SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FEOM SAMOA. 127 



34. There is a fish caught at the mouth of the reef-opening ; 



35. There is a fish hatched in the rock. 



36. There is a fowl, full grown and plump. 



37. Let your food be changed to that ; 



38. Eat the bonito of the deep. 



39. But, first, let me make an explanation [to you]; 



40. None of our family is here for you to eat. 



41. Turn thy face this way ; 



42. There is none of our family in [this] thy food. 



43. ' Ui, come here to me, [says La,] 



44. There is a chief in thy womb. 



45. When he is born, call him Tanga ; 



46. [In] Atafu-uli, and Atafu-mea.' 



O ! 



Notes to Nos. XV. and XVI. 



The numbers in these notes refer to the paragraphs of the ' Tala/ and 

 the lines of the ' Solo.' 



XV. 



3. Fiso and TJfi; 'fiso' is 'sugar-cane,' Saccharum floridulum, and 'ufi/ 

 is a ' yam/ Dioscorea. 



Atafu — uli, ' black '; mea, ' reddish-brown '; tea, ' bright, clear '; sina, 

 e white/ Atafu, in geography, is the Tokelau group, three hundred miles 

 off from Samoa. 



The Sun, ' La '; cognate to this word are the Melanesian words lah 

 (Aneityum), 'light/ and lumi-lumi (Fiji), 'to shine"; lahi (Motu, New 

 Guinea), ' flame/ and na-laume (Aneityum), ' flame/ In the Aneityumese 

 word lah, the h (aspirate) stands for k, and leads us to the Samoan lagi, 



* sky/ lagi-md, ' bright heavens '; that again is connected with the New 

 Britain word laga, ' clear, bright/ Cognates in the Aryan languages are 

 ■Sk. raj, ' to shine,' ranj, ' to glow,' ralcta, ' red, pure, blood ' (c/. Melanesian 

 ra, 'blood,') Gr. lampas, 'a torch/ lampto, 'I shine/ Lat. luceo, ' I shine/ 

 •&c. The Egyptian Sun-god, as is well-known, is Ea. 



Aso is ' a daily offering of food to a chief/ 



Lua-ma'a means 'two stones/ 



Taro ; the gifts here were — magasiva, 'the branching taro'; ' ata'ata, 



* a particular kind of fish '; tind-manu, ' a mother hen '; hava, the plant ; 

 ■tanoa, 'a kava bowl'; ipu, 'the kava cup'; to, 'the strainer; lega, ' tur- 

 meric/ Fetau is the tree Calophyllum inophyllum ; fasa is a 'pandanus' 

 tree. 



4. Taumafa, ' eat,' a chief's word ; taute, ' eat/ a high chief's word. 



