soundly. When it was morning the women went and pulled up the house blinds, and each stood at one end of the house. The house was light, for the sun shone into it. Then they woke up the chief, saying: "Moamoamuia, awake, it is morning." The chief was startled. The women saw his nose, and he ran off into the bush. The women laughed aloud, saying: "A god, a god!" They ran away and left that country. They swam out to sea because they knew he was a god. They swam between Tutuila and Manua,[1] brought forth in the water, deserted their children, and were carried by the current to Aleipata.[2] It is said they were changed into gods. The women swam on, and they saw light excrement floating by. One of the women [said], "Lady, that shall be my name." The other said, "What?" [She answered], "Taema"[3] Again they reached a sprit of a sail floating about. They swam on, and the sprit turned round and round. The other woman said, "What name?" The other dinswered, "Tiiafainga" (sportive sprit of a sail). These are their two names to each of them, Ulu and Ona their first names; Taema and Tilafainga their names afterwards. They continued to swim, and reached land.
This is the tale about the land named Pulotu.[4] They say it is the land of gods, [such as] Savea-siuleo.[5] He decrees wars; but it is not known whether it is a true country. Taema married Savea-siuleo. After some time she
- ↑ This name embraces Ofu, Tau, and another small island at the east end of the Samoan group. Manua means wounded. As the story runs, the rocks and the earth married, and had a child, which, when born, was covered with wounds. {Turner, p. 223.)
- ↑ A district at the east end of Upolu.
- ↑ Tae (excrement). Turner translates Taema by "glistening black".
- ↑ The Hades of the Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians. Its meaning suggests a pleasant, agreeable, beautiful place.
- ↑ "Savea of the Echo {siuleo)" was king of the lower regions. The upper part of his body was human, and reclined in a house in company with the chiefs who gathered round him: the lower part was fishy, and stretched away into the sea. {Turner, p. 259.)
