Vailima is the name of a small mountain village in Samoa where Robert Louis Stevenson lived out the last years of his life. The Samoans named him "Tusitala" - The teller of Tales. His residence still stands there as a monument to these buccaneer days. The word Vailima literally translated means,
                                                        "Water in the hand".

The origins of the word goes back to a legend about a couple crossing the island of Upolu over the mountain range which runs nearly the length of the island. When they reached where Vailima village is now, the man was nearly dying of thirst. Having no other means at all of fetching water, the woman used the palms of her hands to fetch water from a nearby stream from which her husband drank, thus restoring his strength.