Mead to Boas - Sept. 17, 1925: (from Pago Pago)

Dear Dr. Boas,

I have been working on the language just two weeks today and I think this is a good time to make my first report to you, rather then waiting until steamer day, which occasion completely disorganizes the whole population, native and foreign.

I am living at the hotel here in the Port. It is kept by half castes and I am the only guest. This arrangement is much more satisfactory than living in a private home because I am much more independent. I think I will probably be here three more weeks. I am gradually learning to eat native food; potatoes and rice have already been discarded and boiled taro substituted; I am cultivating a taste for cocoa nut oil and cocoa nut milk. These have the basic taste giving position possessed by garlic in Italian cooking and when I eat them easily, I shall count half the battle won.

The native culture is so very much alive that it does not threaten one with any signs of early disappearance. Of course a good many of the religious ceremonies have been gone for half a century; the women wear a few ungainly clothes; a few packing boxes are used in the construction of the houses; some of the villages have showers and some of the women charcoal irons and sewing machines. But these incidentals of material culture seem to make little show in the villages where only native houses are seen and the call to Kava is heard every evening. Yesterday the news was brought over the mountains of the sudden death from convulsions of seven children in one village. The people believe they were made sick from eating a large sea turtle but an autopsy on one of the bodies reveals unmistakable signs of strychnine poisoning. This is laid, conversationally, at the doors of the "witch doctors," of whom there are a good many left.

As the sense of immediacy was lacking, I have felt justified in working only on the language and making no immediate attempt to collect any information. Dr. Handy gave me a slight start on the grammar when I was in Honolulu, but as he never approached the Polynesian languages from an analytical standpoint and did not know Samoan, it was a very slight one. When I got here I found that my introductions from the Surgeon General put the native nurses at my disposal and the best educated of these nurses has been my tutor. She is a graduate of the missionary school which teaches the girls to read and write in Samoan, and she is a graduate of the government hospital here and spent two years in Mare Island at the Navy hospital. She comes from a chiefly family in Manu’a. Her command of both languages is equal to rapid translation although she is incapable of making even quite simple generalizations. The only existing grammar, by Pratt, is a maze of European categories which I find occasionally useful in verifying or checking conclusions which I have reached by analyzing the type [of] sentences I am using. The Bible is the only printed matter of any extent and is quite useless for conversational Samoa, being couched in archaic narrative style. The style of the folk tales is also so heavily conventionalized as to offer very little besides vocabulary which I can get more quickly in other ways. So my plan has been to prepare series of sentences for translation into Samoan which will illustrate types of construction. As Pepe is an intelligent translator, she makes the translation without giving them English form. Then I check these by Pratt. I also take very simple texts of accounts of immediate events, parties, weddings, etc. which the girls have recently attended. I also am getting some assistance from the Samoan principal of the government school and from his wife. I spend two or three afternoons a week in their house in just casual conversation. As a result of this program I have now a vocabulary of about 500 words. I can express any type of idea except some so-called subjunctive expressions with very little difficulty. I have talked to ten year old children for fifteen and twenty minutes at a stretch and made myself understood. I can talk to my cook boy entirely in Samoan. Unless the conversation is specifically directed towards me, I cannot follow it very carefully yet; that is I can say myself more than I can understand. But I have stressed learning to speak because only thus can I gain admission to groups where only Samoan is spoken and where I will have ample opportunity to listen to it.

Probably I will have little more to report for some time except increasing vocabulary and increasing facility. I am quite confident now that I will be able to handle the language well enough for the requirements of my problem. I seem to thrive on the heavy carbohydrate diet and have not minded the heat so far. I fortunately arrived in [the] cool season and will have time to be well adjusted before the hot rainy season sets in. I am working with the discretion dictated by the climate.

I hope you enjoyed your European trip and got a little rested in preparation for the winter. My best regards to you and Mrs. Boas.

Very sincerely,

Margaret Mead