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from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i |
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(1) | Consultant: | ||
If a man had a strong brother who died, he would make a feast to him, and then the man would live alone in his house and each night go to his brother's grave and ask for his help when he should need it. After a while when he wanted the spirit he would ask for him in a room in the house. When the spirit ('atua) visited him, he would shake. And then the man would speak what the spirit had to say. The spirit used the man [as a medium] when he had something to tell his family. After the shakes, the family would give the man kava and thus the spirit could drink it. These spirits are 'atua. The mediums = ape'aitu. Many ape'aitu in the island were men who thought they had this power and would offer to call in these 'atua for people. Some 'atua were weak and could not control other 'atua, and so the ape'aitu were considered no good or fakes. Each ape'aitu had a room closed off by forau or coconut leaf plaits, where he went to receive the 'atua. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(2) | Consultant: | ||
Tuak'aitu and tuak'atua were practically the same. The 'aitu is a dead person we are calling to, to speak through a live person. The 'atua is a person which we are calling to, to speak through the tuak'atua. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(3) | Consultant: | ||
Niumfang, who has the family title of Tagroa, believes that he is descended from a man in Rotuma who had that name. This Tagroa was an ape'aitu to the god Tagroa, and his priest, "because each priest had a special god". The sons of Tagroa (the ape'aitu) took the title but did not become priests. As far as Niumfag knows the family has had the title but no functions. Ape'aitu got this title first from 'oroi. A member of the family was told in a dream that he should call another member Tagroa and he would be told things by the god. (This seems to mean that the title was carried on, or the power was carried on by appointment from the god.) As the oldest man in his kainaga, Niumfag now holds that title, but he says he can give this title to anyone he wishes. It is a family title. Tagroa in the heaven foretold things like surprise attacks and future events, through his ape'aitu of the same name. He foretold that a great god was coming. Parents tossed their male children to him, because they knew he was a great god, and feared this great god to come. The prophecies of Tagroa always came true, which caused people to have great faith in him. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(4) | Consultant: | ||
A family calling upon their private god first have kava and a feast, and then speak to the god. Only the family members are allowed to be present, and the god speaks through one of them. This god is a chiefly ancestor in the family. The "medium" "lies down like sick" and begins to speak. The god uses his voice to speak to the family. In sickness the god was asked to bring the soul of the sick person back from 'oroi. Souls left sick people and if they were brought back the man would live. The god, or ancestor spirit, on his return from 'oroi speaks through the shaman. "I have brought back the soul and the man will live." But if the man is very sick, the spirit says through the doctor that the family must bring in some food for the shaman or doctor, and then he makes cures. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(5) | Consultant: | Rosarima |
When the family wished to consult their god of the ho'aga, they went to the house of the man who was the tu'ura, family priest or medium for the god. They made a great pile of mats, and sat about waiting for the god to visit them. When the tu'ura felt the god had entered his body he went to the pile of mats and sat there. Then the family would question the god and he would speak through the tu'ura. After the god had left they served the tu'ura kava and food. To signal to the god that they wished him to come to them, they put food prepared to eat, in the kokona of the house. There was no beating of drums or calling of the gods. The koua placed in the food tray was called taumafa. The informant witnessed a tu'ura in Savlei. She was a woman, who was given coconut oil to drink and then covered with uha. The taumafa was put in the food tray suspended from the rafters, and they all waited. When the god came, he said that Fiu of Marama was about to die. He was married to a Savlei woman. They asked that he might be spared by this god, and he acceded. This was possible said Rosarima, because the man, though of another district, was married to a Savlei woman. Otherwise the god would have had no interest in him, and could not be approached. The god was to send back the 'atua of Marama, who were coming for Fiu's soul the next morning. They were supposed to have come early the next morning, but were sent back and the man lived. In Malhaha there was a real spirit house for Ravaka where the tu'ura went to when he consulted with the god. It was a four post house which Rosarima remembers in ruins. But there was no such house in Noa'tau. (It may be that heathenism hung on longer in Malhaha and that the spirit houses have been destroyed very early elsewhere.) |
koua = food cooked in an earth oven
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Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(6) | Consultant: | ||
When Maraf learned that his brother had brought on a war between Faguta and Noa'tau, he sought the prophecies of Fereituanak in Toakai, where Maraf was staying. Kava was put in a corner of the house which the god visited and the tu'ura sat by it [i.e. the kava] waiting for the god to come. In time the tu'ura began to show signs of being possessed, and the people believed that the god had come to them. The tu'ura drank the kava which was for the god and then Maraf and Irava, a Toakai man who lived in Noa'tau, asked the god if they would win the battle. He prophecied that they would win over Pepjei but lose to Juju when they joined the battle. It was a custom that when the chiefs consulted the gods about war they only presented the god with kava. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(7) | Consultant: | ||
"A living person into whom a dead person's spirit enters from time to time and through whom the dead person speaks, is called a tu'ura of our god." With God he was evidently referring to that dead person or 'atua. "The place where an 'atua was seen from time to time was called a tu'ura." "The place where a god was called so that the people might talk with him, was called a tu'ura." In general, the term tu'ura is understood to mean a shaman or person who can call the gods or a god to him. This god will enter his body and use his voice to talk to the people. The god always uses this man to convey his messages, and then the people habitually go to him to get in touch with the gods. A tu'ura was regarded as someone of great importance. Tu'ura were continually receiving presents of food and mats. At a big koua the tu'ura received presents of mats and food just as a chief did. They were even regarded as gods when their abilities to prophesy became reliable and accurate. The tu'ura could consult with the supernatural and tell what had become of the dead. When the dead returned they spoke through the tu'ura to their families. There was one strong tabu for tu'ura. They strongly objected to pork and would never receive gifts of it or live pigs. When a tropic bird, täväke, appeared, it was thought to be a sign that the 'atua was in the tu'ura and that it was a propitious time to consult him. The täväke is a white bird with a long single plume in its tail. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(8) | Consultant: | ||
A tu'ura is a man "in whom the 'aitu dwells" or one to whom the people go regularly to consult the god. An ape'aitu is someone to whom the god only comes to occasionally, and who is not associated with the god regularly in the minds of the people. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(9) | Consultant: | ||
The tu'ura called the 'aitu as did the ape'aitu. Varamua says there was no difference between the two. The position of tu'ura was handed down in one family. When the tu'ura has been asked to prophesy or tell of the reason/outcome of someone's sickness, he goes to his house, called the ri fak 'aitu or taftoko, and beats his drum to call the god. Then when he feels "very strong" or possessed with the god he eats uncooked taro and pig, even the head, which is tabu to the chief, and takes kava, all of which is presented by the person who wished to consult the god. When he has eaten and had kava, which was for the god (not the tu'ura), he becomes the mouthpiece of the god and answers questions as to sickness, prospects of a coming war. The beating of the drum was often accompanied by the calling to the god by the tu'ura. Ape'aitu means prophet in the bible. Samueli said the gods did not come to him as they did to the tu'ura who spoke the devils' words. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(10) | Consultant: | ||
"An ape'aitu was a person to whom they gave offerings to ask what the gods had to say. If we have things we want to know we first weave a chief's basket, then bake food and a fowl to put in it with coconuts and a bottle of oil. In later days he also received money." We could ask the ape'aitu questions we wanted to put to the god and ask god to tell us what was going to happen. "Sometimes the ape'aitu drank the oil and others would anoint themselves with oil so that the 'atua would not get them." Ape'aitu seems to mean the mat apei of the god. He appears to have been more of a prophet, while the tu'ura was a medium and more constantly used when a family wished to talk to their god. The terms are used by the natives today synonymously. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(11) | Consultant: | ||
A tu'ura was a person through whom the gods spoke. Ape'aitu were persons who told things (revealers), or were prophets. They were given kava to drink and food to eat. Then they would answer questions. Toak'aitu were the same but probably were 'atua, while an ape'aitu is a priest. | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(12) | Consultant: | ||
Ape'aitu were priests or men who talked to the gods and could cure people. People brought gifts to get these cures and prophecies. Tag'roa was the only ape'aitu who could talk to the gods. (Evidently the ape'aitu to Tagroa Siria in the sky.) | ||||||
Category: | Religion | Topic: | Mediums(13) | Consultant: | ||
Sultifua was a woman shaman of Oinafa. When a man was sick she was called in, kava made and she drank it. Then the 'atua would speak to her and tell if the man was to live or not. | ||||||
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