ament had the right to address it; but the
speaking was usually left to the householders or landowners
(_tulafales_). Each chief had generally attached to him one of that
order who acted as his mouthpiece; and in like manner each settlement
retained the services of a member of the order, who was the leading
orator of the district. Decisions were reached not by voting but by
general consent, the discussion being prolonged until some conclusion,
satisfactory to the greater part of the members, and particularly to the
most influential, was arrived at. One of the principal prerogatives of
the king seems to have been that of convoking a parliament; though, if
he refused to do so, when circumstances seemed to require it, the
assembly would undoubtedly have met without him. The functions of these
assemblies were judicial as well as legislative and deliberative.
Offenders were arraigned before them and, if found guilty, were
condemned and punished.[66]

[66] H. Hale, _Ethnography and Philology of the United
States Exploring Expedition_, p. 29; Ch. Wilkes, _Narrative of
the United States Exploring Expedition_, ii. 153 _sq._;
Violette, "Notes d'un Missionnaire sur l'archipel de Samoa,"
_Les Missions Catholiques_, iii. (1870) p. 119; G. Turner,
_Samoa_, pp. 177 _sqq._, 180 _sqq._; S. Ella, _op. cit._ pp. 632
_sq._; J. B. Stair, _Old Samoa_, pp. 84 _sqq._; G. Brown,
_Melanesians and Polynesians_, pp. 286 _sq._, 288 _sqq._

It says much for the natural ability of the Samoans that they should
have attained to a level of culture so comparatively high with material
resources so scanty and defective. Nature, indeed, supplied them with
abundance of food and timber, but she denied them the metals, which were
unknown in the islands until they were introduced from Europe. In their
native state, accordingly, the Samoans were still in the Stone Age,
their principal tools being stone axes and adzes, made mainly from a
close-grained basalt which is found in the island of Tutuila. Of these
axes the rougher were chipped, but the finer were ground. Shells were
used as cutting instruments and as punches to bore holes in planks; and
combs, neatly carved out of bone, were employed as instruments in
tattooing. A wooden dibble served them instead of a plough to turn up
the earth. The only skins they prepared were those of sharks and some
other fish, which they used as rasps for smoothing woodwork. The art of
pottery wa