Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/200

194 surprise that Muralug should be the reputed home of the culture-heroes, for, as I have elsewhere shown, the natives of that island, or Kauralaig, are lower in culture than the other islanders in some respects, and approach the Australians. I suspect that Malu and his brothers really came from Nagir; the legends of Naga and Tabu certainly support this view.

(1) It is difficult to find an equivalent for the term zogo of the Eastern tribe. On a future occasion I shall have more to say on this and other "religious" matters. A zogo appears to be a sort of charm, or fetish, and the same name is apparently applied to its shrine or location. It may have great or small powers, and may belong to one or more clans, or even to a single individual. (2) This part was very obscure. (3) There is some confusion here between the octopus, ati, and the mask, Bomai, which subsequently represented it. On a later occasion I shall describe the sacred initiation masks and ceremonies. In Mer one mask was named Bomai and the other Malu. These were the hidden names which it was not lawful to mention, save to those already initiated, and never to any woman under penalty of death. The masks were, I believe, collectively known as Agud, and this general term was known to men and women alike. I take it that Agud is the same as Augŭd of the Western tribe, and thus it would mean a totem, using that term in a general sense. (4) The village of Las was the main scene of the initiation ceremonies. (5) This weapon was occasionally used in fighting. I believe it was formed by simply fastening to a stick the cartilage of a shark's jaw with the teeth attached. (6) No women were allowed at the real initiation ceremony.

Tagai is the largest constellation of Torres Straits stellar mythology. The Miriamle pick out stars to form a gigantic figure of a man, Tagai, standing on a row of stars, which represents the canoe. Tagai stands, with uplifted and outstretched arms, bearing aloft a spear. Each hand is indicated by four stars (takpĕm). There is a star for each elbow (takok), two stars (poni) stand for the eyes, and one (imur) for the mouth; a pair represent the depression above the collar-bone (glid). The heart (merkef) and the navel (kopor) are single stars; other stars constitute the legs. Three or four stars stand for the fish-spear (baur), and a group of three stars surmounts the head like a coronet of feathers (daumer lub). Below the bow of the canoe (nar) is a single star, the par or anchor; and near the stern end of the canoe a red star represents Kareg. The bound half of the crew, to which the name Usiam was given by Tagai, is the constellation of the Pleiades; while Orion's belt and sword are the