there, and the only
prayers for injurers and enemies were curses for their hurt and
destruction.

CHAPTER XVII.

WARS.

The murder of a chief, a disputed title, or a desire on the part of
one, two, or more of the districts, to be considered stronger and of
more importance than the rest, were frequent causes of war in Samoa.
Hostilities were often prevented by such acts as giving up the
culprit, paying a heavy fine, or by bowing down in abject submission,
carrying firewood and small stones used in baking a pig, or, perhaps,
a few bamboos. The firewood, stones, and leaves, were equivalent to
their saying, "Here we are, your pigs, to be cooked if you please; and
here are the materials with which to do it." Taking bamboos in the
hand was as if they said, "We have come, and here are the knives to
cut us up." A piece of split bamboo was, of old, the usual knife in
Samoa. If, however, the chiefs of the district were determined to
resist, they prepared accordingly. The boundary which separated one
district from another was the usual battlefield; hence the villages
next to that spot, on either side, were occupied at once by the
troops. The women and children, the sick and the aged, were cleared
off to some fortified place in the bush, or removed to some other
district which was either neutral, or could be depended upon as an
ally. Movable property was either buried, or taken off with the women
and children. The wives of the chiefs and principal men generally
followed their husbands wherever they might be encamped, to be ready
to nurse them if sick or wounded. A heroine would even follow close
upon the heels of her husband in actual conflict, carrying his club or
some other part of his armour.

It was common for chiefs to take with them a present of fine mats when
they went to another district to solicit help in war, but there was no
standing army or regularly paid soldiers anywhere. When the chiefs
decided on war, every man and boy under their jurisdiction old enough
to handle a club had to take his place as a soldier, or risk the loss
of his lands and property, and banishment from the place.

In each district there was a certain village, or cluster of villages,
known as "the advance troops." It was their province to take the lead,
and in battle their loss was double the number of that of any other
village. Still they boasted of their right to lead, would on no
account give it up to others, and talked in the curre