e caprice and
covetousness of the cunning priest. Sometimes a canoe was demanded; at
other times a house was to be built; and often fine mats or other
valuable property was required. The household god of the family of the
father was generally prayed to first; but, if the case was tedious or
difficult, the god of the family of the mother was then invoked; and
when the child was born, the mother would call out: "Who were you
praying to?" and the god prayed to just before was carefully
remembered and its incarnation duly acknowledged throughout the future
life of the child. By way of respect to him the child was called his
_merda_; and was actually named during infancy and childhood "merda of
Tongo," or "Satia," or whatever other deity it might be. If the little
stranger was a boy, the umbilical cord was cut on a club, that he
might grow up to be brave in war. If of the other sex, it was done on
the board on which they beat out the bark of which they make their
native cloth. Cloth-making is the work of women; and their wish was
that the little girl should grow up and prove useful to the family in
her proper occupation.

_Infanticide_, as it prevailed in Eastern Polynesia and elsewhere, was
unknown in Samoa. Nor were children ever exposed. After they were born
they were affectionately cared for. But the custom of destroying them
_before_ that prevailed to a melancholy extent. Shame, fear of
punishment, lazy unwillingness to nurse, and a dread of soon being
old-looking, were the prevailing causes. Pressure was the means
employed, and in some cases proved the death of the unnatural parent.

_As to nursing_, during the first two or three days the nurse
bestowed great attention to the head of the child, that it might be
modified and shaped after notions of propriety and beauty. The child
was laid on its back, and the head surrounded with three flat stones.
One was placed close to the crown of the head, and one on either side.
The forehead was then pressed with the hand, that it might be
flattened. The nose, too, was carefully flattened. Our "canoe noses,"
as they call them, are blemishes in their estimation. For the first
three days the infant was fed with the juice of the chewed kernel of
the cocoa-nut, pressed through a piece of native cloth, and dropped
into the mouth. On the third day a woman of the sacred craft was sent
for to examine the milk. A little was put into a cup, with water and
two heated stones, and then exami