Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/326

 3i8 A. C. H addon.

but all who wish to cannot enter. Dikinikan, the terrible goddess, watches over the beach ; by her side is a serpent, who serves as a bridge between Moiou and Turn. If one is favoured the serpent lets him pass ; if disapproved of the monster dives, and the deceased falls into the jaws of a shark. In order to be admitted to the abode of bliss it is only necessary to have upon the arms two small tattooed lines."

There are some differences in the details of the manner in which the sun and moon were created, the main points are the same. "An old woman had the monopoly of fire ; excepting herself, everyone ate raw food. Her son said to her, ' You are cruel; you see that taro takes the skin off our palates, yet you do not give us any fire to cook it.' The stingy old woman turned a deaf ear to him. Her son stole the fire. Then in fury she took the remainder of the fire which he had left, cut it in two, and threw it into the air. The larger piece became the sun, and the other the moon."

Salerio (" Ueber die Inseln in Osten von Neu Guinea," Petermami's Mittheil., 1862, p. 341) says that Anmuth is their island paradise.

Sir Wm. MacGregor {Ami. Rep. Br. New Guinea, C. A., i, 1892, p. 7) writes: — "Their religious belief seems to be a very simple one. When people die they go ' like the wind ' to a small island called Watum, near Ugawaga, and there they always remain, never leaving it. There is a chief there called Paidogo, who came originally out of the ground. All people go to Watum, whether they are good or bad, and all live together ; the women plant the gardens and cook food for their husbands."

Mr. Wm. Tetzlafif contributes a very valuable appendix, " Notes on the Laughlan Islands," to the above Report (p. 104), which is reprinted in the Journ. Anth. Inst., xxi, 1892, p. 483. Nada, or the Laughlan Islands, lie about thirty miles to the west of the Woodlarks. Tetzlaff narrates customs about child-birth, relationship, trade, sports, sickness, dreams, and legends about a future state,