Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before Part 18

Then Elo, the king of Pulotu, was enraged, and prepared to go and fight the Papateans. This was the first war in history. They went, they fought, they conquered, and made a clean sweep of Papatea; and hence the proverb: "Like the rage of Elo." Also for a village destroyed in battle they say: "Ua faa Papateaina"--_made to be like Papatea._

All who fled to the bush were sought and killed, only those who fled to sea escaped. A man called Tutu and his wife Ila reached the island of Tutuila, and named it so by the union of their names. U and Polu reached Upolu, and hence the name of that island by uniting their names. Sa and Vaila reached Savaii, united their names also, and, for the sake of euphony, or, as they call euphony "lifting it easily,"

made it Savaii instead of Savaila.

Elo and his warriors went back to Pulotu. Langi and Tala after a time came to Samoa, but went round by way of Papatea,[3] and from them also the people of Manono and Apolima are said to have sprung.

2 MANU'A.--This name embraces three islands at the east end of the Samoan group. Manu'a means _wounded_. As the story runs, the rocks and the earth married, and had a child, which, when born, was covered with _wounds_; and hence the name of the said small group of three islands.

The story of Lu figures here again. He had a son who was named Moa, after his preserve fowls, and this Moa became king of Manu'a. From that time fowls were no longer called _Moa_ on Manu'a, but Manu lele, or _winged creatures_, out of respect to the name of the king.

Fitiaumua, or _Fiji the foremost_, is also mixed up with Manu'a history. He was said to have come from the east, was a great warrior, conquered at Fiji, and in his l.u.s.t for conquest came to Samoa. He subdued all the leeward islands of the group, reached Manu'a, and there he dwelt. All Samoa took tribute to him, and hence the place was called the Great Manu'a.

(1.) _Tau_ is the name of the princ.i.p.al island of Manu'a. Its princ.i.p.al village is also called Tau. It is said to have had its name from the child of Faleile-langi--_House roofed by the heavens_, that is to say, no house at all, and alluding to the remote tradition of a time when people had no houses. This lady was the daughter of the G.o.d Tangaloa, and had a child who was _dumb_, and from that child she named the island Tau. U expresses the hollow unintelligible sound emitted by the dumb.

_Fitiuta_, or Inland Fiji, is the name of a princ.i.p.al village. It was formerly called Anga'e, or _Breathing hard_, from the hard breathing at its birth of a child of Rocks and Earth. But the name was changed.

Moiuuoleapai, a daughter of Tangaloa, married the king of Fiji and went and lived there. She was ill-used and sent to the backwoods of Fiji. Taeotangaloa heard that his sister was being ill-treated, and went off to Fiji to see if it was true. It was true. He stood by her, cheered her solitude, and by a great yam and banana plantation he turned the bush into a fruitful garden. The king of Fiji heard of it, went and made up matters with his cast-off wife, as he much wished the yams, which were scarce at the time, and hence the proverb: "Do you call them friends who are but friendly to the _yam?_" The king named the fertile spot Fitiuta, and when Taeotangaloa returned to Manu'a he changed the name of the village from Anga'e to Fitiuta.

(2.) _Olosenga_ is the central island in the Manu'a group. This was called the land of the G.o.d Fuailangi, _Originator of the heavens_. He dug up the earth on the land of the chief Niuleamoa on Tau. The latter pushed it off into the sea as a floating island, jumped on to it with the G.o.d Fuailangi, together with a lady called Olo, and other two chiefs named Puletainuu and Masuitufanga. Away they went to Tonga, seeking some place suitable for the residence of a war G.o.d. They returned to Samoa, touched at Savaii and Upolu, and then went to Tutuila, but as the people there began to make a dunghill of their floating island, they went back to Manu'a, and rested between Tau and Ofu, as Fuailangi thought he could there fight at pleasure with the people on either side of him.

Senga, the chief of Ofu, looked out, was surprised to see the new island, went over to look at it, and soon after married Lady Olo. They united their names, and called it _Olosenga_. The G.o.d Fuailangi in after years was in repute, and dreaded. He was incarnate in the sea eel, had an altar which the people carried about with them, and any persons cooking or eating the sea eel had their eyes burned and their scalps clubbed as a punishment. Another story is that some parrots flew ash.o.r.e from a Fiji canoe. Olo means _fort_ and Senga a _parrot_, and hence the island was called Olosenga--the fort or refuge of parrots.

(3.) _Ofu_ is the name of a third island at Manu'a. Ofu means _clothed_. Faleile-langi, the daughter of Tangaloa, had another child, and this one they clothed, and, in remembrance of the early tailoring, the island was called Ofu.

3. TUTUILA.--The prevailing story of the origin of the name of this island is the one already referred to. Tutu the man and Ila the woman came from the eastward, and dwelt on the island. They had a daughter born to them there and called her Salaia. When weak and dying they begged that after their death their names might be remembered.

After they pa.s.sed away Salaia, or, as some call her, Sangaia, united the names of her parents, and named the island Tutuila.

4. NUUTELE is a small island off the east end of Upolu. It is said to have been so named from two men who came to seek a steersman for the king of Fiji. Nuu was the name of the one, and Tele the other. The union of their names became the name of the island.

5. UPOLU.--There are a number of diverse stories as to the origin of this name, as is the case with all these ancient legends.

(1.) The most prevailing fragment is the one already alluded to of the two called U and Polu who fled from Papatea. Their united names became the name of the island. They had a son, and they named him king of Upolu. He called his village the Malae, or meeting-place of Upolu, and all the G.o.ds of the group a.s.sembled there at times. It was here they met to discuss the question as to the duration of human life (see p.

9).

(2.) Upolu was said to be the capital of Pulotu. In a time of war a number of people fled from Pulotu, reached this island of the Samoan group, and called it Upolu, in remembrance of their native land.

(3.) Timuateatea, _Wide-spreading rain_, the daughter of Tangaloa of the heavens, married a chief on earth called Beginning. They had a son called Polu. The father, in thinking of some employment for his boy, looked over to the mountains of Savaii, and it occurred to him that it would be well to get a canoe and go over and see whether there were people over there or only mountains. He called Polu, and told him to go up to his grandfather in the heavens and fetch some carpenters, that they might build a canoe, cross the channel and explore Savaii.

Polu refused, but at length yielded and went up. The carpenters did not care about the job, but Polu was most urgent, and would take no denial. U is the word for _urge_. His grandfather asked the name of his island. Polu said it had none; and on this Tangaloa said: "Very well, when you go down call it _U_polu, in remembrance of your being so urgent on the carpenters."

6. MANONO, a small island, 3 miles in circ.u.mference, between Upolu and Savaii, has the following historic fragments:--

(1.) Nono came from Fiji. He was the son of Tuiolautala, king of Fiji.

There came with him Sa'uma, the brother of the king, and Tupuivao, the G.o.d of Fiji. A family quarrel about a fish led them to come away.

Their canoe made the land between Savaii and Upolu. The G.o.d Tangaloa came down and stood on the bow of their canoe and told them not to go to Savaii or Upolu, lest they should be trampled upon, but remain where they were. Then Tupuivao vomited a quant.i.ty of land he had swallowed at Fiji, and so made Manono and its neighbouring island Apolima. He also appointed Sa'uma to live on the latter, and Nono to take up his abode on Manono, which they so named from Ma and Nono.

(2.) The chief Lautala came from Fiji on a war expedition. He first touched at Manu'a, and then came and conquered Upolu. After that he lived on Manono. He made a net, fished, and hung it up to dry. In the night a number of G.o.ds came and tore it to pieces. Lautala then attacked the G.o.ds, and drove them off with great slaughter. He could not count the number killed, but supposed them to be _Mano_, or ten thousand, and hence the name of the island Manono.

(3.) Lautala was the name of an island at Fiji, and noted for war. It broke away from Fiji, and was brought sailing along the ocean to Samoa by the chief Nono, who came to seek a suitable place for carrying on war. He first went to Manu'a, but did not like it. He then went to the s.p.a.ce between Tutuila and Upolu, but did not fancy that either. Then he came to the s.p.a.ce between Upolu and Savaii, and thought that would do, as he could attack Upolu or Savaii, whichever he pleased. He anch.o.r.ed his island there, where it now is, and named it Manono, after himself. Hence it is said that Manono is not a part of Samoa, but a fragment of Fiji, and that of old there was no land between Upolu and Savaii.

7. APOLIMA is a small island three miles from Manono. Manono and Apolima were two sons of the king of Fiji. One day Manono cooked an oven of yams for his father and brother chiefs, but served it up without a fish. His father was angry, and so off went Manono with a spear and speared a fish and took it to his father. His father was still angry, and hurled a spear at him. He fell, pulled it out of his neck, and got up and ran off to Samoa.

Apolima remained still in Fiji, but after a time came in search of his brother and found him where he now is. Before he left Fiji his father told him to call himself Apo-i-le-lima, or Apolima, which means, _Poised in the hand_, from the spear which he held when he speared Manono. They have been often attacked, but never conquered, from their impregnable island fortress. It is a great high hollow basin-shaped island, inaccessible all round but at one narrow chip in the west side of the basin, which can be easily defended.

8. SAVAII is the largest island of the group, and the name is accounted for in various ways:--

(1.) The king who propped up the heavens had a wife called Flying Clouds, and two children, the one was called Savaii the Great, and the other Upolu the Great. Savaii dwelt on Savaii, and Upolu on Upolu, and gave their names to their respective islands.

(2.) A couple came from Fiji, the one was named Sa and the other Vaii, or Vaiki, according to some. They landed at the south-west side of the island, and lived there. Vaii, the husband, died, and then Sa put her name first and united the two, as Savaii, the name of the island.

(3.) Two brothers, the one called Vaii, and the other Polu, with their sister, Vavau, came from the east. The young woman, Vavau, divided the land--told Polu to go to Upolu, and Vaii to remain on Savaii. Her name is perpetuated in the word, which as a noun, means "ancient times,"

and, as an adjective, is used to express ancient, perpetual, and everlasting.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: There is an island called Maatea in the Paumotu group.]

CHAPTER XXI.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF NOTE ON UPOLU.

On Upolu the name of Pili has an early place among the doings of mortals and in the division of the lands. In one of the traditions his history runs thus:--Manga had a daughter called Sina, who married the king of Manu'a. They had a daughter called Sinaleana, _White of the cave_, because she lived in a cave in which there was also kept the parrot of the king. The G.o.d, Tangaloa, of the heavens looked down and fancied her. He sent Thunder and Storm for her; they did not get her.

Lightning and Darkness were also sent to fetch her, but they also failed. Next Deluging Rain, das.h.i.+ng down in great egg-drops, was sent, but to no purpose. He then let down a net, which covered up the mouth of the cave, caught her, and pulled her up to the heavens. She became his wife, had a child, and named him Pili, or _Entangled_, from the way in which she was entangled in the net.

Pili grew up to manhood under the care of the G.o.ds, and was sometimes told, pointing down to the earth, that that place was his. He begged of his father Tangaloa to be allowed to go down. The reply was: "If you go down, come up again. But if you wish to go and not return, take my wooden pillow and fis.h.i.+ng-net with you."

He was let down to the earth by the fis.h.i.+ng-net, and placed on Manu'a.

The king of Manu'a asked where he came from, and on hearing that he was his grandson, and that his mother, Sina, was still up in the heavens, he wept aloud. Pili went to visit Tutuila, tried his hand at fis.h.i.+ng, but caught nothing, and was mocked by the Tutuilans. He then swam away to Savaii, took up his abode at the village Aopo, and from that was called Piliopo. He quarrelled with the chief there and went off to the village called Palapala, where he met with Tavaetele, _Great tropic bird_, who had come from Aana on Upolu to seek taro plants. The Palapala people were generous, and presented the Upolu chief with 100,000 plants. The retinue of the chief made a difficulty about taking so many across the channel, but Pili stepped forward and said he would bring them all over himself, which he actually did, and helped in making a taro plantation, which extended from the one side of Aana to the other, right across the island. He remained there and married Sina, the daughter of this chief.

Pili and his wife had four children. First there were twins, the one called Tua and the other Ana. Tua was so named from the _back_ of a turtle which Pili caught at that time, and Ana from the _cave_ in which it was taken. The next born was called Tuamasanga, or, _After the twins_. Then followed Tolufale, or _Three houses_, from the three houses into which the mother was taken before the child was born.

When Pili was old and dying he called his children together and appointed them their places and employments. To Tua, the eldest, he gave the plantation dibble, as the business of agriculture, and the eastern division of Upolu now called Atua. To Tuamasanga he committed the orator's staff and fly-flapper, with which to do the business of speaking, and, as a residence, the central division of Upolu called Tuamasanga: hence the name of the district there called Sangana, _sacred to oratory_. To Ana he gave the Spear as the emblem of war, and as a district, the western division of Upolu called Aana. Tolufale was to live on Manono, but to go about and take the oversight of all.

The old man finished up his will with: "When you wish to fight, fight; when you wish to work, work; when you wish to talk, talk." After his death they separated, and went to their respective places and employments.

1. ATUA is the eastern division of Upolu, and it again was subdivided into what they called the head, the middle, and the tail.

(1.) _Aleipata_ is a district at the east end of the island, and was called the head, as the t.i.tled king or _head_ of Atua resided there.

The name originated in Alei and Pata, a couple who were said to have come from the heavens and taught their children to build houses. They were very good-looking, and charged their children that when they died they were to be buried in a standing posture, with their faces uncovered, that people might still come and look at them; and from this probably originated the custom of embalming practised there.

Lefao was the name a chief who came from Tutuila and lived in one of the districts bordering on Aleipata. When the meeting was held for the division of the lands of Atua he did not attend, but the chiefs voted him the place and neighbourhood where he lived at Lepa, or the _wall_, which, of old, ran across the island and ended there, and hence the place was named Salefao--sacred to, or, _the province of Lefao_.

(2.) _Lufilufi._--This settlement, on the north side, was the princ.i.p.al residence of the kings of Atua. The word means _food-divider_. It had its origin in the name of a fish called Naiufi, which was cut up, on one occasion, with surprising dexterity by one of the king's attendants with only a bit of the cocoa-nut stem as a knife. He received on that account the name of _Lufilufi_, and was promoted to be chief carver to the king, and to rule in all divisions of food on public occasions. The town was named after him, and to this day in all public gatherings the distribution of the food part of the entertainment is committed to some of the young men of this place.

(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.