Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/406

98 went north and begot children on Nei Aro-meang, the woman of the north; his children were the breed of the spirits of the north. But set aside their story, for they were slaves. Now is Na Arean about to beget men, the breed of the men of the north—even Taburimai and Riiki. Taburimai was the man of Na Arean's begetting with Nei Aro-meang.

[Here with a wealth of detail the text relates how Taburimai founded a family in the north, and shows how this family (a) migrated southward from the Gilberts to Samoa, and (b) after many generations returned from Samoa to the Gilberts.]}}

I do not propose to go further with this chronicle, for having accounted for the origin of man, it proceeds to concentrate upon the deeds of specific men, namely, the Gilbertese ancestors, and thus passes from myth to history.

This transition in the text under reference is very clearly marked; it is not in all cases so obvious. Sometimes myth and history are not thus neatly stratified, but inextricably interwoven. There are traditions of the Gilbertese which, although their content is plainly mythical—that is, concerned with the exposition of some philosophical attitude—are just as clearly historical in action and condition. I do not here refer to that very common type of narrative, wherein the fragments of some ancient myth have, by the foreshortening effect of time, or by ignorance, or by analogy become associated with the tale of a comparatively recent ancestor; I allude to the class of stories in which the account of concrete fact appears to have assumed the fibre of myth. Take for example a creation-story of Nui, of which I have very complete notes, though no text. Its philosophical content—its account of origins—is identical