POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND PLACES OF NOTE ON SAVAII.
There are three principal divisions of Savaii:--
1. THE FAASALELEANGA.--In prose and poetry this part of the island,
and even the whole of Savaii, is often called _Sa Lafai,_ or sacred to
Lafai, and among the legends that chief, Lafai, has an early place.
Tupailelei, or Tupai the good, married a daughter of the king of
Tonga, and her father ordered that she should go to Tonga some months
after her marriage. She started for Tonga, but the canoe was driven by
adverse winds to Fiji, and in remembrance of that she called her first
child _Vaasiliifiti,_ "Canoe drifted to Fiji."
She remained there for a time, but again set out to try and reach her
father in Tonga, but again they missed their destination and could
only fetch Samoa. As Samoa appeared in the horizon her second child
was born, and so she named the girl Samoauafotu, or "Samoa in sight."
It was afterwards abbreviated to Safotu. Afterwards they went to
Tonga, but again returned to Samoa with Vaasiliifiti, who was now a
young man and married. They came with Fotu. When near Savaii they
caught a fai or skate, raised it on the mast and made a sail of it,
and from that a son of Vaasiliifiti was called Laifai, or "sail made
of the fai." After a time they saw a fish nibbling at the fune or core
of a bread-fruit, and from that they called another son of
Vaasiliifiti Fune or "core." In after-times it was arranged that Lafai
was to live in one district, Fune in another, and the aunt Fotu
between them to prevent quarrelling. If Lafai commenced strife, Fune
and Fotu united to put it down; if Fune took the initiative, then
Lafai and Fotu united in restoring peace.
Lafai lived in the place subsequently called Lefaasaleleanga, and
divided it into three parts among his three children. Fotulafai
occupied the central and leading part. So Talalafai was apportioned
Iva on the one side, and Muliangalafai on the other.
When the Tongans were victorious for a time in Samoa they lived on the
common at Safotu, and thither the people flocked with food and sundry
other articles of tribute to the chief of the invaders, Talaaifeii.
Tuna and Fata, two sons of Malietoa Savea, or Malietoa I., went with
tribute, but before returning tore up the le'ale'a, or iron-wood
mooring-stick to which the Tongan king's canoe was fastened, and took
it away, which was alike an insult and a declaration of war. With
this they made a club, roused all to battle against the invaders,
gained a victory over them, which ended in their leaving, after
forming a treaty of peace between Samoa and Tonga, which for upwards
of twenty generations of the Malietoa family has remained unbroken. To
perpetuate the remembrance of the victory, the Salafai district was
called Lele'ale'a, or the "Mooring-stick," and further merged into
Faasaleleanga, or "Made sacred to the mooring-stick." When the
district after that time united to raise war it was called the lifting
of the Le'ale'a club of Malietoa; and all the Faasaleleanga people
rose and followed wherever Malietoa and the club preceded.
(1.) _Sapapalii_ is the name of the principal settlement of the
Malietoa families, and had its origin in one of family heads called
Papalii. The celebrated le'ale'a club disappeared about the time when
this chief lived, but the deeds and dynasty passed on to posterity.
(2.) _Safotulafai_ is the political capital of the Faasaleleanga, and
the place where their representative parliamentary gatherings are
held, especially in times of war.
(3.) _Iva_, as already referred to, is one of the three divisions of
the Faasaleleanga. It is the name of a village to the south of the
capital which, with some neighbouring settlements, takes the place in
battle of the advance or attacking party. Iva means _tall_. It is
said the name originated in a man who undertook to build a house
without scaffolding, and from his continued stretching upward added to
his stature, and gave a name to the place.
(4.) _Amoa_ is the name of a district in a northeasterly direction
which protects the capital on that side. Some say its name originated
in the fort of the chief Moa which was there during the Tongan
invasion; others trace it to a foreign courtship. Of old, they say,
the women courted the men, but now it is the reverse. A lady from Fiji
called Moa came to seek a husband, and found one in a chief called
Nonu, and hence the place was called Amoa, or the settlement of Lady
Moa.
2. O LE ITU TAOA, the side of Taoa, was the name of the north side of
Savaii. Latterly it has been called _the side of men,_ from their
bravery in the war against Aana in 1830. But before that it was called
the side of Taoa, after a chief of that name of Fijian descent. Tao
means a _spear_, and was regarded by the people as an emblem of their
heroism as well as their name. When they went to Manono to fight for
them in avenging the death of Tamafainga, they laid down a heap of
spears in token of their alliance.
(1.) _Saleaula_ had its origin in a chief called Aula, of the ancient
house of Lafai, who, having distinguished himself in battle, was
invited to live there, and take the lead in politics and war; and
hence it became the name of the village, and the principal place for
public meetings on that side of the island. He had a brother called
Tufunga, or _carpenter_, who acted as premier in the Faasaleleanga
district.
(2.) _Lealatele_, or "the great road," is the name which embraces a
number of villages to the east of Saleaula, and had its name from the
ten-mile stretch of level road there.
(3.) Matautu is to the west of Saleaula, and is the district which
takes the lead in the attack wherever war is determined on. They trace
the origin of the name of their place to Lautalatoa of Fiji, whose
son, called Utu, resided there.
(4.) _Safotu_ and _Safune_ were named after Fotu and Fune, the
children of Lafai already referred to. The people of Safune once
fought at Faleata on Upolu. Many of them were killed, and the place
where their bodies were buried was afterwards called Safune, in
remembrance of the slain. Fune had the epithet feai, or _savage_,
added to his name, from the habit which he had of biting his
finger-nails when he went to battle.
(5.) _Aopo_, a small inland village, was named after a chief called
Aopo. It is said that the god Tangaloa of the heavens once gave the
people there a choice of two things. First, a heap of whales' teeth,
or, secondly, a stream of water. They chose the former. The god said,
"No; you had better have the water." They still persisted, however, in
wishing No. 1, and got it, but it turned out to be a heap of _stones_!
They repented and wished the stream, but it was too late. The stream
was given to Saleaula, and is called Vaituutuu, or "Given water," to
this day.
(6.) _Falealupo_, or the "House for Lupo," is a settlement in the west
end of Savaii. A couple from Tonga lived there. They had a son who was
lame, and who could only sit on a rock with a fishing-rod and catch
small fish called Lupo. They built a house for him there, into which
he threw the lupo as he caught them. The god Salevao and his
travelling party in passing there one day admired the house, and
called it Falealupo, or a house for lupo; and hence the name alike of
the fish-house and the settlement.
There were two circular openings among the rocks near the beach at
this village, where the souls of the departed were supposed to find an
entrance to the world of spirits, away under the ocean, and which they
called Pulotu. The chiefs went down the larger of the two, and the
common people had the smaller one. They were conveyed thither by a
band of spirits who hovered over the house where they died, and took a
straight course in the bush westward. There is a stone at the west end
of Upolu called "the leaping-stone," from which spirits in their
course leaped into the sea, swam to Manono, leaped from a stone on
that island again, crossed to Savaii, and went overland to the _Fafā_
at Falealupo, as the entrance to their hades was called. The
villagers in that neighbourhood kept the cocoa-nut leaf blinds of
their houses all closely shut down after dark, so as to keep out the
spirits supposed to be constantly passing to and fro. There was a
cocoa-nut tree near the entrance to those lower regions, and this tree
was called the tree of Leosia, or the _Watcher_. If a spirit struck
against it that soul went back at once to its body. In such a case of
restoration from the gates of death the family rejoiced and exclaimed,
"He has come back from the tree of the Watcher."
Luaō, or Luaōō, which may be translated "Hollow pit," is another name
for the place down which the spirits of the dead were supposed to
descend on the death of the body. "May you go rumbling down the hollow
pit" was the common language of cursing. At the bottom of this pit,
according to the tradition which describes it, there was a running
stream which floated the spirits away to Pulotu, the dominions of
Saveasiuleo. When they touched the water they were not to look to the
right or to the left, or attempt to make for either side. Nor could
they come back, as the force of the current rendered that impossible.
There was a continued and a promiscuous company of them. Those who had
died of various diseases--the good-looking and the unsightly, the
little children and the aged, chiefs and common people--all drifted
along together. They were, however, little more than alive, and this
semi-conscious state continued until they reached the hades of
Pulotu, where there was a bathing-place called Vaiola, or "The water
of life." Whenever they bathed here all became lively and bright and
vigorous. Infirmity of every kind fled away, and even the aged became
young again.
It was supposed that in these lower regions there were heavens, earth
and sea, fruits and flowers, planting, fishing and cooking, marrying
and giving in marriage--all very much as in the world from which they
had gone. Their new bodies, however, were singularly volatile, could
ascend at night, become luminous sparks or vapour, revisit their
former homes and retire again at early dawn to the bush or to the
Pulotu hades. These visits were dreaded, as they were supposed to be
errands of destruction to the living, especially to any with whom the
departed had reason to be angry. By means of presents and penitential
confession all injurers were anxious to part on good terms with the
dying whom they had ill-used. In one place there was a hadean town
called _Nonoa_, or Bound, where all the spirits were dumb, and could
only "beat their breasts," expressive of their love to one another.
Saveasiuleo, or "Savea of the echo," was the king of these lower
regions. The upper part of his body was human, and reclined in a house
in company with the chiefs who gathered around him; the lower was
piscatorial, and stretched away into the sea. This royal house of
assembly was supported by the erect bodies of chiefs who had been of
high rank on earth, and who, before they died, anticipated with pride
the high pre-eminence of being pillars in the temple of the king of
Pulotu.
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_.
One day Tapuitea, on going down from the bush towards the sea, saw the
footprints of her son Toiva in the sand, followed them to a pool of
water, and there she saw the shadow of Toiva in the water. She was
frantic with joy--leaped, and laughed, and screamed, and then tumbled
into the pool, clutching in vain the shadow. As she dived her horns
struck against a piece of rock and broke off. She was soon on the
surface again, however, and Toiva, sitting up in a pandanus tree,
called out, "Look up!" She looked up, and there at last was the real
body of her missing son. She wept aloud, implored him to come down,
and said he had been very unkind to her. He, on the other hand,
scolded her, blamed her for the death of all their friends, "and now,"
said he, "you are going to eat me next." She admitted that she had
been cruel, and had been the death of many of the people, but all that
was now about to end; she had determined to go up to the heavens, and
never again to return. "Go," said he, "go," and away she went. But
before going up she promised to shine down as an evening star and give
him light for his evening meal. She promised also to give him light in
the morning, when he went into the bush at the season of
pigeon-catching. Having said this she went up to the heavens, became
the planet Venus, which is called Tapuitea. When seen in the morning
it is called the Fetu ao, or _morning star_, and is said to have
"crossed the heavens." The reason alleged for the star not rising
higher was that Tapuitea did not wish to shine higher than the tree on
which her son Toiva was accustomed to sit. After she went to the
heavens Toiva went and called all the people back from the bush and
elsewhere, telling them that his cannibal mother had gone to the
heavens, and that there was no further danger to any one. The names of
Tasi and Toiva are still perpetuated in family titles at Falealupo.
3. O LE ITU O FAATOAFE, or the side of Faatoafe, was the name of the
south side of Savaii; but it is now usually called "the side of
_women_," in contradistinction to the north side, which has been
named "the side of _men_." The principal political gatherings are held
at the bay called _Palauli_, or "Black mud," from the dark mud flats
which appear at low water.
Faatoafe, was the name of one of the chiefs of that side of Savaii. He
married the daughter of the king of Manua, and resided at Manua for
some time. When he was arranging to return to his village on Savaii he
requested as a favour, and was presented by the king of Manua with an
orator's staff--a long one, reaching to the shoulder, and which the
king himself was accustomed to lean upon when addressing public
meetings. The king of Manua on handing it to him begged him to speak
with it at all the village meeting-places on his way along the coast
of Upolu to his residence on Savaii, and exhort the people to "plant
the ti-root and sugar-cane, and give up stealing." Faatoafe accepted
the staff on those conditions, and was faithful to make "planting and
not stealing" the theme of his addresses to the people as he went on
from Manua to Savaii.
Faatoafe had a son called Tupai, who ignored his father's teaching,
and contrived to be a clever thief as well as a hard worker. He went
to a village several miles away on a common errand of begging taro
plants. A large contribution was made for him, but, instead of taking
them to his own home and plantation, he feigned sickness, and asked
permission to plant them there for a time instead of taking them to
his own settlement. This was granted, but when the taro was ripe he
not only took it all away, but claimed the ground for further use, and
kept it ever after.
Near to the place where Faatoafe lived there are two hills, which are
said to be the petrified double canoe of _Lata_. Lata came of old from
Fiji, was wrecked there, went on shore, and lived on the land still
called by his name in the neighbourhood of the settlement of Salailua.
He visited Upolu, and built two large canoes at Fangaloa, but died
before the deck to unite them had been completed. To Lata is traced
the introduction of the large double canoes united by a deck, and
which were in use of old in Samoa. Seu i le vaa o Lata, or
Seuilevaaolata, "steersman in the canoe of Lata," is a name not yet
extinct in Samoa; but the person who bears such a sentential
appellation seldom gets more than the first syllable. As in the case
referred to, the youth is known and called by the name of Seu.
_Salenga_ is a name which embraces a considerable part of the
south-west side of Savaii. Three Fijians came to Samoa, viz. Utu,
Taua, and their sister Lenga. Utu took up his abode, as we have
already noted, at Matautu. Taua went to a district farther west, now
called _Sataua_, and Lenga went to the south-west side, and from her
it is still called Salenga. A rock a short distance from the shore was
the principal god of the place. An unusually hollow sound, from a
change of wind and current, was a call from the god for offerings; and
for a time the fish were untouched and sacred to this Samoan Neptune.
A story is told of a chief in this neighbourhood called Ato, who once
saved his people from the wrath of Malietoa. Malietoa and his retinue,
when on a journey, called at the place, and as usual had a day's
entertainment. Some of the people were heard grumbling over the
quantity of food necessary for the royal visitors. This was noted, and
on reviewing their travels at the end of the journey they decided that
the grumbling indignity must be punished. An armed party was selected,
and off they went to plunder and burn the settlement, and kill all
belonging to the place who fell into their hands. In the midst of the
panic which the news of the projected attack threw the people into,
the chief Tuato ordered all to be quiet, and do what he told them. He
called for cocoa-nut leaves to be plaited, as if for the baking of a
pig, lay down on the top of them, told them to enclose his own body in
the leaves, sling him on a pole, and carry him and lay him down in
that state on the road at the entrance to the village. When the
Malietoa troops came up they found, to their astonishment, the chief
Tuato done up in leaves and lying across the road all ready to be
killed as a sacrifice and put in the oven, to avert the wrath of the
king and save the lives of the people. This was sufficient amends to
the king. Tuato and the settlement were spared, and his name handed
down to posterity as the _saviour_ of his people.
Another story is told of a man of this district who had been long on
Tutuila, and wished to return to Savaii, but was always refused a
passage when a canoe happened to be going. He implored the god Moso to
pity and help him. "Come on my back," said Moso; and away Moso went
with him, and after a swim of a hundred miles set him down in the
evening on the rocks at his own place. "Go and bring me a bunch of
cocoa-nuts, that is all I want," said Moso; but the ungrateful man
went on shore, and when he got among the houses and the people forgot
all about his benefactor, who was waiting patiently for the
cocoa-nuts. Moso could bear it no longer, and, when close upon
daybreak, went on shore and searched from house to house, feeling for
a man whose body had not been freshened by a bath the night before but
was rough with saline matter from the ocean. He found him, dragged him
away, killed him, and smote at the same time all the people of the
place. In the morning they were found dead with their heads on their
pillows just as they went to sleep, and hence the phrase "long on the
pillow" was used to express _sudden death_.