Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long BeforeTurner, George
History
Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before
Turner, George
Islands of the Pacific -- Social life and customs; Samoan Islands
(3.) _Saluafata._--This village is closely attached to Lufilufi, and
was so named from a lady called Luafata who lived there, and whose
daughter married the king of Atua. Her grandchild by this royal father
was among the indulged, and, like other scions of royalty in Samoa,
had such privileges as to stand or walk about when he ate his food;
and, while others carried burdens of cocoa-nuts, etc., he was allowed
to march up and down with a fancy spear, and play at spear throwing.
He was named the Right-arm-of-Atua, and took the lead in the village
as body-guard of the king.
(4.) _Solosolo_ means _falling_, and the town was so named from a
loose stone wall which the first settlers there built, but which
repeatedly fell down. Aumua and Oloatua are the names of two divisions
of the settlement, separated by the wall. These were the names of two
attendants of a lady called Manu, who had several Samoan suitors but
rejected them all, and went to Tonga. Two Tongan kings made proposals
to her. The one was good-looking, and the other was more noted for
good living and even cannibal preferences. Her attendants advised her
to marry the latter, but to try and get her share of the cannibal
feast _alive_, and save them. She took their advice, married the
gourmand king, and when baked human bodies were laid before her,
begged that, for the future, _such_ offerings might be presented
alive. This was granted, and one after another of her share in the
victims was passed over, alive as she got them, to the care of her
attendants, Aumua and Oloatua, at a place on the opposite side of the
road. By-and-by it became a large village of the saved.
Queen Manu had a daughter called Vaetoeifanga who grew up to
womanhood. She was heard of in Samoa, and a lady was sent to Tonga to
try and get her to come and marry the king of Aana. The lady described
his land as a perfect paradise, with nine springs of water, and she
was persuaded to go and be the wife of the king of Aana. When she came
to Samoa a number of the people from the village of the saved, with
Aumua and Oloatua, came with her, and gave the names to these places
at Solosolo. Some of them also went further east and occupied and
named some of the settlements about Fangaloa, or the _Long-bay_, as it
is called from its running far inland.
Solosolo was also noted as the residence of the cannibal _god_,
Maniloa, as he was called. He lived in a valley, and the people
worshipped him. As they went with their offerings of food they had to
cross a ravine, walking, Blondin style, on a thick vine which the god
stretched across the valley. He sat himself in the middle of the said
vine-rope, shook it as any one he fancied approached, and down fell
the victim dead into the ravine, and ready for the next meal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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