ABSTRACT
The tales told of the people called Rere ni mesi differ toto caelo from the ordinary folklore tales. Sa’a calls these people Rere ni mesi, but Ulawa used the word Masi only. The Rere ni mesi are represented in the tales as real human beings following the ordinary avocations of life, but of an incredible stupidity. They are spoken of as lacking in ordinary common sense, and the things that they do are more like the doings in a pantomime. Many of the stories about them end in the death of some or all of the actors. Withal they are a friendly people living at peace with one another, but they are pictured as completely wanting in nous. In many of the stories they have friendly relations with the living creatures which they encounter. The tales do not mention their marriage relationships, nor speak of them as so many brothers, or as the sons of such and such a person, in the way of the ordinary folklore tales. As a rule they are just lumped together—the Rere ni mesi did this or that—as if they went about in companies, and though odd ones here and there are singled out as the subject of a tale, yet the general impression conveyed is that they are viewed as a whole.
