.[230]

Here we may leave the subject of the taboo. Something, however, must be
said on the Swan-maiden as divine ancestress. But first of all, let me
advert to one or two cases where divinity is ascribed without
progenitorship. The Maori heroine and her husband are worshipped. They
do not appear to be considered actual parents of any New Zealand clan;
but the husband at all events would be deemed one of the same blood.
Passing over to New Guinea, we find a remarkable saga concerning the
moon. The moon is a daughter of the earth, born by the assistance of a
native of the village of Keile, about twenty miles to the eastward of
Port Moresby. A long while ago, digging deeper than usual, he came upon
a round, smooth, silvery, shining object, which, after he had got it out
and lifted it up, grew rapidly larger and larger until it floated away.
He set out to search for it; nor did he desist until one day he came
upon a large pool in the river and found a beautiful woman bathing. On
the bank lay her grass petticoat where she had cast it off. He sat down
upon it; and when her attention was attracted to him by his dogs, they
recognized one another. She was the moon, and he was the man who had dug
her up out of the earth; and he claimed her as his wife. "If I marry
you," she replied, "you must die; but as you have touched my clothes you
must die in any case, and so for one day I will marry you, and then you
must go home to your village and prepare for death." Accordingly they
were married for one day; and the man then went home, made his funeral
feast and died. The moon in due course married the sun, as it was her
doom to do; but his intolerable jealousies rendered their union so
wretched that they at last agreed to see as little of one another as
possible. This accounts for their conduct ever since. An Annamite legend
relates that a woodcutter found some fairies bathing at a lovely
fountain. He took possession of the raiment of one, and hid it at the
bottom of his rice-barn. In this way he compelled its owner to become
his wife; and they lived together happily for some years. Their son was
three years old when, in her husband's absence, she sold their stock of
rice. On clearing out the barn her clothes were found. She bade farewell
to the child, left her comb stuck in his collar, donned her clothes and
flew away. When her husband returned and learned how matters stood, he
took his son and repaired to the fountain, where happily t