76 JOHN FRASER. 



years ago, the cone of the mountain showed only bare ashes and scoriae 

 reaching down to the sea and devoid of vegetation, whereas now the 

 whole is thickly covered with bush. Mdnu means ' to rise on high/ 



12. The vatu'e. This and the others are varieties of the ' sea-urchin.' 

 The ' vana ' is so prickly that victors compelled the vanquished, as a 

 punishment, to toss it up and catch it in their hands. Vae victis ! 



VII. — A ' Tala' about Atea. 

 A Rarotongan account of the Origin of the Sun and the Moon. 



-o- 



Introduction. — This is a tale from Earotonga in the Hervey Islands, 

 and is, at least, amusing, because of the fabulous account it gives of the 

 origin of the Sun and the Moon. In Dr. Gill's " Myths and Songs from 

 the South Pacific," there is a similar tale about the origin of the Sun 

 and the Moon. 



Tala. — Atea 1 was a man who became a god in the Tahitian 

 group. Buna'auia 2 was his place in the land of Tahiti. Tangaloa, 

 the god, dwelt in the heavens; all the eastern countries reverence 

 him. At Topoa 2 is the sacred place 3 which Tangaloa* comes 

 down to ; that temple was in Pape-ete. 2 



Tangaloa looked on the wife of Atea; 1 he went down and spent 

 some time there. Then she conceived. Tangaloa* and Atea had 

 a controversy about the child. Atea said that she was pregnant 

 by him, and Tangaloa said she was pregnant by him. She brought 

 forth a boy. Again they contested ; Atea said it was his son, 

 but Tangaloa said it was his son. Then said Tangaloa, ' It is 

 good to divide the boy.' They divided him in two. Then Tangaloa 

 took his half ; he cast it into the heavens, and it became the Sun. 

 But Atea took his part and put it under a tub for three nights. 

 Then Tangaloa came to visit Atea's portion ; behold it was bad ; 

 it stank. Then again Tangaloa threw it into the sky at night 

 and it became the Moon ; it was called the ' atu ' 5 of the Moon 

 of Tangaloa. But the spot which is black in the middle of the 

 Moon, when you look at it, that is the part which became putrid, 

 because it was three nights 6 under the tub. Tangaloa's portion 

 was the head, but Atea's was the hinder part. 



