CHAPTER VI
Quarters for Visitors

Samoans go to a good deal of trouble to entertain any of their guests, but other than the provision of the necessary foodstuffs, the arrangements for the billetting of Samoan visitors offer comparatively few problems. Special arrangements are necessary, however, for European visitors, because Samoan courtesy requires that the amenities of European living conditions shall be reproduced as nearly as possible as a mark of respect to the guests.

A Samoan family that has been using the house which it is proposed to make available will move out altogether, or a principal guest house will be prepared for the purpose. The house itself will be beautifully decorated in a manner that may have taken days to prepare. Leaves and creepers twisted into ropes transform the house into a veritable bower. The principal central columns will be encircled with flowers and white, waxy lautalotalo decorations that conceal their lower levels entirely, and the outside posts will be swathed in coconut leaves. One or both ends (tala) of the house will be screened off with curtains of print material or mulberry bark cloth (siapo) marked in attractive designs, or a temporary wooden framework may divide off sleeping quarters. In the orange growing districts of the island of Savai'i and in the proper season, it is the pleasant custom to embower guest houses in orange tree foliage, with hundreds of the fruit pendant from the decorations. The oranges may be used as the guests wish, and those that are unused may be taken away.

If there are European beds in the village, and most villages now have a few, they will be made available on loan from other families if necessary for the use of the visitors. Pillow slips, colourfully embroidered with good wishes in the Samoan language, and sufficient sheets will be provided. The writer in the course of many years of visiting Samoan villages has never found it necessary to carry his own. Linen is always adequate and very clean. Some beds page 64 may be fitted with mattresses but if they are not, there is no dearth of soft Samoan mats with brightly embroidered borders which make an excellent bed, or piles of mats on the floor are very restful if no bed is available. Mosquito nets are always arranged over beds except in those villages where, because of some local peculiarity, there are no mosquitoes.^*

Tables and chairs, both for dining and relaxing, are collected elsewhere in the village if the family acting as hosts are unable to provide sufficient of them. Fans are placed conveniently to one's hand. Small tables and washing basins, with soap and often a towel, will be found in the sleeping annex, and there may even be a mirror. Fine mats and others of the shaggy type called 'ie sina may be draped over tables or easy chairs, and jugs of fresh orange or lemon juice or cordial are often offered at once for the refreshment of thirsty travellers. Everything possible is done to make the visitor, even though perhaps a complete stranger, feel an honoured guest and to demonstrate that the visit is welcomed and that preparations have been made with genuine goodwill.

The wife of the matai who owns the house, together with the girls of the family and others who may have been co-opted to help, will be available during the entire stay of the party to minister to the comfort of guests. They will superintend the preparation and serving of meals, bring water for washing, prepare the beds and mosquito nets in the evening, put down the house blinds facing inland at night and raise them again in the morning, and perform generally any small service that is required. The duty, moreover, is pleasantly discharged and the guest never feels that he is a source of trouble. Hospitality is a high virtue with Samoans, one of the outstanding features of their way of life, and inculcated right from the time they are old enough to understand. One's own carriers and the attendants of the malaga party should of course be instructed to make themselves as useful as possible. This is more than a desirable courtesy; properly done, as it should be, it helps to earn the malaga party a good name.

Arrangements for European visitors extend frequently to the provision of special privy accommodation, either on the beach or in the rear of the houses. These are usually screened and indicated with coconut leaf decorations. Occasionally, also, a temporary bath-house is set up for the more convenient performance of ablutions in private.

European visitors often find bunches of ripe bananas hanging in houses placed at their disposal. These are a mark of particular respect since they require special preparation. Samoans do not usually consume ripe bananas in quantity,^* but they know that Europeans enjoy them, and where a bunch is found to have been provided, it is obvious that it must have been cut and set aside for ripening some days previously. It will be graceful in those circumstances to thank the lady of the house particularly for that courtesy.

Where visitors are occupying a house that has been set aside for their exclusive use, they may enter and leave it either by the back or front as is most convenient, since the house for the time being is regarded as their own. But the same visitors, entering another house in the village for a formal reception or a casual call, should enter and leave by the front only, since in such a house and at such a time they rank as guests.

Although the most courteous and thoughtful concessions are made to ensure the comfort of European visitors to Samoan villages, they should always remember that little actual privacy is prescribed in Samoan custom itself, and it is not unlikely that they are being watched, probably by children, even if they think they are unobserved. This should never be forgotten, and hence every care should be taken to ensure that conduct in a Samoan village is not such as will give rise later to unfavourable or disrespectful comment. Guests in this country, no less than elsewhere, are ambassadors. It is quite in order to change articles of clothing without going to the trouble of ensuring such absolute privacy as is usual in European custom, especially if the guests be male, but it should be remembered that, although the Samoan standard appears to be a little different, they are most careful that no offence be given in these matters. They are most adroit in changing apparel in full view of onlookers. In proceeding to and from bathing places, normal European bathing costume may be worn, or indeed even the Samoan lower garment ('ie lavalava) in the case of males, with possibly a towel draped round the shoulders. In various villages there are regulations relating to the use of bathing pools, and these should be ascertained so that there is no conflict with the local rule; in particular, the greatest care must be exercised not to use a drinking pool for the purposes of bathing or washing clothes. These points are important to people who do not draw their water from a piped supply.

The chiefs and orators of the village may express a wish to call and spend an hour or so in conversation after the evening meal. They are always pleased to hear stories of the malaga and particularly to receive some news of the outside world. Even if one is tired with a long day's walk and the work after arrival in the village, it is well to remember that such a visit is probably a considerable event, especially to the older members of the community, and breaks the monotony of their normal daily existence. It is therefore gracious and certainly much appreciated for page 67 the visitor to receive the village and chat on any topic that is brought forward. Provided the guest-is patient and courteous no one will be offended if after an hour or so of talking he expresses a wish to retire and regain strength for the further walking the next day. Chiefs and orators of the village will generally be pleased if the visitor shows an interest in the old stories of their village or district, or, indeed, in any aspect of Samoan custom, but there should, of course, be no attempt to pry into the details of the genealogies or any of the more private traditions of the local community. It may also be remembered as a useful hint that one method of securing additional information is carefully to display a little knowledge on one's own account. A well-timed display of the right sort of interest is always pleasantly received and often enough leads to further, perhaps unexpected, knowledge. There seems always to be something fresh to learn about Samoan custom. It may be mentioned in passing on the subject of genealogies that it is a grave offence in Samoan custom to “open” or recite genealogies without authority. This is so important that it has actually been written into the statute law of the Territory.

A word may now be said on the subject of recognition of hospitality received. The very open hospitality in Samoan custom is based entirely upon a fundamental feature of the local culture. The principle ultimately governing Samoan domestic hospitality is that of reciprocity. In other words, a Samoan may proceed from one end of the country to another and be gladly given shelter and food wherever he stays. Custom operates, however, to the effect that he himself on return to his village is just as willing to afford hospitality to any visitors who care to present themselves. In the case of Europeans, there cannot conveniently be the same reciprocity, and although Samoan hospitality is extended openly and freely to Europeans, it is only elementary fairness that the latter should provide something before departure by way of recognition of courtesies received. This should on no account be represented as a payment. It is more properly described as a gift expressive of satisfaction and pleasure at the thoughtfulness displayed by one's hosts, and offered in the right way will afford real gratification to the recipients. There is no need to be over-generous, but on the other hand it is better to be a little generous rather than to acquire a reputation for meanness. Cash is the most practical and useful form of gift since it may serve as a reimbursement of page 68 probable expenditure for European foods occasioned by the visit, but in the event of hosts being respectfully unwilling to accept anything of this nature, arrangements could be made with one of the local stores to provide goods in the nature of rice, flour, sugar or soap, or alternatively, some gift of more personal significance could be despatched on return to Apia. Again it should be stressed that a great deal depends on the manner in which such courtesies are offered. Samoans are not inn-keepers and there should never be any suggestion of payment as such. Whatever is offered should be presented in the course of a graceful speech delivered without haste. Such farewell courtesies in Samoa should not be hurried; European custom in similar circumstances is brusque in comparison. The speech of thanks, although perhaps addressed to the matai, should not omit reference to the trouble to which the ladies of the family have been put by the visit, and a word of appreciation in regard to the decorations does not go amiss.

The carriers sometimes leave a village more heavily laden than when they arrived, since it is the pleasant custom of the country to present gifts of food either to sustain the party as far as the next village, or at the final stop, to convey home. The kava presented must also be carried forward, for it would be discourteous to leave it behind, and in any case, it is useful for consumption or further presentation by the recipients. Such gifts are termed the oso or fa'aoso of the malaga, and are sometimes pressed on visitors by generous people even on short or casual visits to villages.

Before leaving the village, the party will perhaps meet the chiefs and orators for farewell kava with short speeches if time permits, or, especially if an early start is to be made, the village fathers may line up at a convenient point for leave-taking. Then the party moves slowly through the village, old men or women calling farewells from houses or hastening out belatedly to shake hands. In mutual cordiality the last good wishes are exchanged, the carriers wriggle their loads into comfortable positions and the party moves out along either a bush track or a stretch of sandy coast on the next stage of the trip.

Even if the weather should be unkind, the people make a malaga in Samoa a very pleasant experience.