck one of the biggest mountain cocks I ever saw. As he ran, he
kept glancing back over his shoulder, and when he reached me and threw
down gun and bird, I saw that he was trembling from head to foot.

"What is the matter?" I asked; "hast seen an _aitu vao_ (evil spirit of
the forest)?"

"Aye, truly," he said shudderingly, "I have seen a devil indeed, and the
marrow in my bones has gone--I have seen Te-bari, the Tafito."{*}

* The Samoans term all the natives of the Equato