Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/201

Rh transfixed remnants of the crew, or the Sĕg. By the sides of Tagai are a large number of small stars, which are collectively called pirsok (i.e., locusts).

Tagai is an important constellation, not only as an indication of the approach of certain seasons, but also for navigation purposes^

"Usiam he mĕk (i.e., sign or mark) for new yams." Seg for next kind of yam. "Tagai he mĕk for time turtle he fast."

When Usiam is some way from the horizon at sundown, men say, "Close up new yam time"; and when at horizon at sunset, "Yam time he come."

Tagai, "Two hand he come first; all turtle at islands to leeward, and they 'kaikai' [eat] turtle first. By-and-bye face he come up; Dauārle and Dowērle of Mer [i.e., the inhabitants of Dauar and of the west end of Mer] get turtle, and then all rest of Mer."

"Kareg he come last; turtle rotten, meat inside good, skin of neck rotten and stink and eaten by kūpēr (maggots)."

In sailing by night from Erub to Mer, they steer for the left hand of Tagai, "the right hand stop outside Mēr."

(2) Canoes are pushed with bamboo poles over the shallow water on the reef. (2) Water is usually carried in pieces of bamboo, or more frequently in coco-nut shells. (3) A gobgob is a ring of rope formerly used in fixing the mat-sails; "gromet" is the nautical equivalent. (4) A kĕf is a pointed stick which was used to skewer together the mats of which the sails were composed.

I have quoted this legend from Mr. Beardmore's interesting paper, as it is primarily a Torres Straits legend. It is apparently a totem as well as a fire-myth. Mr. Beardmore also gives a Daudai myth on the origin of death. The plucking of the first fire from between the thumb and forefinger of the left-hand is worthy of note, as it is a widely spread myth in the Straits.

Dr. MacFarlane, the pioneer missionary of the London Missionary Society in Torres Straits, has with great kindness allowed me to make what use I please of his unpublished memoranda. The one here given is, I believe, a new contribution to lunar mythology.

This myth accounts for the possession of a particular zogo by two clans in Mer. I cannot say what this zogo really is.

(1) The wauri is the cone-shell known to naturalists as Conus