Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Western Samoa postmarked on April 21, 1978.
Western Samoa
Consisting of two major islands, Savaii and Upolu, which are summits of a submarine volcanic range rising to 6000 ft., Western Samoa is largely covered with rain forest, and supports a subsistance agriculture of taro, yam, banana, papaya and breadfruit. It was settled by Polynesians in the first millenium B.C. and although visited by Dutch and French explorers in the 18th Century, no European settlement began until 1856, when it fell under German influence. New Zealand was given trusteeship after the First World War, but met with Samoan resistance to destruction of their culture, and to foreign domination of their government. After World War Two the islands came under United Nations trusteeship, and became independent in 1962.
Shown in the Samoan Omnibus issue is the Pacific Pigeon, a large bird with a grey crown and upper back, pinkish grey underparts, dark blue-green mantle, wings, back and tail, black bill and red feet. It gathers in large flocks and moves from island to island in search of fruit. Of importance to the islanders' diet, Polynesian legend held that it connected us with spirits and ancestors, and as brother of Maui, helped fish up the land from the sea bottom.
The King's Lion, also depicted, bears the arms of Henry VIII and Queen lane Seymour. Henry introduced the lion as cosupporter of the royal arms with the dragon, replacing the greyhound. From statuettes dated 6000 B.C. the lion is seen with the great mother goddess, perhaps originally symbolising motherhood. For the Egyptians, as Aker, it was Earth God; the sun rising from one of his lion mouths and setting in the other. Associated with Artemis it continued to represent motherhood but in addition hunting, vegetation and wild life, and so was still basically a fertility image. Like the serpent, it was the enemy of the newly emergent Mesopotamian civilisation, chosen as embodiment of 'chaos demons' to derogate the old religion; and with the later rise of fiercely authoritarian Assyria it acquired similar significance to its mediaeval heraldic use; as Nergal, god of war and pestilence, and judge of the dead, antithesis of fertility.
