THE ANCIENT MYTH ~ HOW MEN STOLE FIRE, TONGA. A similar myths current in the Union Group. An adventurous person named Talaga, having descended into the lower regions, found an old woman named Mofuike busied with a cooking fire. Compelling her by threats of death to part with her treasure, he enclosed the fire in a certain wood, which was consequently used by his descendants for making fire by friction. Theres a vast difference in the age of these myths. The Maui story, being common to other Polynesian races, belongs to the period before the Niueans arrived in their island...the story of the 2 Tongans is probably a fragment of traditional history corrupted by Polynesian folklore. HUANAKI and FAO were the ancestors of the race who drifted through westerly wind setting in while theyre making the passage from Haapai and Vavau. That its a chance drift, and not an organized immigration...is shown by the fact that therere no domestic animals in the island. Once cut off, the 1st immigrants seem to have lost all wish to seek their own land...which they might easily have done by building canoe and running westward before the wind. They soon forget how to make a sail. Theres still current in Tonga a fragmentary tradition of a canoe belonging to the Tui Tonga having drifted to Niue in comparatively modern times. The Niueans use the word Tonga to denote all foreign countries...and the best known of their kings bore the title Tui Tonga. Palagis were called Koe tau maui, after the Polynesian god Maui, either from the wonders that they brought with them or cause theyre supposed to come from the nether regions where Mauis his abode.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:45:00 +0000
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