390 J. FRASER. 
8. Hold; Lit., ‘ bottom.’ 
Young cocoa-nut is full of liquid; the full grown nut is full of food. 
’ ht; lit., ‘troops’; parting command, ‘ tofiga,’ like the injunctions 
which a dying father gives to his sons. 
God; aitu, ‘spirit-god’; Punga-solo-va‘a, ‘ the coral (that makes) canoes 
slip’; Anae-oso, ‘the mullet that leaps’; Tusi-a-Fiti, ‘the pointing of Fiji’; 
this pointing is done to direct the steersman and the rowers in passing 
through the reef, or coming inshore. 
12. The refuse or rubbish; this is explained further on, Par. 13. 
14. Fire-light time; about 7 p.m:; praises, ‘fa‘a-nana-aga,’ as in the title 
of this ‘ tala.’ 
15. Flaps; these are moveable flaps, next the ground as in our canvas 
tents, which are raised in the morning for ventilation to the house. 
Prepare and plant ; chiefs work in their own plantations. 
Papau apple; Eugenia malaccensis. Forbidden; tabu. 
Sick man ; lit., ‘ your sickness.’ 
17. White bananas ; that is, thoroughly ripe. 
Be able; ‘sava’ (a Tutuila word) for ‘ lava.’ 
Set your country in order; that is, appoint magistrates, &c., for orderly 
government. 
XXXIX.—Vanua anp Trapa—A ‘ Solo.’ 
fied ef 
IntRopuction.—Some persons may perhaps say that there is no evi- 
dence to show that these myths are not recent creations of the Samoan 
mind. To that I reply that the general cast of the stories proves them 
to be brethren of the ancient folk-lore tales of other nations, although 
modified by the tale-teller to suit his Polynesian environment. A wine- 
‘taster at once knows the quality of the wine offered to him and perhaps 
also the district from which it comes; so likewise can a folk-lorist discer 
from its very setting that a tale is genuine. Sometimes also there is in- 
ternal evidence to the same effect ; the language is old-fashi d hard 
to understand ; there are frequent allusions to old occurrences in the his- 
tory of the nation, well-known to them, but scarcely intelligible to 85 
national proverbs are quoted, and such sayings are usually of very ancient 
date ; and conceptions of the gods and their doings present themselves, 
which are quite foreign to the current modern ideas of the race- 
Occasionally, however, we have a Folk-song like this, which looks jike & 
charter of nobility taken from the muniment chest of some noble family. 
Such a solo tells of the rival claims to precedence made by some islands © 
the group, and the song is of such antiquity and well-known authority 
