200 JOHN FRASER. 



7. Tupu is the Samoan word for a ' king ' or very ' high chief.' Tupu- 

 o-le-foMua means ' king of the land.' There was once a Tupu-Samoa, a 

 king of all Samoa, but, until recently, the governing power has been in 

 the hands of many chiefs. Malietoa is now called Tupu-Samoa. Sa- 

 Vavau means ' the race of ancient times.' But Vavau is also a place in 

 Tonga. Tingilau was neither a Tui nor a Tupu, but yet he was of ancient 

 lineage, perhaps a scion of the ancient lords of the land. 



8. Parents in Samoa compel their daughters to marry whom they will. 



9. e The pair sailed away to his home '—on another island or on a differ- 

 ent part of the same island. The fanua, or 'land,' of which he was king, 

 is not mentioned in the story. 



10. Mata-iva (' Eyes-nine ') reminds us of Argus who, as school boys 

 know, 'centum habebat oculos.' Why Samoan poetry gives Mataiva only 

 ' nine eyes ' I do not know. Mataiva had the same kind of work to do 

 in this tale as Argus in Grecian story. Juno was burning with jealousy 

 over the amours of her faithless lord, and got ' him of the hundred eyes ' 

 to keep a sleepless watch on Zeus and the fair Io. But Mataiva's task 

 was self-imposed, for her brother suspected nothing. There must be 

 some meaning in the number ' nine ' here, for the Samoans have a legend 

 about a fabulous pigeon with 'nine' heads (Lupe-ulu-iva). Piliopo, a 

 well-known mythical personage, threw a stick at it and killed it ; he then 

 proceeded to cook and eat the flesh ; the entrails he threw away ; they 

 became a rock in Savai'i, and there the rock may be seen to this day ! 

 That rock is volcanic. There is a crater in Savai'i which, according to the 

 testimony of the natives, was active till about 150 years ago. (See note 

 29, page 215.) The Samoan use of the number nine, in this connection, 

 may be founded on the mystical virtue of ' three times three ' (cf. the 

 Roman ' ter terni cyathi'). Thus also, Samoan myths speak of 'nine 

 heavens.' 



11. The maker seems to have introduced the 'fever' and the 'uncon- 

 sciousness ' into the story, in order to give Tingilau and Sina an oppor- 

 tunity to concert their plans, unobserved. 



12. In another legend, a ' ground-pigeon ' is reverenced as a god in 

 the village of Mata-Dtu (' eyes-of-Utu '). 



13. ' Tingilau had resumed the form of a man.' This shows that Tin- 

 gilau belonged to a deified race, for he had taken the form of the sacred 

 pigeon. 



14. The Samoans tame birds in this way and make pets of them ; they 

 even talk to them in ' chiefs' language,' that is, address them in such 

 words of respect as are reserved for chiefs alone. Birds are tamed in the 

 same manner and used as decoys. A native clears a space in the bush, 

 puts the bird on a perch in the midst of it ; from a place of concealment, 

 he catches the birds that come down, by throwing over them a net fixed 

 to the end of a long pole. 



II. — The Story of Le-fale-i-le-Langi. 

 A ' Tola,: 



Preface.— The genealogy in this tale is intended to account for the 

 names of the various districts in the two little islands, Ofu arid Tau, and 

 to explain why certain chiefs there claim precedence in rank. It also 

 shows us how a small island, such as Tau, may have been peopled by 



