d, _Polynesian
Reminiscences_, p. 61; J. B. Stair, _Old Samoa_, pp. 247 _sqq._;
G. Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, pp. 170, 172 _sq._ Dr.
Brown here speaks as if captive women were regularly spared and
married by the victors. As to the elaborate civilities which
passed between the vanguards of two hostile armies at their
first meeting, see Dr. Brown, _op. cit._ pp. 166 _sq._

[36] J. Williams, _op. cit._ p. 458.

[37] J. Williams, _op. cit._ pp. 286 _sq._, 456; J. B.
Stair, _Old Samoa_, pp. 254-258.

Sec. 3. _Houses, Agriculture, and Industries_

Like all the Polynesians, the Samoans are not nomadic, but live in
settled villages. The typical Samoan house is commonly described as oval
or elliptical, though in fact it would seem to be of oblong shape with
semicircular ends. But many houses were circular in shape, and with
their conical thatched roofs resembled gigantic beehives. From the
Tongans the Samoans also borrowed the custom of building oblong
quadrangular houses, which were called _afolau_. The best houses, in
particular those of important chiefs, were built on raised platforms of
stones about three feet high. One of the circular houses would measure
about thirty-five feet in diameter by a hundred in circumference. Two or
three posts in the centre of the house, some twenty feet high, supported
the roof, the lower end of which rested on a series of short posts, four
or five feet high, placed at intervals of about four feet all round the
house. The intervals between these posts were sometimes closed by thatch
neatly tied to sticks, which were planted upright in the ground and
fastened to the eaves; but more commonly, it would seem, the intervals
between the posts were left open and only closed at night by blinds made
of coco-nut leaves, which could be let down or pulled up like Venetian
blinds. During the day these blinds were drawn up, so that there was a
free current of air all through the house. The roofs of the best houses
were made of bread-fruit wood carefully thatched with leaves of the wild
sugar-cane; when well made, the thatch might last seven years. The
circular roofs were so constructed that they could be lifted clean off
the posts and removed anywhere, either by land or on a raft of canoes.
The whole house could also be transported; and as Samoan houses were
often bartered, or given as presents, or paid as fines, it frequently
happened that they were remov