There are, during the visit of a travelling party to a Samoan town, no fixed times for meals.  You are expected to eat much and often.  During the day there will be continuous arrivals of people bringing baskets of provisions as presents, which are formally presented—­with a speech.  The speech has to be responded to, and the bringers of the presents treated politely, as long as they remain, and they remain until their curiosity—­and avarice—­is satisfied.  A return present must be sent on the following day; for although Samoans designate every present of food or anything else made to a party of visitors as an “alofa”—­i.e., a gift of love—­this is but a hollow conventionalism, it being the time-honoured custom of the country to always give a quid pro quo for whatever has been received.  Yet it must not be imagined that they are a selfish people; if the recipients of an “alofa” of food are too poor to respond otherwise than by a profusion of thanks, the donors of the “alofa” are satisfied—­it would be a disgrace for their village to be spoken of as having treated guests meanly.

After evening service—­conducted on week-days in each house by the head of the family—­another meal is served.  Then either lamps or a fire of coconut-shells is lit, and there is a great making of sului, or cigarettes of strong tobacco rolled in dry banana leaf, and there is much merry jostling and shoving among the young lads and girls for a seat on the matted floor, to hear the white people talk.  A dance is sure to be suggested, and presently the fale po-ula, or dance-house, is lit up in preparation, as the dancers, male and female, hurry away to adorn themselves.  Much has been said about the impropriety of Samoa dancing by travellers who have only witnessed the degrading and indecent exhibitions, given on a large scale by the loafing class of natives who inhabit Apia and its immediate vicinity.  The natives are an adaptive race, and suit their manners to their company, and there are always numbers of sponging men and paumotu (beach-women) ready to pander to the tastes of low whites who are willing to witness a lewd dance.  But in most villages, situated away from the contaminating influences of the principal port, a native siva, or dance, is well worth witnessing, and the accompanying singing is very melodious.  It is, however, true, that on important occasions, such as the marriage of a great chief, &c., that the dancing, decorous enough in the earlier stages of the evening, degenerates under the influence of excitement into an exhibition that provokes sorrow and disgust.  And yet, curiously enough, the dancers at these times are not low class, common people, but young men and women of high lineage, who, led by the taupo, or maid of the village, cast aside all restraint and modesty.  In many of the dances the costumes are exceedingly pretty, the men wearing aprons made of the yellow and scarlet leaves of the ti or