]
[Footnote 31: Few similes are used in the story. This figure of the
"blood of a lamb," the "blow like the whiz of the wind," the _moo_
ploughing the earth with his jaw "like a shovel," a picture of the surf
rider--"foam rose on each side of his neck like a boar's tusks," and the
appearance of the Sun god's skin, "like a furnace where iron is melted,"
will, perhaps, cover them all. In each the figure is exact, but
ornamental, evidently used to heighten the effect. Images are
occasionally elaborated with exact realization of the bodily sensation
produced. The rainbow "trembling in the hot rays of the sun" is an
example, and those passages which convey the lover's sensations--"his
heart fainted with love," "thick pressed with thunders of love," or such
an image as "the burden of his mind was lifted." Sometimes the image
carries the comparison into another field, as in "the windings and
twistings of his journey"--a habit of mind well illustrated in the
occasional proverbs, and in the highly figurative songs.]
[Footnote 32: The Polynesians, like the ancient Hebrews, practiced
circumcision with strict ceremonial observances.
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