I FOLKLORE

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3392, 24 December 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

I FOLKLORE

SIMILARITY OP STORIES.

mm greatly interested in folklore, bW Unfortunately have neither time nor" opportunity to study it as I would vlike to do. The most striking point about these old folk stories is the similarity of tales told by the inhabitant'iof;' widely-separated countries who; so'far as we know, have had no communication with one another. Sometimes 1 one can hardly help coming to the conclusion that before the dawn of history as we know it the various "races of mankind had frequent intercourse with one another, so thlpS myths and stories became the common property of nearly all mankihd»; ■- -:■'.; ' THE MAN IN THE MOON. Take the story of the man in the moon picking up sticks. One story is that, hei was engaged in gathering firewood on a Sunday, and for Sab-bath-blreaking was lifted up to the mtobh,' where he has to spend eternity, or soJpiig f as the moon lasts, picking up sticks. The Chinese and the Japanese have the same story. But their man in the moon who was sent there for his wickedness has to keep lopping branches off the Tree of Life which grows in the moon; and as fast as \h|»i cuts them off they grow again, so jMiaJhe has before him an eternity of toil. -This seems to be a variation of the (Sreek story of Sisyphus, who for his,sins was condemned, after he went to Hades, to roll a huge round stone up a hill, and as soon as he got it to the top it broke away and rolled back again to the bottom. The moral of both of the stories seems to be the penal character of unproductive and useless work. This should be a hint to those who are in charge of our unemployed. CHINA AND JAPAN. I aav%at present reading a book on the folklore and myths of China and JaCUn, which attempts to trace their scurces. <juh e " thing is the prevalence of myths about Tr/w »? r .L.e and Waters of Life. By eating of &3 fruit of the one, or by drinking «f the waters of the other, man obtained a considerable extension of life, if not immortality itself. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Hebrews all had myths about the Tree of Life. The Norse sagas also tell of the Tree of Life, Igdrasil, whose roots were in Hela, the underworld, and whose branches spread - the heavens. This idea is ■jrery-i widely diffused. /*£lt r is -probable that a tree, with iia wots; 'trunk, branches, and leaves, was •used by early man as a symbol for

universal life and the unity of Nature. It is rather curious to learn that the Maoris of New Zealand and the Highlanders of Scotland have in their folklore almost identical stories. FISHING UP ISLANDS.

Another interesting coincidence is the similarity between the Maori story of how the North Island of New Zealand was fished up from the sea and the Japanese story of how Hondo, their largest island, was also fished up. According to the Maori legend, their great demi-gold, Maui, went out to fish oh two occasions unsuccessfully. On the third occasion he secured a book made from the jawbone of his grandmother. He made the rowers of his canoe row further and still further out, till they were out of sight of land. Then, after fishing some time, he got a After much pulling and hauling Ikd the reciting of many charms, thar catch was hauled to the surface. It was the North Island of New Zealand, Te Ika a Maui, the Fish of Maui. The Japanese story differs as to the method of fishing. The god went spearing, and stood on a rainbow. After spearing unsuccessfully for a time, he got a strike, and hauled the island of Hondo up from the sea. These myths may have arisen from the ancient peoples having noticed islands thrown up by earthquakes or by volcanic action. The ancients ascribed all natural phenomena to supernatural action; hence these myths. DRAGONS. It is also very interesting to read that the ancient Babylonians had a number of stories about huge dragons or serpents called Ku-pu, and that the Polynesians also have stories about monsters called Kupua the same word except for the termination. The old-time Maori sat in his whare and listened to his tohunga telling legends of the Kupua practically identical with stories told in Mesopotamia in the times of Noah.. Nimrod, and Abraham. How did these tales come to be so widely diffused ? Although, t« many -people legends, my+ v ' .: and folk .■ Mc-.s v.-; 1 ! appear ;rliy old wives' tales t.jwi .«! ould incontinently be thrown int> .-.e rubbish binj they are very into ~ -■■■■.y. and calculated to make one wonvier vvhether the ancient peoples of the earth were so isolated and separated as wa think. Their folk stories, their religious ideas, their creation, of myths seem to have resulted from the fusion of different ideas held by different peoples. It must be rememhered that these peoples, though they may appear to us to have been barbarous and backward, were by no moans wanting in intelligence. The few skulls of them that remain show", say the scientists, that they had as many brains as we have.