19. Out rushed the parents in tears, The children they cast away had come back, And now their love returned to them. etc. CHAPTER VII. ADULT AND ADVANCED YEARS. Passing from infancy and childhood we proceed to the ceremonies, superstitions, and customs connected with more advanced years. _Tattooing._--"Herodotus found among the Thracians that the barbarians could be exceedingly foppish after their fashion. The man who was not tattooed among them was not respected." It was the same in Samoa. Until a young man was tattooed, he was considered in his minority. He could not think of marriage, and he was constantly exposed to taunts and ridicule, as being poor and of low birth, and as having no right to speak in the society of men. But as soon as he was tattooed he passed into his majority, and considered himself entitled to the respect and privileges of mature years. When a youth, therefore, reached the age of sixteen, he and his friends were all anxiety that he should be tattooed. He was then on the outlook for the tattooing of some young chief with whom he might unite. On these occasions, six or a dozen young men would be tattooed at one time; and for these there might be four or five tattooers employed. Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular profession, just as house-building, and well paid. The custom is traced to Taēmā and Tilafainga (see p. 55); and they were worshipped by the tattooers as the presiding deities of their craft.