CH. xn SONGS AND BOMANCE IN OLD MINAEASSA 301 



CHAPTEE XII 



BONGS AND E03IANCE IN OLD 2IINAHASSA 



Love Songs — Stories — Story of Maengkom — Story of Matindas — Story of 

 Kawalusan — Stories about Apes — Hair storieB^Eiddles — Proverbs. 



I HATE already pointed out in a previous chapter that the 

 natives of Minahassa possess very strong poetical feelings. 

 At the mapalus and the fossos the people frequently gather 

 together to sing their songs of love and mourning, or to 

 recount their stories of the gods, spirits, giants, and other 

 heroes. 



Some of the love-songs contain very beautiful thoughts 

 and ideas, and are on the -whole singularly free from coarse 

 and ignoble sentiments. Greatly as they will undoubtedly 

 suffer from the double translation they have undergone 

 before appearing in these pages, I hope they -n-Ul neverthe- 

 less convey some slight concei)tion to my readers of the 

 chief characteristics of their poetry. 



The first I shall give is a love-song supposed to be 

 sung by a young couple who love one another. The ex- 

 travagance of the sentiment of love in the first part, and 

 the extravagance of jealousy in the second, are skilfully 

 toned down to a sentiment of mutual respect and affection 

 at the reconcihation in the third. 



Paet I 



He. Prom the days when we were little children, my love, 

 we determined never to renounce our love for one another. 



She. Since you, dearest, first declared your love for me 

 I have never turned to any other. 



