HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



A hunter one day came upon a camp where seven girls were living, 

 all alone. They were friendly to him, and allowed him to stay with 

 them. They told him that they had come from a far-away country 

 and would soon return thither. The next day he started on his way, 

 but hid to watch the girls. They went out to dig ants' nests and left 

 their digging-sticks while they sat down to eat. The hunter crept up, 

 and stole two of the sticks. By and by the girls started back for their 

 camp, but the two whose digging-sticks he had taken remained behind 

 to search for them. He seized the two girls as they searched, and ulti- 

 mately they agreed to become his wives. They told him, however, 

 that they must never be forced to do what they did not want to, or 

 else they would leave him. One day he ordered them to get for him 

 some pine-bark; they told him this was something they must not do. 

 He insisted, however. While they were climbing the tree to get the 

 bark, the tree grew and carried them up with it to the sky, where they 

 were welcomed by their five sisters who had returned thither some 

 time before. 



In this tale many of the elements of the story are missing, but 

 these nearly all reappear in another version from Victoria (P). 1 Ac- 

 cording to this two sisters were bathing one day. They had wings 

 so that they could fly away and escape men who wished to make them 

 their wives. While their wings were laid aside, a man crept up, and, 

 coming on them unawares, asked them to marry him. He was so 

 handsome that they gradually relented, and finally consented to his 

 proposals. These two tales are admittedly much less clearly a part 

 of the Swan-maiden cycle than those that have previously been con- 

 sidered, yet present so many of the characteristics that one is tempted 

 to regard them as possibly related. 



In this connection mention must be made of the occurrence of a 

 tale in New Zealand which may perhaps be regarded as showing the 

 influence of the Swan-maiden incident. In the tales forming part of 

 the Tawhaki cycle 2 a female sky-deity descends to earth and marries 

 Kai-tangata, grandfather of Tawhaki. After she had borne her hus- 

 band several children, she one day became displeased by some remarks 

 he made to her. In consequence she resolved to leave him, and so, 

 enveloped in a cloud, re-ascended to the sky. A similar incident is 

 also told of Tawhaki's wife, with the additional feature of his ascent 

 to the sky-world in search of her. Although current in several ver- 

 sions in New Zealand, the tale has not been reported from any other 



1 Dunlop in Jour. Anthr. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, vol. xxvm, pp. 33 sq. 



2 White, Ancient History of the Maori, I, pp. 54, 87, 115, etc.; Grey, Polynesian Mythology, 

 pp. 59 sq. Cf. also Leverd, The Tahitian Version of Tafa'i (or Tawhaki), Journ. Polynesian Soc, 

 xxi, pp. 1 sq. 



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