e, five separate payments were made to the
builders at five stages of the work; and if at any stage the workmen
were dissatisfied with the pay, they very unceremoniously abandoned the
work until the employer apologised or came to terms. No other party of
workmen would have the temerity to finish the abandoned canoe upon pain
of bringing down on their heads the wrath of the whole fraternity of
canoe-builders; any such rash offenders against the rules of the guild
would be robbed of their tools, expelled from their clan, and prohibited
from exercising their calling during the pleasure of the guild. Such
strides had the Samoans made in the direction of trade unionism.[41]

[41] G. Turner, _Samoa_, pp. 157 _sqq._, 162 _sqq._; J.
B. Stair, _Old Samoa_, pp. 141 _sqq._, 145 _sqq._, 153 _sqq._,
157 _sqq._; G. Brown, _Melanesians and Polynesians_, pp. 268,
305-308. Compare Ch. Wilkes, _op. cit._ ii. 143 _sqq._;
Violette, _op. cit._ pp. 134 _sq._; S. Ella, _op. cit._ pp. 635
_sq._

In addition to their household duties women engaged in special work of
their own, particularly in the manufacture of bark-cloths and of fine
mats; but among them there seems to have been no subdivision of labour
and consequently no professional guilds. In all families the making of
bark-cloth and mats was carried on by the women indifferently, though
some no doubt excelled others in the skill of their handiwork. The cloth
was made from the bark of the paper-mulberry (_Morus papyrifera_), which
was beaten out on boards with a grooved beetle. The sound of these
beetles ringing on the boards, though not very musical, was a familiar
sound in a Samoan village. The fine mats, on the manufacture of which
the Samoans particularly prided themselves, were worn as dresses on
ceremonial occasions. They were made from the leaves of a large plant
which the natives call _lau ie_; the leaves closely resemble those of
the pandanus, but are larger. These mats were of a straw or cream
colour, and were sometimes fringed with tufts of scarlet feathers of the
paroquet. They were thin and almost as flexible as calico. Many months,
sometimes even years, were spent over the making of a single mat.
Another kind of fine mat was made from the bark of a plant of the nettle
tribe (_Hibiscus tiliaceus_), which grows wild over the islands. Mats
of the latter sort were shaggy on one side, and, being bleached white,
resembled fleecy sheep-skins. These fine mats