SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 267 
trees and roots good for food, that the celestials possessed. So far our 
Samoan myth. 
The Grecian story of the war of the gods and the giants is first given 
in full by Hesiod, who lived about 700 z.c. It runs thus :—In the begin- 
ning uprose Chaos, and next broad-bosomed Earth. First, Earth produced 
the starry Heaven, and the barren Sea, and the deep-eddying Ocean, and 
the Sun (Hyperion), and the Moon (Phoebe) with golden coronet ; but the 
youngest son was the savage and wily Kronos. These were all known as 
Titans ; they correspond with our Samoan S4-Tangaloa. being ranked as. 
gods. Next,from the union of Heaven (Ouranos) and Earth (Gaia), arose 
the three Cyclops,—Brontes, Steropes and Arges—Cyclopes their name, 
‘* For that one circular eye was broad infixed 
In the mid-forehead ; strength was theirs, and force, 
And craft of various toil.” 
Then came three giants great and mighty, who were also earth-born, 
—Kottus, Briareus and Gyges by name—each of whom had a hundred. 
arms and fifty heads; they had also monstrous strength and vast size. 
The story goes on to say that Kronos mutilated and dethroned Ou- 
ranos, and, with the aid of the Titans, set up a new monarchy, for which 
grave act vengeance was not long in coming on them. For when Zeus, 
a younger son of Earth, had grown to man’s estate, he secured the assis- 
tance of his half-brothers the Cyclops and the Giants against the Titans, 
who occupied the heights of Mt. Othrys, while Jove and his party had 
possession of Olympus. For ten years the opposing parties fought, their 
battle-field being the plains of Thessaly between. At last, weary with. 
the strife, the mighty Jove drew his forces together, and prepared to put 
forth all his stores of thunder and lightning. In battle the Titans were 
now driven from heaven, and thenceforth Jove reigned supreme. So far 
the Greek myth. 
The Giants figure also in the mythology of the Norse nations; for there, 
the very first earth-being is a frost-giant, the mighty ‘Ymer’; he was 
killed by the gods, and from the maggots generated in his dead body 
came the Dwarfs of the northern myths—powerful and energetic, not- 
withstanding their diminutive size. As these giants are a prominent 
feature in the Scandinavian mythology, I will give here some account* 
of them, thus :—In the beginning, there were two worlds ; in the far north 
a world of mist and ice-cold, Nifl-heim, and in the far south was Muspel- 
heim, the fire world; between them was a yawning gulf. The blasts of 
heat passing across this gulf melted the frozen vapours in drops, which. 
* Abridged and adapted from an article in Chambers’s Cyclopedia. 
