In Stevenson'S Samoa by Fraser

Author:Fraser [Fraser]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781136204883
Google: hXosBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-02-01T03:43:12+00:00

CHAPTER V

TAPOS AND OTHER ‘FAFINES’

IN each village there is always a tapo, or chief maiden. She is sometimes the local chief’s daughter, but often merely a damsel of good family. Frequently she is chosen for the position when a mere baby, and remains tapo for years, or till she is married. The hunchbacks and dwarfs are the acknowledged guardians of this maiden, and they generally have their hands full and their time thoroughly occupied in watching over her. A distinguished ex-tapo of our acquaintance was married to a New Zealander who had settled in Samoa, and she gave me many amusing details of the experiences of her girlhood. The dwarfs never allowed her out of their sight ; and in the long run it was better that they should always be with her, for though she was one of the sweetest-tempered and most amiable girls imaginable, her exalted position caused her to have many enemies, and was apt to raise much jealousy in the hearts of the less magnanimous among her companions. Then the mothers of other eligible virgins were continually on the wratch to try to discover something to the disadvantage of the tapo of the time, and if witnesses in the shape of dwarfs were not there to swear to the contrary, and to the truth of the tapo, these mothers of rival ‘fafines’ (girls) would have thought nothing of concocting shocking stories, and repeating them to the whole village, in the hope that the present tapo might be deposed, and supplanted by one of their own daughters. After recounting the tragic dénouement to the short-lived independence of certain foolish virgins who, fretting under the perpetual watchfulness of the dwarfs, had been skilful enough to give them the slip on sundry occasions, with very fatal results to themselves, my friend explained that she took care never to stir without her attendant familiars, and she had been so used to them since her earliest childhood that they never troubled her ; besides, she added, they were such little things they did not count. So evidently the village life of the tapo was not a bed of roses ; but it was such an honourable position they preferred usually to bear all the rubs and tiresome restrictions in order to retain the enviable distinction.

In time of war it is the tapo’s duty to lead on to combat the warriors of her village, and she is often in the thick of the skirmishing ; but should she be wounded or killed, it is a pure accident, as the Samoans have the greatest horror of hurting a woman in any way, and would not even injure their enemy’s tapo. There is a story told of how, during the war that was carried on in Upolu for a considerable time five or six years ago, two armies had met and were drawn up, blazing into each other’s lines, when a native woman appeared with a cow she wished to place in safety. The

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