ggs of the
sea-bird called _Kanapu_ and his canoe was anchored just in front of the
base of the cliff. He was a brave boy, and being of a very poor family,
had clambered up the steep side of the wall of rock, so that he might
find the _kanapu_ eggs in the clefts and holes, and sell them to people
in exchange for food for his mother and sisters. As he clung to the
jagged face of the rock, he saw my mother falling through the air, and
in an instant he sprang after her. When she came to the surface, I was
still clasped tightly in her arms, and Manaia cried to her to swim to
the canoe.

"Nay," she cried, "but take my babe."

And so Manaia took me, and my mother threw up her arms and sank and
died.

When my uncle heard of this, he sent a party of his people over from
Manono for me, and I was taken to live with him. My father did not
interfere, for the manner of my mother's death had made the people
murmur, and he was afraid that they might rise in rebellion, and kill
or banish him. But yet he tried to get another rich wife, and sent a
deputation of his chiefs to Seu Manu of Apia asking for his daughter
Sina; and Sina sent him back a piece of wood carved in the semblance of
a woman, together with a stone shaped like a heart, with this message--

"This is a good wife for Pule-o-Vaitafe. If she displease him, he can
sink her in the sea with a heart of stone."

After that my father tried no more, for the people all round about were
murmuring, and he began to feel afraid.

But in no other way did he change, and although Manono is but two
leagues distant from Mulifanua, he never came to see me till I was in
my fifteenth year, and when I was chosen by the people of Aana to be
_Taupo_{*} of Mulifanua. Then I had to leave my uncle, which made me
weep, for although I was proud of the honour done me, I did not wish to
leave him and go back to my father. But I had no choice but to obey, and
so I was taken back to Mulifanua by a fleet of canoes and _taumualua_
(native boats), with great ceremony, and then followed many meetings and
much feasting and dancing. I was put under the care of two women, who
attended me day and night, as is the custom; they walked, ate, and slept
with me, and every day I was taught how to dance, and how to wear
my fine mats and long train of tappa, so as to receive or call upon
visitors who came to the town from other places in Samoa.

* Taupo, the town maid. This distinction is usually conf
e