Legends can be incorporated into elementary social studies curricula to help students understand how people transmitted history and culture from one generation to another before they learned to read and write. Taga the Great is a legend which helps explain the 16-feet high latte stones on the Mariana Islands, Tinian and Rota. According to legend, Taga was born on the island of Guam. Already in childhood, he exhibited supernatural powers such as the ability to uproot large trees and leap from one Pacific island to another. When Taga grew up and became chief of Rota, he engaged in and won numerous contests of wit and strength with other chiefs. Taga's fame spread throughout the Mariana islands and caused him to be the envy of all people, including his own children. To build a house great enough to please him, Taga quarried and carved very big stones and formed large pillars which he covered with wood and thatch. The house was very fine and admired by all who saw it. Taga's downfall began, however, as soon as his house was completed. His pride in his own superior strength prompted him to murder his little son, and his other children died soon afterwards out of remorse. As each child died, a pillar of Taga's home fell down. Soon only one pillar remained as a witness to Taga's glory. From the legend of Taga, students can gain insight into human strengths and weaknesses as well as into how the big latte stones of Rota and Tinian came into existence. (DB)