136 Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 



than themselves ? Or is it a flight of the same fancy which 

 has devised all sorts of fairies ? In New Zealand there turns 

 up from time to time the report that a wild tribe has been 

 found inland, founded on a similar notion among the Maories. 

 I remember twice to have heard of the discovery. 



[I never heard of any such tradition in Fiji. The islands are too small 

 for such a growth. But it is remarkable that, though the monkey is not a 

 native of Fiji, the language has a word for "monkey," which does not seem 

 to have been introduced from without. It is said that when Fijians still living 

 first saw a monkey, they exclaimed, "A ngele ! a ngele I" recognising the 

 animal from the tradition of the ngele which was current among 1hem. Mr. 

 Codrington, to whom I mentioned the circumstance, suggests that the ngele 

 may have been the opossum. There is an opossum in the Solomon Islands. 

 -L. F.] 



26. Totems. 



There is something resembling a totem, though not a 

 totem. Some people connect themselves with an object, 

 generally an animal, as a lizard or a snake, or with a stone, 

 which they imagine to have a certain very close natural 

 relation to themselves. This, at Mota, is called tamaniu — 

 likeness. This word at Aurora is used for the " atai" of 

 Mota. Some fancy dictates the choice of a tamaniu ; or it 

 may be found by drinking the infusion of certain herbs, 

 and heaping together the dregs. Whatever living thing is 

 first seen in or upon the heap is the tamaniu. It is watched, 

 but not fed or worshipped. The natives believe that it 

 comes at call. The life of the man is bound up with the 

 life of his tamaniu. If it dies, gets broken or lost, the man 

 will die. In sickness they send to see how the tamaniu is, 

 and judge the issue accordingly. This is only the fancy of 

 some. 



[Though this is not a veritable totem, I am inclined to think that it is con- 

 nected with the totem. Too many words, however, would be required for the 

 discussion of the subject here.— L. F.] 



27. Counting. 



Mota people count up to' 1000 readily and accurately. I 

 was once told at a feast the number of bananas — nearly 

 3000. On being recounted they amounted to the exact 

 number specified. At another time I wished to buy 200 

 dried bread-fruit; 164 had been brought and counted, and a 

 bystander immediately gave the number deficient. At the 

 same time our scholars are very slow at arithmetic in our 



