SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 199 



2. Tingilau also is a common name in song. The syllable e lau ' means 

 ' a leaf ' ; the meaning of tingi is not clear. Sina means ' white '; and so 

 she is the ' fair' daughter of the { fau' tree. The Samoans are very partial 

 to the name Sina; the moon is, in their language, Ma-sina. The name 

 occurs in many of their tales. An Arab or an Indian might prefer a lady 

 of a dark complexion, but Samoans speak disparagingly of a black skin. 

 The standard of female beauty among them seems to be, from of old,, 

 something much fairer than their own brownish colour, if we may found 

 an inference on the meaning of the name Sina. Can this imply that the 

 Samoans and other Polynesians have an innate feeling that they are 

 descended from a superior ' white race'? With regard to the origin of the 

 brown Polynesians, my own idea is, that they are the product of the 

 mingling of a fair race with a black or, at least, a dark-coloured one. Or, 

 does the frequency of the name Sina imply that the Samoans feel them- 

 selves so much beholden to the Moon that she has become a special 

 favourite ? They fish by moonlight ; and to escape the heat of the day, 

 they often travel by night, both by land and sea. 



3. The plaiting of mats is the common employment for ladies in their 

 leisure hours in Samoan households, just as spinning was in other days 

 in the homes of England. The material is got from the leaf of a native 

 plant or tree, the ' fala' ; this, when dressed, is plaited into mats, large 

 and small. The small e fine mats ' are worked with fine strips of the ' fala,* 

 and are ornamented on the borders with feathers of the crimson parrot, 

 'sega.' These 'fine mats ' are much valued, especially when they have 

 acquired a brown colour through age ; and are often handed down as heir- 

 looms. On high occasions, they are used as an article of dress ; and a 

 bride's ambition is not only to have a good dowry of 'fine mats,' but to 

 be arrayed in the finest of these on the happy day. Mats were used as 

 an article of exchange in the Fijian, Tongan, and Samoan groups of 

 islands and elsewhere. 



4. ' Her parents had a different person in view.' This portion of the 

 story shows that human experience is much the same everywhere. There 

 is more than one touch of nature in this Samoan Fangono. 



5. ' Tui-Fiti ' means ' king of Fiti,' that is, ' Fiji.' In the whole field of 

 Samoan song, Fiji constantly comes up, although that is a Melanesian 

 region ; and there seems to have been, of old, an intimate connection 

 between the Fijians and the Samoans. Tui is not a native Samoan word 

 for ' high chief' or 'king' (see note 7, below), and yet in the Samoan 

 group there are certain families which are even yet called ' Tui A'ana,' 

 ' Tui Atua,' ' Tui Manu'a ' * Tui Tele,' which mean c king of A'ana,' ' king 

 of Atua ' ( king of Manu'a,' ' Great king.' On Savai'i, one of the islands, 

 Tui-Fiti has no local habitation, but is reckoned a god; he is so revered or 

 dreaded that his name must not be even whispered. All the Tui families 

 that I have named now occupy only inferior positions in the islands. Can 

 this mean that they are the representatives of a black Melanesian race 

 that was once the owners of the soil, but was dispossessed and reduced to 

 subjection by the incoming of a light coloured race, superior in numbers 

 and in power ? The deification of Tui-Fiti appears to me to point in that 

 direction ; for in it I see the exaltation of a hero of the conquered race, 

 just as the Brahmanical Aryans may have taken the Avatar of Krishna, 

 ' the black or dark one,' from the black aborigines of India whom their 

 invasion displaced. 



6. The old Samoan anchor was a big piece of basaltic rock with a hole 

 bored through it for the rope, or a basket with stones in it. 



