Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/532

528 knew the months, for the scarlet blooms of Erythrina marked the season for the planting of crops. June was heralded by the "tombebe" flowers along the shore, and when the ivi with its violet-scented flowers bloomed in the forest, the natives watched, knowing that it was nearing November when upon the morning of the moon's last quarter the water over the reef would be crowded by myriads of the Mbalolo worms swimming only to burst and shrivel with the rising of the sun, thus casting forth their eggs into the sea, after which the worms, emptied of eggs, sink as mere translucent skins to die upon the bottom. This was the great feast of the Mbalolo, the New Year's Day of former times, when bearers would be despatched to carry the cooked worms nicely wrapped in leaves to far-off chiefs among the mountain valleys.

Once from an old man I gathered a myth of the Mbalolo to the effect that long ago their ancestors were sailing over the sea, while one of the sea-gods guarded the canoe and each day sent food in the form of the Mbalolo, but one old man, fearing it might not be continued, collected more than was required for the day and hid it beneath a mat. Whereupon the god visited the canoe and detected the Mbalolo through the odor arising from its decomposition. In a rage, he swore never again to provide food for the ingrates; but the old man taunted him, saying that the real reason was he had lost the power to cause the worms to appear. Thus, in order to show that he still had power to produce it, the Mbalolo is permitted to swarm only upon the mornings of the last day of the October, and especially of the November moon. Accordingly, October is called Vula i Mbalolo leilei (the moon of the little Mbalolo) and November Vula I Mbalolo levu (the moon of the Great Mbalolo). In Samoa, this worm is called Palolo from Pa, to burst,