man can attain to any perfection in it. Judged
by this standard the Samoans had advanced some way on the road to
civilisation, since among them the division of labour was carried out to
a considerable extent: in their native state they had not a few separate
trades or professions, some of which may even be said to have developed
the stability and organisation of trade guilds. Among them, for example,
house-building, canoe-building, tattooing, and the making of nets and
fish-hooks were distinct crafts, which, though not strictly hereditary,
were usually confined to particular families. Thus by long practice and
experience handed down from generation to generation a considerable
degree of skill was acquired, and a considerable degree of reputation
accrued to the family. Every trade had its particular patron god and was
governed by certain well-known rules. The members formed, indeed, we are
told, a trade union which was remarkably effective. Thus they had rules
which prescribed the time and proportions of payment to be made at
different stages of the work, and these rules were strictly observed and
enforced by the workmen. For example, in the house-building trade, it
was a standing custom that after the sides and one end of a house were
finished, the principal part of the payment should be made. If the
carpenters were dissatisfied with the amount of payment, they simply
left off work and walked away, leaving the house unfinished, and no
carpenter in the whole length and breadth of Samoa would dare to finish
it, for it would have been as much as his business or even his life was
worth to undertake the job. Anyone so foolhardy as thus to set the rules
of the trade at defiance would have been attacked by the other workmen
and robbed of his tools; at the best he would receive a severe
thrashing, at the worst he might be killed. A house might thus stand
unfinished for months or even years. Sooner or later, if he was to have
a roof over his head, the unfortunate owner had to yield to the trade
union and agree to such terms as they might dictate. If it happened that
the house was almost finished before the fourth and final payment was
made, and the builder at that stage of the proceedings took offence, he
would remove a beam from the roof before retiring in dudgeon, and no
workman would dare to replace it. The rules in the other trades, such
as canoe-building and tattooing, were practically the same. In
canoe-building, for exampl