Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/325

 The Poet)')' of the Knvai Papuans. 303

think of the next. In modern dances at all events it even happens now and again that a new verse is composed while the song is in progress, and each additional verse is cheered by the people with a loud laughter. In many serial songs there is a succession of practically identical verses, as for instance when the different kinds of bananas which Abere and her people took with them on the raft are enumerated in seven verses, and such reiteration suggests that at least in some cases the verses have been added during the singing^ possibly in order to give the leader time to remember the rest of the sone.

E. The savic Motives in Serial Songs as in Folk- Tales.

The subjects of certain serial songs strongly recall those of the legends, and indeed the motives are in some cases identical in tale and song. The contents of the songs are naturally very meagre, and some of the versified tales are mere fragments, yet in not a few cases they enable us to recognize incidents told in some legend or another. Sido and Sagaru, for instance, the hero and heroine of a great many myths, are also mentioned in the songs.

Sido first meets Sagaru at a dance at lasa. He gets there by climbing a tall palm, kiirua, which bends over until it reaches the long-house at lasa, where he secures the top of the tree to a post. While the dance is in progress, some rivals of his cut the string with which the ktirua has been fastened, and the tree straightens itself and goes whizzing back to his place, Uuo. The following verses of a madia song refer to this incident, which is also related in the legends. The verses are sometimes sung with little regard to their rule of proper order, but just as the singer re- members them; I give them here according to the sequence of the story: —

I. " Madia mo lasaito maigi gama norozvaro.'' (" I go make him good dance along lasa.")