Sacred Texts Pacific Index Previous Next
THE Micronesian myth material, as here outlined, clearly reveals its relationships to Indonesia on the one hand, and to Polynesia on the other. In the lack of detailed legends of creation Micronesia seems to agree with what has been denominated as the Indonesian as opposed to the Malayan myth type in Indonesia. In other particulars its similarities are with the general Indonesian material, which, as has been pointed out, is at present difficult to separate into its constituents, although the absence of the trickster tales seems to argue little direct relation with the definitely later Malay type. With Polynesia, the Micronesian data show many features of resemblance, and these are wide-spread in the whole Polynesian area. Melanesian similarities are far less striking, and when they exist, seem to be with eastern Melanesia rather than with New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, though these are geographically nearer. The eastern Melanesian mythology appears to show evidence of greater Polynesian admixture or affinities and to be relatively of later development than that of the West; and this would argue that the Melanesian contact was historically late in Micronesia, however it may have occurred. Of the supposedly Papuan type of mythology little or no trace is found.