SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 103 



Brahma's place in the active affairs of the world's life is taken by Vishnu, 

 and Siva in the Hindu mythology. 



Then, again, in Olympus, the eagle is the messenger of Zeus, and, at 

 his bidding, carries off the beautiful youth Ganymede to be a cup-bearer 

 in heaven ; and the dove is the messenger of Venus ; so Tangaloa's bird 

 is the Tuli, ' the plover *; which assists him both in works of creation and 

 ministration ; and other birds and fishes are sacred to the Polynesian 

 gods. 



In one of our solos, Tangaloa-le-Mana is made to say — 

 " When the kava is distributed, I must be first ; 

 That your lives may be washed clean." 

 May be washed clean ; this is the literal meaning of the words, ' f a'alanu 

 a'i la'u soifua.' Le-Mana, the god ' of supernatural power/ therein pro- 

 mises that if his devotees will take care to give him due honour at their 

 feasts and in their daily life, he will see to it that their lives are washed 

 clean. To a Polynesian, such an idea is indigenous, certainly not derived 

 from Christianity. An islander is from his youth familiar with the irri- 

 tating and blistering effects of salt water and sunshine on his skin ; hence 

 to him the preciousness of pure fresh water in which he may bathe and 

 be clean ; he knows also that any disobedience, any disrespect, to the gods 

 is sin in his own eyes and in theirs ; hence he always endeavours to 

 honour them that moral guilt too may be washed away. But here I must 

 draw rein on my pen lest you should think that it is about to indite a 

 sermon. 



There is only one other point which I should like to notice. In the 

 classic Hades there is a river 



"Whereof who drinks 

 Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 

 Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain." 

 That Lethe, " the river of oblivion " has a merciful function, for it wipes 

 out the sorrows and head and heart aches of the past. But in the Poly- 

 nesian Avaiki, as you have heard to-night, the strong stupefying Jcava 

 drink is devised by an ugly monster that she may feast herself and hers 

 on the departed, ghosts though they are ; the cup is presented by four 

 attractive and lovely maidens, lovely to look on, but they feed on the 

 spirits of dead men, and the drinking of the cup issiies in destruction. 

 Now we have all heard of the cup of Circe and the songs of the lovely 

 Sirens ; " Circaea pocula " and " Siren strains " have become by-words. 

 Circe too worked by plants and drugs and incantations, and could thus 

 change men into swine and other beasts ; she too, like Miru, was horrid 

 to look on, and is said by some to have been the daughter of Hecate, the 



