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
The Faleata people were and still are distinguished for their heroism
and clever scheming in war. In a battle on Savaii they fled before the
Safune people, or rather _pretended_ to flee. While some fled others
lay down among the slain as if motionless and dead; and when the
Safune people came to search for those of their own who had fallen, up
started the living Faleata people with their clubs, rushed at them,
and again conquered Safune. Hence a _sham_ retreat in war is to this
day called "a _Faleata_ flight."
(3.) _Apia_ is the name of the principal harbour in the Tuamasanga.
The word is abbreviated from Apitia, or _straightened_, and the place
was so named in remembrance of a battle, in which the Tuamasanga came
suddenly down from the bush on to the fleet of Manono canoes, threw
them into disorder, and, in their haste to escape, ran upon one
another in the narrow passage out of the harbour. The village inland
of Apia, called Tanumamanono, or "The-burial-place-of-Manono," keeps
up in its name the remembrance of the slain of Manono buried there.
(4.) _Laulii_ is the name of a village in the east end of the
Tuamasanga. A couple lived there called Lau and Lii, with a party who
came from Fiji and took up their abode in the bay there which was
called "Sacred to the gods." A large canoe was being built by three
chiefs there in the bush. Lau and Lii wished to see it, as it was a
very superior one, and to be called, "The canoe without a leak." They
mistook the road, wandered, could not find either the canoe or its
builders, and were so angry over the disappointment that they changed
themselves into two rocks which stand there, and in remembrance of
them the place is called Laulii.
(5.) _Laloata_ is the name of a village inland of Apia. The word
means "Under the shade," and had its origin as follows:--Pai and his
wife lived there, and had a daughter called Sina. The woman went down
to the sea one day to fetch salt water for cooking purposes; a small
sea eel stuck to her cocoa-nut shell water-bottle, and she took it home
as a plaything for her child Sina to feed and keep in a cup. The eel
grew, and then they digged a well for it. One day Pai and his wife
returned from some plantation work and found Sina crying, as the eel
had bitten her. They concluded that it must have become the
incarnation of some cruel god, and determined to go away from the
place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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