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Category:

Legends

Topic:

Foume (1)

Consultant:

Tavai

Tauvasasi was married to Raketivoru who was a woman of Hufua, a ho'aga in Lopta. She was a very pretty woman. Hers was a very big family, including: Raukekena, her mother; Rauhul, a great-grandfather from whom Rakitivoru descended; Ritua and Ofua, her brother and sister, children of Rauhul.

At that time they were building a house at Noa'tau. Foume was then a young boy who took some stones from there. When he got as far as Tua'koi he heard of a row at the building and left the stone at Tua'koi and returned to Lopta. And his uncle Tauvasasi told his wife to ask her family to bring the stone that Foume left, to Oinafa, so that the people would not laugh at Foume, saying he could not carry it.

Then all the family stood at Vai, the well in Lopta (woman's well), in two rows from Lopta to Toakoi and Foume broke the stone to pieces and passed them along the line. And with this stone they made the road into the bush from Lopta. (Road that passes Muasol).

In the old times it was very slippery because it was track stones. It is calledthe road of Fulilei after the family who built it.

The Rock at Lopta is the mark of Foume. He tried to hide from Hanitemaus, and his penis stuck through the rock - an arm's length, and his testicles made two niches.

There are series of rocks along the shore at the Malhaha-Oinafa boundary which are landmarks in the tales about the giant Foume of Lopta. The first is a stone from which two pieces have fallen out leaving niches not unlike two seats back to back. On these two seats once sat the Hanlepherua while they watched Foume bathe. The rock is called Pae 'on Hanlepherua. Foume, when he discovered them, ran and hid behind a ledge that juts into the sea there and pressed himself against a rock on the other side. This is called Kal o le Foume, because he pressed so hard against it that his penis almost penetrated the entire rock. There is a large hole in the rock, running up from a pocket which was made by his testicles.

Foua, another giant, was bathing near a fresh water spring that runs into the sea near there, and Foume hurled a boulder about eight feet through from his fuag ri in the bush, to kill Foua?, but it just missed him and stuck in a crevice washed in the lava by the tide.

The fresh water spring is called Furoroa. In another rock nearby is a hole left perhaps by the lava as it hardened. It is 14 inches or so across and very deep, and coming out over the water that has washed in below. This was made by Fouma pushing his knee down through the rock. It is known as Is fou.

Hanitemaus = wild woman of the bush

Pae 'on Hanlepherua = Seat of the Sandy Point Women

Kal o le Foume = Penis of Foume

Category:

Legends

Topic:

Foume (2)

Consultant:

Penamena

When Varamua was sau, a couple in the bush had a son. The boy cried and the sau heard it. The sau was frightened; he said the voice sounded like hurricane, but found it was a boy. He sent a messenger out to drive them out. The couple took their son to live at Kinehe'e, where the soil is black and muddy.

War broke out at Hapmafau. The couple was at Lepjea. Tulepjer was the woman who owned the land. Her husband was Sorangpor. He said to wife, I will go to this war and I will not come back because I do not like to retreat. If my child is born call him Foume. When he grows up he will pick up my blood.

Their two boys grew up and were very good friends and were both giants. F heta was stronger. F very strong and wise. The giant and his wife lived in Puka in Haua. They had a son, Foiantshata (=boy giant).

Whenever he goes out for a walk the sign he gave his parents when he returned, was that he wiped his feet on two coconut trees. This sounded like thunder when he wiped his feet. He didn't like it because giant #1 had the same name. #1 in bush wanted to kill the #3 giant. #1 had a spur in each leg like a rooster. He covered it with tapa. He told Foume to wait for him in bush and they'd go to bush and kill #3. He (#1) went in and knew which door #3 used to enter the house. He lay down and put his feet on that door and turned his head and put his spurs toward the sasaga of house. He heard thunder and knew #3 was coming. He drove his spurs through #3's chest and stuck them to sasaga. #3 tried to move and shook the house.

The parents came from bush and thought #1 was killed but said, "Don't move or you'll be killed." #3 pulled out the spurs and returned home. Then #1 and Foume told all giants of the island to build a house at Muasol and gave parts to each. #1 went around by the east and #2 around by the west to tell the giants. #2 went as far as Fahapa, Tua'koi, where there were two giant brothers. One of them to get a tuturu and one a sasaga for house. They refused to get them. When it came to the day all the giants brought their share except these two. One sasaga and one tuturu were missing. All the giants said if we had these two, the house would be finished. Foume grabbed two giants, put one in head first to be a post and one on top as sasaga and they died there. The house was at Solo.

sasaga = wall-plate

tuturu = house-post

Category:

Legends

Topic:

Foume (3)

Consultant:

Tavai

At one time some Tongans landed on Rotuma at Itu'muta. They were under the leadership of Seremoana. At this time there were two islands and there was no sandbar on which Motusa is now built. The Tongans built a trap for the Rotumans. This was a spring post similar to that in the wild pig trap, only when this was released the pole snapped over and landed on the opposite side from which it was caught. Thus anyone standing there would be killed. A fence or palisade was built around the trap so that the Rotumans would enter on the proper side and be killed. The side they were supposed to enter was on the right.

The evening before the fight Foume, the strong man of Lopta heard two crabs talking on the beach. They were Kumkumu crabs. One said that by tomorrow at sunrise Rotuma would be under Tongan rule, and that the Rotumans were going to lose the battle, for the Tongans had set a pretty trap by which to kill the Rotumans.

Foume overheard them and caught up with them and asked for their aid. They said: "As long as you have overheard us we shall tell you about the trap. If you enter from the right side the Rotumans will be killed, but enter from the left side tearing down the palisade and you will catch the Tongans." In the morning Foume found that the crabs had built the land bridge across to the Itu'muta side. He led the Rotumans across and attacked the Tongans at the trap, tearing the walls down on the left side and driving the Tongans to the right side where many of them were killed by their own device. The rest fled back to Tonga.

Category:

Legends

Topic:

Foume (4)

Consultant:

Katalina

When the Tongans came to Rotuma under Ma'afu they went around the island where great feasts were given them, but the Tongans maltreated their hosts by clubbing them over the head. The Rotumans got angry about this. Finally a chief of Malhaha could stand it no longer and set out in his canoe for Itu'muta where the people were strongly against the Tongans.

The lali was beaten at Halafa as a sign that the Tongans should be killed. This resulted finally in a battle in Itu'muta near Pauriasi's house. About a half mile down the road from Jacobsen's.

Foume was a great giant in Itu'muta and he went down to fight the Tongans alone, and he sent out word that he was not to be helped for three days.

At this time there were three giants living in a cave in Malhaha. Their names were Faiatar, Faiatarhat, and Faia.

Someone pushed a great boulder in front of their cave and bottled them up. They became very angry and one of them pushed the boulder away with one sweep of his arms. They then set out for Motusa to see how Foume was faring.

Just before they came into the town, they saw three tupu'a watching Foume and talking about him. Foume was by this time battling on his knees against the Tongans. The three tupu'a saw the shadows of the three giants approaching. But the giants had heard them talking and asked them what they were saying. The tupu'a (Pupuhigara, Fafamutia, and Mahoihe) told them they would help the giants to get to the battle now that they (the tupu'a) had been seen. At this time Motusa was covered by water, so the tupu'a made the dry land across, and told the giants to go over but to be careful not to go on the right side of the road. They must go up to the Tongans' fortifications from the left and attack on that side. This they did and broke the fortifications down; the Tongans gave in and ran around toward Losa by the south coast. The giants chased them from Mofmanu over the hill and at a place called Janfuha one pulled up a tree by its roots and hurled it at the Tongans. There were other Tongans in canoes and these met the survivors at the passage in the reef called Savtolo, and they all sailed away.

lali = drum in Fijian

tupu'a = petrified immortal human

Category:

Legends

Topic:

Foume (5)

Consultant:

Varomua

There was a woman of Noa'tau who was starting home from a visit and was attacked on the road in Faguta. She returned weeping and an old man asked her her trouble. She told her being raped, and the man, Fufia, and his ten sons, all to'a, started out to punish the offender. They went into the bush and at Lepjea came across the giant Foume, then an old man sitting by his fire on his fuag ri. They killed Foume and tried to carry him back to Noa'tau, but he was too heavy. They burnt him in the bush of Pepjei and the place is called Rahisea, or ashes.

Foume is said to have slipped off the mountain at the end of Itu'muta and made the steep raw face that appears there today.

called jarag on Foume

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