ry interesting, and I pass to one who had a
nobler reason for quitting her love. The saga is told at Rarotonga of a
girl of dazzling white complexion who came up out of a fountain and was
caught. She became the wife of a chief. It was the custom of the
inhabitants of the world from which she came to perform the Caesarean
operation on females who were ready to give birth; so that the birth of
a child involved the mother's death. When she found on the earth, to her
surprise, that by allowing nature to take its course the mother as well
as the child was saved, she persuaded her husband to go with her to the
lower world to endeavour to put a stop to the cruel custom. He was ready
to accompany her; but after five several efforts to dive with her
through the fountain to the regions below he was obliged to abandon the
attempt. Sorrowfully embracing each other, the "peerless one" said: "I
alone will go to the spirit-world to teach what I have learnt from you."
At this she again dived down into the clear waters, and was never more
seen on earth.[228]

It will not have escaped the reader's attention, that among the more
backward races the taboo appears generally simpler in form, or is absent
altogether. Among most, if not all, of the peoples who tell stories
wherein this is the case, the marriage bonds are of the loosest
description; and there is, therefore, nothing very remarkable in the
supernatural bride's conduct. We might expect to find that as advances
are made in civilization, and marriage becomes more regarded, the reason
for separation would become more and more complex and cogent. Am I going
too far in suggesting that the resumption by the bride of her bird or
beast shape marks a stage in the development of the myth beyond the
Star's Daughter type; and the formal taboo, where the human figure is
not abandoned, a stage later still? In our view, indeed, the taboo is
not less irrational, as a means of putting an end to the marriage, than
the retrieved robe or skin. But we forget how recent in civilization is
the sanctity of the marriage-tie. Even among Christian nations divorce
was practised during the Middle Ages for very slight reasons, despite
the authority of popes and priests. In Eastern countries the husband has
always had little check on his liberty of putting away a wife for any
cause, or no cause at all; and, though unrecognized by the religious
books, which have enforced the husband's rights with so stern a
sanct