Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/513

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Samoan Stories.
457

Sinalalofiitu became pregnant and brought forth two girls—twins. They were not separated but were joined together in their backs. Their names were: the one Ulu, the other Na. These were their names; o Ulumaona was called from the water which sprang from the ulu; it subsided {maona) and ran away towards the sea.[1] That was what their names arose from. They lived many months; the years were not known [till] the girls were grown up.

One day the girls said thus to their family: "Friends, when our family return from work let them first give us warning by crying out tulou,[2] and then throw down the log of firewood, lest we should be startled, for we are going to sleep." Then they slept. The family came down, did not give warning, but threw down their firewood. The girls were startled in their sleep, and ran outside, each by her own opening. Their bodies were separated by the intervening post, and they were parted from the other.[3] Each one ran away. They left that country.[4] The father cried out, "I am of the conquered party."

  1. The word can also be divided o ulu ma o na, Ulu and Na.
  2. An apologetic word used on entering the house of a god, or when about to make a sudden noise, or on beginning a speech. (Sam. Dict., s. v.)
  3. A Samoan house is something like a gigantic bee-hive, thiityfive feet in diameter, raised from the ground by a number of short posts at intervals of four feet from each other all round. The spaces between the posts are shut in at night by roughly plaited cocoa-nut leaf blinds. During the day the blinds are pulled up. (Turner, p. 152.)
  4. Mr. Turner has a variant of this story. Taema and Titi were the names of two household gods in a family at the east end of the Samoan group. They were twins and Siamese. Their bodies were united back to back. They swam from the east, and as they came along the one said to the other: "What a pity it is that we can only hear each other's voice but cannot see each other's face!" On this they were struck by a wave which cleaved asunder the joining and separated them. Members of the family going on a journey were supposed to have these gods with them as their guardian angels. Everything double—such as a double yam, etc.—was sacred, and