DIXON— SWAN-MAIDEN THEME 



dress of the youngest and most beautiful, he made her captive and 

 took her as his wife. Her garment was returned to her, when she 

 promised not to fly away. For a time she was happy in her new home, 

 but soon felt a longing to revisit the sky-land. Her husband agreed 

 to let her go, if she would promise to bring him back a winged gar- 

 ment for his use. She did so, and when he had put it on, he flew 

 back with her to the sky, to visit her family. From the Minahassa 1 

 in the north of the island comes a version which preserves only a 

 portion of the original story. Mamaaua, while hunting one day in 

 the jungle, hears his dogs barking and finds that they had surrounded 

 a beautiful naked woman. She tells him she has come down from the 

 sky country and finally agrees to become his wife. She warns him, 

 however, that if ever a hair of her head is pulled out, she will have 

 to leave him. After some time, he forgot the warning, and in lousing 

 her head he accidentally pulled out a hair. At once blood gushed out, 

 a cloud settled over the house, and his wife disappeared. Disconsolate 

 over her loss, he took the child and set out to seek his wife. Various 

 birds one after another try to carry him to the upper world in vain, 

 but he finally succeeds in reaching the sky, by ascending with the 

 sun. Arrived in the upper world, he finds his wife, and identifies her 

 by the aid of a fly which settles upon her head, and thus marks her 

 out from her sisters. He remains with his wife, then in the sky, but 

 the child is sent down to earth once more. 



From the Sangir islands extending north from Minahassa nearly 

 to Mindanao in the Philippines there is a version 2 which again shows 

 unmistakably its Indian source. Here the sky-maidens are again 

 called Widadaris, and the ascent of the husband to the sky-world is 

 by means of a ladder which is let down for him from the sky. Several 

 of the details, as might be expected, agree with the Minahassa form, 

 e.g. that the wings are given back voluntarily to the sky-maiden. 

 The ascent of the husband follows immediately without the interval 

 characteristic of most of the other versions. From its similarity to 

 some Javanese forms of the story, 3 it seems likely that it was intro- 

 duced from there. 



Equally clearly of Indian origin is the form of the tale current in 

 Halmahera among the Loda. 4 The sky-maidens are once more known 

 as Widadaris, and the captor is at once taken by his heavenly wife to 

 the upper world in a flying palace. A form of the story obtained at 



1 Wilken, Med. Ned. Zend. Gen., vol. vil, pp. 326 sq. 



2 Adriani, Bijd. TaaU, Land- en Volkenkunde Ned.-Indie, vol. xliv, pp. 98 sq. 



3 Babad Tanah Djawi, 1874, p. 41. 



* van Baarda, Bijd. TaaU, Land- en Volkenkunde Ned.-Indie, vol. lvi, pp. 466 sq. Cf . the version 

 from Ternate given by Riedel, Tijd. Ned. Indie, 3d ser., vol. v, pp. 439 sq. 



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