Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/63

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Legends from Tonga.
51

Kijikiji threw again, and this time struck with crushing force the leg and wing of the bird, who fell into the sea between Eua and Tonga, and continued its flight, swimming with its uninjured leg and wing. It managed to reach Tonga, but fell dead on the beach. The Mauis, ignorant of its fate, stood in Eua throwing stones after it, which stones the incredulous may see for himself strewn on the shore of Tonga unto this present day.

The place where the waves break in Toloa is named after the moa, as that is reputed to be where he made the land. On one side is a line of breakers where the uninjured leg and wing fluttered ashore, and on the other side the sea does not break, where the wounded leg and wing passed inertly along. A hill in Eua is said to be formed of the bird's excrement.

Then the Mauis called together the people of Eua, who had fled to the bush, and were dwelling in the caves and inaccessible places, and told them to return and cultivate their lands, for they had rid the country of its destroyers. Then the people rejoiced, and with glad hearts they built them houses and cultivated their gardens.

[Eua is a large high island separated from Tonga or Tonga-tabu (the southern and largest of the Tonga Islands) by a deep, narrow strait.]


The Great Dog in Fiji.

The two Mauis, hearing reports from Fiji of a great fierce dog (kuli, very widely spread Polynesian word, used to-day for the dog). Accordingly they boarded a boat, and sailed to Fiji, reaching land at the island of Motuliki, which was the very place where the dog lived. This dog, whose name was Fulu-bubuta, was a monstrous animal, as large as, or larger than, a horse. Small wonder that the people regarded him as a god. He had eaten all the people of Motuliki, and if a boat chanced to put in there he made short work of the visitors. It is not quite correct to say that he had eaten all the inhabitants of Motuliki, for three survivors were concealed in the woods, two brothers, Alusa and Tuitavake, and their sister Sinailele, They