348 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



The Samoans still joke about Mafuie as seated down below, 

 and with a long stick amusing himself by ' stirring up ' the 

 islanders whose ancestors got fire from him. Like the 

 Tahitians, the Samoans have a tradition that one of their 

 goddesses conceived by looking at the sun ; and bringing 

 forth a son, he received the name ' Child of the Sun.' As he 

 grew in years he became acquainted with his origin ; and 

 when about to marry, he was directed by his mother to ap- 

 peal to the sun, his father, for a fitting dower for his bride. 



Availing himself of a very high tree, he ascended to the 

 sun, and on making his request, he was asked whether he 

 would have blessings or calamities. He naturally chose the 

 former, and received them Pandora-like in a basket. 



Here the story rather abruptly ended, but I learned sub- 

 sequently that the ' Child of the Sun ' had, after obtaining 

 the blessings in his basket, continued to have some influence 

 with his father, inasmuch as on one occasion, his mother find- 

 ing the day too short for her mat-drying, she requested him to 

 get his father to improve matters, and this is how the filial 

 youth went to work : just as the first rays of his father's 

 effulgence appeared above the horizon of the broad sea, his 

 earth-born boy threw a noose over him, with the result of 

 nearly strangling his parent, who of course was still rising, 

 and who naturally indignantly inquired the reason for his 

 son's eccentric behaviour. The dutiful boy at once suggested 

 the difficulty his mother had in getting her mats dried, and 

 good-natured Sol gave a ready assent, and the hours of sun- 

 light have been longer in Samoa ever since. 



Whenever anything in nature seems unusual, the idea of 

 physical force at once enters the heads of all the Pacific 

 islanders ; one simple instance will suffice to illustrate this 

 very popular characteristic : 



