SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 213 



The view which I here take of the application of the Samoan word va, 

 is confirmed by the word pada in the Motu language of New Guinea; pa- 

 da is the same root- word as va, and means ' the space between earth and 



2. Tuli or Turi is a common bird in Polynesia ; it is the Charadrius ful- 

 vus, the ' Golden Plover ' of Australia. Every family in Samoa has its 

 own ' tutelary animal ' — aitu — a pigeon or some other bird, a fish, &c. 

 This aitu is specially reverenced by the members of the family from 

 generation to generation, and none of them will ever mention its name. 

 A convert renounces heathendom by publicly destroying his aitu ; the 

 spectators stand by, expecting that he will immediately fall down dead. 



It is an odd coincidence that some of the Australian blacks connect 

 this ' plover ' with the acts of Creation. The tribe at Lake Tyers, Victoria, 

 call the ' grey plover ' bunjil borandang. Now Bunjil is the Victorian 

 name for the Creator of all things, and the verb punjiliko means ' to make, 

 fashion, create/ 



3. Tangaloa is the chief god of the Polynesians. Id this poem, line 

 90 and elsewhere, he is represented as a quiescent god, the origin and 

 cause of all things. In these respects he resembles the Indian Brahma. 

 Tangaloa loves absolute rest (line 12) and peace (line 108). Although 

 he rests in the heavens, he intervenes in the affairs of men (lines 64 and 

 115); in his active manifestations he has many forms, as T. fa'a-tutupu- 

 nu'u, T. who 'makes (fa'a) the lands (nu'u) spring up' (tutupu), T. 

 savali, T. who ' walks/ that is, 'the messenger' or 'ambassador,' T.totonu, 

 T. who puts everything ' straight,' T. le-fuli, T. ' the immoveable/ T. 

 asiasi-nu'u, T. ' the visitor-of -lands/ the omnipresent. 



4. The ' wandering current ' here seems to be the great Equatorial 

 current, which crosses the Pacific from east to west. 



5. In the text, the word malolo means ' to rest absolutely/ 'to be quies- 

 cent/ but mapu means 'to rest from work/ sc. here, from the work of 

 Creation. 



6. Manuka, in Samoan Manu'a, is not ' great ' because of its size, for the 

 three islands are small (see note 3 on page 203); but it is 'great' in 

 importance, as the first resting place of the Polynesian race ; like the 

 Delos of ancient Greece, it is the sacred hearth-stone of the race. 



7. The Polynesians, like the Gauls and other ancient nations, gave pre- 

 cedence to the moon, and counted by nights, not by days. The sun, they 

 say, is ' changeless/ like a statue, and every day is very much like another; 

 whereas the moon changes, and they can reckon by its phases. 



8. The ' waters ' here are vai, ' fresh water/ and in the next line, tai, 

 * salt water/ is the ' sea.' The poem makes a distinction between vai, the 

 waters " above the firmament " (Genesis I.), and tai, the waters below ; 

 the space between is le Va. The science of this passage seems to be cor- 

 rect enough ; for as soon as the sun (line 20) sends his hot beams on the 

 ocean, vapours arise and form reservoirs of fresh water in the clouds above. 



9. There is, in Savai'i, a lofty mountain, called Mauga-loa. 



10. The two Samatas are now villages on the south side of Savai'i ; at 

 the west end of the island is the descent to Sa-Fe'e, the Samoan Hades. 



Alamisi is another place on the island ; the word means a ' land crab '; 

 but the Samoan s have a tradition that Alamisi was a quadruped brought 

 down from heaven for them to feast on long ago. 



In line 32, it will be observed that the Fijis, which are Melanesian 

 islands, are included in Tangaloa's realm, and there he dwells. This is 

 quite in harmony with statements made in other Samoan poems. In one 

 of these, Tangaloa in anger changes the colour of two sons of his, the one 

 he makes brown and the other black. (See note on the name Sina, page 

 199.) 



