still bring out confessions of his guilt. Facts such as these which
have just been enumerated still further show the cruelties of the
reign of superstition, and exhibit, in striking contrast, the better
spirit and the purer precepts taught by that blessed volume which is
now received, read, and practised by many in Samoa. In days of
heathenism there was no good rendered for evil 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