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from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i |
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(1) | Consultant: | |
Savlei - turtle Itu'muta - tanifa A tu'ura is an 'atua who has taken up its dwelling in a bird. Animals and birds did not die as men. And they did not become 'atuas afterwards like human beings. Even at present time one says a cat is an 'atua cat--that a human 'atua has entered it. Animals with an 'atua in them looked different and could be distinguished by Rotumans. |
tanifa = Galeocerdo, a large dangerous shark | ||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(2) | Consultant: | |
The Timot family had tapu on hai. | hai = stingray | ||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(3) | Consultant: | ||
Several fish and birds were worshipped by Rotumans. They were protecting gods of certain families or clans. The tabu laid on the eating of a sting ray is found in many villages around the island, but it is always a family matter. The most common is the sting ray or hai. The hai is never kept if found in a netful of fish. He is tabu to the members of this clan as food. For this he protects all his worshippers. The most notable instance is his carrying the man Taurue, who was thrown into the sea by a whale breaking his boat, back to the schooner which had sent out the whaling boat. The shark = 'i'oro, the whale = tolo, the sea eel = pa'u, the owl = ruru, the bird called kaläe, are all gods of ho'aga and are tabu to them as food. The ruru and kaläe are not stated as ho'aga gods, but as gods who warned the people by their cries of a coming disaster or war. The ruru is said to have come to the fuag ri of Hatana in Feavai when someone was stealing in the garden on the island of Hatana that belonged to this fuag ri. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(4) | Consultant: | ||
The tanifa shark was once sacred to the people of Maftoa because they had nourished two in a bowl and later they had protected the people from other fish. Some people ate tanifa, but they got sharks teeth, and so the fish was tabued for some time. Today it is eaten. The sting ray or hai is sacred to the people of Savlei. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(5) | Consultant: | Mua | |
| Umbilicus [pufa = navel-cord] . This is left untied by a certain family in Noa'tau. The owl was a sign that Oinafa was coming to fight in the district where it appeared. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(6) | Consultant: | Rosarima |
Kure, a snake at Faguta is a devil, which will crawl on people. If this happens the person will begin to crawl like a snake and his eyes will begin to narrow like a snake's. The appearance of an owl at the fuag ri of a taki of Noa'tau or Motusa would signify the coming of war. In Noa'tau it would light on the toa tree on the taki'sfuag ri. Marangtiu is the place of the taki of Noa'tau. He lives at Su'ura, or did formerly. If an owl swooped down and lit on the toa tree that grows by the fuag ri, the people of Noa'tau took it as a sure sign of war. Su'ura of taki is next to Rosarima's house. There is no house on it at present. Hai (stingray) belongs to:
Origin of the tabu in Savlei lies in the fact that it was lately adopted in mourning. Maraf Terio married Fakvai of Savlei and they had two girls, Tausia and Sa'a. They had this tapu on hai from their father. These two died very young and as a sign of grief the whole of Savlei gave up eating hai, which has lasted till this day. This hai tabu was brought from the Gilbert Is. It is believed that if the hai are freed from a catch of fish the next day a much greater catch of fish will be made. Killing the hai by any member of the family who regard it as sacred, will bring a great deal of harm. |
taki = war leader toa = ironwood tree | ||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(7) | Consultant: | |
Snake - 'alete People who considered the snake sacred oiled its body and carefully put it on the sasaga out of the way of harm. |
sasaga = wall-plate | ||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(8) | Consultant: | Mou Olsen |
When two snakes came into people's houses they were rubbed with coconut oil. Otherwise they get into trouble and the house would be filled with snakes. Snakes = 'alete. | |||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(9) | Consultant: | ||
Spirits ('atua) used to enter snakes; if people saw a snake on a sasaga (walls) or floor, they would put oil on it and mena on its cheeks and after they had put this on, the snake went into bush. Some considered 'alete an 'aitu. His appearance predicts something that's about to happen. Some women used to have twins, one a human and one a snake. The snake was dead. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(10) | Consultant: | Rosiama | |
Kofkatoa was a god that came from Tarawa with the Gilbertese woman who married Maraf. With it was a rock which also came from Tarawa and floated onto the beach at Malhaha. Maraf and his Tarawa wife had two children who lived in Savlei, where they were treated very badly. Finally these children died there and the god Kofkatoa forbade the people to eat hai = stingray, which is tabu even today. That this god of the stingray is still their god is observed in the case of a young Rotuman who went out many years ago on a whaler. During the hunt a whale cut the boat in two, and everyone was drowned except this Rotuman. He kept swimming about all afternoon, but the sailing ship had lost sight of the whaleboat. In the night he felt something brush his feet, and he thought that sharks were attacking him. Again he felt something brushing his feet, and coming up his body. It lifted him high and dry of the water and then he felt himself being carried along. In this manner he was transported all night over the sea. In the early morning he looked down and saw that two hai were swimming with him on their backs. Soon they brought him to the whaling vessel where he was hoisted on board. In appreciation for these guardian spirits he dropped an axe overboard to them as a token. The rock that came to Malhaha when Kofkatoa came to Rotuma, was a medium for the wife of Maraf. She would ask it questions of her home which it would answer, and it would also convey messages to the Gilbert Islands for her. How it came to be at Malhaha no one knows. It merely floated up on the beach. When the rock was wrapped in coconut leaves it would float upon the water and travel wherever it pleased. The grandfather of the present Maraf broke it up when he was building a new limestone house. For many nights after he had moved into his new abode, he could not sleep for the songs of Tarawa that came from the wall which was built in part from this magic stone. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Animal spirits(11) | Consultant: | Undisclosed | |
Tupu'a in Samoa are family gods, but in Rotuma they are spirits of nature etc. that are dwelling in various forms. Also in Rotuma there exist totemic-like animals or fish, which have a protective power over members of families which worship them. They are sacred totems and family gods to a certain degree. There may be some similarity between these and the tupu'a of Samoa. | ||||||
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