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
Falealupo is also strangely associated in Samoan story with Tapuitea,
or the planet Venus. Tapu was a man who, with his wife Tea, lived
there and had a daughter named Tapuitea, from the union of the names
of her parents. The spot on which their house was built they called
Leviuli, or "Black apple," from the appearance of the sun one day when
covered with a cloud. When Tapuitea grew up she became the wife of the
king of Fiji, and went there to live. She had a son, and was wondering
one morning what name to give him, when some canoe-builders passed
along with their tools rattling in the baskets which they carried over
their shoulders. From the rattling of the tools she named her son
Toi-va-i-totonu-o-le-ato-a-tufunga, or, as some would write it,
Toivaitotonuoleatoatufunga. The formidable polysyllable simply means,
"Hatchets rattling inside the baskets of the carpenters." It was
abbreviated, however, as in all such cases, and the lad was known by
the name of _Toiva_. She had another son, and called him Tasi, which
means _one_.
After a time Lady Tapuitea became wild, horns grew out of her head,
she ate human flesh, and ten to fifteen Fijians were used up on her
cannibal appetite. The king looked aghast when he saw the horns on
the head of his wife, went and told Toiva and Tasi that their mother
had become a cannibal demon, and that they had better make their
escape to Samoa. This they did. Toiva and Tasi were soon missed by
their mother. She went about inquiring after them; her husband said he
knew not where they were, and after searching all over Fiji she
discovered their footprints on the beach in the direction of Samoa.
She jumped into the sea, swam to Samoa, and reached Falealupo. She
went right into the bush and lived there, but renewed her cannibal
indulgences when she could secure a victim. Many of the Falealupo
people fled from the place. Tasi became so afraid of his mother that
he begged his brother to bury him alive. Toiva did so, and hence the
name of a stone there which is called _Tasi_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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