Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/31

Rh which made them decide to go down and see for themselves. But no other dwellers in the heavens could be persuaded to follow them, until one day the woman Meslaang took courage, and was let down by the rope. As she neared the earth, her brothers, looking up saw her pudenda, the sight of which caused them disgust and shame; and they thereupon gave a signal to those in the heaven to pull up the rope, which was done.

The place where Hian, Tongül, Parpara, and Bikeel arrived on the earth in company with their four dogs, Kopul, Wakar, Singum, and Patâras, is named Wriat, a place on Trent Key; and it is still held sacred by the natives of the Kè Islands.

This is an inferior variant of the well-known family of Polynesian myths, which account for the bursting of the first settlers through the sky to reach the earth. "When white men made their appearance, it was thought that they and the vessel which brought them had in some way broken through the heavens; and, to this day, white men are called Papalangi, or Heaven-bursters." Turner's Samoa, p. 199.

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In Mr. James's recently-issued account of his explorations in Somali-land, under the title of The Unknown Horn of Africa, the only incident of value to Folk-Lorists is the following:—

"Just before reaching Burao, we had an example of Somali superstition. A hare was started from its form and ran ahead of us. Being on the march, we were implored not to shoot it while it ran in the direction in which we were bound—it would bring bad luck to the whole expedition. If it doubled and headed towards us, then we might shoot without danger" (p. 63).

For works on cognate superstitions it may be convenient to refer to Mr. Black's useful paper on the Hare in Folk-Lore, F.L.J. I. 84-90; also, F.L.R. I. 56; II. 200; IV. 98; V. 48; F.L.J, II. 258; IV. 27; V. 263; Aubrey, pp. 26, 109; Elton's Origins of Eng. Hist. pp. 254,