Fairest Eden - Pago Pago (1931)

[Music] Yonder Mansion Among The Palms is the residence of the naval commandant governor of American Samoa only possession of the United States in the southern hemisphere it is situated on the island of tutuila overlooking beautiful Pango Pango Bay the safest the best altogether the most to superb Harbor in the South Seas possibly in all the Pacific on the beach are M and avocados for the steamer that calls only every third week and overhead are the stars and stripes in the wireless tower that links this tropical Eden with a world far far removed 2300 mil from Honolulu 14° south of the Equator along the southern Shore is a row of attractive Cottages occupied by American naval officers and to the Eastward looms the massive Dome of the rain maker precipitating moisture from every passing cloud in fact an average of half an inch Falls every day here Somerset mm obtained his dramatic material for rain and here is the hotel in which he marooned A S Thompson except for the sailors at the Naval Base white residents are few all the lands are privately owned governed by three native Chiefs appointed by the American commandant this is the home of chief malga governor of Western tutuila and this is his daughter Taos Sami with her son and her month-old babe on a pile of pandanis mats presented by friends and relatives as is the custom at Birth the husband and father is pulle son of the Samoan chief of manua and incidentally a most successful congregationalist missionary Samoa with only a thatched roof and at night a mosquito netting over them chickens pigs and dogs wander through the beehive shaped houses at will in the chance hope that a morsel of food coconut perhaps may be theirs for The Waiting from the rafter suspend a basket of food and a kerosene lantern used more often today than the coconut oil lamp Furniture except for a few shelves of pots and pans is unknown while fruit chiefly pineapples bananas and papayas comprises a favorite item of diet as all Samoans are Christians and have been for almost a century the Sabbath is one of seven days of relaxation sunny boy puts on his only cloth of the week on Sunday and with mother in her gingham best and the needful umbrella goes down to the beach for a row on the Placid Harbor a harbor that is really the crater of an immense volcano with a narrow breach in itself wall through which the sea has entered and filled it older boys have devised more ingenious pastimes this lad has converted a number of gasoline cans into a boat that floats his feet is the more remarkable in that cans are scarce as only a dozen Motorcars and not more than 20 mil of passable Highway exist on all of tutuila the 54 square miles of which Embrace about half the area of the six isets comprising American Samoa which was seated to the United States in 1900 but which Congress did not accept until 1929 the Senate couldn't find them on the map in Samoa as in no other part of the South Seas contact with white civilization has not resulted in the degeneration of native life the loss of indigenous techniques and traditions or the annihilation of the past the natives have adopted only such features of our culture as make their lives more comfortable none none of their Arts has been lost all of the women can produce the apoc cloth from the inner bark of the local Mulberry weave fine pandanis mats and make fans and grass skirts such as these just as their mothers did though they may use modern tools they are in no way dependent on them and the men are just as Adept watch this one with a Garland about his neck convert half a branch of the coconut palm into a basket by plating the leaflets together and curving the ribs into a Rim Samoan men are considered the most attractive in all the Pacific they are the true Polynesians the purest and finest physical specimens of the race tall proud muscular of agreeable Manner and pleasing disposition they commend themselves to the good opinion of all who meet them they are a nation of gentlemen in no way obsequious and observing among themselves forms of politeness and ceremony that are as gratifying as they are remarkable though they consider it most undignified to appear without hat coat or shirt when attending a church or visiting a foreigner in their own Villages they rarely wear more than a floral Garland called the Oola and the loin cloth or lava lava unlike their women who though often beautiful of feature lose their trim figures in early Womanhood the men are rarely corpulent being quite active and having great endurance Did You observe how nimbly this one ascended a coconut palm to cast down the fruit the dried kernel of which called cpra is the Island's a so export these fronded Palms freew waving banners of romance mantl this verendi with all the tropical glamour charm and mystery that forever haunt one and find a no articulate Voice without the coconut palm man would lose the closest most useful friend Nature has given him it's fruit when green provides him with food and drink when ripe with oil the juice of the unopened flower yields tddy and ARA the fibrous casing of the trunk is used for ropes Nets and matting from the nutshells are made drinking vessels and spoons from the plated leaves dishes baskets and fch from the dried leaves torches from the large leaf stalks fences and from the trunks knife handles doorposts canoes coffins and the like Samoan manhood in these aisles where life is so easy imposes but one test on its Youth Boys on becoming 18 must be tattooed from weight to knees otherwise they are obliged to postpone marrying indefinitely and to perform menial duties since the ukulele has supplanted the rude bamboo drum of earlier times Samoan music has improved the natives don't sing much even though they are among the gayest and best entertained inhabitants of our planet life with them is a round of dances games and Pleasures dances or SAS are performing formed at the least provocation the villagers gather around and the younger girls wearing matte skirts and an Oola or two about their necks begin each moves in a gloriously individualistic Oblivion of the other without pretense of coordination the young men the women and the children sit in groups nearby manifestly delighted in a land where a livelihood can be had for the stooping wrote Robert Lou Stevenson when he lived in Samoa entertainment is a prime necessity with the decay of Pleasures life itself decays fortunately for the Samoans good government and the opposition of the missionaries to teaching them English and to weaning them away from the Simplicity of their primitive existence have preserved to them not only their Pleasures but life as well for in the last decade the population of American CA has increased 25% so in Pango Pango will choose to