SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. Zhe 
(1) Rama’s wife is Sita, and, all through the poem and in India to this 
day, she is regarded as a pattern of wife-like devotedness and fidelity. 
Similarly, in our myths everywhere, the hero’s wife is called Sina, and 
Sina is a very popular name for women in Polynesia. In Sanskrit, Sita 
means ‘ white,’ ‘a handsome woman’; in Polynesia, Sina means ‘ white,’ is 
a name for women, and as such is applied to ‘the moon.’ Is it possible 
that the Polynesians brought this name with them from Asia? As to 
their form, the two names are radically the same. (2) The other two 
analogies bear on the origin of our Australian blacks. In the story of 
Rama, there are traces of three races in India at the time when the 
Ramayana was composed. The white race gives us Sita, ‘the fair one,’ 
and Rama himself, who is of the Solar kings. At war with him are Ré- 
vana and his demons in Ceylon, whom I consider the remnants of the 
first black race which we know to have occupied India in the earliest 
times; their position in the remote island of Ceylon shows that these 
Rakshasas had passed thither from the mainiand of India, probably 
driven thither by an invading race; and the name ‘ demons’ is often ap- 
plied by conquerors to a fierce people when subdued, especially if they 
are of a different colour. The monkey-king got the Dekkan; and that 
portion of India is still occupied by diverse tribes of blacks. Of course 
the monkey warriors were men, and are, in the poem, called monkeys 
because of their features, as compared with the shapely faces of the fair 
Caucasians. It is rather odd, as a coincidence, to know that the Mantras, 
a black race in Malacca, say that they are all descended from two monkeys. 
To my mind therefore, these original inhabitants of Ceylon—not the 
present Singhalese—represent the primitive inhabitants of India; Rama’s 
allies of the Dekkan represent a mixed black race which came in after- 
wards, and Rama himself is a white Caucasian. But the incoming of 
Rama’s kindred had already driven the other two black races far a-field, 
and. continued to drive them until at last they found refuge in our island, 
Australia. Such at least, is my view of the matter. . 
And now, in summing up, I may add that to some of you this may seem 
a long introduction to so small a matter as a Samoan myth, but discuss- 
ions of this kind have a distinct and sometimes an impurtant value to the 
ethnologist. Let me just show you how it may be so in this case. The 
ethnic origin of the brown or eastern Polynesians is still undetermined. 
One long-established opinion is that these Polynesians are a branch of 
the Malay race; hence they are often called Malay-Polynesians; this 
would ally them with the Mongolians, for the Malays are largely Mon- 
golian. Another opinion is that these Polynesians are not in any sense 
Malays, but, on the contrary, are Caucasian and came from India and 
R—Noy. 2, 1892. 
