[A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson]@TWC D-Link bookA Footnote to History CHAPTER I--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE 15/22
Cricket-matches, where a hundred played upon a side, endured at times for weeks, and ate up the country like the presence of an army.
Fishing, the daily bath, flirtation; courtship, which is gone upon by proxy; conversation, which is largely political; and the delights of public oratory, fill in the long hours. But the special delight of the Samoan is the _malanga_.
When people form a party and go from village to village, junketing and gossiping, they are said to go on a _malanga_.
Their songs have announced their approach ere they arrive; the guest-house is prepared for their reception; the virgins of the village attend to prepare the kava bowl and entertain them with the dance; time flies in the enjoyment of every pleasure which an islander conceives; and when the _malanga_ sets forth, the same welcome and the same joys expect them beyond the next cape, where the nearest village nestles in its grove of palms.
To the visitors it is all golden; for the hosts, it has another side.
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