450 MYSTIC ISLES 



struction. The Marquesans built a great canoe like a 

 house, with openings for air and light, but tight against 

 the rain. The ark was stored with provisions, and the 

 animals of the earth were driven in two by two, fastened 

 in couples. Then the family of four men and four 

 women entered the ark, sacrificed a turtle to God, and 

 retired to rest amidst the terrific din of the confined ani- 

 mals. The storm burst, and the waters covered the en- 

 tire land. The storm ceased and a black bird was sent 

 over the sea of Hawaii. It returned to the ark, and a 

 wind set in from the north. Another bird was loosed, 

 and alighted on the sea-shore. It was recalled, and a 

 third bird brought back twigs. The ark soon grounded, 

 and the four men and four women released the beasts, 

 and went ashore. These repopulated the earth. 



The Samoans believed that the earth was once covered 

 with water and the sky alone was inhabited, until God 

 sent his only begotten daughter in the form of a kuri, 

 or snipe, to look for dry land. She found a spot, and 

 brought down to it earth, and a creeping plant, which 

 grew and decomposed into worms, and, lo! the worms 

 turned into men and women. 



In Hawaii Nuu was saved from a similar flood, and 

 with him his three sons and their families. Ten genera- 

 tions later Ivanehoalani was commanded by God to in- 

 troduce circumcision. He went to a far-off country, 

 had a son by a slave woman and one by his wife. He 

 was then commanded, this descendant of Nuu in the 

 tenth generation, to go up on a mountain and perform 

 a sacrifice. He sought a mountain, but none appeared 

 suitable; so he communed with God, who told him to 

 travel to the east, and he would find a precipice. He 



