SAMOAN TRADTTTON OF C'REATTON AND THE DBLUOxR. 155 



who were named Upolu and Tele, and Tutu and Ila. The 

 former pair were left on Upolu to people it, hence its name 

 Upolu-tele [Great Upolu, as it is called by the people of 

 Manu'a] . Tutu and Ila were appointed to people Tutuila, 

 hence its name. That vine was the daughter of Tagaloa. It 

 has two names, the Human Vine, and the Sacred Vine.* 



Tagaloa the Creator then gave a parting charge to Upolu- 

 tele and Tutuila that they should not encroach upon Manu'a 

 on pain of destruction, but that each should conhne his rule 

 to his own territory. 



The tradition is not complete ; but, taken with the Solo, it 

 appears that we have, commingled in the two, a remarkable 

 notice of particulars connected with the original creation and 

 the Noachian Deluge. 



It is in every way a remarkable and interesting tradition. 

 Its great resemblance, in some particulars, to the Mosaic 

 record ; its monotheism so greatly resembling Trinitarianism ; 

 its cosmogony; its lofty ideas and poetic character, — all 

 point to the conclusion that those who have handed it down, 

 from father to son, from time immemorial, as an inviolable 

 trust, must be closely allied to the original possessors of the 

 Mosaic record. That the Samoans are so allied I have no 

 doubt ; hundreds of pages, of equal interest with those above, 

 with which I have been intrusted, the habits and language 

 of the people, all convince me that such is the case. I shall 

 rejoice if time and opportunity be afforded me to present these 

 things for the consideration of the thoughtful and the scientific. 



We now give the solo : on one side the original ; on the 

 other side, the translation. The figures will show the lines 

 of the one which correspond to those of the other : the head- 

 ings of the several parts as given in the translation, are not 

 in the original, — they only represent my own idea of the 

 references or meaning. 



In reciting these poems the old men always make the last 

 lines rhyme with each other in quantity wherever the vowels 

 are similar, even though in prose the quantity is dissimilar.f 



* Perhaps tliis paragraph has reference to Japheth and his descendants, as 

 peculiarly blessed of God. See Gen. ix. 27, and x. 5. And, if so, we have 

 in the above, a reference first to the Aryan race eastward ; the Hamitic and 

 Semitic races to the south-west and south-east ; and to the Japhetic race to 

 the west and south, but nearer the point of radiation which we assume to be 

 not very far from Ararat. 



t Tliis poem, it will be seen, has only 114 lines ; I have another of 197. 



