THE SAMOAN REPORTER.

Samoan Reporter, Issue 9, 1 March 1849, Page 1

THE SAMOAN REPORTER.

vii. ETHNOLOGY OF POLYNESIA. SAMOA, OR NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS. In continuing the papers on this subject, begun by our lamented fellow-labourer the Rev. T. Heath, it is proposed to follow the order of a list of queries respecting the human race, drawn up a few years ago by a Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. That order will amply suffice to classify and arrange any information we have to communicate; and to those who have these queries, and take a special interest in this department of science, may, perhaps, facilitate reference. Samoa— as it was, will, of course, be the leading subject of these papers ; still, we shall give some prominence to the changes effected under the benign and ameliorating influence of Christianity. We purpose giving some further detail on the physical charactersand language of the Samoans; but, as these have already been adverted to, we pass on, for the present, to another topic, viz.:— INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY LIFE. Infancy and Childhood. At the birth of her child, the mother, as in Tporp favoured .narts of the earth, has a liberal share in the kind attention of her friends. Her own mother is almost invariably la sage-femme; but failing her, some other female friend. Her father is generally present on the occasion, and either he or her husband prays to the household god, and promises to give any offering he may require, if he will only preserve mother and child in safety. A prayer is thus expressed : “ O Moso, Be propitious; let this my daughter be preserved alive I Be compassionate to us ; save my daughter, and we will do anything you wish as our redemption price.” Offerings to the god are regulated by the caprice and covetousness of the cunning priest. Sometimes, a canoe is demanded ; at other times, a house is to be built; and often, fine mats or other valuable property is required. But more as to these offerings at a future time. The household god of the family of the father is generally prayed to first; but, if the case be tedious or difficult, the god of the family of the mother is then invoked ; and when the child is born, the god prayed to just before is carefully remembered and duly acknowledged throughout the future life of the child. By way of respect to him, the child is called his merda; and is actually named during infancy and childhood, “ merda of Tongo,” or “ Satia,” or whatever other deity it may be. Should the little stranger be a boy, the umbilicus is cut on a club, that he may grow up to be brave in war. If of the other sex, it is done on the board on which they beat out the bark of which they make their native cloth. Cloth-mak-ing is the work of women; and their wish is, that the little girl grow up and prove useful to the family in her proper occupation. Infanticide, as it prevailed to the eastward, and as it is still practised in the New Hebrides, is unknown in Samoa. Nor* are children ever exposed. After they are born they are affectionately cared for. But the custom of destroying them before that has prevailed to a melancholy extent. Shame, fear of punishment, lazy unwillingness to nurse, and a dread of being soon old-looking, are the prevailing causes. Pressure is the means employed ; and, in some cases, proves the death of the unnatural parent. Since the introduction of Christianity, this custom has been greatly checked, if not almost entirely abandoned. As to nursing, during the first two or three days, the nurse bestows great attention to the head of the child, that it may be modified and shaped after notions of propriety and beauty. The child is laid on its back, and the head surrounded with three flat stones. One is placed close to the crown of the head, and one on either side. The

forehead is then pressed with the hand, that it may be flattened. The nose too is carefully flattened. Our “ canoe noses,” as they call them, are blemishes in their estimation. For the first three days, the infant is fed with the juice of the chewed kernel of the cocoa nut, expressed through a piece of native cloth, and dropped into the mouth. On the third day, a woman of the sacred craft is sent for, to examine the milk. A little is put into a cup with water and two heated stones, and then examined. If it has the slightest curdled appearance, she pronounces it bitter and poisonous. This process she repeats two or three times a day for several days, until it is drawn off free from coagulation, and then she pronounces it sweet and wholesome, and the child is forthwith permitted to partake of its proper nourishment. Of course, she is well paid for her services, and has every inducement to prolong them for several days. During this time, the infant is fed with the juice of the cocoanut or the sugar-cane. Many fall victims to this improper treatment. At a very early period, the child is fed; and sometimes weaned altogether at four months. This has been another fruitful source of mortality among children. Occasionally, the father or some member of the family, through whom it is supposed the god of the family speaks, forbids and orders that the child have nothing but the breast for an indefinite time. This is a mark of respect to the god, and called his “ banana.” In these cases, the child thrives amazingly, and is soon, literally, as plump as a banana. These and other evils are being remedied; and the better treatment of duffi-gp is, in some places, apparent in the increases population. With ordinary proper treatment, they are, upon the whole, easily reared. What Marsden says of the children of Sumatra will apply to Samoa : “ Mothers carry the children, not on the arm, as our nurses do, but straddling on the hip This practice, I have been told, is common in some parts of Wales. It is much safer than the other method, less tiresome to the nurse, and the child has the advantage of sitting in a less constrained posture. But the defensive armour of stays, and offensive weapons called pins, might be some objection to the general introduction of the fashion in England. The children are nursed but little ; not confined by any swathing or bandages; and being suffered to roll about the floor, soon learn to walk and shift for themselves.”— History of Sumatra. 3rd edit, p. 285. Education.— Girls always, and boys also for four or five years, are under the special charge of the mother, and follow her in her domestic avocations. The girl is taught to draw water, gather shell-fish, make mats and native cloth. The boy, after a time, follows his father, and soon is useful in planting, fishing, house-building, and all kinds of manual labour. A modified form of circumcision prevails. About the eighth or tenth year, two or three boys will unite and go, of their own accord, to some one in the village, who will make the customary incision, and give him some trifling reward for his trouble. There is no further ceremony on the occasion, as at other periods of life. Names.— Out of respect to the household god, as we have already remarked, the child is named after him, during the time of infancy and childhood ; after that, a name is given. The animal and vegetable kingdoms, places, occupations, actions, and events, furnish them with the principal names. The primitive rule, “ one man, one word,” invariably prevails. Rejoicing.— About the third day, the woman is up and at her usual occupation, and ready to take part in the rejoicings connected with the occasion. By this time, the principal friends are assembled. They all bring presents, and observe an unvarying rule in the kind of presents each is expected to bring. The relations of the husband bring “oloa,” which includes pigs, canoes, and all kinds of foreign property, such as cloth, hatchets, &c. The relations of the wife bring “ tonga,” which includes the leading articles manufactured by the females; viz., fine mats and native cloth. The “ oloa ” brought by the friends of the husband is all distributed among those of the wife, and the “tonga” brought by the friends of the wife is divided among those

of the husband; and thus the whole affair is so managed that the friends are the benefitted parties chiefly, and the husband and wife left no richer than they were. Still, they have the satisfaction of having seen what they consider a great honour; viz., loads of property collected on occasion of the birth of their child. Feasting, sham-fighting, night-dancing, and many other heathen customs, form one continued scene of revelry for two or three days, when the party breaks up. Twins are rare. Triplets still more so ; indeed, there is only a vague tradition of such a thing. Twins are supposed to be of one mind, and to think, feel, and act alike,—during the time of infancy and childhood, at least. There are a few instances of large families, but four or five will be the average. Adopted Children.— The number of children seen in a family is small, occasioned, to a great extent, by the bad management and consequent mortality of children, and also a custom which prevails of parting with their children to friends who wish to adopt them. The general rule is, for the husband to give away his child to his sister. She and her husband give, in return for the child, some foreign property, just as if they had received so many fine mats or native cloth. The adopted child is viewed as “ tonga,” and is, to the family who adopts it, a channel through which native property (or, “ tonga ”) continues to flow to that family from the parents of the child. On the other hand, the child is to its parents a source of obtaining foreign property (or,‘ oloa} from the parties who adopt it, not only at the time of its adoption, but as long as the child lives. Hence, the custom of adoption is not so much the want of natural affection as the sacrifice of it to this systematic facility of traffic in native and foreign property. Hence, also, parents may have in their family adopted children, and their own real children elsewhere. The existence of this custom has been a source of great practical difficulty to those who become converts from heathenism. No sooner are their eyes opened to see their parental responsibility, and that they must give account at the judgment-seat for the manner in which they have trained up their children, than they wish to collect their offspring from the families into which they have been adopted. But then the parties who have adopted them will not give them up; and often, too,' the children are unwilling to leave their adopted parents, and go among strangers—for, alas I such to them are their real parents. Christian parents, however, are to some extent succeeding in their efforts to recall their children to their proper home ; and the consequences are delightful. A sense of parental responsibility is making way among the whole population, and a conviction that they must give an account unto God for the manner in which they train up their children is, to many parents now, paramount to the inferior concerns of secular traffic in fine mats and foreign property.

G. T.