To make these obstacles
more annoying, you have sometimes to wait while a black boar clambers
sedately over the so-called pig fence. Nothing can more thoroughly
depict the worst side of the Samoan character than these useless barriers
which deface their only road. It was one of the first orders issued by
the government of Mulinuu after the coming of the chief justice, to have
the passage cleared. It is the disgrace of Mataafa that the thing is not
yet done.
The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. In a very
good account of a visit there, published in the _Australasian_, the
writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been deceived by the
appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There is no fortification, no
parade of war. I understand that from one to five hundred fighting men
are always within reach; but I have never seen more than five together
under arms, and these were the king's guard of honour. A Sabbath quiet
broods over the well-weeded green, the picketed horses, the troops of
pigs, the round or oval native dwellings. Of these there are a
surprising number, very fine of their sort: yet more are in the building;
and in the midst a tall house of assembly, by far the greatest Samoan
structure now in these islands, stands about half finished and already
makes a figure in the landscape.
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