he attempt to account for the Origin of Death and Evil by
a simple dualistic myth. There were two brothers who made things; one
made things well, the other made them ill. In Pentecost Island it was
Tagar who made things well, and he appointed that men should die for five
days only, and live again. But the malevolent Suque caused men 'to die
right out.' {187} The Red Indian legend of the same character is printed
in the Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1879-80), p. 45. The
younger of the Cin-au-av brothers, who were wolves, said, 'When a man
dies, send him back in the morning and let all his friends rejoice.' 'Not
so,' said the elder; 'the dead shall return no more.' So the younger
brother slew the child of the elder, and this was the beginning of death.

Economic Myth

There is another and a very quaint myth of the Origin of Death in Banks
Island. At first, in Banks Island, as elsewhere, men were immortal. The
economical results were just what might have been expected. Property
became concentrated in the hands of the few--that is, of the first
generations--while all the younger people were practically paupers. To
heal the disastrous social malady, Qat (the maker of things, who was more
or less a spider) sent for Mate--that is, Death. Death lived near a
volcanic crater of a mountain, where there is now a by-way into Hades--or
Panoi, as the Melanesians call it. Death came, and went through the
empty forms of a funeral feast for himself. Tangaro the Fool was sent to
watch Mate, and to see by what way he returned to Hades, that men might
avoid that path in future. Now when Mate fled to his own place, this
great fool Tangaro noticed the path, but forgot which it was, and pointed
it out to men under the impression that it was the road to the _upper_,
not to the _under_, world. Ever since that day men have been constrained
to follow Mate's path to Panoi and the dead. {188} Another myth is
somewhat different, but, like this one, attributes death to the
imbecility of Tangaro the Fool.

Maui and Yama

The New Zealand myth of the Origin of Death is pretty well known, as Dr.
Tylor has seen in it the remnants of a solar myth, and has given it a
'solar' explanation. It is an audacious thing to differ from so cautious
and learned an anthropologist as Dr. Tylor, but I venture to give my
reasons for dissenting in this case from the view of the author of
Primitive Culture (i. 335). Maui is the g