Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/511

 SAMOAN STORIES.

I.

HE following Samoan stories were translated by the Rev. G. Pratt, for many years missionary on the island of Savaii, and author of a grammar and dictionary of the Samoan language. The MS. was presented to me by Mr. John Fraser, at Sydney, in July 1891, for the use of the Folk-lore Society. Unfortunately, it is unprovided with notes, and though I have been able to supply a few from G. Turner's Samoa, there are still some allusions and sentences which are not perfectly clear. It may be well to remind our readers that Samoa consists of a group of volcanic islands, the principal ones of which, in the direction from west to east, are Savaii, Upolu, Tutuila, Ofu, and Tau.

There was a woman called Fanga. She brought forth a daughter, whose name was Papa (flat). She had no vagina; her body was all in one. She was exceedingly beautiful, and many men desired to obtain Papa, but her husbands deserted her. Then she lived with another chief whose name was Olomataua. The chief Olomataua felt and he perceived that the woman was as one piece. He did not divorce her, because great was his love for the woman, because she was beautiful. The chief said one day to Papa, "Let us go to work." They went to work, and when their work was done they rested. Then they bathed, and went to their house and laid down. The woman slept soundly. The chief then felt the woman that he might know. Then he thought of a plan. He took a shark's tooth, and made an incision into the private parts