Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide;
There, like a bird, it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings,
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light—
he is merely expressing a commonplace of primitive mental experience, transformation stories being of the essence of Polynesian as of much primitive speculation about the natural objects to which his eye is drawn with wonder and delight.
Footnotes to Section III, 3: Analogy
[Footnote 1: Turner, Samoa, p. 220.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid.; Moerenhout, I, 407-410.]
[Footnote 3: Turner, Samoa, pp. 216-221; Williams and Calvert, I, p. 110.]
[Footnote 4: Williams and Calvert, I, 118.]
[Footnote 5: Moerenhout, II, 146.]
4. THE DOUBLE MEANING; PLAYS ON WORDS
Analogy is the basis of many a double meaning. There is, in fact, no lyric song describing natural scenery that may not have beneath it some implied, often indelicate, allusion whose riddle it takes an adroit and practiced mind to unravel.