Dr. Turner, in his book on the Samoan Islands, tells the following
incident:
The people were cannibals, the King, Mahetoa, leading in the
horrible practise. His young son, Polu, hated the heathenish and
brutal custom, and one day, when he saw a poor boy waiting to
be killed and served as a tender morsel for the King’s dinner,
he was touched with pity and said, “Don’t cry; I will try and
save you.” So he drest himself in coconut leaves and had himself
served just as tho he had been killed and roasted whole. The
King came to the table, and looked down at the cannibal dish,
saw two bright eyes looking up at him. He recognized his son,
and the thought flashed through his heathen mind, “What if it
were, indeed, my dear son, whose body had been cooked for my
meal!” He was touched, too, by the magnanimity of his boy,
taking the other lad’s place, and he abolished cannibalism by
law from his kingdom from that day. (Text.)
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