Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/194

172 and planted them. His brothers scolded him for idleness, not knowing what he had done; but when the season came round and they had nothing to eat, he shewed them his garden full of abundant food. It was Tagaro also (but Qatu in the Maewo story) who married the winged woman–a Banewono-wono or Vinmara, Web-wing or Dove-skin–from heaven. This was not exactly a spirit, vui, but one of a party of women with webbed wings like those of bats. These women flew down from heaven to bathe, and Tagaro watched them. He saw them take off their wings, stole one pair, and hid them at the foot of the main pillar of his house. He then returned and found all fled but the wingless one, and he took her to his house and presented her to his mother as his wife. After a time Tagaro took her to weed his garden, when the yams were not yet ripe, and as she weeded and touched the yam vines, ripe tubers came into her hand. Tagaro's brothers thought she was digging the yams before their time and scolded her; she went into the house and sat weeping at the foot of the pillar, and as she wept her tears fell, and wearing away the earth pattered down upon her wings. She heard the sound, took up her wings, and flew back to heaven.

Beings called Tavogivogi must be classed as spirits: they are certainly not human beings, and correspond to the mysterious snakes called mae, which in neighbouring islands are believed to assume the form of men. A Tavogivogi is not thought ever to have the appearance of a snake; one of them appears in the form of a youth or woman, in order to entice one of the opposite sex, and the young man or woman who yields to the seduction dies. There is no outward sign of the real character of the Tavogivogi, but the test is to ask the name of a tree, and a wrong answer will shew that there is deceit. Successful or not the Tavogivogi suddenly disappears, 'like a bird,' but in the form of a bird or other creature. The young man goes home and sickens; he remembers the sudden disappearance, knows what has befallen him, and never recovers. The name means 'changeling,' from the word, in the Banks' Islands wog, to change the form.