SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 765% 
the sons of Tangaloa-in-the-heavens and a band of earth-born giants. 
This myth accordingly raises many curious questions; but, first, let me 
present to you a sketch of the myth, and then we shall be the better 
able to consider the questions which arise from it. 
The Samoan cosmogony has eight heavens, and a ninth, in which sits, 
calm and peaceful, in his ‘ Bright-house,’ the supreme Tangaloa, the cre- 
ator of the heavens and the earth. The upper heavens are ruled by 
representatives, or rather emanations, of Tagaloa-i-le-lagi, all of these 
being called Tangaloa; but the regions of the sky nearest the earth are 
occupied by Night and Day, and the Sun and Moon, and other regents, 
and their progeny; these persons are called Sa-Tagaloa, ‘the family of 
Tangaloa.’ The messengers of the gods are two girls, Tuli and Longo- 
noa; the name Tuli is also applied to a bird common enough in all Poly- 
nesia, and supposed to be the emblem of Tangaloa. The Sa-Tangaloa, 
occupying the lowest heavens, are of inferior rank, and have many of the 
appetites and passions of mortals; they like fish, and certain fishes of 
the ocean are sacred to them, especially the ‘ bonito’ of the South Seas; 
hence, in many of the islands there, ‘a fish for Rongo’ is the cry, when 
the worshippers are about to kill a man and lay his body as an offering 
before their god. 
Now, on earth below, there were then many giants; one account says 
that at least one hundred of them engaged in this war. One of these, 
Losi, the fisherman of the gods, was indirectly the cause of the war. 
They were really giants; for one of them was named Tele, which, trans- 
lated into the vernacular of our streets, would be the “‘ Big Un”; another 
could stand firm in the midst of a swollen river; another could swallow a 
whole oven-full of food, along with the shoulder-pole and baskets which 
brought the food. There were certainly giants there in those days. 
The war arose in this way. The Sa-Tangaloa wanted to have some 
fish, and so they sent down their messengers to ask Losi to get some for 
them. Losi obeyed orders, caught a lot, and took them up to the heavens; 
but, being of a tricksome mind, like many giants, and fond of fun, he laid 
a fish during the night at the door of each of the young men there, who, 
when they came out in the early morning, slipped on them and fell, much 
to their own damage and to Losi’s amusement. 
That practical joke produced no serious consequences; for we next 
find Losi quietly looking on while the Sa-Tangaloa are preparing an oven 
of ‘taro,’ in order to offer him the usual hospitality of food. Coveting 
this kind of food, of which there was none on earth below, Losi secreted 
on his person a small piece of it, fit for planting. The Sa-Tangaloa sus- 
