346 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



developed from the original worm. Whether man is a distinct 

 creation, as the Tongans have it, or is a very much improved 

 ape, they do not say. On this matter I am, to slightly alter a 

 well-known remark of the late Lord Beaconsfield, ' On the side 

 of the Tongans.' 



These people used to have, by the way, a curious tradition 

 that the earth rests on the shoulders of their god ; and when 

 an earthquake occurs, he is supposed to be shifting his burden 

 from one to the other. This Pacific Atlas must have enormous 

 ' staying powers,' as earthquakes are few and far between in 

 the Friendly Islands. 



One of the best of my friend's Samoan legends was his 

 quaint version of their discovery of fire. It seems that centuries 

 ago how long back he could not say, but he ' guessed it was 

 before the Declaration of Independence ' there was a great 

 fuss about gastronomy in Samoa, and the people were very 

 much agitated on this important subject. It was agreed on all 

 hands that the menus were anything but satisfactory, and that 

 insular habits of feeding resulted in chronic dyspepsia and 

 postprandial inconvenience of all sorts. Many were the 

 remedies suggested, when a brave young chief addressed the 

 conference we may suppose, and said the wretched condition 

 of their stomachs and the unsatisfactory nature of their meals 

 might wholly be attributed to their barbarous habit of eating 

 their food uncooked. What they wanted was fire to cook it 

 with, and that was the reform he urgently demanded in the 

 name of his outraged liver. Asked by some indignant Con- 

 servative admirer of the old days, before these new-fangled 

 ideas were talked of, where he was to get it from, he replied 

 that the same force that caused earthquakes, upheavals of the 

 earth, and boiling seas could furnish fire for them ; and though 

 warned by his friends, he stated his intention of at once 



