OMENS OF PRHGNANCY. 613 



2.— OMENS OF PREGNANCY, MANGAIA, HERVEY 



ISLANDS. 



By THE REV. AVILLIAM WVATT GILL, LL.D. 



If a married man dreams of catching; prawns, or of g-athering 

 red pandaniis drupes,^ it, is a sure sign that his wife Avill con- 

 ceive and the chihl will be a lioy, Shoidd the dream be of 

 Gardenia^ flowers, the expanded l)lossom prefigures a boy, 

 the unexpanded a girl. Shoukl the dream he of a bed of 

 buried stone adzes, one very large and the rest much smaller, 

 and that a friend is with you at the time of the discovery ; 

 then you and your friend will both become parents. The 

 parly who gets the big adze will have a boy, the other a girl. 



My valued Polynesian friend, Mamae, had been married 

 a year without expectation of increase, when he dreamed 

 that he and Anni (his friend and relative) had luckily 

 discovered a bed of stone adzes at a place called Touri, in 

 the district of Tevaenga. Early next morning Mamae started 

 off with his brothers to secure the treasure trove, i.e. the 

 buried adzes^, then much in request. The brothers dug for 

 hours at the place indicated in the dream ; but all in vain ! 

 Late in the afternoon they gave up their bootless search. 

 Their old uncle Tiaea hearing what the young fellows had 

 been doing, sent for Mamae and angrily demanded how he 

 dared to dig the sacred soil of Tevaenga. To appease the 

 wrath of the old heathen, Mamae told his dream. At this 

 the uncle laughed heartily and remarked " the dream means 

 that you and Anui are about to become parents." And so it 

 turned out ; for Anui's wife bare him Teara, his eldest son 

 and successor in the chieftainship ; Mamae's wife also bare a 

 son who died early. 



A night or two afterwards, Mamae dreamed that he was 

 gathering I'ed pandanus drupes. So, emphasized Mamae, 



' These were strung together for nefklaces, alternating with the bell-like 

 blossoms of the Hernandla. In full dress a man or a woman might wear 

 half a dozen of these necklaces, some doubled and others reaching the knees. 



''The Gardenia blossom (the flower of flowers in native estimation) was, 

 and still is, worn in the pierced ears of both sexes. 



^On the eve of battle it was customary to bury the stone adzes of the 

 family in some out-of-the-way place. Beds of these (in heatlien times) 

 priceless treasures are still occasionally discovered. About a dozen adzes, 

 large and small, were arranged in a circle, the points being towards the 

 centre. The knowledge of the localities where to find them was carefully 

 handed down from one generation to another until the last of the tribe was 

 slain. Sometimes a couple of adzes would be hidden in the cleft of a rock,_^ 

 well wrapt up in nati-s e cloth to elude observation, «^ < \ i • j^ 



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