SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FKOM SAMOA. 279* 



root meaning to be ' red/ and is applied also to the ' dust ' which mour- 

 ners use. 



That is the parent, Sfc. With this compare, " And the Lord G-od formed 

 man of the dust of the ground." 



The sea; sami, ' the salt water' (Lit. sal), not tai. In Genesis i., 10, as- 

 here also, 'the seas' (Heb. yc.mim) are gathered together when the dry 

 land (Heb. ydbesh, 'anything that is dried up or becomes dry') appears. 

 The Samoan word tai m.3ans ' the sea, the bide '; the distinction between 

 it and sami seems to be tint tai is the sea where it flows upon the land,, 

 but sami is the big, salt ocean. 



Papa-nofo probably is ' the rock (or rocks) that remained ' uncovered. 

 The idea of the myth-maker here seems to be that the sami at first had. 

 not depth of water enough to cover anything but the papa-sosolo ; but 

 that ere loag the waters would rise and reach the other rocks also, and 

 so make them happy (amui%, ' blessed,' used in congratulations). 



16. Fresh-water, ' vai'; as in the ' Solo o le Va/ so here ; the vai comes 

 immediately after the tai. 



Your sea. The word here is tai; cf. the note on sami. 



Brought forth ; produced; come forth; in the text these are always 'fanau.' 



Sky; 'lagi'; pronounced langi (i. = Italian i). Everywhere, the Sa- 

 moan g = ng. A cognate word is the Melanesian laga, ' clear/ 



Tui-te'e-lagi; tui, 'a high chief, a prince, a king'; te'e, 'to prop up'; 

 lagi, ' the sky.' The Australian blacks also know that the sky is propped 

 up ; once the props broke, and the wizards (kordji) had the utmost diffi- 

 culty in putting things right again. 



Ilu, &c; these three, Ilu, Mamao, and Niuao do not come into existence 

 till after the sky is propped up ; hence mamao, as I think, must mean 

 ' limited extension ' or ' space ' from horizon to horizon, from sunrise to 

 sunset ; niuao is formed from niu, ' a cocoa-nut tree '; the Samoaus say 

 of a very tall man that he is ' a walking cocoa-nut tree '; of smoke they 

 say fa'a-niu tu, 'it stands like a cocoa-nut tree'; and in the Samoan 

 Bible the missionaries have applied the expression to the ' pillar of fire ' 

 in the wilderness ; and so I think that niuao must mean ' height.' The 

 Samoan word ilu means ' innumerable,' 100,000, or any vast number ; in 

 its place in the text, it cannot well refer to the stars in the sky ; we may 

 translate it ' immensity,' and apply it to distance from north to south. 

 Ilu, Mitnao, and Niuao would thus be the three dimensions formed by 

 the bounding sky, viz., Length, Breadth, and Height, each of them, how- 

 ever, limited by the sky. Cf. the note on the Expanse. 



17. Lua'o and Luavai; lua-vai means ' two fresh-waters '; lua'o should, 

 I think, be lud-o, for lua-ao, 'two clouds.' 



Sd-tua-lagi ; the ' race' at the ' back ' of the ' sky'; the north. 



18. Ngao-ngao-le-tai, ' the desolate sea.' 



