368 . J. FRASER. 
Lhave said that the Senga bird has bright crimson feathers ; that 
colour associates itself with sun-worship ; and besides its birth in the first 
heavens where the sun is, the tenor of the rest of this story proves that 
there was something divine in the bird; for, on one occasion, when buried 
along with its master, it still lived on in the grave, and sprang up again 
when it chose; it perched on a tree and nothing but the supernatural 
power (mana) of Le-Folasa, ‘the prophet,’ could induce it to come down. 
For these reasons I think that the Senga, to the Polynesian mind, was 
an emblem of the sun and connected with sun-worship. In the Vedic 
hymns, its colour isasun-colour. The sixth hymn of the Rig-Veda (first 
book) has many passages to that effect; such as:—The red birds (of the 
Asvins) came back by day; The red birds shield you (the Asvins) around 
by day from the heat; The night retires from her sister the dawn, the 
dark one yields the path to the red; May the winged beautiful horses, 
may the red birds bring you (the Asvins) back near to us; Like the red 
child of heaven [ie., the sun]; The red [i.e., the sun], with beautiful 
wings; The red horses, the beautiful, are seen bringing to us the dawn; 
Shine, O Agni, red among the dark ones; Powerful red horses, drawing 
together, draw him, Brihaspati [i.e., fire, the sun], horses clothed in red 
colour like the sky; Agni, born red in the place of the altar; They yoke 
the bright red horse [i.e., the sun]; Agni yoked the two red horses; and 
soon. Even the Fijian and Samoan languages tell the same tale; for 
the Samoans, when the sun shines dimly say, ‘senga-vale’; in Fiji ‘ singa’ 
is daylight and ‘ mata-ni-singa’ is ‘ the sun.’ 
Having thus disposed of the surroundings of this tala, I will now give 
you the gist of the narrative itself. Ua, the daughter of Tangaloa of the 
second heavens, was the mother of the Senga. She expected a son, but it 
was a bird—the Senga,—which at once took to the Heavenly Pool as its 
place of abode. There Ua and her husband faithfully fed their feathered 
child night and morning with ‘taro’ and breadfruit and . When 
full-grown, it loved to wander about. One day it went down to earth 
below and visited Fiji; there its brilliant plumage charmed Tui-Fith 
‘the king of Fiji,’ and, like many a despot, he resolved to possess it. 
he got two of his strong men to go up to the heavens to get hold of it by 
craft and bring it to him. Thus it was brought to Fiji and lived there. 
About this time Ta‘e-o-Tangaloa, the first king of Samoa, who, like some 
of the Homeric heroes, was both Avorpéfys kai Avoyévns BactAevs, —_— 
to visit his sister, the wife of Tui-Fiti. He too saw the bird and coveted 
it; but, as the nobility of bis birth and rank made him disdain to steal, 
he asked it from Tui and got it. He took it back with him to Manws 
of Samoa. 
