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from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i |
Category: | Legends | Topic: | Hanlepherua(1) | Consultant: | |
When the boy who was thrown to Niuafo'ou returned to Rotuma the Hanlepherua returned with him. They had gone to Tonga after travelling with Raho as far as Rotuma. When they arrived they made some mena after the Rotuman fashion. If the mena did not come out of the cups in neat cakes it was known that the owner had "done something" [had sex] the night before. Hanlepherua evidently had not "done something" but more, for a boy fell out of her cup. When he grew up he married a woman in Malhaha named Mukuru? and they had two sons who became giants and were buried in a great grave in Oinafa near the site of the fuag ri of Oinafa. |
mena = turmeric | ||||
Category: | Legends | Topic: | Hanlepherua(2) | Consultant: | |
How Niua became a doctor: There once was a woman who had a son and a daughter. The daughter was coming from Kirukiru along the road made into the bush from Oinafa, carrying her little boy while her brother walked ahead of them. The brother told his sister not to look behind, but she did at a turn in the road and the boy dropped on the ground. The woman was afraid, ran away and turned into the stone Kir'keru. The brother took the boy and flung him away, but when he came a little further on he found him stuck to the root of a coconut tree. The place today is called Va'aniu. The man threw the boy away again, this time further along the road. When the man came there the boy came up and wanted to fight him, and the place was called Solsaka. And then the man flung him away a third time. The boy approached him again as he came down the road slapping his arms as a sign to wrestle. This place is called Hofpo'po'o. And the brother threw him from Hofpo'po'o to a gate in the pig fence called Tukinga. From here he carried him to Saukuoki which means "throw the sau like a spear". Here he tossed him over to Niuafo'ou. And from there the man threw him over to Niuafo'ou, where the child stuck to a to'a tree. His name really was Tokaito'ateniua, but the Rotumans have shortened it to Tokaniua. That is because Tokaniua is a Rotuman name. When Tokaitoateniua returned to Rotuma he asked for fresh water and a piece of uha to wash the salt water from his eyes. Niua gave him this and because of that Tokaitoateniua made him and all his descendants doctors. Hanlepherua told him how to massage with water and coconut oil. The water he took to bathe Tokaitoateniua 's eyes came from Hanlepherua's well in Oinafa. When Niua rubs a man he can feel what the trouble is. He only uses water or coconut oil mixed. The man is cured by the power in his fingers which was given to him by Hanlepherua. The first Niua used water from the well of Hanlepherua to wash Tokaitoateniua's eyes. A doctor was looked upon as a great man and received great presents for his work. Proof of the Niua family's power to cure are seen in the great presents given to him. The sau at Noa'tau, Kaufarasu, came to Niua and was cured. For this he gave him a hill of Noa'tau (or Juju?) which now belongs in Oinafa. The people holding rights on this land came to get it back but could not. Another time Niua cured a man, Aut from Juju, and was given the island off Juju. But Niua gave this back to his grandsons in Juju so that it is in its former district. |
Niuafo'ou = an island in the Tongan archipelago
uha = cloth made of bark (no longer made)
Niua, the consultant who was briefing Macgregor, was referring to an ancestor with the same name who got the power to heal from Hanlepherua. The power to heal is passed down through generations within families.
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Category: | Legends | Topic: | Hanlepherua(3) | Consultant: | ||
Hanlepherua
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Category: | Legends | Topic: | Hanlepherua(4) | Consultant: | |
The Hanlepherua are known by the names of Sinatorovao and Sinakir'vao. Sina is a term used in Rotuma to indicate a very beautiful woman. |
kiri = to throw | ||||
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