"Under the wide and starry sky,Dig the grave and let me lie.Glad did I live and gladly die,And I laid me down with a will.This be the verse you grave for me:Here he lies where he longed to be;Home is the sailor, home from the sea,And the hunter home from the hill."
"Under the wide and starry sky,Dig the grave and let me lie.Glad did I live and gladly die,And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:Here he lies where he longed to be;Home is the sailor, home from the sea,And the hunter home from the hill."
When Mr. and Mrs. Field arrived in Samoa they brought with them a tablet which they carried to the summit of Mount Vaea and had cemented in one end of the base of the tomb. It is of heavy bronze, and bears the name Aolele, together with these lines:
"Teacher, tender comrade, wife,A fellow-farer true through life,Heart whole and soul free,The August Father gave to me."
On the tablet for Mr. Stevenson the thistle for Scotland had been carved at one corner and the hibiscus for Samoa at the other. On his wife's the hibiscus was placed at one corner, and after long hesitation about the other, a sudden inspiration suggested to Mrs. Field the tiger-lily—bright flower whose name had been given to little Fanny Van de Grift by her mother in the old days in Indiana.
The tomb, showing the bronze tablet with the verse from Stevenson's poem to his wife.
The tomb, showing the bronze tablet with the verse from Stevenson's poem to his wife.
Before leaving the island Mr. and Mrs. Field endowed a scholarship for three little girls at the convent school—one to be chosen by the sisters, one by Tamasese, and one by Mitaele, the last of the Vailima household. All they asked was that these little girls should go to the tomb on the 10th of every March, the birthday of Aolele, and decorate the grave. That they kept their promise is shown by the following quotation from the SamoanTimes:
"On Friday morning, the 10th instant, the threepupils of the convent school, Savalalo, whose scholarships were endowed by Mr. and Mrs. Salisbury Field in memory of the late Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson, the mother of Mrs. Field, paid a visit to the Stevenson tomb on Mount Vaea in honor of the anniversary of the birthday of the deceased lady. The little party left at 7A.M.and arrived at the summit of the hill at about nine o'clock. Upon arrival at the top of the hill the children lost no time in decorating the grave with wreaths of flowers and greenery, a plentiful supply of which was taken by them. After the decorating the party sat down to a smalltaumafataga(high chief lunch), after which they returned to town."
Tiger-lily and Scotch thistle—they sleep together under tropic stars, far from the fields of waving corn and the purple moorlands, but each year hands, alien to them both, tenderly lay flowers on their tomb.[Back to Contents]
Footnote 1:Sarah Tittle Bolton, known for her patriotic and war songs, among them "Paddle Your Own Canoe" and "Left on the Battlefield."[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 2:The "k" is silent in this name. Elizabeth Knodle was the elder sister of Esther Van de Grift.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 3:Now Mrs. Thaddeus Up de Graff, of Elmira, New York.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 4:Stewart, who acquired by his life among the Indians a thorough knowledge of the trails of the country, became a guide, and it was he that led Boone on the expedition to explore Kentucky. The connection between them became even closer when he married Boone's youngest sister, Hannah. At the State capitol there is a picture of him in the striking costume of the hunter and trapper, pointing out to Boone the lovely land of Kentucky.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 5:Now Sir Graham and Lady Balfour. Sir Graham is a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson, and his biographer.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 6:Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson, cousin of Robert Louis.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 7:Mr. Birge Harrison, in theCentury Magazine, December, 1916.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 8:An American artist.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 9:A Spanish word, pronounced clahvél, and meaning a pink.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 10:Cowboys.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 11:Cattle round-up.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 12:These entertainments were so called in allusion to the custom of breakingcascarones(egg-shells), previously filled with finely cut coloured or tinsel paper, upon the heads of the dancers. By the time the midnight hour rolled around, every head glittered with the confetti, and the floor was piled several inches deep with it.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 13:Tamales, perhaps the most famous culinary product of the Southwest, were probably of Indian origin. Their construction is too complicated to explain here, further than to say that they are made of corn-meal and chopped meat rolled in corn-husks and boiled.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 14:Carne con chile(meat with chile) is what its name indicates, a stew of meat and red peppers.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 15:Merienda—noonday luncheon.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 16:Enchiladasare a sort of corn-meal pancake rolled up and stuffed with cheese and a sauce made of red peppers.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 17:Previously published inScribner's Magazine, October, 1916.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 18:In American phrase, a "bossy" person.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 19:The son of Mrs. Sitwell, now Lady Colvin.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 20:Föhn—a violent south wind in Switzerland.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 21:Mr. Symonds never dared to leave Davos, but remained there until his death.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 22:Mr. Basil Hammond, of Trinity College, Cambridge.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 23:An editorial review ofNew Arabian Nightsin theCentury Magazineof February, 1883.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 24:FromThe Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Graham Balfour.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 25:The elder lady's name was Margaret.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 26:Alison Cunningham, Stevenson's old nurse.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 27:The Letters of Mrs. M. I. Stevenson, Saranac to Marquesas.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 28:Preface by Mrs. Stevenson toIsland Nights Entertainments.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 29:The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Graham Balfour.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 30:Tamaitai was the Samoan name of Mrs. Stevenson.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 31:SeeThe Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, page279.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 32:Mr. Höflich returned to Samoa a year or two later to remain, and was always a valued friend of the Stevensons.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 33:Tin is the equivalent in the islands for Mr. Jack Buckland was the living original of Tommy Haddon inThe Wrecker.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 34:Pronounced Vyleéma.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 35:Commonly called "alligator" pear.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 36:They had a terrible time with the sensitive plant, which had become a pest there and grew almost faster than they could weed it out.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 37:"The one surviving species of dodo, the manume'a, a bird about the size of a small moor-hen, exists in Samoa. It has only recovered its present feeble powers of flight since cats were introduced in the island. Its dark flesh is extremely delicious."—From Balfour'sLife of Robert Louis Stevenson.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 38:Tapa is a cloth made of vegetable fibre and stained in various striking patterns. It is used by the natives for clothing, curtains, beds, and many other purposes.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 39:The papaw.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 40:A tropical fruit.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 41:A native dish of taro tops and cocoanut.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 42:A tropical plant with an edible root.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 43:Sitioni was a chief, later known as Amatua, a name of higher rank. We shall hear of Amatua again at the very end of the story.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 44:The stable was probably made of pandanus leaves, like the native houses.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 45:Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, Isobel Strong, with her husband and son.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 46:The complete story of Eliga, most agreeably told, may be found inVailima Memories, by Lloyd Osbourne and Isobel Strong.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 47:Pronounced Tahmyty, with the accent on the "my."[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 48:Translated in an old missionary notebook as "beautiful as a flying cloud."[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 49:A Provençal fish-chowder.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 50:Miti sauce is made of grated kukui nuts mixed with lime-juice and sea-water.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 51:Her son-in law, Mr. Strong.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 52:It will be remembered that Teuila was the native name of Mrs. Stevenson's daughter.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 53:In the old timeskava, orava, as it is sometimes spelled, was prepared by being chewed by young girls especially chosen for the purpose, and then made into a brew.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 54:A disease of the tropics, said to be transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes, which causes enormous enlargement of the parts affected. Mrs. Stevenson cured this boy, Mitaele, of elephantiasis by Dr. Funk's remedy of rubbing the diseased vein with blue ointment and giving him a certain prescribed drug.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 55:Mulinuu was the seat of government. King Malietoa lived there.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 56:Now Mrs. Salisbury Field.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 57:Mrs. Strong will be remembered as the little Isobel Osbourne of the early pages of this book.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 58:Quoted by courtesy of Henry James of New York, nephew of the novelist.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 59:It is the custom in Samoa to go barefoot in the wet season, in order to avoid the unpleasantness of soggy wet shoes.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 60:This was the "Road of the Loving Hearts," built by the Mataafa chiefs in return for Tusitala's kindness to them when they were in prison.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 61:A Samoan oven is made by digging a hole, lining it with hot stones, putting on top of them pigs, fish, chickens, taro, yams, etc., all wrapped in banana leaves, then piling hot stones on them and covering the whole with earth. In about four hours everything is cooked.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 62:Themalaeis the green lawn around which all Samoan villages are built.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 63:The fly flapper is a carved stick with a horse-hair tassel on the end.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 64:Thetaupois the maid of the village. She is chosen for her beauty and is the official hostess to receive all guests.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 65:Nowadays the Samoans, having learned European ways, present the cup first to the ladies, but then it wasfaa-Samoa, that is, in Samoan fashion.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 66:Laulii, the Samoan wife of Mr. Willis, was a close friend of Mrs. Stevenson while she lived in the islands, and after she left there came to California to make her a visit at the ranch near Gilroy.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 67:Robert Stevenson, lighthouse engineer.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 68:Quoted by courtesy of Mr. Edmund Eitel, nephew of Mr. Riley.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 69:Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 70:The late Mrs. E. E. Mitchell, of Nebraska City, Nebraska.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 71:Therebozois a scarf or shawl worn wound about the head and shoulders.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 72:Sausal(pronounced sowsál) is a Spanish word meaning willow grove.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 73:Mexican mounted police.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 74:Quoted by courtesy of Lord Guthrie.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 75:Her former maid, Mary Boyle, had married and left her service.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 76:Now Mrs. Salisbury Field.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 77:Quoted fromMcClure's Magazine.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 78:Sir Graham Balfour's Samoan name.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 79:Lloyd Osbourne, inA Letter to His Friends, written directly after the death of Mr. Stevenson.[Back to Main Text]