Tregeae. — Polynesian Folk-lore. 501 



possible to make men, who have thoroughly imbibed the idea of 

 a tradition being a local one, ever get away from the notion that 

 the incidents happened there, particularly there. In Polynesia, 

 constantly we hear : "It was on that hill my ancester fought 

 the monster;" "It was this island which was hauled up from 

 the bottom of the sea by the fish-hook of Tangaloa or of Maui." 

 A good example is given at the end of the Mangaian myth : 

 't Mangaia now for the first time emerged to the light of day, 

 and became the centre of the universe. Its central hill was accord- 

 ingly designated Rangimotia (" the centre of the heavens"). 

 The inhabitants of Mangaia were veritable men and women, as 

 contrasted with the natives of other outlying islands, who were 

 only evil spirits in the guise of humanity." 



This is by no means confined to the Polynesians, it meets 

 investigators everywhere. To take two examples at random : 

 Mr. Kennedy* says that nearly every lake and hill in Ireland 

 has its legend of the encounter of hero and monster ; and Mr. 

 Bm-nellf writes : " The localization of the events of the Mahab- 

 harata is endless ; every few miles, in Southern India, one can 

 find the place where some battle or other event occurred ; and so 

 it is also in Java. Such legends, therefore, are absolutely worth- 

 less, for they prove no more than that the Mahabharata and 

 Ramayana are or were favourite stories over a large part of the 

 East." Of com'se, Mr. BurneU means worthless for fixing locality. 

 Doubtless, dragons no more inhabited the hills of Ireland than 

 they did the New Zealand plain of Kaingaroa ; nor could Arjuna 

 or Eama have fought the same battles in Java and in India. 

 But the stories are useful, as showing a common fount of know- 

 ledge. Sir George Grey, in his "Polynesian Mythology," | has 

 compared two Maori legends with similar European tales : first, 

 that of the dog of Whakaturia crying out from the belly of his 

 eater, with the tradition of St. Patrick and the stolen sheep ; 

 and the other, one of our New Zealand dragon stories, with the 

 dragon poem of Spenser. There can be no collusion here, and 

 no interchange of myths, as between nations whose borders 

 touch each other ; the English poet and the Maori " ariki " were 

 more favourably situated than any other persons in the world 

 could be, if we wish to guard against interchange of ideas by 

 personal communication ; yet, word for word, line for line, the 

 description of the animal pourtrayed by the one is a transcript 

 of the mythical monster of the other ; thus showing how deeply, 

 not only the general idea, but the very details of the ancient 

 marvel had sunk into the spirit of the primitive mind, and 

 evolved similar products after centuries of separation. 



In the tiny specimen of Polynesian folk-lore submitted in 



* " Fictions of the Irish Celts." 

 t " South Indian Palfeography." 

 X Appendix, New Edition. 



