Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/185

 Collectanea. 175

Then at once began the war of the Inaga. The battle was fought, the birds rushed down, then rushed upon each of them a hundred Inaga. Some Inaga stuck or ching to their eyes, others to their bodies, and so on to all the birds. And so the birds were defeated. And that is the reason why the Inaga can ascend inland to the mountain range. They can go up the rivers inland because the birds were defeated by them. This is the story in Samoa.

A feio ivords about the ivar betiveen Birds and Fishes.

It is not clearly known why they fought. I suppose the story has passed away as to what was the origin of that war, because that generation of men has long since passed away. It was in those days when birds, fishes, stones, trees, and all things spoke to each other. It was whilst the sky was down below, for men walked bent down formerly and were not able to stand upright. I suppose in those days men went to and fro between the sky and here below. Behold that plant, the Teve (Amorphophallus), which held up the sky when all the big trees of this world below were too weak to do so. Perhaps it was in those days that the fight was between birds and fishes. Behold, it is long, long ago. Who can know it all ? I don't know all about that story, only some words picked up here and there in these days.

The battle was fought, the birds were driven (defeated). They were driven by the troops of the Inaga. That is the reason why they (the Inaga) pass inland to the mountain ranges of the birds. But though the birds were defeated by the fishes, behold they did not act thoughtlessly with regard to their defeat, but they devised plans every day and deliberated how they might overcome their enemy. But, behold, the fishes acted carelessly, the fishes were careless because they had defeated the birds, but the birds were not indifferent about their downfall. The birds could not sleep on account of their conquered state. Then suddenly they swooped down, and the fishes were driven and were utterly defeated. Behold they were the last driven in the war, and thus was estab- lished on them the rule of the birds for ever. They, the fishes, were subdued for ever and for ever ; never again could they rise