rial; and it is by the material ensigns of corruption that he is
distinguished from the living man. This opinion is widespread, adds a
gross terror to the more ugly Polynesian tales, and sometimes defaces
the more engaging with a painful and incongruous touch. I will give two
examples sufficiently wide apart, one from Tahiti, one from Samoa.

And first from Tahiti. A man went to visit the husband of his sister,
then some time dead. In her life the sister had been dainty in the
island fashion, and went always adorned with a coronet of flowers. In
the midst of the night the brother awoke and was aware of a heavenly
fragrance going to and fro in the dark house. The lamp I must suppose to
have burned out; no Tahitian would have lain down without one lighted. A
while he lay wondering and delighted; then called upon the rest. "Do
none of you smell flowers?" he asked. "O," said his brother-in-law, "we
are used to that here." The next morning these two men went walking, and
the widower confessed that his dead wife came about the house
continually, and that he had even seen her. She was shaped and dressed
and crowned with flowers as in her lifetime; only she moved a few inches
above the earth with a very easy progress, and flitted dryshod above the
surface of the river. And now comes my point: It was always in a back
view that she appeared; and these brothers-in-law, debating the affair,
agreed that this was to conceal the inroads of corruption.

Now for the Samoan story. I owe it to the kindness of Dr. F. Otto
Sierich, whose collection of folk-tales I expect with a high degree of
interest. A man in Manu'a was married to two wives and had no issue. He
went to Savaii, married there a third, and was more fortunate. When his
wife was near her time he remembered he was in a strange island, like a
poor man; and when his child was born he must be shamed for lack of
gifts. It was in vain his wife dissuaded him. He returned to his father
in Manu'a seeking help; and with what he could get he set off in the
night to re-embark. Now his wives heard of his coming; they were
incensed he did not stay to visit them; and on the beach, by his canoe,
intercepted and slew him. Now the third wife lay asleep in Savaii; her
babe was born and slept by her side; and she was awakened by the spirit
of her husband. "Get up," he said, "my father is sick in Manu'a and we
must go to visit him." "It is well," said she; "take you the child,
while I carry its ma