Home is the sailor

In 1888 Robert Louis Stevenson moved to Samoa because he loved the sea, because he reveled in adventure, and because it would be good for his health, which was never good. He was tubercular, a chronically thin lanky man, who in later years, firmly believed that a life at sea among these myriad islands would benefit his health. This may or may not have been true, but the people who benefited the very most were his readers, the ones who, to this day, continue to find pleasure in one of the best books about the South Pacific, In the South Seas, which was completed at Vailima, his Samoan home.

This is what you need for the Samoan Kava Ceremony. In Samoa, kava (called 'ava) is drunk at all important gatherings and ceremonies. It is brought to each participant by the tautua'ava, or 'ava server, in the order proscribed by the tufa'ava, or 'ava distributor. Usually, the highest chief of the visiting party is served first, followed by the highest chief of the host party, and then service proceeds based on the rank of the rest of the participants. The drink is served in a polished coconut half. The overall ceremony is highly ritualized, with specific gestures and phrases to be used at various times.

I visited Samoa for a meeting in the 1980's - ten days in December. We were staying in Papauta Girls' College - and the sixth year girls had stayed back from their Christmas holidays to look after the honoured visitors. When they heard I came from Scotland, they demanded that I accompanied them to the top of Mt Vaea.

It was a sweat-producing pilgrimage up a rough path that finally fetched up in a clearing. From there Apia lay at our feet, and in either direction the island of Upolu with its line of breaking surf, was spread out below. There where we stood, in the centre of that clearing, were the simple tombs of Stevenson and his wife Fanny. One could see why Stevenson had chosen this place, and on the side of his tomb we read his epitaph.

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.