34i6 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MYTHS. 



to collect tlie fruit which was in abundance, and when he was 

 there he found himself tempted to ascend the trunk and find 

 out how the tree grew in that position. He did so, and at 

 length got so high that his companions in the boat lost sight 

 of him, and after waiting a certain time coolly sailed away 

 loaded with fruit. Looking down from his lofty position, Si 

 Jura saw his friends making ofi", so he had no other resource 

 but to go on climbing in hopes of reaching some resting-place. 

 He therefore persevered climbing higher and higher, till he 

 reached the roots of the tree, and there he found himself in a 

 new country — that of the Pleiades. There he met a being in 

 form of a man, named Si Kira, who took him to his home and 

 hospitably entertained him. The food offered was a mess of 

 soft white grains — boiled rice. ' Eat,'' said Si Kira. ' What, 

 those little maggots V replied Si Jura. ' They are not mag- 

 gots, but boiled rice ;' and Si Kira forthwith explained the 

 process of planting, weeding, and reaping, and of pounding 

 and boiling rice. , . . So Si Jura made a hearty meal, and 

 after eating. Si Kira gave him seed of three kinds of rice, in- 

 structed him how to cut down the forest, burn, plant, weed, 

 and reap, take omens from birds, and celebrate harvest feasts ; 

 and then, by a long rope, let him down to earth again near his 

 father's house. ''^ 



In the Malay island of Celebes a story is found which con- 

 tains the episode of the heaven-plant, but in a different con- 

 nexion. It is indeed a legend of no common interest, as bring- 

 ing the old European story of the Swan-coat- together with an 

 equally unmistakable version of a tale found also among the 

 natives of ISTew Zealand. Seven heavenly nymphs came down 

 from the sky to bathe, and they were seen by Kasimbaha, who 

 thought first that they were white doves, but in the bath he 

 saw that they were women. Then he stole one of the thin 



1 St. John, vol. i. p. 202. 



■ Among a number of instances, in the Vohuidarqvitha, three women sit on 

 the shore with their swan-coats beside them, ready to turn into swans and ily 

 away. Or three doves fly down to a fountain and become maidens when they 

 touch the earth. Wielant takes their clothes and will not give them back till one 

 consents to be his wife, etc. etc. Grimm, D. M., pp. 398-402. 



