It is now his turn to be perverse.  Revenge is in his mind and mien.  All his looks and gestures indicate contempt and malice, and he keeps turning his back to her.  She cannot endure this long; his scorn overcomes her pride, and when he changes his attitude and once more begins to entreat, she at last allows him to seize her and they dance wildly.  When finally the company separates for the evening meal, one may hear the word toro whispered.  It means “cane,” and indicates a nocturnal rendezvous in the cane-field, where lovers are safe from observation.  They find each other by imitating the owl’s sound, which excites no suspicion.

When they have met, the girl says:  “You know that my parents hate you; nothing remains but awenga.”  Awenga means flight; three nights later they elope in a canoe to some small island, where they remain for a few weeks till the excitement over their disappearance has subsided in the village and their parents are ready to pardon them.

TWO SAMOAH LOVE-STORIES

Turner devotes six pages (98-104) to two Samoan love-stories.  One of them illustrates the devotion of a wife and her husband’s ingratitude and faithlessness, as the following summary will show: 

There was a youth called Siati, noted for his singing.  A serenading god came along, threw down a challenge, and promised him his fair daughter if he was the better singer.  They sang and Siati beat the god.  Then he rode on a shark to the god’s home and the shark told him to go to the bathing-place, where he would find the god’s daughters.  The girls had just left the place when Siati arrived, but one of them had forgotten her comb and came back to get it.  “Siati,” said she, “however have you come here?” “I’ve come to seek the song-god and get his daughter to wife.”  “My father,” said she, “is more of a god than man—­eat nothing he hands you, never sit on a high seat lest death should follow, and now let us unite.”

The god did not like his son-in-law and tried various ways to destroy him, but his wife Puapae always helped him out of the scrape, one time even making him cut her into two and throw her into the sea to be eaten by a fish and find a ring the god had lost and asked him to get.  She was afterward cast ashore with the ring; but Siati had not even kept awake, and she scolded him for it.  To save his life, she subsequently performed several other miracles, in one of which her father and sister were drowned in the sea.  Then she said to Siati:  “My father and sister are dead, and all on account of my love to you; you may go now and visit your family and friends while I remain here, but see that you do not behave unseemly.”  He went, visited his friends, and forgot Puapae.  He tried to marry again, but Puapae came and stood on the other side.  The chief called out, “Which is your wife, Siati?” “The one on the right side.”  Puapae then broke