down the head before them.  This, together with the formal thanks of the chiefs before the multitude for his bravery and successful fighting, was the very height of a young man’s ambition.  He made some giddy, frolicsome turns on his heel, and was off again to try and get another victim.  These heads were piled up in a heap in the malae or public assembly.  The head of the most important chief was put on the top, and, as the tale of the battle was told, they would say, “There were so many heads, surmounted by the head of So-and-so,” giving the number and the name.  After remaining for some hours piled up they were either claimed by their relatives or buried on the spot.  A rare illustration of this ambition to get heads occurred about thirty years ago.  In an unexpected attack upon a village one morning a young man fell stunned by a blow.  Presently he recovered consciousness, felt the weight of some one sitting on his shoulders and covering his neck, and the first sounds he heard was a dispute going on between two as to which of them had the right to cut off his head!  He made a desperate effort, jostled the fellow off his back, sprang to his feet, and, with his head all safe in his own possession, soon settled the matter by leaving them both far behind him.

The headless bodies of the slain, scattered about in the bush after a battle, if known, were buried, if unknown, left to the dogs.  In some cases the whole body was pulled along in savage triumph and laid before the chiefs.  One day, when some of us were in a war-fort endeavouring to mediate for peace, a dead body of one of the enemy was dragged in, preceded by a fellow making all sorts of fiendish gestures, with one of the legs in his teeth cut off by the knee.

Connected with Samoan warfare several other things may be noted, such as consulting the gods, taking a priest to battle to pray for his people and curse the enemy, filling up wells, destroying fruit-trees, going to battle decked off in their most valuable clothing and trinkets, haranguing each other previous to a fight, the very counterpart of Abijah the king of Judah, and even word for word, with the filthy-tongued Rabshakeh.

If the war became general, and involving several districts, they formed themselves into a threefold division of highway, bush, and sea-fighters.  The fleet might consist of three hundred men, in thirty or forty canoes.  The bushrangers and the fleet were principally dreaded, as there was no calculating where they were, or when they might pounce unawares upon some unguarded settlement.  The fleet met apart from the land forces, and concocted their own schemes.  They would have it all arranged, for instance, and a dead secret, to be off after dark to attack a particular village belonging to the enemy.  At midnight they would land at an uninhabited place some miles from the settlement they intended to attack.  They took a circuitous course in the bush, surrounded the village from behind, having previously arranged