killed a grand old tusker, and presented the tusks to the
local chief, who in return gave him a very old kava bowl--a valuable
article to Samoans. He was, as usual, incredulous when I told him that
it was worth L10, and that Theodor Weber, the German Consul General, who
was a collector, would be only too glad to get it at that price.

"What, for that thing?"

"Yes, for that thing. Quite apart from its size, its age makes it
valuable. I daresay that more than half a century has passed since the
tree from which it was made was felled by stone axes, and the bowl
cut out from a solid piece." It was fifteen inches high, two feet in
diameter, and the four legs and exterior were black with age, whilst
the interior, from constant use of kava, was coated with a bright yellow
enamel. The labour of cutting out such a vessel with such implements--it
being, legs and bowl, in one piece--must have taken long months. Then
came the filing down with strips of shark skin, which had first been
softened, and then allowed to dry and contract over pieces of wood,
round and flat; then the final polishing with the rough underside of
wild fig-leaves, and then its final presentation, with such ceremony, to
the chief who had ordered it to be made.

I explained all this to Marchgiont, and he actually believed me and did
not say "Bosh!"

"I thought that you made a fearfully long-winded oration on my behalf
when the chief gave me the thing," he remarked.

"I did. I can tell you, Marchmont, that I should have felt highly
flattered if he had presented it to me. He seems to have taken a violent
fancy to you. But, for Heaven's sake, don't think that, because he
has been told that you are a rich man, he has any ulterior motive. And
don't, I beg of you, offer him money. He has a reason for showing his
liking for you."

I knew what that reason was. Suisala, the chief of Siumu, had, from
the very first, expressed to me his admiration of Marchmont's stalwart,
athletic figure, and his fair complexion, and was anxious to confer on
him a very great honour--that of exchanging names. Suisala was of one of
the oldest and most chiefly families in Samoa, and was proud of the fact
that the French navigator Bougainville had taken especial notice of his
grandfather (who was also a Suisala) and who had been presented with
a fowling piece and ammunition by the French officer. As I have before
mentioned, physical strength and manliness always attract the Samoan
mind