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This study of the ethnology of the Tokelau Islands is based on information collected during a two months' visit to Atafu Island from October 4 to December 10, 1932. On the voyage to Atafu the three other atolls of the group were visited for two or three days each, which allowed time only to inspect the villages, photograph, and gather lists of place names and genealogies of the high chiefs. Most of the information on the history and ancient culture of the islands was obtained from Mika, an elderly native in Atafu, whose knowledge of the past was considered greater than that of any person in the islands. Mika was a young boy when the first missionaries came to the island in 1859, and lived during the years when the last double canoes sailed back and forth to Samoa, and the old gods lived in the Tokelau world. The information that he imparted is drawn from a first-hand knowledge of the ancient Tokelau culture before it was changed by Europeans. Whatever value this book has as a record of the ancient Tokelau life and folklore is due to Mika's interest in my work and his willingness to relate all that he knew.
I wish especially to thank the following for their invaluable assistance: Nikotemo, the native government head who offered much additional information not given by Mika and clarified many points by discussing them with the elders of the village in council; Longolongo, the native medical practitioner who served each day as interpreter outside his hours at the hospital; the Samoan pastor, Timoteo, and his wife, Viola, in whose home I stayed during my entire visit; the young people of their home who took care of my personal needs; and the entire community who were always interested and ready to help in the work, and particularly those who presented the many native articles, no longer in use, for exhibition in Bernice P. Bishop Museum.
The material gathered has been supplemented from the few accounts which have been written by earlier visitors to the islands. I am particularly indebted to Dr.
Much of the Tokelau culture is identical with that of Samoa and in gathering field data, I found “Samoan material culture” by Numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited, p. 179.
The Tokelau Islands lie in the northwest corner of Polynesia on the border between this culture area and Micronesia. Together with the Ellice Islands, they form stepping stones between the Gilbert Islands of Micronesia and Samoa, the great group of northwestern Polynesia. (See fig. 1.) Therefore they are interesting for the possibilities of revealing remnants of the
The prevailing southeasterly winds during the winter months are favorable for western migrations. The Tokelau Islands lie to the windward of the northern Cook Islands and may have been discovered and influenced by drift voyagers from these islands of central Polynesia. Many place names in Tokelau, such as Rapa and Pukapuka, suggest such eastern influence.
The Tokelau or Union Islands comprise four reef-surrounded atolls lying on a general northwest-southeast line, between lat. 8° and 11° S. and long. 171° and 173° W. They are due north of Samoa and east of the Ellice Islands. The four islands are: Olosenga, or Swain's Island, once known as Quiros' Island; Fakaofu, or Bowditch Island; Nukunono, or Duke of Clarence Island; and Atafu, or Duke of York Island.
Fakaofu is composed of about 60 small islets which form a triangle 7.5 miles long and 5.5 miles wide. It lies in lat. 9° 23′ S. and long. 171° 14′ W. The islets are connected by a reef which is awash at high tide. The average elevation is 10 feet, the highest points being on the north and south islets and the most continuous land on the east.
The village is on the western side of the island due to the location of the canoe passage and water wells and is protected from the full force of the trade winds and the heavy seas (fig. 2). The islet is small and can hardly support its present population of 500 persons. Forced in the past to live in one village for self-protection and to keep control of the food supply, the entire population has been able to confine itself to the small area only by extending the floor of the island over the lagoon. Originally walls were built up along the lagoon front to protect the houses from high waves blown up on the lagoon and to construct toilets over the water. Gradually these walls have been pushed farther into the lagoon and the area behind them filled in with loose coral and rubbish. In this way the whole floor of the islet has been widened. On the sea front, walls have been built up to a height of 10 to 20 feet (pl. 10, C), but, except in the case of the landing, these have been constructed back from the original shoreline rather than beyond it.
Nukunono or Nukunonu lies 60 miles northwest of Fakaofu. Its position is given as lat. 9° 10′ S. and long. 171° 53′ 30″ W., but local ship captains say that this position is from 14 to 16 miles too far east, and they make a correction accordingly when laying a course for the island.
Nukunono is the largest island in the group, being 24 miles in circumference and 1,350 acres in area. The longest land mass stretches along the eastern reef. The northern reef is bare and awash. A few islets are sprinkled across the southern side of the reef. The village is on a large islet along the southwest coast (fig. 3). There is no anchorage or passage through the reef to the village, but the sea is protected here and jumping the reef is not very dangerous. Formerly there was a passage through to the lagoon, but it was filled in during a hurricane. In 1914 another hurricane made a deep cut through the southern end of the islet and created the present small islet, Motusanga, south of the village islet. Due to the lack of an adequate water supply, the population has always been relatively small. In 1925 it numbered 229.
The names of the islets and land holdings on the accompanying map (fig. 3) are those given by a native informant. The number of names of islets does not correspond with the number of islets given on existing maps. Sixty of the names given are land divisions on the long eastern island. There is some doubt as to whether Saumangalu and Niututalu are the names of islands or the first two holdings on the long island.
Atafu, composed of 42 islets, lies in lat. 8° 33′ 30″ S. and long. 172° 30′ W. (fig. 4). It is the smallest atoll in the group, extending 3 miles north and south and 2.5 miles east and west, and having a land area of 550 acres. The highest land of Atafu is 15 feet above sea level. The present population is 380.
Atahu or Atahumea was the ancient name given the atoll by its earliest inhabitants. However, it is not possible, with present knowledge, to connect Atafu with Atahumea, which appears in the earliest Samoan legends (27).
Olosenga lies in lat. 11° 3′ 30″ S. and long. 171° 5′ 30″ W., 110 miles south of Fakaofu and about 200 miles north of Samoa. Because of its geographical separation from the northern atolls it is not always included within the Tokelau group. The native population seen by Quiros in 1606 had disappeared by 1841. It is now owned by the Jennings family, who
The land was raised at one time so that the atoll formed an unbroken ring enclosing the lagoon. This became landlocked, and the water is now not too brackish for animals to drink. The greatest elevation of the island is about 20 feet. It has good soil and supports a far better vegetation and gardens than are to be found on the northern atolls.
The reef completely surrounds the island and has no opening for the passage of canoes. On the western side, where the reef is narrower, a passage has been blasted out to allow whale boats to enter to transport copra. Opposite this passage is the storage shed for copra, the small village of native laborers' houses, and a church. A road goes from this settlement around the island. Along the western shore of the lagoon are deep pits bordered by mounds 8 to 10 feet high, the taro beds of the former population. These are unused today. Their depth and extent imply a population of several hundred people, at least, and a residence on the island for many generations.
The Tokelau Islands are cooled by the southeasterly trades for more than half the year and are consequently comfortable for living in spite of their nearness to the equator. Because of the prevailing wind direction, the villages are built on the eastern shore of western islets of the atolls. The change in winds divides the year into two seasons, the winter months of the southeasterly trade winds and the summer months of variable northerly winds and calms, when the sun becomes blistering hot.
The ocean currents about these islands change with the seasonal winds. During the trade wind season, the set of the current is from east to west, with a drift ranging from 0–20 miles per hour. In the middle of summer the current changes, descends from the north, and runs parallel to the general northwest-southeast line of the islands. It turns east below Fakaofu and finally sets to the east and northeast (33).
The rainfall in the Tokelau Islands comes mainly from daily showers during the trade wind season and an occasional downpour. The record of rainfall for 9 months in one year, October to July, was 134 inches (24). The rain was very irregular, however, and fell mostly at the end of the period. From the end of November to the end of February the rainfall is less and periods of drought often set in.
Fakaofu has several wells and a modern cistern of 11,150 gallons capacity, filled from the catchment area of the roof of the Protestant Church. Nukunono has one poor well. Atafu has three wells but only one is available to the village. This well water is slightly brackish and not extremely clean. During the dry months wells frequently dry up and the natives must rely upon coconuts to drink. Before modern cisterns were built, the natives hollowed out the lower part of the trunks of coconut trees, leaving the opening on the under side of the trunk so that the rain streaming down the trunk could be collected in a place unexposed to the sun. From these meager supplies the natives drew their drinking water. When all supplies failed over a long period without rain, the natives were forced to abandon their homes.
The islets are entirely covered with sand and coral piled 8 to 10 feet above the water. The loose rubble allows all the rain to drain through immediately without collecting, except in rare instances, carrying with it all decaying vegetable matter from which soil might be formed. Since few plants can exist in sand and coral alone, the flora has little variety and agriculture is almost impossible.
The following table gives a complete list of the vegetation of Tokelau. Scientific names are given from specimens, many of which were collected by E. H. Bryan, Jr.
Ateate (Fleurya ruderalis?, Wedelia biflora)
Esi (Carica papaya)
Fatae (Cassytha filiformis)
Fai (Musa paradisiaca?)
Fala (Pandanus)
Fau (Pipturus)
Fui (Ipomoea grandiflora)
Kanava (Cordia subcordata)
Katuli (Portulaca quadrifida)
Kiekie (Pandanus, Freycinetia)
Laumea (bird's-nest fern?)
Lautamatama (Achyranthes velutina)
Maile (Polypodium nigrescens?)
Maile kimoa (Nephrolepis hirsutula)
Masoa (Tacca pinnatifida)
Mati (Ficus tinctoria)
Milo (Thespesia populnea)
Mumuta (Cyperus rotundus)
Mutia (Fimbristylis cymosa var. microcephala)
Nase (Eleusine indica)
Nasevau (Procris pedunculata)
Ngangie (Pemphis acidula)
Ngasu (Scaevola frutescens)
Nguna (Lepidium bidentoides)
Niu (coconut, Cocos nucifera)
Nonu (Morinda citrifolia)
Polo (Solanum viride)
Puapua (Guettarda speciosa)
Puka, pukavaka (Hernandia ovigera)
Pukavai (Pisonia grandis)
Pulaka (Cyrtosperma chamissonis)
Taamu (Alocasia macrorrhiza)
Talo (taro, Colocasia esculentum)
Tiale (Gardenia taitensis)
Totolo, tolotolo (Triumfetta procumbens)
Vao (grass, in general)
Vao tuitui (Cenchrus echinatus)
According to existing traditions the Tokelau Islands have been populated by two groups of people. The earlier people appear to have lived only on Atafu, Nukunono, and Olosenga Islands. All of this group, except a small number at Nukunono, were driven from their islands by a people who settled at Fakaofu. This later people conquered the entire group over a long period of years and absorbed the remnant group of earlier people of Nukunono.
Only the briefest recollection and tradition remains concerning the earlier population. They are believed by the present natives to have been a larger and taller people than themselves, but to have possessed a similar culture and language. The names of the earlier people and places are familiar Polynesian words: Malaelua, Lehotu, Atahumea (their name for Atafu), Pipi, Hekei, Maho, Nonu, and Letele. A surviving legend of the early people states that the first human couple were named Pipi, a man, and Hekei, a woman, who lived at Nukunono. The first high chief of this island was Talahao, whose name became the title of all the high chiefs who succeeded him.
The early people who lived on Olosenga were seen by the Spaniards who came upon the island in 1606. In the four accounts (23) written of the visit, repeated references are made to the light colored skin and red hair of many of the natives. Quiros (23) describes a young boy in detail:
Five natives came in a canoe, the middle one vigorously bailing the water out of the vessel. His red hair came down to the waist. He was white as regards color, beautifully shaped, the face aquiline and handsome, rather freckled and rosy, the eyes black and gracious, the forehead and eyebrows good, the nose, mouth, and lips well-proportioned with the teeth well-ordered and white.
A group of soldiers sent through the island to discover water came upon a woman and several children hiding in the bush. The woman appeared (23, p. 214) “graceful and sprightly, with neck and bosom and waist well formed, hair very red, long, and loose. She was extremely beautiful and pleasant to look upon, in color very white …” Quiros also speaks of a boy who came to them, who was “so beautiful and with such golden hair that to see him was as good as to see a painted angel.” Torquemada (23, p. 428), who received a first-hand account of the trip, writes, “They [the natives] were very white, more especially the women who, if properly dressed, would have advantages over the Spanish ladies.” Quiros (23, p. 215) speaks of “tresses of very golden hair, and delicately, finely woven bands, some black, others red and grey” which were found in the houses and give evidence of a number of people with red and golden hair.
Quiros (23, pp. 215–16) also writes his observations of the life and culture of this strange people:
In the houses of the natives a great quantity of soft and very fine mats were found, and others larger and coarser. Fine cords strong and soft, which seemed of better flax than ours, and many mother-o'-pearl shells, one as large as an ordinary plate. Of these and other small shells they made, as were seen and collected here, knives, saws, chisels, punches, gouges, gimlets and fishhooks. Needles to sew their clothes and sails are made of the bones of some animals, also the adzes with which they dress timber. They found many dried oysters strung together and in some for eating there were small pearls. Certain white hairs were seen, which appeared to be those of an animal.
The land is divided among many owners and is planted with certain roots, which must form their bread Abandoned taro pits excavated around the shore of the landlocked lagoon are to be seen on the island today. Olosenga alone bears evidence of the cultivation of taro in the Tokelau group in pre-European times.vertientes (the sloping sides of the roof), curiously and cleanly worked, each with a roof open behind, and all the floors covered and lined with mats, also made of palms; and of the more tender shoots they weave fine cloths, with which the men cover their loins, and the women their whole bodies.
The women wore fringed mat skirts and wound coconut leaves around their necks, leaving the tips hanging over their breasts. The men wore plaited mat breechcloths.
On the beach were double canoes, some 60 feet long, held together by poles lashed to the hulls. The canoes were decked and had lateen sails made of mats. Quiros estimated they would hold 50 persons.
The natives carried small weapons and thick lances, with points hardened in fire. They were adept in quarter-staff fighting, for one native parried the blows of a dozen or more Spaniards with a single stick and held them off for a good length of time until more men came and beat him to the ground.
The Spaniards found the natives possessed small dogs.
Between the time of Quiros' discovery of the island and the next reported visit by Europeans to the island in 1841, this population of Olosenga disappeared. The descendants of the second people of the islands, who came first to Fakaofu, now inhabit all the Tokelau islands (on Olosenga only as plantation laborers), and it is with their history and culture that the remainder of this study deals.
The Tokelau alphabet contains five vowel sounds, a, e, i, o, and u, and the twelve consonant sounds, f, h, k, l, m, n, ng, p, s, t, v, and wh. Hale (11) adds w, but it is no longer heard in the present-day speech. The relation of this alphabet to those of other Polynesian dialects is shown in the accompanying table adapted from Hiroa (29). The dialect uses interchangeably the consonants h and s, f and wh (a sound intermediate between h and f), and formerly used v and w.
There are apparently two dialects in Polynesia, an older one using h and wh, and a later and intrusive one using f and s (30). The presence of these two pairs of consonantal sounds as interchangeable in the Tokelau dialect suggests that the two Polynesian dialects have been brought to these islands, and that one has never entirely supplanted the other. If we take one mode of Tokelau speech which uses h and wh, the closest parallel to it is the Manihiki-Rarotongan dialect, which also has both the v and w. If we replace the h and wh by s and f, the dialect corresponds with that of Vaitupu of the Ellice Islands. (It is this form of the dialect which is more commonly spoken today and which has been used throughout this study in spelling native names and words.) The Tokelau dialect has its closest parallels in one form to an island to the east, and in its other form to an island directly to the west. The dialect of Samoa, geographically the closest, is more divergent from that of the Tokelau Islands than are the dialects of these two islands and also Tonga.
The Polynesian sound wh (as in where) can not be detected in the present-day speech; however it was clear to Hale (11) before the Samoan missionaries and school teachers had influenced the dialect. He writes: “The utterance of the people was very indistinct. The f frequently became a sound like the wh in where, and sometimes, particularly before o and u, a simple h.”
Since Hale's visit there has been a tendency to give an f value to the former wh sound. It is gently breathed with the oral passage closed, and the lower teeth brought near the upper lip, giving a slight fricative sound but not a distinct f and the end of the enunciation of h. That this sound is cognate with the true Polynesian wh seems apparent from a change taking place in the Maori dialect, which is noted by Williams (35) in his dictionary:
Wh represents the voiceless consonant corresponding with w and is produced by emitting the breath sharply between the lips. It is a mistake to assimilate the sound of that of f in English, though it has become fashionable in recent years with some of the younger Maoris.
The pure h, usually strongly aspirated, is interchangeable with s. H often becomes hi or hy before a, o, or u, especially in Atafu dialect. This same peculiarity is also found in the Manihiki dialect. Thus “to come” is rendered hiau instead of hau. The roughly aspirated h sometimes becomes sibilant but with a light stress on the s. Hau and hiau are heard as shau, a variation also recorded by Lamont (29, p. 13), an early visitor at Tongareva.
K is sometimes sounded as g as in higi, hiki, Miga, Mika. Hale heard k sounded like t in some words. Although Samoan is taught in the schools, widely spoken, and read, the Tokelau people never drop their k's.
The l is consistently used, but becomes quite liquid in some words.
The sounds m, n, ng, p, t, and v are always constant in the present-day speech.
The vocabulary of Tokelau resembles that of Samoa very closely, and nearly all the words collected during my stay are in Pratt's “Dictionary of the Samoan language”. However, there are words, such as pahu (sharkskin covered drum) and tuluma (wooden fishing box), which are names of articles not found in Samoa, and a few words such as fano (to go) which have another origin. The definite articles te and ta are not Samoan. Many old songs contain words of which the meaning is now forgotten.
Many place names are identical with names found on neighboring islands. For example, Pangai on Fakaofu is a common name in Tonga, meaning “meeting place”. Rapa is given by Bryan (3) as the name of a small island near Fakaofu although the r is absent in Tokelau speech. (The same island is called Lapa in the Report of the Administrator of Western Samoa.) Vaitupu and Niutao, Pukapuka, and Futuna are names found on Nukunono.
Capital letter = present in alphabet.
Small letter = present in speech but not in alphabet.
( ) = sound absent but represented by letter in brackets.
Hamzah ' = sound dropped, but represented by hamzah, is inserted for comparative purposes.
Tongan B, probably modern adoption from Fijian and not an original sound.
The legendary accounts of the origin of the Tokelau Islands and people are of two distinct types—the evolutionary tracing of man from gods evolved from distant and abstract elements, and the western Polynesian belief in the creation of man by a preexisting god. Unrelated to these tales of the creation of man are the Maui and Lu tales describing the origin of the islands and the bringing of fire to man. These myths, derived from other islands, particularly from Samoa and Tonga, have been garbled into new stories in Tokelau. The analysis of these stories reveals much concerning the origins of Tokelau culture.
Tokelau myths recording the creation of the islands and belonging to the Maui cycle have been related by Burrows (5), Smith (26), Turner (32), and Lister (14). Burrows gives the following account of the origin of the islands, probably a local adaptation of the story of the fishing up of Tonga, known by the first settlers on Fakaofu.
There were three brothers who lived in Tonga and whose names were Mauimua, Mauiloto, and Mauimuli (Maui the First, Maui the Middle, and Maui the Last). One day the three brothers went out fishing in their canoe far from land. Presently Mauimua's hook got caught in the roots of a coconut tree on the bottom, so he hauled up a portion of the bottom to clear his hook. Thus an island was formed which so surprised the brothers that they called it Fakaofo. (Faka = in the nature of, ofo = surprise).
They then moved farther on and continued fishing, when Mauiloto's hook got caught in the bottom, this time in the roots of a nono tree. He hauled up, and thus another island was formed. This they called Nukunono. (Nuku = island, nono = the name of a tree. Nukunono is said to have many trees about the village.)
Again they moved on, and on this occasion Mauimuli's hook got foul of the roots of a kanava tree. By hauling up, the island of Atafu was formed. (Atafu has more valuable kanava trees than the other islands.) The origin and meaning of the name Atafu are not known.
Olosenga is not mentioned in the myth, suggesting that the Fakaofu people did not regard this island and its former inhabitants as belonging to the Tokelau group.
Since myths concerning Maui and Tikitiki exist side by side in Tokelau, it is possible that their identity was never appreciated by the inhabitants of Tokelau, and that their stories were derived from different sources. In Smith's (26) account of the formation of the islands, Tikitiki drew the islands out of the sea. In Lister's (17) account, Lu, the son of Tikitiki and Talanga, pulled up Nukunono, Atafu, and Samoa; the origin of Fakaofu is not accounted for. There the belief was that the sea and sky were always in existence and human creation took place from the stones of the ground; no further details are given. The association of Lu with Maui is probably
When the world was first created, the sky was very close to the earth; in fact, there was only about one yard of space between the two. At this time there was a man named Iikiiki and his wife Talanga who lived on the earth, and they had a son named Lu. Now Lu was a small boy and, as he lay on his back, could rest his feet against the sky. Lying thus one day, he began to sing:
Lister gives this as “Apei pei”, which is incorrect. Burrows states that he can not trace the word sapaipai in the dictionary. It is derived from the word hapai, “to lift” and is also a Hawaiian word meaning “to lift and carry”.
Lister writes “elu te kena” (until you reach god). Burrows has transcribed this in the correct form.
As Lu sang “E Lu tekena” he straightened out his legs and pushed the sky up a little. Then he stood up and, still singing his song, pushed the sky with his hands. Then he used a tree, and finally he climbed up one tree and used another to push with.
When he could reach no higher he changed his song and called the winds to his assistance. All the twelve winds obeyed his calling and came to his assistance, and by their united efforts of blowing from all directions, blew the sky up to its present position!
In another Tokelau myth (5) Lu introduced the knowledge of fire into the world. He attempted to steal a burning log against which a devil, Mafuike, was leaning; but Mafuike caught Lu before he could run away. They wrestled for some time, but Lu allowed the old man to tire himself out, then seized him, and made Mafuike promise to give him the secret of fire. In this way Lu learned the secret of making fire by rubbing two sticks together and taught the people of the world.
Turner (32) gives a different account, probably derived from Samoa, of how this knowledge was obtained from Mafuike. In his story, a man named Talanga went down into the nether world and obtained fire from Mafuike, an old blind woman.
Much confusion of details exists in the tales of the beginning of man on Fakaofu. Perhaps the most common versions are those in which man springs from a maggot. This form of origin myth is probably derived from Samoa and appears in several different legends in Fakaofu. A dead ulua drifted ashore at Fakaofu and rotted on the beach. In time, maggots grew within it. A talanga bird flew down from the sky and pecked a maggot open. Rain fell upon the fish and from the maggot a man came to life. This man was Leua te Ilo or Te Ilo (The Maggot), who is the forefather of the Fakaofu people.
In a different version, rain fell heavily on Fakaofu and with it came thunder and lightning. The thunder crashed against a great stone and split
ilo) crept from the split stone, and the snipe (tuli) flew down and pecked the maggot open. Then rain fell and man grew from the maggot.
Burrows (5, p. 152) gives the name of the first man as Te Ilo, and his two sons as Kava and Singano, from whom the people of Fakaofu are descended. Another account gives Kava as the first man to be created and Senga, the first woman. Lister (14) cites a tale in which Kava and Singano are the first men, created directly from stones. Turner (32) states that Kava Vasefanua, the first historical chief of the island, was born from Fatu (stone).
A distinctly different form of story (26) was told by a Rarotongan teacher who visited Fakaofu with a missionary ship in 1858. The first man was born of Maui and Talanga who formed the island. His name was Kava and one of his descendants was Hi-ingano (Singano). Lister (14) gives the reverse of this account in which Maui and Talanga are descended from Kava and Singano, the first men.
Still other legends attribute the beginning of the Fakaofu people to settlers from other islands. Newell (19, p. 604) mentions two such traditions. In one, the first men were Kava and Pi'o who came from Samoa. In the other, the first settlers were Kulu and Ona, a man and a woman from Samoa.
The fullest account of a historical settlement is given by Burrows (5) who learned it from an old man of Fakaofu, who was a full grown boy when the missionaries arrived in 1861 and when the slavers raided the island.
A canoe containing three men and three women sailing from Rarotonga was driven to the westward. They eventually landed on a reef which had a sand bank on it but no trees. This was Fakaofu, and here one man and his wife elected to stay, the others setting sail again and eventually reaching their homes. Some coconuts which were in the canoe were landed with the man and his wife, and some of these they planted.
By-and-by the woman died without children, so the man built himself a canoe and sailed to Nukunonu where he obtained another wife. The family of these two were the ancestors of the present inhabitants of Fakaofu.
This last tale gives evidence that Nukunono was inhabited at the time of the settlement of Fakaofu, for the Rarotongan went there to obtain his second wife. If Fakaofu was a barren sand bank without coconut trees as suggested in the tale, it explains why the earlier people never occupied it, although they visited its fishing banks.
The legendary and mythical evidence accounting for the beginning of Fakaofu people have one element in common, the name Kava, sometimes paired with Singano, as the first man of Fakaofu. It is characteristic of Polynesian stories of settlement and voyaging to give only the name of the chief or chiefs of the party. Kava and Singano were probably the leaders of the group of people who either migrated or drifted to Fakaofu. All historical chiefs of the island took the name of Kava as an official title.
Although the Nukunono people gave the first settler of Fakaofu a wife, the later generations did not fare well with the earlier people, and by the time the actual historical period began, Fakaofu was already embroiled in conflicts with the neighboring islands, particularly Atafu.
The first of the historical chiefs of Fakaofu was Kava Vasefanua (Kava, Definer of Boundaries), who was notable for dividing the land among the heads of families. This act was made necessary by a great increase in population due either to natural expansion of the original population or to immigration. Much in the Tokelau culture, as well as definite traditions, points to Samoa as a homeland of at least part of the people. Burrows (5) states that in very early times the young men of Fakaofu made a trip to Samoa to obtain wives.
Kava Vasefanua had two sons, Pio who became the high chief of Fakaofu after his father, and Te Vaka who became the leading warrior and conqueror of both Nukunono and Atafu. The actual cause and the beginning of the war with Nukunono are obscure, but all accounts agree that Fakaofu had attacked Nukunono first and had been defeated. Nukunono informants stated that in the time of Talafao, Pio and Tengafalua of Fakaofu came to Nukunono and conspired with Letele. Later Fafie, the son of Pio, made war on Nukunono and was defeated. Turner (32, p. 274) attributes the cause of the fighting to an exiled Nukunono chief who sought revenge for his banishment to Fakaofu and gathered partizans there for a war with Nukunono in which his party was defeated.
Many stories are told of the successful attack led by Te Vaka. Turner (32) relates the following tale told him by a Fakaofu boy who went to the mission school in Samoa. While much of it disagrees with information given at Nukunono and Atafu and must be considered unreliable, his account of the episode of the king smearing his people with his child's blood is the most acceptable one.
When preparing for another fight he [the Nukunono chief, Feuku] asked his son to give up his body to be put to death, so as to get enough blood with which to smear all the remaining people, so that the enemy might pass over them and stop fighting. It was the custom there in war that if any one was found lying down and with marks of blood on his body, he was not touched but passed over, and not killed or beheaded as in Samoa.
When the expected day for another battle came, the son of the king Feuku, out of love to his father and the people, consented to be killed. His body was divided in two, and the blood smeared on all the people. All were much-excited and touched with this wonderful love of their king and his son. After some speechifying they determined to show their love in return and, when the enemy came, to rise and fight to the death rather than seek life by lying down and showing the stains of blood. This was done; the war party came from Fakaofo; Feuku's people stood up, fought bravely, defended their chief, and drove the enemy to sea and back to Fakaofo.
The next onslaught, led by Te Vaka, was made suddenly. The Fakaofu warriors attacked immediately, not even stopping on a nearby islet to make the usual challenge (p. 158). The fight took place on the beach and the reef. Some of the Fakaofu warriors outflanked the defense and ran into the village, killing everyone there and finally attacking the Nukunono warriors from the rear. They then circled the entire island, making claim to all the land over which they walked. When they came to the eastern islets, a Nukunono warrior, Feuku (said by Turner to be the king), swam across the lagoon with the aid of a belt of coconuts. Several women and children were hiding in the hollow of a puka tree at Tenifu on the islet Tokelau. Feuku killed one of the children, smeared himself with the blood, and lay on the ground so that he would be spared by the enemy. When the Fakaofu people had passed by, Feuku stood up.
The Fakaofu party continued until they came to Ngataulanga where a woman's titi skirt, hanging up as a tapu sign, stopped their progress. This titi belonged either to a Nukunono woman, Matua, who was related to the people of Fakaofu (according to a Nukunono informant) or to Nau, a Fakaofu woman, who had previously been captured by Nukunono (5). The Fakaofu men recognized the pattern of the skirt and would not pass it. Thus this spot marked the boundary of the land owned by Fakaofu until all the conquered land was returned to Nukunono in 1911.
The account of the conquest told at Nukunono contains no record of a battle. The Fakaofu men marched down the eastern side of the atoll and were not seen from the village until they reached a spot now called Fakanaitinu (Surprised). A dispute arose among the Nukunono men over fighting their enemy. Those who did not wish to fight opposed with spears those who did. The Fakaofu men proceeded unhindered until they came to the woman's skirt hanging across their path. Te Vaka turned back and sailed for Fakaofu, leaving a few men to keep the land which they had won. (It was a recognized custom that any undefeated war party marching over an island laid claim to the land they had covered.)
Pio, a Fakaofu chief, came to rule the conquered territory of Nukunono. A famine followed the war and this, combined with the tax of coconuts taken by Fakaofu, left little food for the surviving original inhabitants. They were forced to steal food at night from the plantations of their overlords and finally, in despair, most of them sailed for Fakaofu or the Ellice Islands. A few of the present inhabitants trace their ancestry to Fakaofu men and aboriginal women.
After he had subdued Nukunono, Te Vaka made preparation to attack Atafu. Atafu warriors had made several raids on Fakaofu and were about to make another when Te Vaka sailed off to attack them. Burrows (5) gives as the immediate cause of the war the visit at Fakaofu of eight large double
The story told at Atafu by an informant gives no account of fighting. Lefotu, the great Atafu warrior, had sailed to the islet Nukumatau near Fakaofu, where he hid and watched the Fakaofu fleet set out. He then raced back to Atafu and awaited Te Vaka on the beach. In order to impress Lefotu with his force, Te Vaka had mustered every canoe at Fakaofu and manned it with as few men as possible. In past raids, Te Vaka had used only eight or nine canoes; this time there were so many that the Atafuans thought Nukunono and Olosenga had joined forces with Fakaofu and prepared to flee. Lefotu remarked to his followers, “He lava taku mama” (That is not one mouthful for me). Lefotu felt he was no match for this great force and he made a speech which tradition has preserved. Since many of the words are archaic, the translation is rather free.
Root refers to Lefotu.
Then Lefotu expressed his fear for his people in a lament. The general meaning, as given by a native interpreter, is as follows:
Te Vaka, with his fleet, camped on one of the windward islands of Atafu for the night. The next morning he went to the village to challenge Lefotu but found that the entire population had fled. He set out with his own canoe to pursue Lefotu and sent the remainder of the fleet back to Fakaofu. Te Vaka and Lefotu were never heard of afterward. It is believed today that they arrived in Samoa, Tikopia, Sikaiana, or Ontong Java (Leuaniua). Except in Samoa, this statement is founded on stories told by native sailors who have found Polynesians on these islands who have claimed to be descendants of the Atafu people and Te Vaka. The landing in Samoa is discussed by Newell (19):
Two of these boats made good their escape and were afterwards heard of in Samoa, having landed at Sangana and Malie on the island of Upolu.
The tradition is confirmed in all its details in Samoa itself. At Malie the “failunga”, or village orator, bears the name of Tuiatahu, and his title is Auimatangi. In the Atafu tradition which I received from the king of Atafu, the party who drifted to Malie on Upolu were met by the then-reigning Malietoa, with whom they drank kava and by whom they were received as guests. In the conversation which then took place Malietoa asked whence they had come, to which they replied, “Ua au i matangi” (driven by the winds).
Several generations after the time of Te Vaka, the high chief sent Tonuia from Fakaofu to establish a settlement on abandoned Atafu. His five married sons and two married daughters with their families and followers accompanied him and established a small village on the southern tip of Atafu Islet just below the site of the village of the early population. The descendants of this group now compose the population of Atafu.
It is most probable that Fakaofu conquered Olosenga as well as Atafu and Nukunono, for annual offerings were sent to Tui Tokelau on Fakaofu from all three islands. Olosenga showed resentment to this ascendancy of Fakaofu for in the time of their chief, Tuitea, a large crew of hostile young men set sail in a double canoe to present the annual offering. The Fakaofuans were suspicious of such a large canoe and allowed it to come close to the passage of the reef without any sign of greeting. Normally it was the custom of the people to go out in their canoes and hail any traveling canoe, to inquire where it had come from, and to guide it over the reef.
The Olosenga men became cautious when they saw the Fakaofu people remaining in their houses. Fakaso, leader of the canoe, crawled along the beach to the house of the high chief, completely submissive and respectful. The chief displayed his suspicions, saying, “If you have come to make war upon Fakaofu, you will return in this direction,” pointing toward the setting sun, the direction away from Olosenga, “But if you come upon a friendly visit, peacefully bearing offerings to the god Tui Tokelau, you will return in this direction,” pointing toward Olosenga. Fakaso and his followers
The Olosenga canoe was driven from its course, and appeared weeks later off the coast of Savai'i in Samoa, with only two men remaining alive. They were hurled by the surf against a lava cliff which they attempted to climb. One fell off into the sea and was drowned. The second, Moko, reached a nearby village where he lived until he joined the crew of a Samoan canoe sailing for Olosenga. He told of the fate of the Olosengan canoe only after a group of Fakaofu men had landed in Olosenga and told of their chief's curse.
Soon after this a drought struck Olosenga, taro and coconuts failed to grow, and famine followed. Fishing near the island became poor. Many families had no men to fish for them since the loss of the big canoe, and the fishermen could not catch enough to supply the entire population. So each day when they had finished fishing, they landed on the opposite side of the island from the beach and cooked their fish for themselves; then they returned to their people, reporting that the fish had all left the sea around Olosenga. When the villagers discovered what the fishermen were doing, they made plans to kill them. The chief ordered the fishermen to go to the god house which was being repaired. When the fishermen had gone on the roof of the house to tie the new thatch as it was passed up from below, the old men, women and older children rushed on them and killed them with weapons they had hidden under piles of thatch.
The drought continued and the famine grew worse. People died from starvation, and no strong men were left to handle the heavy canoes and to fish. When the next canoe arrived from Fakaofu the entire population had been dead for some time, though a few may have survived or gone to Fakaofu. Later Masanga took a party of men and women from Fakaofu to Olosenga to start a colony. Others were brought by Kolo, Kava te Mafanga, and Lehokoala. The Fakaofuan colony was just becoming firmly established when three Frenchmen landed on the island to make coconut oil, and soon the island was ruled by Europeans.
Much confusion and contradiction exists in the order of succession of Fakaofu chiefs. In table 2, four varying lists of chiefs are given, divided into mythical and historical periods. In Nikotemo's list, a long time elapsed between Kava te Mafanga, the first man created, and Kava Vasefanua, the first chief of the historical period. Mika's list includes four created men, the first three of whom may all be the same character in the natives' accounts of man's creation, for they mean the rain, the maggot, Kava the old one, and
The dates when three high chiefs of Fakaofu were living can be definitely established: Taupe was chief in 1841 when the United States Exploring Expedition visited the island; Te Taulu, in 1889 when Lister visited the island; and Savaiki, in 1916 when the last chief went out of official position. Between 1841 and 1916, a period of seventy-five years, seven high chiefs held office, each high chief reigning on an average of 10 to 11 years. This short period appears reasonable, for it was the practice at Fakaofu to elect an old man from the chiefly families to succeed the chief who had died.
The Fakaofuan chiefs who were sent to rule Nukunono after its conquest did not make a permanent residence there until four generations after the time of Te Vaka. The first ruler was Pio, but Sunga was the first chief to settle there permanently. From him were descended all the chiefs of Nukunono who ruled until the abolition of the office in 1916.
The high chieftainship passed from father to son except for Ulua who succeeded his uncle. One generation has lived on the island since Takua's generation. Allowing 25 years for each generation beginning with Sunga, the line of Nukunono chiefs began between 1783 and 1808.
The chiefly line of Atafu came from Fakaofu and was a branch of the family which established the chiefs of Nukunono. Tonuia, the first chief and also supreme priest, came to Atafu two generations later. The village was so small that no chief was immediately elected to succeed him, but when the population increased, Tonuia's grandson, Foli, was chosen. Foli's brother succeeded him and then the son and grandson of two of his paternal uncles. Since then the village has been ruled by an officer appointed by the British Colonial Administration.
The genealogy of Tonuia commences seven generations before him with Kava of Fakaofu. Since Tonuia five generations have lived on Atafu. But because the first generation—Tonuia's married children—and the last—the present children—have lived only half a generation on the island, the time since Tonuia is estimated at 100 years, 25 years for each generation, according to the accepted period of a Polynesian generation established by the Polynesian Society of New Zealand. Thus Tonuia came to Atafu some years before 1833, reckoning the generations from 1933.
The longest list of Fakaofu chiefs contains 19 names. Estimated on a basis of 11 years to each ruler, the list as given by Nikotemo would put Kava Vasefanua, the first historical chief, as reigning in 1717. But according to the genealogy of Nukunono and Atafu kings, this line began in 1633. The names of the first five historical chiefs of Fakaofu (Kava Vasefanua, Pio, Fafie, Leua, and Pio) and the first five ancestors of the Nukunono chiefs (Kava, Pio, Kolo, Fafie, and Pio) in the lists given by Nikotemo, are identical except for one name. If we assume that these two lists are in reality one, the chieftainship at Fakaofu must have passed from father to son during the first five generations of the historical period as indicated in the Nukunono genealogy, and have been held by each chief for 25 years. This would put the rule of Kava Vasefanua at about 1647, closely checking with the time of Kava, the head of the line of Nukunono and Atafu chiefs. Nikotemo's statement that Kava, the first ancestor of the Nukunono chiefs, was not Kava Vasefanua, was contradicted by a Nukunono informant. It seems probable that these two chiefs were one person. If this is true, the Atafu and Nukunono chiefs were appointed from the family of the high chief of Fakaofu, a very likely thing to have occurred.
Nikotemo said that Kava married a woman belonging to the early people of Nukunono. Thus Kava may be the first man of Fakaofu, whose name we have accepted as Kava or the unnamed Rarotongan who first settled Fakaofu and took a wife from Nukunono. (See. p. 19.) It is a possibility which leads us to the point that all the stories of Kava and the first chief of Fakaofu may refer to one individual, who first settled on Fakaofu. If he is Kava Vasefanua, he appears to have lived about the middle of the seventeenth century. The history of the Fakaofu people of the Tokelau Islands then becomes a very recent event in the annals of the Polynesian peoples.
The Tokelau records are filled with references to visits to other islands of Polynesia; evidence from these islands of the arrival of Tokelau people corroborates these tales. At present, unauthenticated claims are made of fabulous voyages by the early Tokelau sailors. Natives who sailed on European ships to New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii returned and told of the Polynesians on these islands; and in a short time names from these distant islands were incorporated in the old stories. The Cook Islands, Borabora, Hawaii, and even Rapa are mentioned now when one inquires about the lands which the ancient Tokelau navigators visited. Newell (19) says there is independent evidence, besides the tales of voyages, of direct contact with Hawaii, but he does not give the source of his information. The natives knew stars by which they say they sailed to Hawaii.
Although two survivors of a wreck lived on Fakaofu and Captain Morvan visited the island before Hale came to it in 1841, it is not probable that from either of these sources the natives first learned the names of the outside islands, which they gave to Hale (11, p. 166). Their history independently confirms that they visited or were visited by people from the places which Hale mentioned to them. On Atafu Hale (11) found that they knew no island but their own. “They repeated after me the names Fanua Samoa, Fanua Tongatabu, Fanua Viti [Fiji], and asked in what direction they lay, and if we came from them.” At Fakaofu, however, the natives knew of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, but did not know where these islands were located. They also spoke of Pukapuka (Danger Island, unknown to Hale) but did not mention any of the Ellice Islands.
At Atafu, Newell heard an old song in which are narrated the exploits of Tokelau navigators who voyaged to Fiji and Tonga under the guidance of the god, Tui Tokelau. Burrows (5) states that marauding expeditions to Fiji were quite common, and one story tells of a victory won at a place called Atu Lau, which was preserved afterwards as a safe haven for canoes from the Tokelau Islands.
There were attacks by Tongans on Fakaofu, but no details are remembered. A canoe with eight Tongan women was blown from its course to Nukunono. When it arrived the men of the village were working in their coconut plantations across the lagoon. The women of Nukunono went down to the beach and killed the Tongans because they knew that their men would take them.
At one time a great war canoe from Samoa appeared at Fakaofu and landed at Fenua Loa Islet. It was under the command of a chief named Lekena. He launched an outrigger canoe from his double canoe and sent two men to Fakaofu. At that time there were many men fishing for bonito off shore near the village. They gave chase to the two Samoans, and after some trouble caught them and took them to the village. They were afraid to attack the men in the double canoe, however. The Samoans sailed away, leaving the two men, Folinga and Latu, at Fakaofu. Samoa seems to have been well known to the Tokelau people, and voyages between the islands were not uncommon. Atafu is also frequently mentioned in many Samoan legends of their voyages.
Storms blew many canoes traveling within the group to the islands to the southwest. On a voyage from Fakaofu to Atafu, Te Fou, the brother of Te Laufue, the chief, was carried by a storm to Futuna, where he was killed by the Futunans. In 1826 and 1827 two Tokelau canoes, driven by a hurricane, arrived at Rotuma, where the castaways settled (15). Storms brought Tokelau canoes to Uvea several times, as reported by early Uvean missionaries and by Burrows (4). Among the earliest Tokelau arrivals
In about 1846 a hurricane devastated Fakaofu, uprooting all the coconut trees and forcing the natives to leave the island to avoid starvation. Attempting to go to a neighboring island, north winds arose and dispersed the fleet. After six weeks at sea two of the canoes eventually arrived off Uvea. The missionaries there say that the wanderers knew the island and feared to land because of the reputed cruelty of the Uveans. However, due to the influence of the Catholic missionaries, the reception was peaceful and hospitable. It is certain that other voyagers from Fakaofu had landed there not long before, for a Tokelau girl on shore recognized the shipwrecked chief as her uncle.
Hale and Wilkes mention no evidence of early knowledge of the Ellice or Gilbert Islands, and it is likely that few canoes from the Ellice group ever reached Tokelau which lies directly into the wind for most of the year. However, there is a tale of one Ellice islander, Te Foe of Nukulaelae, who, while traveling between two of the Ellice Islands, was blown to Fakaofu. He and his family were looked upon as foreigners and were not allowed full social privileges of the island; they were called alatafatafa, which is said to mean people who had to keep at a distance from the council house while the chief's meetings were in order.
The Wilkes Expedition found that the people of Nukufetai in the Ellice Islands were well acquainted with the Tokelau Islands and named all four islands including Olosenga (Swains Island).
There is direct evidence that the Tokelau people knew of Manihiki, Tongareva, and the other atolls east of Pukapuka. Just at the beginning of European contacts 11 inhabitants of Manihiki departed to visit the other islands “to the west”. After five weeks at sea they arrived at Olosenga, and were later transported to one of the northern Tokelau Islands by a whaling ship. One of the party reached Samoa where Turner (32), who reports the story, found him. Tongareva is known by the Tokelau islanders as Manga-loalo, an islet of the atoll. Rarotonga of the Cook Islands is mentioned in a single reference in Tokelau legends (32, p. 21).
Olosenga was the first island in the Tokelau group to be seen by Europeans. Quiros, leading a Spanish expedition across the Pacific in 1606, landed there in search of water for his ships. The natives then inhabiting
Some of the natives were apparently defiant, for Quiros (23) states:
At this time a very audacious old man came in one of the canoes to the Capitana with a very long and thick lance of palm wood, well-balanced. He had on a sort of cloak or hood made of a leaf dyed crimson and a hat they had given him from the launch … He made faces with his eyes and mouth. In a very loud voice he seemed to order us to surrender. With his lance brandished menacingly he made as many thrusts as he could. With the intention of making him quiet, two muskets were fired off. The others cried out and threw up their arms, but he made light of it. With great pride he showed more signs of his anger; and finding he could do nothing, he quickly passed both ships and went to where the launch was following the other canoes.
This may have been a challenge to fight or, possibly, the contortions of a priest who was making a show of bravado before the gods to impress his companions and the community.
Torres, who was captain of one of Quiros' ships, was sent with a party to get wood and water and to capture four boys, if possible. The natives ranged themselves on the beach against the party of whose landing Torres (23) gives the following account:
All with one voice gave a pabori, which I understood to be a kind of intoned shout or war cry; and they closed with a noise very brief but terrible. They came against us, and it was necessary to attack them with vigor, owing to their being so close. The arquebuses, which are a terror to those who do not know them but see their effects, terrified them; and they fled, carrying, as they had brought, the king or chief in a litter on their shoulders, holding palm leaves to shade him.
Several old men remained and welcomed the Spaniards, humbly requesting them to sit in the shade and offering them coconuts to drink. On the island the Spaniards found a village with a population numbering between 100 and 200 persons, never seen again by Europeans.
Mendaña, with whom Quiros sailed at the end of the sixteenth century, passed close to the island of Atafu, though he did not see it. Two hundred
Bounty. There were no permanent inhabitants, but the crew which went ashore discovered houses containing fishing gear and canoes, indicating that the island was used as a temporary residence for fishing parties. These probably came from the other islands of the group before the island was permanently colonized from Fakaofu. Hamilton (8), who accompanied Edwards as surgeon on the Pandora, adds:
Stages and wharfs were likewise discovered in different parts of the creek … The skeleton of a very large fish supposed to be a whale was found near the beach; and a place of venerable aspect formed entirely by the hand of Nature and resembling a Druidical temple commanded their attention. The falling of a very large tree formed an arch through which the interior part of the temple was seen, which heightened the perspective … At the extreme end of the temple three altars were placed, the center one higher than the other two, on which some white shells were piled in regular order.
Captain Edwards left mirrors and trinkets in the empty houses on the beach. Three days later, he sailed southward and discovered Nukunono which he named “Duke of Clarence Island”. He could not make contact with the people but saw “morais and burying places” and canoes sailing across the lagoons with “stages in their middle”. No stone structures resembling marae or quays now stand on the island.
In 1841, Captain Hudson of the United States Exploring Expedition visited Byron's “Duke of York Island” with two ships and discovered a small population living on the island.
They were temporary residents at Atafu. This declaration proceeds partly from their own statement that they had no chief with them and partly from the circumstance that they had none but double canoes with them, which are best adapted for a sea voyage.
Hale also assumed that they had had previous intercourse with foreigners, probably at Fakaofu, because of their desire to barter, and because of the fact that they had blue beads and a plane-iron in their possession. He estimated that there were 20 men with women and children. Wilkes gives an estimate of 40, as counted by Hudson. Possibly the overpopulation of Fakaofu, between 500 and 600 as counted by Hale, accounts for the establishment of a permanent settlement on Atafu.
Captain Morvan in command of the Adolphe, a French ship from Morlaix, discovered Fakaofu in 1841. Shortly afterward the two ships of the United States Exploring Expedition came upon the island independently
At the foot of this pile of benches lay a piece of timber which was recognized as the windlass of a vessel. It was about four feet long by one foot in diameter and was much worn, as though it had been exposed to the action of the waves. When we asked from whence it came, they replied, from the sea. And in answer to further inquiries, they related that a few years ago, three or four, a vessel was lost in the surf, and that two men got ashore, Fakaaukamea, (the other's name we omitted to write) and that both have since died. On examining closer, it appeared that the windlass was not the only relic of the wreck. Three crossbeams, about twenty feet long and six inches thick, which were fastened to the center posts about ten feet from the ground had evidently beeen cut and planed by regular tools; and we found on inquiring that they were also from the vessel. As the names of two survivors had both Polynesian characters, it occurred to us that they might possibly have been Sandwich islanders and from them the natives may have obtained the word Debolo, which so much puzzled us. The Hawaiians, being Christians, would naturally apply the word to the native gods as a term of contempt; and the islanders not understanding, of course, its precise force, might adopt it as synonymous with their word atua, deity.
This ship wrecked upon the reef of Fakaofu or the visit of Captain Morvan probably brought the European beads and articles which Hale and Hudson found in the possession of the natives at both Fakaofu and Atafu. There are no other records of visiting ships before 1841. The first-hand account of Hale is a picture of the Tokelau people in the virgin state of their culture when Fakaofu had become supreme in the group.
In 1841 Captain Hudson sailed southward from Fakaofu to find Quiros Island, the location of which he had learned in Samoa from a whaling captain named Swain. He ran down Olosenga, and seeing no inhabitants on it, sailed around to make a running survey. He gave the atoll the name “Swains Island”, after his informant in Samoa, by which name it is now generally known.
Not long after the arrival of Hudson, three Frenchmen settled on Olosenga as agents of a French company to procure oil. Natives from Fakaofu were living on the island at the time of their arrival. In 1856 an American, Eli Jennings from New Bedford, who had lived and married in Samoa, came to the island. Jennings took over the island and the native laborers from the
Since the latter half of the nineteenth century the atolls of Atafu, Nukunono, and Fakaofu have been in contact with the outside world through the vessels of missionaries and traders; and the history of the people is fairly well known.
In 1846 a hurricane devastated Fakaofu. To escape starvation, many of the natives set out in their canoes to go, presumably, to Nukunono which had escaped the storm (p. 28). But winds dispersed the canoes and only two survived. These landed eventually at Uvea (Wallis Island) and found there the Catholic missionaries who had been converting the Wallis islanders since 1837. The discovery of Fakaofu had been known to the missionaries for only five years, and this was their first contact with the natives. In 1852 another hurricane swept over Fakaofu, and news of the subsequent havoc and starvation finally reached Samoa. Mgr. Bataillon, head of the Samoan Catholic mission, sent a ship from Samoa to Wallis, where the natives loaded 16,000 coconuts on board for the starving Tokelau people; and the ship sailed to their rescue under the leadership of Father Padel (1). South Americans had raided the island for laborers not many years before, and the Fakaofu people, in spite of their plight, refused to go on board the ship, as they feared some ruse to carry them away. Only by long hours of argument, by defying the natives' god, and by burning his temple and the mats which were bound about his stone did Father Padel finally convince the people to leave their island. However, several of the old people would not leave, and the priest was forced to send back some of the younger people to care for their elders.
In 1861 Mgr. Bataillon and Father Poupinel took back to Tokelau a party of 16 men and women who had gone to Wallis in 1852. During their sojourn at Wallis they had been converted to Christianity. The people who had remained at Fakaofu would not accept the missionaries or allow the converts to preach in the island, although they would allow the latter to return to their former homes. But the missionaries would not permit this and set sail again with all their natives on board. The chief's son was among those who were to be carried away from the island for the second time. His old father, too grieved to lose his son again, at the last moment rushed out to the ship and granted permission for the missionaries to land and preach Christianity.
In 1863 Father Elloy of Samoa visited Fakaofu but found that paganism still reigned. His visit was ill received by the natives. He continued to the
In the same years that the Catholics were introducing their faith among the Tokelau people, the London Missionary Society was sending trained native teachers from Samoa to convert the Tokelau people to Protestantism. In 1858 the mission ship John Williams had visited Fakaofu with the Rev. Murray, but the natives were not receptive to the idea of having two mission-trained Rarotongans among them, saying that there was no place for them to live and nothing to eat. Two Tokelau men aboard the ship, who had found their way to Samoa some years before, were left with the hope that they would introduce Christianity. The Reverend Murray (18) reports tersely: “We did not accomplish all that we desired.”
The ship sailed to Atafu where they left the two native teachers intended for Fakaofu. The new teaching was immediately successful and the next year two canoes set out with one of the Samoan missionaries to carry Christianity to the other islands. At Nukunono they found the people already converted to Catholicism, and after spending five days there they went to Fakaofu, where the chief and his counselor opposed Christianity. The chief ruled that all those who wished to become Christians must go to Atafu to live under the leadership of Mafala, the Samoan teacher. Mafala's party got as far as Nukunono safely, but on the way to Atafu they were driven by head winds to Samoa, nearly 300 miles away. The same year they were returned to Atafu by a mission ship. The mission ships returned again in 1865 and 1868.
Atafu has always been entirely Protestant, and Nukunono, Catholic, but Fakaofu has members of both churches. At Fakaofu the Catholics were molested for many years, and twice there have been fights between the two religious groups. In the fight which occurred about 1880 the high chief was killed.
The full account of the raids of South Americans upon these isolated and unprotected atolls can never be made. According to the reports of missionaries, the capturing of natives from the Tokelau Islands began before 1852 and lasted as late as 1867 or 1870. Both Nukunono and Fakaofu suffered much. According to the Reverend Newell (19) 247 people were taken from Fakaofu in 1863. Probably it was at this same time that Nukunono was raided, leaving only 80 inhabitants. Just before the arrival of the missionary ship in 1868 the Peruvians had taken 116 men from Fakaofu and 30 men from Atafu.
In 1877 the Tokelau Islands were nominally included under the protection of Great Britain by an Order in Council which claimed jurisdiction over all islands of the Pacific not previously ceded or claimed by other powers. In 1889 Commander Oldham on H.M.S Egeria landed at each of the three northern atolls and officially raised the Union Jack, declaring the group under the protectorate of Great Britain. In 1916 the Tokelau Islands, called officially the Union Islands, were incorporated into the Colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1925 the Union Islands were transferred to the Administration of Western Samoa, a New Zealand mandate. This was most acceptable to the natives who feel they have some bonds of kindship with Samoa and regard her with affection as the source of their missionaries. At this time Swains Island, Olosenga, was placed by request of the Jennings family under the jurisdiction of American Samoa.
At present all government is administered by native officials. Each island has a magistrate (faipule) who combines the duties of judge and head of the village council, a mayor (pulenu'u), a chief of police and one or two policemen (leoleo), all of whom are appointed and paid by the administration at Samoa. Annually a member of the Native Office in Samoa visits the islands to judge cases outside the jurisdiction of the native official and to settle any local difficulties.
Each village has a native council (fono) of men who determine all matters of village government and policy. The women have a committee, presided over by the pastor's wife, which inspects daily the sanitation of the houses and the health of the small children.
One native medical practitioner is the health officer for all the islands, though each village has a dresser and a nurse to do the superficial medical work. At Atafu there is a hospital to which the serious cases of sickness are sent from all the islands.
Fakaofu has a wireless station operated by a native boy who communicates daily with Apia, Samoa.
The individual is a member of two divisions of society throughout life. The first and more definite grouping is the kindred, a vertical division of society, based either on recognized lineal descent from a common ancestor or adoption. Descent is reckoned primarily through the patrilineal line, though the matrilineal line determines many social relations and activities. The second grouping is the generations, a horizontal division based on age, cutting across kindred. Five generations may live during the lifetime of the individual, but only three function actively in the life of society—the children, the adolescents and young married people who make the body of the community, and the older people who direct the welfare of society.
Each individual living a full span of life passes through these three periods and in each his position in the family and community changes. In childhood, he has few responsibilities. Through adolescence, he is a junior member of his family group and of society, a worker providing food, doing most of the menial labor, and caring for his elders. During this period marriage usually takes place and the individual establishes his own family. In the last period, the individual no longer does the manual labor but becomes head of his household and shares in the direction of the kindred and community affairs. The passage from one period to the next is marked by rites or initiatory preparations which allow the individual to pass safely into the following phase of life.
The physiological processes of conception and the part of fatherhood in the production of children were fully appreciated here as elsewhere in Polynesia. The offspring was known to be descended from both the father's and the mother's lines.
The time of birth was calculated from the cessation of menstruation, which was recognized as the symptom of pregnancy. In former times delivery was expected after nine moons had passed. The projection of the umbilicus from the distended abdomen of the woman was considered also as a sign of the month of the delivery. At the end of her pregnancy the woman was massaged every day and taken on walks which were thought to bring on an easy delivery. No food tapus were placed upon her. The only restriction was that she must always be accompanied by other people when she entered the plantations and gardens beyond the village or traveled to other islets. At night a man always accompanied her to protect her from the attacks of spirits.
Birth took place in the home of the mother's parents. At the commencement of labor pains, the husband sent for the midwife (sisiki), and the husband and two or three women of the wife's family aided at the delivery. The woman was screened by mats at one end of the house. Relatives gathered in the outer chamber but were not allowed to witness the operations.
A young boy or girl was sent to watch the tide, for it was thought very propitious for the ease of the mother that her delivery take place at flood tide. As the full tide turned and ebbed it was believed a magical influence of like producing like would aid the woman in labor. The tide was watched particularly if the labor pains were protracted and delivery delayed. Messengers were constantly sent for reports on the sea, and as full tide was reached the woman was fed the very soft pith from the top of a coconut tree, which acted as a stimulant. As soon as the child was born and had begun to cry, the women relatives set up a shout of “Tulou! Tulou!” to hide the cries of the baby from any evil spirit hovering to steal the soul of the child.
Either of two positions was taken by the woman during the accouchement. She lay on her back with her husband sitting behind her head or reclined in his lap while he held her under her arms. This second position, however, was not commonly practiced. Lying on the floor the woman put her arms behind her and clasped her husband around his neck to brace herself during the delivery. The midwife sat opposite the husband and received the child on a soft mat. If the delivery was delayed, the midwife massaged the woman's abdomen, and expertly inserted her hand to turn the child.
A bed of soft puka leaves was placed under the woman's thighs before delivery, and after the birth a pad of these leaves was placed against her vagina and held firmly in place by a plaited bandage (noafaele laupuka) attached to a belt. It was also customary to wrap a band (noa faele) of soft matting made of pandanus (laukie) 4 or 5 inches wide around the woman's abdomen as a support and to help her regain her natural figure. This band is unfortunately no longer worn by the Tokelau women.
As soon as the child lay fully on the mat, the midwife inspected it. She sucked the mucous from its mouth and nose, and if it was pale and lifeless she blew into its mouth. If any blood was pulsating from the mother, she pressed it into the child by working on the umbilical cord (pito) with two fingers, for the blood was considered the life of the child and would cause it to cry. Then the cord was immediately tied with a thread of hibiscus bark (fau) and cut with a pearl shell knife (tifa). If it continued to bleed unnaturally the end was stopped with a fine white powder scraped from a fresh coconut stipule (kaka).
The child was bathed with warm water and wrapped in soft puka leaves. On the first day it was fed the juice of very young coconuts and the milk or cream squeezed from grated coconuts. For the first-born this feeding
After birth the severed cord and placenta were buried beneath a stone, and a coconut was planted over them. The tree growing from the nut became the property of the child. A mutual sympathy existed between child and tree. As the tree grew, so the child grew—straight and strong, or bowed and weak. When the two reached maturity the tree bore fruit for its owner.
When the child was one day old, magical influence was practiced to bring him success in the most important part of his life's work. A male child was given pieces of raw bonito to suck so that he might become a skilled fishing captain. A baby girl was given the tips of a squid's tentacles to play with and suck, so that she might become a clever fisherwoman on the reefs.
The mother of a first-born child remained in the house for five days and then went to the beach to bathe herself, after which she was massaged and rubbed with coconut oil. Then she dressed in her finest mats, a necklace, and head wreath of flowers, and paraded through the village and into the meeting house (falefono). She was accompanied by a young woman of the family and followed by several male relatives, who were armed with spears. The rest of the village gathered in the meeting house or along the way and joined in singing while admiring her beauty, considered in its prime at this time. After the display she returned to her house where she suckled her baby for the first time. According to Burrows (5) this public appearance of the mother after the birth of the first child took place ten days after delivery. If a woman moved to another island of the group and had a child there, the same ceremony was performed whether it was her first child or not.
As soon as a birth had taken place, relatives who were waiting in the home began preparations for a birth feast (katamunga). Mats, which had been plaited after the announcement of conception, were brought as gifts (sanga o te alopo'u). The small epe epe mats were plaited of fala pandanus; the kiekie mats were plaited of kie pandanus.
Little importance was attached to the naming of children. The name was chosen by the parents either before or after the birth.
No true religious rites were performed for the benefit of new-born babies or the protection of the mothers. If the parents of a child were especially delighted and wished to demonstrate their appreciation to the gods, they made a special offering for the child to the supreme deity, Tui Tokelau, at the annual ceremony following the birth of the child.
It was believed that twins were the result of overwork during pregnancy. Twins had but one “soul” or spirit between them, and if one should die the other would probably follow. (Improper feeding is the chief cause of infant mortality and, as twins receive identical treatment, both are likely to die if improperly treated.) It was recognized that twins are likely to appear in
masanga alei; twins of the same sex, masanga.
A child stayed with his mother, or with a wet-nurse living outside the home, until he was weaned—a period which often lasted two years. Adoption was common, and a child frequently left home when he was one or two years old. No strong feeling of solidarity existed within the family proper and children were freely exchanged. Collateral relatives of the parents who were childless often brought up a child. When a child was old enough to assist in the work of the household and had several young brothers and sisters, he was sent to help his grandparents, if they were not living in the home of his parents, or to an aunt or uncle who needed extra help. Children frequently left home of their own accord. In the simple village life, where the children roamed in and out of every house, the separation from parents was not absolute. A child always knew who his true parents were and understood his relationship to his foster parents.
An eldest girl grew up in the house of her mother and remained there. The eldest son usually was taken before he was weaned and was nursed by his adoptive mother, the father's eldest sister, or another aunt in her house, who took especial care of him as the heir in her kindred by direct lineal descent in the male line. She was his matua sa (sacred mother) and he was her tama sa (sacred child). His cousins, the true children of his adoptive mother or aunt, who were living in the household, became his brothers and sisters. The close relationship of these cousins is shown in the extension to them of the same kinship terms used for actual brothers and sisters.
While the children were young they were unclothed and intermingled without regard to sex or relationship, but as soon as brothers and sisters approached puberty they observed strict rules of avoidance, carried on throughout life between all relatives of the same generation who were termed brother or sister by one of the opposite sex. This usually included all cousins to the fourth degree. All communication between a brother and sister was passed through the intermediary of their mother. A boy must not utter any indecent or obscene language before his sister or conduct himself incorrectly; he must not sit on a mat with her or enter a house where she was. A sister left the presence of a brother unless he was much younger. This avoidance was more rigorous between true brothers and sisters and first cousins than between more distant relatives, but the freedom that existed between unrelated girls and boys was never permitted.
As soon as a child could run about he played outdoors in the village or on the beach under the guardianship of an older brother or sister. His play
At the first signs of puberty young boys put on a plaited leaf breechcloth (malo); young girls wore the thick pandanus leaf skirt (titi). The boys left their homes where their sisters and female cousins slept and lived in the men's houses (fale pa).
In former times the village contained several men's houses. All the unmarried male members of a family belonged to one house, which was used as a clubhouse as well as for sleeping quarters. Here men spent their leisure time talking or performing the lighter crafts, such as making fishhooks or twisting fiber into cord and rope.
While living in the men's houses the education of the boys was completed. They went as crew in the canoes on fishing excursions or across the lagoon to the plantations of coconut and pandanus on the windward islets to gather food. They prepared ovens and built fires and did much of the cooking and serving for the men in the house. They learned to make all the implements used in fishing, and the sons or nephews of a carpenter (tofunga) often learned from him to build houses or canoes. After work the boys sat about and listened to the tales of the older men.
All male members of society were circumcised, sometimes at puberty, but usually five or six years later. When the village council decided that there were enough uncircumcised boys for a group operation, the operator (to-funga), Te Nifo (the Tooth, because he operated with a shark's tooth), was ordered to confine them in a single house for the operation. The operation, which was, strictly speaking, superincision, was performed by pulling the foreskin forward and raising it on to a small, flat stick. A longitudinal slit was then made with a shark's tooth. Nothing was applied to aid the healing or to cover the incision.
The boys were forced to remain in the house until they were well healed. It was tapu to leave even for food. The sons of their father's sisters (ilamutu) accompanied the operator each day to bring food which consisted solely of coconuts in the niumata stage. Fish was tapu.
When the healing was completed the families of the boys gave a feast of announcement (te kainga o te katala faele). At this time the boys repaid their cousins with gifts for the supply of food which they had brought.
A woman considered an uncircumcised man unfit to marry.
The tapu placed on men and women of blood relationship was the only restriction on unmarried people in sexual matters. Both boys and girls entered upon a series of love affairs and experiences, which received the tacit consent of their parents as long as they did not become scandalous.
Marriage took place when the children were 16 or 18 years old and was usually the result of parental planning. The family council, which decided the matter of a boy's marriage, was composed chiefly of members of the paternal side of the family from whom the boy would receive the greater part of his inheritance.
In making formal suit, the boy called upon the parents of the girl and presented them with a gift of food (kainiu) which they accepted. After the formal and evasive remarks which always preface the conversation of Polynesians soliciting for one another, the boy made the most indirect and brief allusion to the object of his visit and departed. The girl's family made inquiries about the boy's character and ability to fish and work. The immediate kin of the girl met to discuss the proposed alliance and then informed the boy of their decision. He carried the news to his own family.
Frequently a match was initiated by the boy's father in order to unite two prominent families or to secure a girl of wealth and prestige. The girl's father usually desired an industrious youth, able to work the land and heir to large holdings in his own line. The preliminary arrangements were made by the fathers of the couple.
When the boy decided the question of marriage himself he usually sent an intermediary, some boy friend, who carried to the young girl a flower or a head wreath made by the suitor and announced to her who had sent it. The girl showed her interest by accepting the gift, and if she was willing to marry the young man she wore it in public where he would be sure to see her. If there had been much intimacy between the two, the boy might make his proposal directly at some secret meeting on the beach or in the plantations beyond the village.
If love matches were disapproved by the parents as being socially unsuitable, the couple took a canoe and paddled across the lagoon, living perhaps in some little hut used by food gatherers. In a few days they returned and the families reluctantly submitted to the inevitable and allowed the two to set up their own household in the village or to reside with the girl's parents as a married couple of the community.
The relatives on both sides helped in preparing for the marriage. The boy's eldest paternal aunt (matua sa), as female head of the father's line, decided how many mats were to be made as gifts to the couple, and divided the work among the women of her kindred. She also took charge of the preparation of the food for the wedding. Her daughters, the boy's female
ilamutu) also prepared mats for him. The boy's maternal relatives prepared mats as gifts for the wedding, but the marriage was less important to them.
The girl's mother and her eldest maternal aunt, who controlled the female side of the mother's kindred, took charge of the girl's affairs. The mother's eldest brother had more authority at this time and more interest than the father, gathering the food for the wedding feast and directing the work of the kindred. The wedding feast consisted of a few large fish, perhaps a turtle, a pile of coconuts, and dishes of cooked coconut meat and pandanus fruit, for the island produced no garden fruits or fowls.
A group of the villagers marched among the houses singing and shouting the formal announcement to all the community: “Kaitaoso, Kaitaoso, Kaikati, te mafua, ngutu” (Jump like a fish, jump like a fish, eat by biting the small fish bait in your mouth). This was sung to the bridegroom who secured his bride (literally, the bait) in the wedding. The wedding ceremony consisted only of the presentation of gifts and feasting. All relatives of the couple came to the wedding feast (kainganiunga) bearing the gift mats which they placed before the bride and groom. The bride received the mats of the groom's family, divided them, and presented them to the members of her family who had brought mats. The groom took the mats of the bride's family and distributed them among his relatives. All who aided in preparing for the wedding or contributed to the family display of wealth by the presentation of mats were repaid from gifts brought by relatives of the son-in-law or daughter-in-law. The couple received little of the wealth which passed through their hands. When the distribution was completed, the couple sat together for most of the day, eating with the guests who had come to pay their respects. No symbolic joining of the two, other than their remaining together on a mat throughout the day, signified their marriage. The groom remained at his wife's house and was allowed to sleep with her on the first night. The consummation was called moemuli. Virginity was not held at great premium, and no tests or formal proof were made to the family of the groom.
Because of fear of incest all cousins within four degrees of kinship on either side of the family were barred from marriage. However, many marriages between third and fourth cousins are found in the genealogy of the first settler of Atafu, and it is probable that on atolls where the populations were never large the extreme limits of the tapu have been disregarded through necessity.
Polygyny (taunonofo) was practiced, but cases of it are few in the records of early observers on the islands. Pio, one of the first men from Fakaofu to settle on Atafu, had two wives and two separate establishments. The children of his two wives are reckoned separately in the genealogies of
Men had recognized mistresses whom they visited in the women's houses and who were called wives (avanga) of the man but were free to marry other men in the village. Women who easily granted their favors to men of the village were called fafine taka, and a man who was known to cohabit regularly with one woman was termed moe fale pa. (This latter term suggests that the woman went to the men's house (fale pa) to sleep (moe) with her lover.) This license doubtlessly existed mainly among the unmarried group, for adultery was regarded as one of the most serious crimes against society. If a woman was found to be unfaithful to her husband, she suffered siki te fua (lifting the jealousy or avenging the husband). The family of the husband destroyed the woman's house, canoe, and property which was owned by her close blood relations, who dared not resist. The public shame and guilt were shared by all members of the family as well as by the iniquitous woman. This act freed the husband from any ties to his wife or obligations to her family. A mutual agreement of separation was common between husbands and wives who found life together unpleasant or incompatible. This constituted divorce if the separation continued over a long period of time.
No modern substitute has been found for the punishment of adultery and the separation of incompatibles. Without the fear of the old law, abolished by government and church, much promiscuity exists.
After marriage, the husband lived in the house of his wife's family and worked and fished with her kindred, but his social group remained primarily that of his father. He took part in the activities of his own kindred and received a share of the fruits of his father's land when they were needed. His father or the head of his kindred still exercised authority over him in all interests of their kindred.
The girl remained a daughter of her family's house and continued her daily work of caring for the small brothers and sisters, and assisting her mother and the older women of the house in all their work. With the news of her pregnancy, her position became more honored. The news was heralded with great rejoicing by both families and a feast of the first pregnancy was immediately planned. The cherished hope of both families for an heir was now promised and the marriage was considered a success.
When the young couple had children, they still remained in the home of the wife's parents if she was the eldest daughter of the family; but if she was a younger daughter, they frequently set up their own home on the land of the kindred of either side. There is still much variation in this final
When a man had established a household of his own and had become skilled in man's crafts, he assumed an authoritative position within his kindred and retired from active participation in the work for the household, now done by his sons and sons-in-law. He became a member of the village council, a position corresponding to that of the matai of Samoa, who is elected head of his kindred ('ainga) and inherits the family title. If a man was a skilled bonito fisherman, he was given a second position of importance, that of fishing captain (tautai) in the family canoe.
A man never gave up his fishing until he had become too infirm to paddle his canoe. If he lived to be 65 or 70 years old he joined the chief council group of the village who, with the high chief, governed the community. He and his wife moved to a small house and were cared for by two or three of their elder grandchildren who brought them food from the family oven.
After death, the body of a man was prepared for burial by his father's sister, the body of a woman by her mother's sister. With the aid of other women she washed and oiled the body and dressed it in a new garment of coconut or hibiscus leaf, decorating it with flowers and a wreath on the head. It was finally wrapped in new mats before burial which took place on the day of death. With it were put the mats and pearl shell ornaments (lei) which friends and family had presented.
The death of a member of the family was an important event to all relatives, who immediately came to express their grief over the body. As soon as the freshly dressed corpse was laid on mats in the center of the house, the family gathered about it and commenced wailing (tangi) and calling the name of the deceased. Each new arrival wailed vociferously for several minutes but, quickly exhausting himself, his cries subsided to the occasional moaning of the others who had already spent themselves and sat rocking their bodies back and forth, gazing at the corpse before them. In modern times this is the only sign of grief except on the part of the wife, who visits the grave of her husband to wail and call upon him to come back. In the past, close relatives shaved off their hair, burned their skin with small burning points of wood, and displayed their grief with much suffering. Relatives performed dances and songs of the dead outside the house of mourning.
taualofa, tangi) were performed with arm motions while the performers were seated (14).
The immediate family was confined within their own house under a tapu for a period of 10 days (falemanu) to placate the gods and particularly the spirit of the deceased. Wall screens were dropped and the family sat quietly inside, forbidden to disturb anything or to leave the house for any social observance, even though it were a call to the deathbed of another relative. Anyone who broke the tapu would be killed by a god. A screen of mats was arranged from the house to the sea in order that the inmates might pass to the sea unobserved to perform their toilet. During this time no cooking could be done by the family. All food was brought by neighbors or distant relatives, who left promptly. No other visitors were permitted.
Burials are made today with the bodies extended, but Lister (14, p. 55) says of former customs:
The body was placed in the grave, lying on the back, and with the knees bent to the utmost extent, so that the leg was parallel with the thigh. The thigh was extended in line with the body. Two leaflets were laid transversely across the chest. No food or weapons were placed in the grave with it.
The natives say that formerly graves were made without marks of identification, but Lister (14) states:
The grave was about 3 feet deep; a mound of coral shingle was raised over it, with a vertical slab of stone at the head and other slabs laid on the top and sides of the mound.
The grave was made close to the house or in the floor of the house and when the body was lowered into it the eldest sister of the deceased sat at the head of the grave. Since Christianity has been introduced into the islands, separate cemeteries have been made outside the confines of the village, in which the graves are 6 or 7 feet long (pl. 10, A).
Lister (14, p. 55) writes:
For five nights after the burial the relatives came to the grave, and, removing the stone which lay over the region of the head, poured coconut oil into the heap … with a cry of mourning. This anointing the grave with oil is still performed in Tonga.
After two or three days the body was disinterred and brought into the house. The family again washed and oiled it, wrapped fresh mats about it, and buried it again. The new grave was made a fathom deep.
The family consisting of father, mother, and children is considered a biological unit. It is the source of the living group or household, but not a social entity, participating in social life as a self-contained group. In its
The determining factor in the arrangement and function of the household is economic. The household is a cooperative domestic unit, in which the members share the land, its produce, and the work. They live together in one house or in nearby sleeping huts and use a common cook shed and fishing canoe. Household affairs are directed by the senior mother and her husband.
Kinship is extended to persons connected by lineal descent and collateral relationship in both the mother's and the father's family, but genealogies are reckoned by patrilineal descent. In counting generations or tracing relationship, personal names are used. Kinship terminology is applied to contemporary relations with whom the individual is normally associated. This terminology classifies the two preceding and two succeeding generations in lineal descent and collateral relationship. Table 4 is arranged with the generation of the individual in the middle of the horizontal divisions, the first and second preceding generations above, and the first and second succeeding generations below.
Matua sa or matua tauaitu was given as the general term for the father's sister. Actually this term is applied only to the father's eldest sister, who has a particular relationship to her brothers' children and a magical power to curse her brothers and their children, which is reflected in the term tauaitu. The younger sisters of the father are potential matua sa, for if the eldest sister dies, the sister next in age assumes the position of matua sa and inherits the power to curse. The term ilamutu is given for all children of the father's sisters, but the children of the eldest daughter fulfill most of the ilamutu's obligations.
All ancestors of three generations or more before the individual are termed tupunga, not tupuna, the term for grandparent. All descendants of two generations or more after the individual are termed makupuna.
Uso, which in Samoa means sibling of the same sex as the speaker, is used in the Tokelau dialect with the same meaning, but is also used as a term embracing all one's closer collateral relatives, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Tausonga, which in Samoa means sibling of the opposite sex to the speaker, refers only to the distant relatives of one's kinship group, irrespective of generation. The meaning of “close” and “distant” in the terms uso and tausonga was neither substantiated nor denied by several informants and is perhaps a recent and secondary usage.
Specific affinitive terms are lacking except the single term for one's mate, avanga. The sex of the person spoken of is obvious from the use of the word by the speaker. Other relationships by marriage are designated descriptively as: tamana taku avanga (the father of my husband or wife), avanga taku tama fafine (the husband of my daughter), matua taku avanga (the mother of my husband or wife).
A child is tama, and to designate sex, tane (boy) or fafine (girl) is added. Tamafine was heard in conversations and is probably a synonym for girl. Ataliki (son) and afafine (daughter) are common terms and were said by one informant to be used by both father and mother. This is contrary to Samoan usage, where only the father designates his children thus.
Foster children or brothers and sisters are designated by the same terms as blood relations with the addition of fai (made). Tamana fai is used to distinguish an adopted son from tama moni (true son) or taku tama (my son). Tamana moni distinguishes a true father from tamana, who may be a father or a father's brother.
Parallel cousins are distinguished as either brothers or sisters of the speaker. Parallel cousins of the opposite sex on the father's side of the family are classed as taina fetau taina and on the mother's side as tuafafine fetau taina.
The functional social group based on blood relationship is the kindred or persons reckoning descent and inheriting property from a common ancestor. Theoretically kinship is reckoned with all those who can trace descent from the earliest common ancestor, but for the requirements of exogamic marriage, the social obligations of blood relatives, and the practical division of land the kindreds trace their origin from a later ancestor.
The kindred is directed by the eldest living male. When he dies the position passes to his younger brothers, and when they die, to the eldest son of the first head. In this succession system the Tokelau custom of giving the leadership of a group to the eldest man is combined with the usual Polynesian custom of inheriting chieftainship directly from father to eldest son. Formerly the kindred head (matai) received an hereditary title, but due to the modern tendency of society towards a greater independence of the family and household and private ownership of land, this, and the use of the term matai, have been dropped. The kindred head superintends the care and use of kindred lands and directs the affairs and councils of the kindred. However, his residence is in his wife's house, and the land he works is the property of his wife's kindred. Because of his absence from the daily life of his own kindred and his residence away from the land, his eldest sister assumes a position of great importance. She resides on her kindred's property,
The kindred is not a stable institution but increases with each generation. When it becomes too large to function as a unit, it gradually regroups itself into new kindreds. The common ownership of land is, however, the determining factor in the formation of the kindred, for when the land of a kindred is divided, new groups form in the succeeding generations, each based on the ownership and inheritance of one of the new land divisions.
The development of kindred groups from the division of lands at Atafu during its short history of five generations illustrates the formation and organization of the Tokelau kindred. The Atafu community, established by Tonuia and his family with a few followers from Fakaofu, was originally composed of his five married sons, Pio, Malokie, Laufati, Vaovela, and Taua; his two daughters, Fekei and Levao; Fekei's husband, Faunga, and Levao's husband, Nofoloa; and five others, Folosanga and his two sons, Fuati and Folosanga; and Pepe and Fakavanga, brothers of Laufali's wife. Tonuia was chief and priest of the community by appointment of the high chief at Fakaofu, but he was also head authority by right, as the eldest man of the kinship group, which, except for three members, comprised the entire community.
Before Tonuia's death he divided the land among his sons and daughters. Each of them had an individual household whose membership was increased by the marriage of children with people brought from Nukunono and Fakaofu. With increasing size and separate land rights, each household became more self-sufficient and occupied with its own existence, although still belonging in the kindred.
Tonuia's children redivided among their children the shares of land they had received in the original division. Some of Tonuia's grandchildren lived in the original households, and others established new homes. Except in one line, where the land division was inherited in the second generation by one person who redivided it again, the complete subdivision of the land among individual owners ended with the generation of Tonuia's grandchildren. Since then the descendants of each grandchild have inherited and owned these divisions in common, the individual receiving the right to use his kindred's land.
The mode of inheritance by these later generations has been very irregular. In some families a right to the use of a share of the land was given to each child of the next generation. In other families the whole was passed on to the eldest son or a daughter, who allotted subdivisions to the brothers and sisters. In all families, the eldest son has directed the use of the land. When two people, both descended from Atafu families, marry, they and their descendants have a claim to the use of the land of both kindreds. However, they usually use the land of only one kindred and succeeding generations drop the secondary kinship. From Tonuia's original kindred there developed secondary kindreds of his children, split into still other kindreds by his grandchildren. The subdividing ended with the cessation of distributing the land among individuals.
Within each village were several large houses (fale pa) where the men gathered in leisure hours and the unmarried men and older boys slept. Membership in these houses was probably originally based on kinship. In Fakaofu the seven fale pa were named: Tolunga fale (the council house), Safiti, Saletama, Sakimoa, Sakoaa, Polokaa, and Satuiatafu; the three at Atafu were: Tepokulu (the council house), Afekei, and Alato; the five at Nukunono were: Fale fono (the council house), Satau, Tenofoaliki, Salei, and Teakafitau. Seven of these names begin with the prefix sa. In Samoa sa means “family of” (all the descendants of a first ancestor); in Tonga the corresponding haa means “lineage” or “tribe”. My informant in Tokelau stated that the membership of the fale pa was based on neighborhood and that sa (ha) meant “all the people of one district of the village”. But if sa originally meant a family, it would come to mean the people of a village district who lived together as a group through kinship and inheritance of a piece of land from the original family. With the increase in numbers of each kindred and the subdividing of kindred lands, the original kindred as a kau-kainga was redivided through the generations, but a wider common kinship was preserved in the fale pa. The sa was probably the largest kinship grouping within the village, whose existence is inferred through the fale pa.
At Atafu the fale pa, whose organization was brought from Fakaofu but not based on the sa, existed only during the first three generations. Afekei was the fale pa of the people of the north end of the village which is still called by the same name. Alato was the fale pa of Asanga, the southern part of the village.
In Fakaofu the men of the fale pa of Safiti and Saletama were the guardians and police of the village under the direction of the village council. The name fale pa (wall house) suggests that these houses may have originally been on the sea walls and had a secondary purpose as garrisons for defense.
tausoa) with hereditary membership are reported by Kennedy (13) in Vaitupu in the Ellice Islands:
In the village of Fale, there were seven tausoa, named Avatele, Asau, Suloi, Tuamaeu, Satalia, Naunaua, and Patiku. It is thought that their principal function was originally to divide the population into sections for purposes of defense … of a certain part of the island coastline and approaches to the village… . The high chief and his principal officials belonged to Avatele tausoa; minor officials were included in the membership of the other tausoa.
The ranking men's house in Tokelau was the government seat, to which the eldest men of the other fale pa were elected to act as the village council under the head chief of the village. At Nukunono this council house was called Falefono, the general name of the Samoan meeting house, possibly a modern name. At Fakaofu it was formerly called Tolunga Fale, now Falefono. At Atafu, the council house Pokulu is now supplanted by the Faleloa, which serves as a general rendezvous for the men of the village as well as the meeting place for the komiti or village government.
Each island had a chief and council which governed its society. While Nukunono and Atafu were subject to Fakaofu, the chief of Fakaofu was the supreme authority of all the islands. He was looked upon as king by the first missionaries and referred to by this title in their writings. All chiefs and council members were elders of their community, for advanced age was a requirement, if not the primary qualification, to hold office. The social principle that age and long experience were essential to gaining wisdom and sound judgment pervaded the whole social order. Even the heads of the kindreds were selected on this basis in preference to following the eldest line of patrilineal descent if this would bring a younger man into office. Even among the elders there was gradation of position according to age, which is illustrated in the order of seating at feasts. The high chief sat in the position of first rank, and the eldest men (kailau) sat beside him. Their juniors (kaikava) and the older men of the community sat next to them. The men of the kailau and kaikava were appointed by the high chief. It was tapu for others to sit among them or even for a kaikava to sit among his seniors; such a breach of etiquette or infraction of law would bring death by sickness upon the offender.
The importance of age is perhaps nowhere else in Polynesia so highly developed. Certainly the existence of only one or two hereditary offices is unusual. Nineteenth century visitors to Fakaofu were particularly impressed with the stress laid on age; they felt that age alone was the basis of election to council and high chieftainship. From the evidence Williamson (36) even suggests that the government of Fakaofu was once “purely gerontocratic”,
The high chief of the Tokelau Islands was a patriarchal head. He had full authority over all the people and established their laws, which he enforced by his power to curse any one to death. He was also at one time priest to the supreme deity, Tui Tokelau, through whom he brought a plentiful supply of food, sufficient rain, and stormless weather to his people.
His title is not clear. At Atafu he was referred to as the tupu, a term for the highest rank a chief can attain in the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savai'i, and Vaitupu in the Ellice Islands (13). The term is translated in the Samoan Bible as “king”, but never used in literature for the chief of the islands. Newell states that the high chief alone bore the title, ariki. The natives of Atafu used the word aliki to Hale (11) in referring to their chief who resided at Fakaofu. I believe that aliki is the original title for the high chief and that tupu refers to his supreme rank and may have been recently adopted. Turner says that the high chief was called Tui Tokelau, a term also used by an Atafu informant in referring to the high chief in his capacity as high priest and as living representative of this god. Newell suggests that Tui Tokelau may have been the first great chief of Fakaofu, who later became deified, and his title given to his successors but its use was tapu. The high chief was sometimes called Kava, the name of the first historical high chief and also of one of the first settlers in Fakaofuan tradition from whom three of the four chiefly lines are descended. Avafatu (the opening of stone), still another title of the high chief, is probably a figurative term referring to the mythological creation of man from the splitting open of a stone.
The succession of the high chief theoretically passed from father to eldest son but in actual practice often varied from this rule, due to the precedence given to age. A younger brother of a deceased high chief was appointed in preference to the eldest son if he were not at least a middle-aged man. The appointment was decided by election in the village council. Four lines were eligible to succession to the chieftainship, according to the most detailed information given by Newell (19):
The ariki is always the oldest male member of the four principal families of Fakaofu, all of whom trace their descent from the two brothers above referred to—namely, Kava and Pi'o. [Kava and Pio came from Samoa and were the first discoverers and owners of the land of Fakaofu, according to one tradition.] Their genealogical tree is thus given:
When the ariki dies the oldest man then living among these four families becomes ariki. No others possess this title, and there are no clan names or titles outside this circle. The Samoan custom of conferring the name of the head of the family upon the heir does not exist in the Tokelaus. No young man would under any circumstances become head of the clan so long as an older man was left to take the headship.
Turner (32) supports Newell's evidence by the statement: “There were three families from which the king was selected, and they always selected an aged man.”
Newell (19) assumes that, as in several other Polynesian islands, at one time the offices of chief and high priest were combined in one person whose power was later divided between two descendants of the same family:
Dr. Turner says that Tuitokelau was both king and priest. I was, however, informed that the king or ariki was not also vakatua or priest of the god. It seems probable that the two offices were originally combined in one person, but that afterwards as is now affirmed by the people of Fakaofo, the son of the ariki became king, but the son of his sister became priest.
[In a footnote Newell adds] As we have seen, this law of heredity with regard to the office of ariki does not now obtain on Fakaofo. I transcribe the exact words of the statement made to me about the offices of king and priest: “O tamafafine na fai ma vakatua; o tamatane na fai ma ariki”—Daughters became priestesses; sons became chiefs.
No evidence exists to indicate that women were ever priestesses. The translation of Newell's information should read, “The children of a sister became priests; the sons of the father became chiefs,” which was the correct order of succession. The use of the terms ariki and vaka atua by the natives does not show which one held higher rank.
From the change in mode of succession it seems probable that the offices of chief and high priest were divided. However, the dual division may have always existed until the appearance of Christian missionaries who stamped out the priesthood. When Newell came to Fakaofu, the office of high priest had already been abolished and he found only a secular high chief at the head of the native social order.
The high chief was a sacred person whose body could not be touched by others. He lived apart from the daily activities of the community attended by his family and household. He associated with the group of priests and the elder councillors, and attended only the most important of the village councils. The families of the village consecutively supplied him with food, which his own family prepared and served him on a coconut-leaf dish, plaited by a technique used only for this purpose. He had his own lands for additional food supply and a share of the best fish from every large catch. Turtles, which were sacred food, were presented to him, but only the head
The insignia of office, worn whenever the high chief walked abroad or performed any religious rite, was a chaplet of coconut leaflets attached to a section of midrib in front, divided to pass about his neck, and knotted so that the tips projected upward behind his head. A coconut leaflet, as a protecting flag or charm, was held by an escort sitting before the high chief when he went out in his canoe to meet European ships (32).
When the high chief died, a fire was lit in his house and large fires were built around the village and even in the trees. These burned throughout the night, an exception to the tapu which forbade any lights after dark, for they were in honor of the priest of Tui Tokelau, the god of fire. The high chief's death was also marked by the planting of coconuts, prohibited at all other times.
The family of the high chief and the members of the council gathered in his home and wailed over the body for three days where they remained in seclusion during the entire period of mourning. Outside, the people formed a great circle to sing death songs and to dance the funeral dances which they performed in a sitting position. Every person brought a mat or pearl shell pendant (lei) as a gift offering. If the fishing had been exceptionally good during the reign of the high chief, the fishing captains bestowed great numbers of these lei or bonito-hook shanks upon him for his good offices. The lei were made into a necklace and hung about the high chief's neck. Mats also were placed with the body and buried with him.
Before the body was interred, it was well rubbed with coconut oil and dressed in the finest of the family mats. In a peculiar ceremony (fakanofoanga) the body was paraded around the interior of the house by two priests, each holding an arm of the high chief across his shoulders with one hand, and moving a leg with the other hand. The other persons in the house sat in the center of the floor and sang. The body was then temporarily interred in the burying ground of the high chiefs, beside the council house, Tolunga Fale. It was removed after a few days, rubbed again with oil, and redressed in fresh mats. It was kept in the house for a day or two and replaced in the grave, this time at a greater depth than in the first burial. The grave was filled with smooth white coral pebbles (kapitilekamea) collected on the beaches, and the surface was covered with coral slabs. This monument was erected only on the grave of a high chief.
If any of the high chief's relatives came to Fakaofu from one of the other islands in the first few months after his death, his family exhumed the body in order that the visitors might see their beloved relative once more.
Membership in the village council, kau kolomatua (the company of old men), was confined to heads of kindreds. These heads were the eldest of the senior generation of their kindreds and at Fakaofu were elected by the fale pa. The approval of the high chief was necessary before they could take office.
The council deliberated on all land disputes, and serious infractions of the law under the advice of or by the consent of the high chief. It also directed community enterprises, decided the times for ceremonial fishing by the village fleet, and the gathering of food from the plantations.
The high chief was supreme head over the council, but the active leadership was carried on by a head of council who was also the executive officer of the high chief. He directed most civil matters, voiced the high chief's desires to the council, and acted as intermediary for the council and the people to the high chief. He was called the faipule by Atafu informants, but this is a term for the modern head of council, which was borrowed from Samoa and which was probably not used formerly. The term puseve for head of council is given by Thomson (31). Bird (2) considers the “speaker” (head of council) the real ruler.
Lister (14) states that in the government organization there was a judge (palapalau) who settled disputes not taken to council, but pronounced his decisions only after consultation with the high chief and priests. The priests were consulted by the high chief in all civil actions.
Land is the chief wealth and the dominant interest of the Tokelau native, and the main source of his subsistence and building materials. Rights to land are based on relationship to kindreds which forces everyone to know his genealogy accurately. Without land one can not exist in the community. This vital necessity for land is shown in the refusal of the Fakaofu natives to accept a Rarotongan teacher brought by the missionaries (p. 33). The natives inquired “Where is he to live? There is no food for him and he will die of starvation.” All the land of Fakaofu had been divided among the people, and there was none to be given to a stranger.
An individual's holding or subdivision consists of one large piece or several small pieces planted with coconuts, pieces of wooded land, and land in the village for houses or cook sheds. The boundaries of plantation land
The land of every atoll has been completely divided. At Fakaofu the land was divided by the first historical high chief, Kava Vasefanua, among the heads of families then living on the island, except for two islets kept for the use of the high chief and his family, and parts of other islets retained as communal lands to grow a reserve food supply. The land that was given to the heads of families became the common property of the kindreds descended from them. Each member of the kindred received the right to use a section of the land. These sections have been redivided by succeeding generations until at present, with the increased population, there are several families who have no land within the village on which to build their homes.
Part of Nukunono was once owned by Fakaofu. When the islands were included in the British Colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, this land was returned to Nukunono and paid for by copra. All the land is now divided among the kindreds of the island. Land is still plentiful, for the area is large and the population has remained small since the depletion suffered from slave raiders.
At Atafu two pieces of land were set aside by Tonuia as communal land. The coconuts and pandanus fruit on this land are harvested by the village only in times of necessity, and timber, coconut, and fala pandanus leaves are reserved for communal enterprises.
The islet on which the village of Atafu is located was used jointly by the kindred during Tonuia's lifetime. After his death his children divided the land north of the village, which extends from the village to the well in the northwestern corner of the islet. The remaining northeastern end of the islet was divided later among his grandchildren and the men then living on Atafu. A piece of land near the northeastern tip was given to two missionaries, a Rarotongan and a Samoan. When they left, the land was divided again.
During a hurricane in 1914, the sea currents deposited sand and loose coral at the end of the village, filling in the canoe passage and adding a few acres of new land. The present new canoe passage was made by the water flowing from the lagoon. The new land was divided by the village council between the church and all the adult men of the village. Fourteen strips were marked out, each strip being 30 feet wide and extending from the old shore line to the new one. Each strip was given to two men who held the land as their personal property exclusive of their kindred holdings. The second section was made communal land for the pastor's house and school.
The first settlement was made at the site of the present village at the southern end of Atafu Islet, where there was a canoe passage from the lagoon to the open sea (fig. 5). The houses were erected along the lagoon shore 8 or 9 feet above water level to receive the cooling trade winds which blow across the atoll. They were protected from devastation by high tides and storm waves by breakwaters built in front of parts of the village and backed by a fill of coral rubble.
The first houses were those of the five sons of Tonuia: Vaovela, Pio, Malokie, Laua, and Laufali; his two daughters, Lovao and Fekei; and Ngaluava and Tuati, the sons of Folasanga who accompanied Tonuia. Their homes were built surrounding the house of Tonuia which served for a time as the god house of the community. Later Laua built two more houses; his son, Tongia, built a house for himself and his wife; Pio built a second house for his second wife; and five men, who had brought their families to Atafu after Tonuia, built houses at each end of the village. Of these five men, Kafa, Kiso, and Lou built close to the shore at the north end; Kaufala and Tepasu built their houses beside that of Laufali. There were three men's houses—Pokulu, Afekai, and Alato—built along the eastern shore and a god house at the northern end of the malae away from the houses. Several canoe sheds were built along the lagoon beach north of the southern breakwater and pier. The cook houses were all across the lagoon passage away from the trade wind. There was no systematic arrangement of the village; houses
The first breakwater was constructed by three men who came to Atafu shortly after Tonuia and built their houses at the northern end of the village. Later another section was built near the southern end of the islet. Between these two sea walls three stone piers were built into the lagoon from the village shore. They were 10 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 2 or 3 feet above sea level. At the end of each was a small house for a toilet that rested partly on the end of the pier and partly on piles in the water (pl. 16, A).
The modern village was laid out when the island was under the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (fig. 6). The paths, the arrangement of the modern, cooler types of houses, the segregation of the pigs from the village, and the clearance of all undergrowth were planned and accomplished under governmental supervision. However, the ownership of plots of land within the village and the two early divisions of the village, Afekei and Asanga, were not disturbed. Their division is marked by the
Afekei, the northern district, includes the newer part of the village. Lomaloma is the hospital group at the extreme northern end of the village. The name has been adopted from the name of a town, Lomaloma, in the Fiji group by the present native medical practitioner, Longolongo.
The old malae in the center of the village is unoccupied and has only a few shade trees. The church and reservoir have been built in the middle of it. The lower end is used for cricket matches and drying copra; the northern end has been turned into a communal garden, planted with an introduced taro (taamu), bananas, and papayas.
The entire village, from Lomaloma to the end of the eastern shore, is now protected by a breakwater, except for the intervals left for canoe beaches. At several points in the wall steps have been made to allow the people to descend to the water to bathe. The height of the breakwater above the water varies in different sections constructed at different times; the newer parts have an average height of 5 feet; the older walls are slightly lower. The last parts of the breakwater to be completed were the end sections. The Lomaloma end at the edge of the hospital grounds district was built under the direction of the present native medical practitioner; the southern end, which turns and runs inland 10 or 15 feet to a higher level, was built under the direction of the present missionary.
The outlet of the lagoon, which serves as a canoe passage, has changed its position three times during human habitation on the island. In the period of the early or pre-Fakaofu settlement the passage ran from the present mouth across the modern village parallel to the crosswalk ending at the council house. When the first settlement was made from Fakaofu, the outlet had moved to the boundary of the new land; in 1914 it changed to its present position.
The holder of a subdivision of kindred land may pass on his tenancy to his children in any manner he chooses. Normally the control and direction goes to the eldest son, who divides the holding among his brothers and sisters. Brothers who have sufficient land for their use in their wives'
When a person dies without children, the land reverts to his kindred. The reallotment is completely discussed by a council of the kindred and by the council of village elders, who hear all claims that any of the villagers may make. When the right to inheritance is disputed, the village councillors decide who among the members of the kindred shall receive the land. The use of the land is usually given to younger married relatives of the deceased.
The Report of the Administrator of Samoa (24) states:
When a young man marries they [the village council members] sit in council and allocate a piece of land to him… . The old men of the village are looked upon as Matais or chiefs, who each have their own area of land and assume the power to divide up the land as they think fit.
The village council is composed mostly of kindred heads who own the lands, but not by virtue of their membership in the council; they have no power to divide arbitrarily or give away lands which are kindred property. They control absolutely the use of the communal lands. They can forbid by tapu the trespassing and taking of coconuts from areas of the kindred plantations. Plantation lands are still set aside in rotation for the production of copra under the old system of tapuing land (lafu). Formerly the council of Fakaofu and the high priest placed a tapu on visiting all plantations of the atoll. Every few days the tapu was removed and all the people visited their plantations at the same time to gather food. This custom prevented the theft of coconuts and pandanus and kept a check on the food supply. If anyone broke the tapu, he died of a wasting sickness brought on by the curse of the high chief.
The landholder has the right to take coconuts, pandanus fruit, leaves and wood, except kanava, from his plantation. The division of these among members of the kindred outside the household is made by the kindred head or his eldest sister. A strict law forbids the cutting of any kanava trees without the consent of the kindred head. Thus the law controls the supply of kanava wood, used in making many articles, and ensures to each household material for a canoe. In pre-Christian times kanava trees were tapued by consecrating them to a god. (See p. 61.)
The elements in the religion of the Tokelau people were characteristic of the religions of western Polynesia. The pantheon was comprised of a supreme deity who resided in the sky and a group of nature gods who dwelt in the world. No stone maraes or platforms were erected to the gods. Ritual was very slight and almost entirely confined to an annual ceremony to the supreme deity. Communication was held with ancestral spirits. Nature spirits abounded in the woods and sea.
The supreme deity was Tui Tokelau, or Tui Tokelau Sili (Tui Tokelau, the highest), who resided in the sky. The name does not appear among the gods elsewhere in Polynesia, and his title, Tui, is the Tongan and Samoan term for chief, which suggests that he was a deified chief. This is supported by an account (26) written by the Rarotongan native teacher who visited Fakaofu in 1848:
The people set up their gods and gave them names, Tui Tokelau being the principal and most powerful. His advent at Tokelau was witnessed by the people. He descended from the sky and his arrival was accompanied by thunder and lightning. He is a cannibal god and appears in the night when all are asleep, with a coconut leaf in his hand with which he snares the spirit of man from his body, and when daylight comes, that man who has thus been acted upon dies.
Wilkes (34) states that Tui Tokelau was also called Tangaloa i lunga i langi (Tangaloa above in the sky). Tangaloa was a Samoan god who appeared in the mythology of Tokelau but not in the pantheon of gods. It is probable that some of his attributes were ascribed to Tui Tokelau.
Tui Tokelau controlled all nature and the food supply of the people. He was propitiated each year with offerings to make the fish and coconuts plentiful and to send sufficient rain. A coral slab erected to Tui Tokelau at Fakaofu had certain supernatural powers, according to Lister (14):
Good and bad fortune and diseases were sent by the Tui Tokelau. The bad fortune came as punishment for failure in the proper observances in his honor.
Sick people were washed with coconut water, some of which had previously been sprinkled over the stone.
If a person wished to die, he would crawl to the foot of the stone and remain there. His friends might bring him food and he might eat it, but in the course of two or three days he would die—and people had been known to die in this manner, so great was the power of their belief.
If a good haul of fish was taken, part of it would be offered before the stone by the king, and afterwards it was distributed among the Taulaitu—the priests.
A sacred bird (manu sa) called the talanga belonged to Tui Tokelau. Its appearance was considered an omen that the god was approaching the island, and said by some to be the god himself.
Fire was sacred to Tui Tokelau, and only during the month of his worship was it permitted to have lights after dark. At other times three necessary exceptions were permitted: fish caught at night could be cooked in the kitchen shacks, for otherwise they would spoil during the warm night; and lights could be made at night during the care of a woman in childbirth and in honor of the death of the high chief, the priest of Tui Tokelau.
The minor gods were personifications of natural elements and resided in the world. According to Monfat (17) the god second in rank was Te Moana, the son of Tui Tokelau. Te Moana was a sea god who took form in a waterspout. When Fakaofu was attacked, the priest of Te Moana prayed to him to create high waves and a strong wind to drive off and drown the enemy fleet.
Nothing is remembered of Tonuailangi who resided beyond the horizon except his ability to prophesy. Through his priest he foretold events which happened on the other atolls, and which were later verified by visitors from these atolls to Fakaofu. Because the European ships came from behind the horizon, the natives at first believed them to be vessels of Tonuailangi.
Toikia was physically the strongest of the minor gods. Little is remembered about him besides his part in the wrestling match between Fafie and Leua, two semi-mythical characters. In the match Fafie threw his opponent and held him down, but Vevea pulled Fafie off by his hair. Fafie called upon the god Toikia to assist him, and Toikia appeared and wrenched Vevea away. Although the other gods were present at the match, they were helpless against Toikia. When the king of the gods saw that Vevea was defeated by Toikia, he ordered that Vevea should be killed. The others threw him upon a fire and burned him to death.
Fakafotu was the god of storms and hurricanes; thunder was called the anger of Fakafotu. He also appeared in the form of a great tree. A coral slab was erected to him beside the slab of Tui Tokelau at Atafu, but at Fakaofu his god house and slab were separate from those of Tui Tokelau and Te Moana. Fakafotu has the name of the primary female parent of the gods and men in Tongareva (29), New Zealand, and eastern Polynesian islands.
The god Fafie took the form of a great canoe. He lived in traveling canoes and ruled over the destinies of voyagers on their journeys between the atolls and Samoa or neighboring groups of islands.
Te Lio appeared as a great mat and lived near the beach along the lagoon, of which he was the god.
Mafola was a god of the sea. Requests addressed to him through his priest were always fulfilled.
All kanava trees were consecrated to Na Tongaleleva and could never be used without the removal of the tapu by the chief priest. Any man violating this tapu was killed by the deity. When it was necessary to cut a sacred kanava on one of the outside atolls, the chief priest of Fakaofu appointed a priest to travel to the atoll and perform the rites. Tonuia, the chief of Atafu, broke this tapu and cut down a tree of Tongaleleva. Later he journeyed to Fakaofu, and on his return he was blown to sea and lost. His death was reported by the priest of Na Tongaleleva, who ascribed the cause to the breaking of the tapu. Tongaleleva also brought to his priest the song Tonuia sang at his death which has become a popular ballad.
The god Te Laumua lived with the mischievous spirits (ngaveve). He was very kind and made amends for the pranks of his implike fellows. When he was prayed to through his prophet, he restored the souls that had been stolen by the ngaveve.
The god Salevao had many of the characteristics and propensities of the ngaveve spirits. He resided in the bush at the northern end of the village on Atafu and flew about the villages snatching souls with a flying-fish net. The natives often heard the flick of Salevao's net overhead, which they interpreted as an omen of death. He had a great liking for pretty women, especially when they were pregnant. A very bad odor often indicated his presence at home, but it was customary for anyone noticing it to flatter the god by crying out, “What a delightful scent I smell!”
Hale (11) mentions another god, Atua Tafito, who was referred to as “O Debolo”, a word probably learned from shipwrecked sailors on the atoll.
Luafine was given as the name of another god, and at Nukunono the names Mona and Fenua were given as local gods of that island. Thomson (31) adds the name of a god, Aeooa, worshiped at Atafu, to whom a stone slab was erected.
Two bands of spirits, tupua maiuta (spirits from inland) and tupua maitai (spirits from the sea), inhabited all the islands and the neighboring sea. The tupua maiuta were friendly spirits of the Tokelau people and
tupua maitai). When the tupua maitai were victorious, troubles multiplied for the people.
Another group of elfish and mischievous spirits (ngaveve or kaufiola) lived among the trees outside the village boundaries and in the plantations of the other islets. They spent their lives in merriment, laughing, dancing, and playing pranks on human beings. Their greatest sport and chief danger to mortals was their custom of running away with men's souls. Their thefts were temporary, but the soulless bodies of men talked wildly and incomprehensively and were apt to go mad. These irresponsible sprites also ran off with children to bewilder their parents. Tito, who is now an old man on Atafu, related his experience with the ngaveve when he was a small boy:
His parents had left him in the middle of the long islet on the eastern side of Atafu while they went torch fishing. Tito remembers being carried by the ngaveve to the northern end of the islet and then down to the southern end of the islet, where they left him. During all this time he was unable to move his body but was conscious of where he traveled. His parents found him where the ngaveve had deposited him.
There is another well-known tale of a girl who was carried from her house to one of the windward islets of Nukunono. For several months her captor played with her and fed her on the food of the ngaveve. One day the spirit carried the girl back to her house and placed her by a bowl into which a woman was cutting up fala pandanus fruit. The woman did not see the child eating the fruit from the bowl and cut off one of the girl's fingers while she had her hand in the wooden bowl. The ngaveve immediately flew back with the girl to the windward islet, where he made his home, and left her by herself. Some people from the village of Nukunono found her with a finger lost from her hand.
The souls of men (aitu) were less powerful than atua and had no influence over the forces of nature. The aitu advised their descendants and helped them in times of sickness and trouble. One aitu, Fafie, whose name is fourth in the list of high chiefs, was a deified high chief of Fakaofu. He was worshiped even before his death, according to Newell (19):
Fafie here referred to was the god (aitu) of the clan Sulu. He became on the death of Leua (King of Fakaofu) king of that island. But before this no less than two hundred people made allegiance and offered sacrifice to him.
A spirit named Fenu, who dwelt at Nukunono, is classed as an Burrows (5) gives his name as Semoana in the Fakaofu version.aitu, though his character is not typical. At one time Nukunono had a fresh-water well and Fakaofu had none. A Fakaofu aituaitu fled to Fakaofu where he made wells on all the islets, but he used most of the water to create the large well on the village islet. In retaliation, Fenu flew to Fakaofu, stole the kie pandanus, and planted it in Nukunono. Today Nukunono has but one small well, and the kie pandanus, though recently introduced, is said to grow poorly on Fakaofu.
Certain forms of fish and sea life were venerated as gods (kolinga) by every kindred. These were: a small striped fish (mutu), a flat fish (api) of the lagoon, squid (feke), and a variety of eel (pusi). Although these gods were not regarded as ancestors, they show some totemic characteristics. They were never caught or eaten by those to whom they were tapu. The eel, Te Pusi, was the most important. It was classed by informants on Atafu and Nukunono as an atua but was never worshiped by an entire community. On Atafu, Te Pusi was the family god of Tonuia, the first ancestor. It was possible for any member of a family holding Te Pusi sacred to ask him, through his prophet, to take vengeance upon an enemy. At an opportune time Te Pusi would bite this enemy and bring upon him a lingering sickness from which he would waste away. Thomson (31) states:
In the old days every family had a spirit which lived in some form of animal life—eel, turtle, fish, or bird. The sons all took the father's totem… . I am in doubt as to the truth. Other informants told me, in contradiction, that a son took, or was given, a totem which differed, as a rule, from that of his father. During his father's life, as a matter of courtesy, the son paid respect to his father's totem, but afterwards, the son held no reverence for it.
No family injured, much less ate, the flesh of their family god. If the spirit of the god entered a man, his skin turned scaly like a fish's or whatever animal the god might be, and in time the man was changed into the form of the god. The visitation of the spirit might be only a temporary one, however, and the man would speak involuntarily as the mouthpiece of his spirit, revealing secrets of the past and future. In each family one member had the power to communicate with the transformed spirits.
The priests (taulaitu) at Fakaofu probably belonged to a superior social group including the high chief and the council of elders. They were venerated because of their age as well as their sacred character.
The chief priest was the priest of Tui Tokelau. Other gods also had their own priests, but little is remembered of their offices and powers. Prophets and shamans, called vaka atua (literally, the canoe of the god, the transporter or hull of the god), did not officiate at any religious ceremonies but acted as intermediaries to the gods. When a prophet was in communication with his patron deity he usually threw himself into a frenzy. The god was believed to possess (tokaia) his body and employ his voice to speak in
vaka atua are described by Turner (32):
After death, the friends of the deceased were anxious to know the cause of death. They went with a present to the priest and begged him to get the dead man to speak and confess the sins which caused his death. The priest might be distant from the dead body, but he pretended to summon the spirit and to have it within him. He spoke in his usual tone and told him to say before them all what he did to cause his death. Then he, the priest, whined out in a weak, faltering voice, a reply as if from the spirit of the departed, confessing that he stole coconuts from such a place, or that he fished at some particular spot forbidden by the king or that he ate the fish that was the incarnation of his family god. As the priest whined out something of this sort, he managed to squeeze out some tears and to sob and cry over it. The friends of the departed felt relieved to know the cause, got up, and went home.
These shamans or prophets were consulted for omens and advice of the gods before undertaking any important activity. Before people journeyed away from their island they prayed to Tui Tokelau and his son for aid. Ancestors were called upon in time of any family trouble, sickness, or imminent death, through the family vaka atua. For these services the shaman received an offering of food or a mat. Direct offerings were not made to the gods when conferring with their mediums.
It was believed that a god would perform any task or grant any request if properly approached through his vaka atua. If the vaka atua could not succeed in bringing about the desired result, he announced that a stronger deity, over whom he had no control, had driven his own deity away.
At the death of a priest his successor was selected by spinning a wooden ball (niufilo) in the center of a circle of the candidates. This ball was about 15 inches in diameter and had a notch or mouth cut on one side. The man toward whom this notch pointed when the ball ceased spinning was the candidate selected by the god. The name niufilo (coconut that spins) suggests that a coconut may have been used, as at Vaitupu (13). The niufilo was kept in the god house of Tui Tokelau.
Further confirmation of the selection of the priest was made by a pair of crossed sticks (filifili) hung low over the heads of the candidates. If the sticks moved when the name of the candidate indicated by the niufilo was spoken, it was believed that the god had verified the choice.
The high chief, with his principal officers, conducted the divination, and spun the divining ball. It is said that he often turned it to select his personal choice, but it was believed that such an action would bring great distress to the king and his family. Once a chief, Kakaia, was spinning the ball, which stopped with its mouth opposite Pakao, but Kakaia turned it to point to Savaiki. The father of Pakao jumped up and cursed the people of
Each village in Tokelau had the usual Polynesian meeting ground called malae, where most of the religious ceremonies, all the dances, the ceremonial division of fish, turtles, and whales, and other community festivities took place. At Atafu the malae had an area of about 180 square feet and was covered with sand and pebbles. A god house (fale atua) stood at one end, some distance from the village. One informant stated that it contained three coral slabs representing Tui Tokelau, Te Pusi, and Te Lio. A second informant said that two slabs of Tui Tokelau and Fakaofu stood before the god house, and none were inside it. These slabs were tupua, the residences of the gods during ceremonies. One of the slabs was taken by a missionary (Powell or Davis of the London Missionary Society) in 1884, and the other was put into the walls of the present church.
Thomson (31) inspected the site of the god house and coral slabs with a native who had seen them and the ceremonies performed before them in pre-Christian times. Two slabs 7 feet high, 6 feet wide, and 1.5 feet thick stood side by side and about 40 feet in front of the god house which was a rectangular frame building 40 feet long and 20 feet wide, standing on a low platform or foundation and similar in appearance to the present Atafu council house (pl. 5, C). Within the house was a chamber walled off by mats, the most sacred part, entered only by the priest. To the right side of the sacred malae, about 60 feet from the coral slabs and facing at a 45° angle toward the front, was a stone enclosure (sai) 18 by 18 feet square and 3.5 feet high. The rotted mats which were removed from the coral slabs during the annual ceremony were deposited here. They were absolutely tapu, and anyone daring to disturb them would die from contact with such sacred objects. The whole area was a sacred precinct which only the priest and his assistants might enter.
Fakaofu had two malae (26): one to the god, Tui Tokelau, and his son, O te Moana, and one to Fakafotu. Wilkes (34) describes the god house of Tui Tokelau and the two coral slabs or idols of the god and his son erected before it (pl. 6, B):
Their gods or idols were placed on the outside nearby. The largest of these was 14 feet high and 18 inches in diameter. This was covered or enveloped in mats, and over all a narrow one was passed, shawl-fashion, and tied in front, with the ends of the knot hanging down … The small idol was of stone, and 4 feet high, but only partially covered with mats. About 10 feet in front of the idol was one of the hewn tables, which was hollowed out. It was 4 feet long by 3 broad, and the same in height.
The ancient god house was the largest structure at Fakaofu. Around the inside of the eaves was hung a string of mother-of-pearl shell lei made from the annual offerings of these ornaments to the god. The huge house posts were ornamented with sennit bindings, according to Hale (11):
In the center of the house, about the largest post, were piled confusedly together a dozen massive benches, or large stools, 2 feet high, as many broad, and about 3 feet long. They were of clumsy make, very thick and heavy, each one being apparently carved from a single block. The natives called them seats of the god, and we supposed that they might be for the elders of the village when they meet in council or for religious celebration.
Leaning against the largest post of the house were several spears all much worn and battered, which the natives said were from the sea. They were called lakau taua (wood of war).
The last god house at Fakaofu was destroyed by Father Padel in 1852 (p. 32). The only sacred objects that he reported inside the god house were two rusty guns salvaged from a wreck. He did not mention the great posts, the seats, or the table seen by Hale and Wilkes. Possibly these were destroyed in the hurricane of 1846 or 1852.
Worship and communication with family gods was conducted in the homes. Ancestral spirits came in visitations to priests or mediums who were descended from the ancestor. Many houses contained two or three coconut water bottles reserved for the ancestral spirit. They were suspended from a post or rafter, and fresh water was poured into them each day.
In May every year the chief priest at Fakaofu set aside four weeks for the worship of Tui Tokelau and appointed emissaries to announce the time to the other islands. The time was determined by the rising of the full moon in June which also determined the time of worship of Tangaloa in Samoa. After the announcement, all property was repaired and tidied. Houses were rethatched and swept, canoes mended, and new garments were plaited. Bands of young people picked up debris from the village malae and disposed of it in the sea. When the households and lands were in order, the village council declared that the following two weeks were to be devoted to gathering food. For seven days all active men and women gathered coconuts and fala pandanus fruit from their plantations. The next seven days were set aside for fishing and every canoe in the village went out to sea. The men at home fished with their nets, and the women combed the reefs for squid and shell fish. In the kitchens the younger people and old women prepared the simple puddings of coconut and fala pandanus, and broiled and dried the fish in the sun.
Many new mats, mother-of-pearl pendants, the unused halves of the shells made into bonito shanks, pandanus malo and coconut leaf skirts, and sennit braid were made and collected to send to Fakaofu as offerings. Food was gathered for the crew of the canoe bearing the offerings and as gifts to the chief priest.
The journey of the canoe bearing these offerings was a sacred mission and a heavy tapu was placed on the captain. It was believed that any disorder among his crew would cause the canoe to be blown off its course. Many other canoes accompanied this vessel to join in the festival. However, disaster would immediately befall them if they entered the passage at Fakaofu before the sacred canoe. Vaovela, a son of Tonuia from Atafu, broke this tapu; in going over a reef, a wave upset him and the hull of the canoe crushed the foot of his son against the coral. When the ships approached Fakaofu the mats to be presented were hung on the mast and displayed.
Burrows (5) believes that these offerings represented tribute to the overlordship of Fakaofu, but they were held so sacred that it is not probable that they were taken by the Fakaofu people as presents.
A tapu was placed on all activity at the end of the seven days of fishing and the ceremony of worship to Tui Tokelau began. The religious ceremonies were conducted during the first days and were followed by a longer period of dancing and feasting. No one could leave the village; when not on the malae, people had to keep to their houses. Prayers and dancing were made far into the night in the light of great torches burnt in honor of Tui Tokelau.
The ceremony began by removing the rotten garments and gifts of the preceding year from the coral slab of Tui Tokelau and replacing them with new offerings. It was said that the old offerings were burned, but Turner (32) reports that they were set aside and left to decay, being too sacred for anyone to touch. Lister (14) describes the ceremony as follows:
When they [the travelers] landed, the mats were wrapped round the stone [of Tui Tokelau] to remain until they rotted away, and the pearl shells were placed along the eaves of the house sacred to the gods, close at hand. The stone was anointed with coconut oil scented with flowers; then the king was carried in front of the stone, seated in his chair, with the coconut leaf emblem of royalty around his neck, and a black line of charcoal drawn over his forehead, the people following in procession with shouts of “Tu-tu” and general rejoicing.
Then the high chief, as the priest of Tui Tokelau, commenced his prayer for good weather and a plentiful supply of fruits and fish. This was followed by dancing in which first the women and then the men participated.
Tai means “a number of” (22), probably used here in the sense of “plenty” or “let there be plenty of.”
This is an ancient word now forgotten. It is probably derived from fana, shoot or drive, and ifo, down.
Smith (26) gives a similar prayer in Rarotongan asking for abundant food and “addressed to these evil spirits”. He adds:
After the incantation has been recited, the food is partaken of by the chiefs and priests, after which the food is distributed to all the people and a feast is held.
The following description of the ceremony at Atafu is taken from the notes of Dr.
The ceremony took place in June on the evening of the full moon. In the early afternoon the people deposited their offerings 40 or 50 feet before the god house. These were large mats measuring 12 by 6 feet, to be used as clothing (malo) for the stone column of Tui Tokelau.
The ceremony commenced in the early evening before moonrise. The priest, appointed to Atafu from Fakaofu, began with a long prayer during which he looked at the heavens and asked that the sun might continue to shine and the rain be plentiful, then he looked at the sea and asked that fish be numerous during the year, and finally he looked at the land and asked that coconuts might grow in great quantities. All this time the people looked up to the sky. The men stood within 15 or 20 feet of the god house during the ceremony, but the women and children remained several hundred feet away.
After the prayer the priest carried the mat offerings into the inner chamber of the god house and divided them into two portions—one for the immediate ceremony and the other for the ceremony at Fakaofu. He brought outside again the mats to be wrapped on the Atafu slab of Tui Tokelau and removed the rotted mats with which the slab
Neither Thomson's information nor mine stated whether or not the stone slab of Fakafotu or Te Moana was wrapped with mats during the ceremony. The illustration from Wilkes (pl. 6, B) shows both stones covered.
The spirits of the dead (nganga) were thought to go to Tualiku, where the god Te Sesema reigned. Tualiku was not localized, but the meaning of the name, “the back of the sea”, suggests that it lay over the rim of the horizon. It was a true paradise of Polynesian imagination, where the blessed danced and ate all day and night and wore flowers in their ears, and pearl shell ornaments (lei) around their necks, forbidden to all common men in life. In Tualiku there was also a purgatory where the souls of men who were damned by never having been circumcised in life (ngatino seki faeloa) walked through eternity with great stone discs like grindstones on their backs.
The natives believed that their spirits could select their residence for the afterlife. As death was approaching, a man told his friends that he was going to the moon or to some part of the heavens where he might be seen by his friends. A soul might also elect to remain on earth in the grave, according to Turner (32), who adds:
They believed, moreover, that there were certain evil spirits always on the watch for human beings, and that, if any were caught, their souls were dragged up and down the universe forever, as the slaves of these demons, and never found a resting place. Hence it was a common saying at Tokelau, “Take care of the soul. It lives forever. Never mind the body, it rots in the grave!”
The Tokelau people believed that sickness was caused by malicious gods or the infraction of tapus. According to Turner (32), there was a specific disease-making god. Only by making presents of mats to his priest were the sick able to recover. The priest then prayed to the god and massaged the affected part of the sick person with coconut oil. This cure was evidently to be accomplished through spiritual power imparted by the god, for Turner (32) says:
He used no particular oil. When he sat down he called some one of the family to hand him some oil and, dipping his hand in the cup, passed it gently over the part two or three times.
When an epidemic, kuanga mai aitu (sickness from the gods), spread rapidly or ringworms afflicted more than the usual number of people, they believed that the gods of other islands had sent the sickness upon them. By
In each community there were medicine men (matai fau) and assistants (fofo) who were not priests or prophets of gods. They treated the sick according to prescribed methods based on theories of what took place in the body when particular symptoms showed. This lore was handed down from parent to child and is still practiced today by descendants of the ancient native doctors. All the people have a general knowledge of household remedies and freely practice massage with coconut oil to remove soreness and bodily pains. But doctors are relied upon in any serious trouble because of their greater knowledge.
The chief doctor's medical kit included: a set of lancets (nifomanga), shark teeth lashed to light sticks for opening ulcers and cutting away flesh; a bottle of coconut oil (niulolo); and a few leaves, roots, and pieces of bark. These medicines were usually procured from the bush and prepared as they were needed.
Massage with coconut oil is the general treatment for all pains and soreness. After strenuous work or when a person is exceedingly tired, it is customary to have two young girls or boys of the house massage (lomilomi) and pummel (tukituki) the whole body. In sickness from any cause the aching part is rubbed. Aside from the relief that massage usually gives, it is believed that pain and fever can be rubbed out. Soreness moves into other parts of the body from the stomach through the arteries and veins, and by massage can be pushed back.
Massage for a feverish headache is intended to carry the fever out of the head, through the neck, and back into its seat in the lower abdomen. The doctor commences by rubbing the neck in a downward motion with the tips of his fingers over the jugular vein. He then works on the forehead,
Soreness in the arm and shoulder is supposed to be centered in the scapula (ivi sa). Pressure applied with the thumbs to the center of this bone and a few inches down on the arm from the shoulder is thought to relieve the pain. This is followed by cauterization along an artery in the axillary region, through which the pain is supposed to pass into the arm. For inflammation and swelling in the axillary region, common in the beginning of filariasis, a ring of five spots is cauterized, surrounded by lighter burns. If pain is located in the upper arm, the elbow is cauterized twice on the inside and once on the outside. For a pain in the forearm, the wrist is cauterized three times in a line on the back and again on the inside.
Soreness in the chest is removed by massage and cautery. Rubbing begins at the shoulders and moves along the clavicle to the breast bone and then along the intervals between each rib, massaging away from the breast bone to carry the soreness into the back. Finally pressure is applied by the hands over the diaphragm.
Earache is treated by massaging along the anterior border of the mastoid process, along the lower mandible away from the ear, and then over the rim of the ear to the auricle, which is pulled several times to extract the pain which has been forced into it.
For stiffness in the neck the massagist kneads and rubs the neck muscles downward, continuing the pressure along the inner border of the scapula. At the end of each stroke he holds his fingers down and pulls the skin taut, keeping the cause of the soreness from reëntering the neck. When he has completed the massage, he cauterizes the stiff part of the neck in three places. A sore throat is relieved by massage and drinking the juice of coconuts heated on an oven.
Hydrocele in the scrotum, caused by filaria, is not infrequent among the men. To relieve the enlargement the scrotum is massaged until it breaks. Massage is also employed to enlarge the scrotum, in some cases even drawing
The new-born child is massaged daily by some woman of the house and by the mother as soon as she is able. The chief purpose is to make a well-shaped body with straight limbs. Especial attention is paid to the head and nose to insure natural formation, although the bridge of the nose is often pinched to make it high. No attempts are made to change the natural shape of the occiput or to flatten the alae of the nose, as is practiced among the Tongans. The child is carefully laid on one side and then on the other to avoid flattening one side of the head more than the other. The buttocks are shaped to give them full roundness, and the genitals massaged to make them well formed and to prevent swelling of these parts in later life. This is an attempt to avoid the advanced symptoms of filarial infection. It is also done to older children who continue to wet their mats after an age when the habit should be overcome. The anus is gently pressed in during the early months of life to prevent a dropping of that part in old age.
A broken bone is set by careful massaging. It is wrapped in a soft padding of puka leaves encased in a pliable young sheath (taume) of a coconut blossom. This splint is removed every two days and the fracture rubbed lightly with coconut oil, after which the limb is wrapped in a fresh sheath.
Ringworm (pita) (Tinea imbricata), which is known throughout the islands to the south as “Tokelau ringworm”, was introduced into Tokelau by an infected Gilbertese named Peter who came to Fakaofu on a whaling ship. The native name of the disease, pita, is taken from his name. It is rampant in the islands and covers the entire body of many natives. A second form of ringworm (lafa) blackens the skin. Tane, common also in Samoa and Tonga, leaves light pigmented spots on the affected parts of the body. These three forms of skin disease are treated in the same manner. The ringworm is first rubbed with coconut oil and then burned off with a wick made by chewing a piece of pandanus root to loosen the fibers and twisting it into a small rope after it has dried.
Sores that manifest themselves in yaws are sometimes cauterized by wicks, but usually they are scalded. A coconut shell cup with a small perforation at the base is filled with boiling water and placed over the sore. The hot water dropping on the sore reduces the inflammation.
For lung trouble in which the patient breathes rapidly and with difficulty, the upper abdomen is cauterized. Nine burns in three vertical rows are made under the ribs; the first between the base at the breast plate and the navel, and a row on each side. Each spot is cauterized twice. The doctor
ua) runs from the head to the foot and if the line of this is followed with cauterized spots, the flow of the ailment can be stopped.
Wounds are washed out with water and covered with a ball of maile leaves which have been previously chewed and mixed with saliva. If the wound bleeds profusely it is covered with taususu leaves as a styptic compress and is then bandaged with narrow strips of plaited kie pandanus.
Abscesses are brought to a head with hot compresses of nonu leaves cut into small pieces and wrapped in the fibrous stipule (kaka) of a coconut leaf. The compress is dipped into heated coconut oil and gently pressed around the eruption to force out the pus. A little of the compress is left on the head of the abscess while the massaging and pressing is continued. When the sore is in the proper condition it is opened with a shark's tooth lancet, tapped by the operator with a light stick.
Headaches are cured by massaging the head and applying an ointment made of eight buds of the maile tree and a young root of fala pandanus, the thickness of a man's finger and half an arm in length, pounded in a coconut shell cup (ipu).
Earache is relieved by pouring into the ear and then drawing out an extract made from the bark of the tausunu.
The growth over the conjunctiva of the eye, usually the result of irritating an eye infected with conjunctivitis, is scraped away with leaf stems of lau puka. For conjunctivitis and other inflammations of the eye an extract is secured by squeezing the scraped pulp of a coconut leaf midrib. The outer surface of a young leaf is removed and the fibrous pulp is scraped into a receptacle. The juice or sap is expressed through the clothlike stipule of the coconut leaf.
Very few ancient dances are remembered in Tokelau. Their performance was forbidden by the early missionaries, and they were soon forgotten. Modern dances consist mainly of gestures interpreting the words of the accompanying song and retain little of the ancient form. They are usually held in the evening in the meeting house and are accompanied by a drummer beating
siva is often performed in Tokelau.
During the field trip on Atafu an exhibition of ancient dances was given, accompanied by the singing of the performers. The dancers stood abreast in a single line throughout the dancing. They moved 1 or 2, or sometimes 3 steps; but the principal movements were made with their arms or canoe paddles (foe), used in some dances in place of the ancient dance paddles (paki). The exhibition was led by a woman who had learned the songs and movements from her father.
A second form of dancing was performed by a group of women in celebration of a victorious cricket match. The dancers formed in single file, standing close together, and paraded around the cricket ground with short, light steps, pausing regularly to sway in unison or to make an arm movement or gesture with the leaves held in their hands. They kept time by striking their open hands with these leaves. All movements were led by the first woman in the file. Several times she made spiral figures in which she worked herself into the center of the circulating dancers and then unwound the figure by turning and dancing out between the converging lines. Burrows (5) and Lister (14) witnessed similar performances of this ancient dance at Fakaofu. Lister saw men dance, accompanied by women who beat time and chanted. Burrows saw women dance, maintaining time by beating a piece of wood with the open hand, but not singing. Wilkes (34) describes a similar tripping dance performed at Nonuti in the Gilbert Islands.
Tokelau people employed three types of percussive instruments for beating time and for their dances, and two wind instruments, a flageolet and the conch shell.
The Tongan wooden gong (lali), made from the hollowed section of a tree trunk, is used in the Tokelau Islands (fig. 7). Most of the modern gongs have been imported from Samoa, where the puapua trees from which the gongs are made, grow larger. The gong is about 4.5 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. The upper surface is slit lengthwise within the ends
Gongs were struck with two or three sticks held by two drummers who beat in different rhythm. Small wooden gongs were played with a fast rhythm to keep time in the old dances. The ancient name of the wooden gong was kaulalo, but it is referred to today by the Tongan and Samoan term, lalo.
The Tokelau drum (pasu) was made from a section of a kanava tree trunk, one end of which was burned and hacked out to a depth measured from the finger tips to the elbow. Over the open end a shark skin was pulled taut and lashed under the rim. The Wilkes party found one of these on the malae. The presence of the drum in Tokelau is unusual for it is an instrument of eastern Polynesia, conspicuously absent in western Polynesia. The Tokelau name pasu, pahu, is also found in Hawaii and other eastern Polynesian islands.
Long, thin boards (papa), used for stretching and scraping bark to be made into fiber, were also employed as sounding boards struck with two sticks to tap out the rhythm for dances. Mat-covered boxes or kerosene tins have supplanted the boards because of their more resonant tones.
Flageolets (fangufangu) were formerly made from the pithy stems of young kanava plants, but are now made from the recently introduced papaya tree, whose young branches are hollow and easily cut. The modern flageolets, usually played by young girls, vary in the number of notches cut on the upper surface from 1 to 6.
Whistles are made by the children from strips of pandanus or coconut leaves wound into a spiral- or cone-shaped trumpet.
Large conch shells (fao) (Charonia tritonis) are collected by divers in the lagoon at Atafu. A mouthpiece is formed by breaking off the point of the shell and a hole is chipped through one of the whorls a few inches below the broken point. Fishing captains use conch shells to call together the fleet. They were once used in the village to assemble the people but have been supplanted by the wooden gong and the penny whistle.
In ancient times songs played a large part in community activities in Tokelau. Songs of worship or propitiation were sung before any great undertaking and in connection with feasts, funerals, and other rites. Hale (11) says the natives of Atafu constantly broke into song for their white visitors, probably to placate them. The numerous references in literature and legend to songs indicate that once there was great variety in singing. A few ancient songs are remembered at Atafu, but most of them were forgotten when dancing was forbidden by the missionaries.
The modern singing in Tokelau has been greatly influenced by foreign music. Samoan teachers have introduced modern Samoan songs and Christian hymns, which the natives enjoy singing in the evenings. Sailors from the Ellice Islands and other parts of Polynesia have taught songs of their islands. Many of the words written by local lyrists are based on reports of events and places of the outside world; Auckland Harbor and the new wireless are subjects of present popular songs.
The following ancient songs, translated by Mika, were sung as accompaniment to the paddle dances performed at Atafu. Many lines refer to forgotten events and several words are no longer in the dialect. H and f were pronounced in the words and are reproduced here without transcribing them to the f and s form of the dialect used in other parts of the text. I could procure no translation for several of the songs.
Paddle is dipped down and held like a shovel.
Paddle is shaken or waved as a signal before the body.
Paddle is carried in upright position to right side.
Paddle is dropped in front of body with tip of blade touching the ground.
Paddle is lifted upright again and carried across the body as if it were drifting or sailing by.
Paddle is twisted in the hands and held upright.
Paddle is carried to side and held upright.
Paddle is waved over the head.
Paddle is touched to the ground in front at the word ia.
This song refers to a turtle hunt in which Tinilau, a mischievous character of Polynesian mythology, allows the turtle to escape.
The following song tells of two lovers who exchange their garlands of Tahitian gardenia (tiale) blossoms, which they wear in their hair, signifying their engagement to be married. The last line refers to a second suitor who enters the house and is told to retire.
The following song deals with a canoe which sails to two islands, Leuaniua (the native name of Ontong Java) and Laloata (an unknown island).
E neni (literally, the jerk of a fishline when it is struck), meaning the canoe darts forward with the first motion of the paddles.
The tales of Tokelau contain many references to mythological characters and events found in tales from other parts of Polynesia. Many myths mention voyages to Fiji and the people found there, a common feature of Samoan tales. Elements characteristic of myths of the Cook Islands and New Zealand are often incorporated in basically Samoan tales. The only local stories are those concerning the nature spirits inhabiting specific spots on the islands (p. 61).
The most frequently mentioned figure is Sina, who is the sister of Maui in the most wide-spread Polynesian story. She is sometimes associated with the moon as its goddess and with Tinirau or Tinilau whom she marries. In western Polynesia, as in the tale of Sinalangi given below (p. 81), she is the daughter of Tangaloa and descends to earth.
The following tales heard in Tokelau are derived from Samoa or Tonga: The courting of Sina, princess of Fiji, by Tinilau, a chief of Vavau (5); the story of the pearl shell (9, p. 243) in which Alo'alo, son of the sun, marries Sina, the Fijian princess (the Tokelau version adds Kui, a blind woman, who appears in myths of Tahiti and the Cook Islands); how counting came to be as it is (9, 32) in which the appearance of the snake (ngata) is obviously from Samoa; and the tale of Tae-a-Tangaloa which contains an element of the creation stories of Samoa and Tonga.
The story of Manini, the fish, put together after it was killed by Tinilau, is found in Tonga (6) and Rotuma (15). How fish got their colors (5) is found in western Polynesia and the Cook Islands. In this myth Sina loses valuable property of her parents and is carried away by a fish, shark, or turtle, which deserts her for the insult of touching food to his head, but which finally returns or is succeeded by another sea creature that carries her to the land of Tinilau. Her restoration to her parents by her brother, Lupe, is part of the fundamental Sina episode in the Maui myths. Except for the tattooing of the fish this myth is more closely parallel to the similar story in other islands than any Tokelau tale.
Maliliona Tane and Maliliona Fafine were married and had two children, a boy and a girl, named Mangeleponapona and Sinaleulu. The boy, Mangeleponapona, was married to Lafailafaitonga. She became pregnant and desired some fish. Such a desire for special foods on the part of pregnant women is called an umiti by the Tokelau people, and the greatest effort is made to fulfill such desires.
Again Mangeleponapona went to his parents with a request for fish for his wife who wished some to eat, and again they sent Sinaleulu to the reef to catch some. She sat as before in the inlet, and when the fish swam between her legs she caught them with her hands and took them to her house. Her brother Mangeleponapona prepared them for his wife, but these too made her sick when she ate them.
Mangeleponapona asked his parents for fish a third time, and watched from a distance to discover how his sister was catching them. When she came back he took the fish from her but did not cook them or allow his wife to touch them.
The next day he went to his parents and told them how his sister had caught the fish. Sinaleulu was lying on the mats in the house when her brother came in and he thought she was asleep. But she listened to what he told their parents and became very angry. As soon as he had left the house she went to a point of the island and pushed it off with a pole (toko) for propelling a canoe in shallow water, thus separating it from the rest of the land. Then she poled her way to the land of Saluelakaniva, whom she married.
Lafailafaitonga had a baby girl, Sinaiono, who married Tinilau and went to his island. Here Tinilau had many wives, the Kaunofoitalau, but Sinaiono became his favorite. The Kaunofoitalau were jealous of her because Tinilau always carried a bonito to her when he returned from fishing but made the Kaunofoitalau get their fish from the canoe. One night these women made a dish of young coconuts, tamokomoko worms, and starfish, which they ground together and then mixed with their urine. When Tinilau was out early the next morning catching bonito, they forced Sinaiono to drink the food they had prepared. She died, and then they examined her body to find out why she was the favorite of her husband. They decided it was because of her well-formed genitals.
When Tinilau returned with a large bonito for Sinaiono he found her lying dead on the floor. He went to the Kaunofoitalau, his spirit wives (aitu), and ordered them to bring her back to life. He told them that they must build an island near his own for her by piling rocks on the bottom of the sea where they were to live and take care of Sinaiono, bring her food each day, and make a fire to give her light at night. The island was small and round, and nothing grew on it but the flowering tiale trees.
After the women and Sinaiono settled on the island they took her soul from her each day and left her alone. They forced the body of Sinaiono to clean up the island and throw the rubbish into the sea each morning and make a fire for herself each night so that Tinilau would believe they were tending her.
One day the Kaunofoitalau went away as usual but forgot to take the soul of Sinaiono. She went about her work, picking up all the dead leaves and flowers and throwing them into the sea. These dead bits floated away and came to the island where
When the Kaunofoitalau returned at the end of the day, Sinaiono went down to the beach to show her shame before them and perform singo, (sitting crosslegged with the back to the superior people and then sitting forward on the knees so that one's buttocks are exposed to those behind). The Kaunofoitalau told Sinaiono that they were doing all that Tinilau had commanded of them. When Sinaleulu heard this she threw all the Kaunofoitalau into the sea, where they were devoured by sharks and fish.
Then Sinaleulu called all the fish to her and made them carry Sinaiono to Tinilau's island in a house built on a raft. When Sinaiono arrived she found a long house with 10 doors called the Faitutoka o fafine, the doors of which were called pouangafulu (tenth door), pouangahiva (ninth door), pouangavalu (eighth door), and on down to pouangatasi (first door). Behind each door there were as many women as the number marked on the door. When she came to the first door, where Tinilau slept, she went in and lived as his first wife.
Tangaloa-langi, who was half man and half god, lived in the sky. He sent his daughter, Sinalangi, down to the world to live, but before she left he gave her a mother-of-pearl shell called Tipi, and said, “If men come to make love to you when you go down and live upon the land, throw the Tipi at them. It will cut off their heads and fly back to you.”
Sinalangi had a song for her pearl shell:
Apaitoa, the name of Sinalangi's son.
Sinalangi married a great chief of the earth, Talitau, and by him bore a son whom they called Apaitoa. After she had lived with Talitau for some time she fell in love with Lesia, his brother, who asked her to marry him. Sinalangi went to her husband and confessed her love for Lesia and pleaded that she might marry him. Talitau refused, and though Sinalangi went to him each day, he would not consent. Finally she ran away with Lesia and they lived together in the bush away from the village. They lived there for many years and Sinalangi bore two daughters, Te Titisamakia and Te Titipokia. After the birth of the second daughter, a famine came and no food grew where Lesia and Sinalangi were living. A drought killed all the trees. Lesia had to steal food for himself and his family from his brother's village. When the people discovered that food was disappearing, they banded together to search for the thief. After hunting along the shore and through the forests, they found Lesia hiding in a well and killed him with spears.
Sinalangi waited for many days, but when her husband did not return she sent her daughters to look for him. They found him dead in the well, his body swollen from the water, and trees growing from his back. The girls sang a song to their father and he returned to life.
Lesia went back home with his two daughters. When his disappearance was reported to the village, the men held a council and set out in a war party to find him again.
When Sinalangi saw all the war party approaching her house, she went outside and threw her Tipi at them. Of the hundreds who were before her, all fell dead except the chief, Talitau. He fled back to his village. With the remainder of his villagers he returned to the house of Lesia and Sinalangi. Apaitoa, the son of Sinalangi and Talitau, was standing beside his mother holding the Tipi. She ordered him to throw it at the party coming to kill Lesia, but Apaitoa refused to throw it at his own father. Sinalangi took the Tipi from her son and threw at Talitau, killing him and all the people with him.
After this, Apaitoa and his two sisters, Te Titisamakia and Te Titipokia, played a game called pei with two coconuts. The girls thought they had won the game and sang a little song to Apaitoa, claiming that they were above him because he had lost.
Apaitoa turned around and sang the same song, but said that he was above his two sisters. When their mother heard them singing this, she rebuked her daughters for saying that they were superior to their brother. “You are girls,” she said, “and it is right that a boy should be above you.”
Once a chief went down to the sea to bathe and when he had finished, he dried himself with coconut husks. He threw these down and went away, but a woman named Sinafatukimoa came by and picked them up and sucked them. From the husks she became pregnant and had a boy whom she called Alomoanaki and a girl, Sinamoanaki, whom Tinilau married and took to his island.
When Alomoanaki was still a little boy playing on the floor by his mother, he asked her who his father was. She would not tell him, and he continued asking until Sinafatukimoa told him his father was Fatutaulalanga, the rock that was holding down one end of the mat on which Sinafatukimoa was plaiting. The boy asked the rock, “Fatutaulalanga, are you my father?” The stone did not reply, so he asked his mother again. She would not tell him though he asked her each day for several days. Finally she told him his father was Kaupuipui, the rack between two posts in the house. Alomoanaki asked, “Kaupuipui, are you my father?” But the table between the posts was silent, and Alomoanaki asked his mother again to tell him the name of his father. Sinafatukimoa did not answer him for several days; then she said that his father was Pou, the post of the house. Again the boy went to talk with his father but the Pou did not speak. Alomoanaki went back to his mother and asked her again and again each day until she finally told him that Alo, the chief in the village, was his father. She told him how she had gone to the beach after he had been bathing and had sucked the coconut husks he had used to dry himself. Then she sent Alomoanaki to the village to find his father. “Go to the house of all the chiefs whom you will find sitting in a council. One will be sitting on a pile of mats higher than the others. This is Alo, your father. Go to him and stay by him until he asks you who you are. Then you must tell him that you are his son and how you came to be born.”
Alomoanaki went to the village and found his father in the meeting house and sat by him. The chief asked him who he was, and when he heard that Alomoanaki was his son, he came down from his seat, put Alomoanaki in his place, and went to sit with the other chiefs. While Alomoanaki was sitting in the council house, he heard a noise outside and asked what it was. His father replied that he was not to go out and join the
Afterwards they were married, and the first night Alomoanaki slept with his wife the roof of the house leaked from the rain. In the morning Meto asked Alomoanaki to thatch the roof and he went to his father to ask help. Alo replied that he had told his son not to go out with the young men who were competing for Meto and sent him on to his mother to seek help. His mother went to his cousins, the four rats, and asked them to come and thatch the house of Meto and Alomoanaki. Alomoanaki went home and slept. Early the next morning he heard the four rats crying, “Ki, ki, ki” on the roof and scurrying about putting in new thatch.
When the roof had been repaired Meto asked her husband to bring some pearl shells to make a flooring for the house. This time Alomoanaki went to Tonga to ask the help of his sister who had married Tinilau. A servant of the chiefess of Tonga saw Alomoanaki sitting on the bank of a river and reported to his mistress the arrival of a very handsome stranger. She promptly sent the servant, Te Lulu, back to invite the stranger to her house, but Alomoanaki refused the invitation. Then Alomoanaki asked Te Lulu the name of his mistress and he replied, “Faufauitafafine”. Alomoanaki said, “I am Faufauitatane”, and as he spoke these words, the chiefess died. The servant returned and found a council gathered to elect a new ruler and to discover the cause of the death of the chiefess. Te Lulu told the council that she had died from a sickness of the heart, and he related the story of the stranger. Alomoanaki was sent for and when he looked at the woman she came back to life.
Then Alomoanaki returned to the river and sat there. Kalesa and Tafaki, the two sons of his sister, Sinamoanaki, saw him and noticed how much he looked like one of them. They told their mother and she sent them to bring the man to her. Sinamoanaki gave her brother pearl shells to put on the floor of his house. Alomoanaki gave his nephews a necklace of Hibiscus blossoms that he had brought from his house and then sailed back to his wife. After he had given the pearl shells to his wife he went down to bathe. He sent his wife to the house to bring some coconut husks to dry himself, but while she was in the house, he jumped into his canoe and started back to the chiefess of Tonga, to whom he had promised to return. Alomoanaki went into her house, but as soon as she entered the door, he smelled the Hibiscus necklace that he had given to the sons of Sinamoanaki. He knew that their father, Tinalau, had stolen it and given it to Faufauitafafine and was sleeping with her. Alomoanaki left the house and departed from Tonga.
Once there was a very beautiful virgin named Sina who had four suitors: Pili, Ulio, and Moko, who were lizards; and Sifo, who was a man. Pili came first to ask her to marry him and as he approached he sang a little song: “I am Pili, the lizard, who has come to ask you to marry me; but, alas, I can not walk and can only creep.” Sina turned to Pili and said, “How can you be my husband? You can not walk and you can not do your work.” Then Ulia came to her and sang a little song: “I am Ulia, the lizard, who has come to ask you to be my wife; but, alas, I can only creep and can not walk.” Sina sent Ulia away, for he too could do no work. Moko came next but Sina
When they were in Sifo's house, Sina made a sucking sound with her lips ( Done by drawing the corners of the mouth back over the teeth while the lips are kept shut. A common Tokelau custom to signify that something is desired or to call a person.misi).
After that Sifo took his wife into the bush which was owned by the spirits. He went along the sea side of the bush but sent his wife by the middle path. As they proceeded Sifo called out to his wife to see if she was still living and to ask where she was. Tinilau was walking behind her and as they came to each spirit place (malae aitu) in the bush, of which there were very many, he told her the name and she called it out to her husband. Thus with Tinilau she escaped being taken by the spirits of the bush. Finally they came to an old man, Patikole, who was pounding coconut husks to get fiber for rope-making. Tinilau asked Patikoli to put Sina under his leg as he sat there tailor-fashion. Sifo came up to them and just then Sina made a sound with her lips (misi) calling him. Sifo heard her and asked what it was, but Patikoli said it was his knee making the sound. Patikoli was very angry because Sina had made a misi and would not let her get up. Sifo returned home and brought his flute to the edge of the bush and played for his wife. She heard him but could not go to him. Finally Tinilau took her to his land and married her, and Sifo returned home to grieve for his wife.
Matilafoafoa, the king of heaven (tupu o lunga) saw a women from his place in the sky. She was picking up rubbish on the earth below. Matilafoafoa sang, “I am king above and below. Let a wind come and carry me to the woman below.” Immediately a wind and a strong rain came and carried him down to earth and set him down beside a woman named Sina. She turned to Matilafoafoa and asked, “Who are you, a man or a god?” Matilafoafoa replied, “I am a man.” He stayed with Sina on earth until she became pregnant. Then he wished to return to his home in the skies. When he left his wife he told her that if she gave birth to a son she must call him Limaleimakoloa.
Sina later gave birth to a son and named him as his father had desired. Not long after Matilafoafoa had left, Sina married Punga, and by him she had many children. Punga went fishing every day, and when he beached his canoe on his return at evening, all his own children ran to carry his fish; but they drove off Limaleimakoloa, because Punga was not his father.
Limaleimakoloa, angry at the taunts of the other children, asked his mother why Punga was not his father. Sina told him Matilafoafoa was his father and sent him to his father in the sky, but Punga called him back. Limaleimakoloa shouted at him, “Punga, you like your own children but you do not love me”, and he proceeded on his way.
During the journey, Limaleimakoloa met many spirits and evil creatures who tried to prevent him from reaching the sky. As soon as the boy told them that he was the son of the king of the sky, they fled from him. Beyond these beings he came upon two women, Limalei and Makoloa, sisters of the king of the sky, who struck at him and cut his flesh. When he reached Matilafoafoa, he told him of the treatment he had received from the two sisters of his father. Matilafoafoa sent for these two women and killed them. Then he took the son of Sina and put him in his own high place.
There were two brothers, Kupenga and Kakau, each of whom had two sons. The four boys went fishing together, but Filo and Mea, the sons of Kupenga, always caught the most fish. They played games together and wrestled, but Filo and Mea always won. The sons of Kakau became jealous of their cousins, so Kakau sent for the two sons of Kupenga and ordered them to go and catch a big sumu (a fish).
Filo and Mea went to the beach and collected all the waste they could find and threw it into the sea. It floated to the large sumu that was lying at the mouth of the channel. The fish ate it and swelled up. Then the two boys went out, caught the fish, and brought it ashore. Kakau was astonished and asked, “How did you boys manage to kill such a great fish?”
Kakau sent them out again, this time to kill the great Matuku, a bird that had caught their sister and carried her off to be his wife. The two boys went to Matuku and killed him and then started on their return with Sina, their sister. On their way they came to a big hole that led to the bottom of the sea. In their attempt to cross, Sina and one boy jumped over it, but the second brother fell in. The brother who remained with Sina told her to return to their father and to tell him, when she reached there, to go out that night from his house and he would see his two sons. Then he jumped into the hole. The boys and the Matuku went to the sky, where they may be seen with the sumu in the four-star constellations: Na Tangata, the boys; Te Manu, the bird husband of Sina; and Te Sumu, the fish they had caught. They can be seen above the islands of Samoa.
Once Fakataka and his wife, Paua, and Luafatu and his wife, Kui, were traveling in a canoe from Fakaofu to Fiji. A quarrel arose between the two couples which finally resulted in a fight. Fakataka and Paua jumped from the canoe and went down to the bottom of the sea, where they remained as the shells called fasua and paua.
Kui and Luafatu continued in their canoe toward Fiji, but they encountered a great storm. The canoe sank and Luafatu was thrown out and drowned. His body sank to the floor of the ocean and became a rock (fatu). Kui swam through the storm, praying that she might set her foot on land: “ko au, ko au, ko Kui e oku lunga, e oku lalo, ke akahi toku vae ke tu ki he motu” (I … I … Kui. My kicking above, my kicking below, may my foot stand on an island).
Soon she came to the reef of an island and crawled on to it. Kui was pregnant, and when she came to a hole (tafeta) in the reef, she lay down and gave birth to her child and then walked to the beach and died.
Tangaloa, in the sky, saw the new-born child dying on the reef below and sent down the snipe, Tuli, to name it. Tuli flew down with two gifts for the child, a small adz (atupa) and a long-handled ax (ualoa). When he came upon the baby he called it Tae-a-Tangaloa and named the parts of its body after himself; calling the knee tuli vae; the elbow tuli lima, the head tuli ulu, and naming the other parts in the same way.
The child, Tae-a-Tangaloa, walked ashore, and on the beach he found the pool of blood left by his mother and her dead body. Then he walked among the trees along the shore and came upon Kui Kava, a carpenter, who was making a canoe with the help of his son, Pepe-le-kava. Tae-a-Tangaloa regarded the hull they were piecing together and said to Kui Kava, “Your canoe is crooked.” Kui Kava became angry and replied, “You are an evil boy. I am the chief canoe builder and yet you tell me my canoe is crooked.” Tae-a-Tangaloa repeated many times that the canoe was made out of line, and at last Kui Kava came and stood with him at the end of the canoe and saw that Tae-a-Tangaloa was right. Kui Kava asked Tae-a-Tangaloa to remain with him and help to build the canoe with his ax and adz.
Tae-a-Tangaloa set to work with the carpenter. First he laid down several short coconut logs in a row, as a cradle for the hull, while he fitted the sections of the hull in
When this was done, Tae-a-Tangaloa took the body of Pepe-le-kava to Tangaloa and asked that the boy's life be restored. They returned to the island of Kui Kava, where Tae-a-Tangaloa found the people sailing for Fiji. He stood in the canoe passage as the canoes filed out to sea and requested each one to take him in the canoe, but each refused because he was too young. As the last canoe went out to the reef, Tae-a-Tangaloa offered to go with them as living food (oso o te vaka) to be eaten by the party during the journey; and he was taken.
During the voyage a great storm arose and many of the canoes sank. Tae-a-Tangaloa stood up in his canoe and prayed to Tangaloa to save them from the strength of the waves: “Tangaloa, kua ita kuku ki faitalia kae tafia, tafia, tafia” (Tangaloa, why does your anger seize us? Let it be driven away). Then the water became calm, but the people in the canoe demanded that they should eat the man who had offered to come as food. Tae-a-Tangaloa stood up again in the canoe and prayed to Tangaloa for food, and it fell from the sky into the canoe. The people ate and then turned to Tae-a-Tangaloa and cried that they were thirsty. He told them to drink the water that had leaked into the canoe, and when they tasted it they found that it was fresh and drank.
With plenty of food and a fair wind they traveled on and finally came in sight of Fiji. Near the passage lived the high chief, Tui Viti, who destroyed all canoes which came to his island. Tae-a-Tangaloa stood in the canoe again and said to the people, “When Tui Viti lifts his hand, do not look at him but look at me.” (Tui Viti lifted his right hand in signal to the entering canoes; the crews raised their hands in salute, and fell dead.) When Tae-a-Tangaloa came to the passage, the people in the canoe all looked at him and he recited:
At the end of this recitation Tui Viti died. Tae-a-Tangaloa went ashore and brought back to life all the people whom Tui Viti had killed as they arrived at his island and had hung from trees. He took a young coconut and the end of a coconut leaf and went to the place where Tui Viti had died. He fanned the old chief with the leaf and broke the young nut, pouring the juice over Tui Viti's face, and brought him back to life. Tui Viti ruled again over his island and married Te Malamafitakia The daughter of Tae-a-Tangaloa appears in the story without any reference to her origin or how she came to be in Fiji.
Pupunatavai was said to mean “one wind”; literally, it means “a spring”. In Vaea's song it is given as punapuna te vai.
Once there was a married couple of the same name, Pupunatavai. With them lived a spirit, Matapula, who noticed that Pupunatavai, the woman, was pregnant; and he began to count her months. At the approach of the last month, Matapula sent a message to this woman: “When you give birth to your baby, you must send it to me to eat.” When the child came, she did as Matapula had ordered and sent the baby to him; and he ate it.
Some time later Matapula noticed that Pupunatavai was pregnant again, and he counted the months of pregnancy until it was about time for the child to arrive. Again he sent his servants with the message, “Pupunatavai, if you are going to have another child you must send it to me to eat.” The child was born not long after Matapula's servants had delivered the message, and Pupunatavai sent her second child to Matapula, who ate this one also. Her pregnancies continued, and each time Matapula sent his servants with the same message and each time the child was sent for Matapula to eat, as soon as it was born. This went on until Matapula had eaten nine children of Pupunatavai.
When the tenth child was about to be born, Matapula sent his servants as usual to Pupunatavai with the demand for the child. But the child still in its mother's womb heard what the servants had told her and sang to her:
Then the child said to his mother, “Where is the place to go down?” The mother answered, “Come straightway from my foot.” But the child replied, “No, I do not wish to come from the foot because the legs always stand in the excrement of birds and in dirty things.” And he shouted, “Where is the way to come out?” Then the mother replied, “You must come out from my hand.” But the baby answered, “No, I do not wish to come out from your hand because the hand always smells of the eggs of the lice in the hair.” And again he asked loudly, “Where am I to come out?” Then his mother said, “You had best come out as all people are born, from between a woman's legs.” Then the child was born and a tall man stood before Pupunatavai.
This son of Pupunatavai asked the two servants of Matapula, “Are you the two who came with Matapula's message? You know I am a strong man and can break you two into pieces in no time. I can even break your legs.” And with that he broke the legs of one servant and the jaw of the other servant and sent them away. The servant with the broken jaw ran to his master, while the other crawled. When the first arrived, Matapula asked him, “Where is the child I sent you to bring here?” The servant tried to reply, but all he could do was to make unintelligible sounds. Then the second servant arrived, dragging himself along with his hands, and he told his master all that had occurred—how the child had talked to them from his mother's womb and how, when it was born, there stood before them a giant who broke the legs of one of them and the jaw of the other.
Upon hearing this, Matapula beat his log drum and summoned all his people. They assembled at his house, and the giant child came with them. Matapula stood before his people. To show them his strength he seized a great stick and brandished it over his head, but no stones moved where he stood, and the people saw that he was weak in his legs.
Then Vaea, the newly born giant, took the stick from Matapula and told him to sit down. He brandished the stick and all the stones flew away. Matapula became alarmed and shouted, “No giants in the world or in the sky will come and fight with the strong man, Vaea.” Matapula's people abandoned him, and Vaea returned to his mother.
That evening Vaea asked his sister to go and catch some fish for him. The girl took her torch and went down to the sea where she saw a canoe approaching. The canoe contained Malokilafulu, a giant, and his brothers, Tauaputuputu, Tauatiniulu, Talofialekava, and their sister, Apakula. They came up to the reef but could not beach their canoe. Vaea's sister ran back to tell Vaea and fell weeping. Vaea said to her, “Do not cry for me or be afraid.”
The giants thought that no one had seen them arrive in the dark, so they anchored their canoe and went to sleep in it. Vaea went down to the sea, picked up the anchored canoe by one finger, set it on the shore, and slept beside it. During the night one of the sleeping giants was awakened by a dream. He aroused the rest and said, “My dream is that we bailed our canoe on the shore and not on the land.” When he finished, his brothers told their dreams; each one had dreamed the same thing. Malokilafulu said, “We are still in the night, but tomorrow we shall eat the liver of Vaea.”
With the rising of the sun they found that they had been taken into Vaea's house. They were very frightened and pleaded with Vaea not to kill them. Malokilafulu promised their sister, Apakula, to Vaea if he would let them live. Vaea married Apakula.
After he had been married for some time, he said to the four brothers, “I want to go and look at some other islands. You wait here and live with your sister.” Then he said to his wife, “If you have a son born to us while I am away, you must give him my name; but if you have a daughter, you may name her as you wish.” Apakula lived with her brother, Malokilafulu, who was angry when she named her baby boy Vaea. He went to his brothers and told them that Apakula had a son whom she had named Vaea and that they must plan to kill him.
When Malokilafulu was not with them one day, the brothers told their sister all that Malokilafulu planned against her son. When Malokilafulu returned to her house, Apakula said, “If you are angry with me and wish to kill my son, you must bring me his heart.” Malokilafulu immediately went out of the house. He prepared some fibers of coconut husk to make a sennit rope and spread them out on the ground. Then he poured water from a coconut shell over them and returned to his place in the house of the brothers. “Did Apakula's baby break my fibers?” he asked them. But their answer was that no child had come near the fibers. Then he ordered them to bring the baby to him, saying that he wished to kill it, for if he did not, the child would go to its father. The baby was brought, and while the brothers were sitting in the house, Malokilafulu beat the child to death with a club.
Apakula came to the house and asked for the heart of her baby. They wrapped it in tapa and gave it to her. She carried it out and went to the reef, where she cried:
She dived into the sea and swam to the place where Vaea had gone to live. She related to him the story of her child and gave him the heart. Vaea restored the child to life. Then Apakula told him that all her brothers loved her except Malokilafulu, who had been very cruel and angry with her. Vaea said, “We shall return to our land and fight.” So he, his wife and child, and three boys—Fakataufili, Vakataufiki, and Lae—whom he had taught to be clever in fighting and quick in running, set out for home.
When they came to their land where the giant brothers were living, Apakula pointed out to Vaea the brothers who had been kind to her and then Malokilafulu. Vaea and the three boys went to the house of the giants and started to fight. Apakula hid under a rough coconut leaf on the canoe. Malokilafulu ran away from Vaea to the place where the canoe was and stood by the mat under which Apakula was hiding. She recognized her brother's legs and slashed at them with an adz. He cried out, “Apakula e lofuatini.” His sister replied, “Ko koe tena na e te pofepoa.” Then she killed him with her adz.
Much of the Tokelau nature lore is based on shrewd observations of natural phenomena. Clouds traveling rapidly or fish jumping from the water (sumu, lautiapua) foretell strong winds which are dangerous for canoes. Still clouds indicate safe weather but little sailing breeze. When the sky shows small clouds “an arm's length in size” it is called te langi o atu, a bonito sky. The west wind, which brings the bonito close to the island, usually blows at this time. When the sky is red and solidly cloudy except for a few small breaks, it is called langi o teo (the sky of the teo fish). Orange reflection of the sunset in the clouds, common near the equator, is la sila fonu (the sun like a turtle's breastplate). When the south wind is chilled it is tafenga a le malu (the cooling freshet). Although this wind is refreshing it is dreaded for it is believed to bring death to some member of the population. Rain which makes the surface of the lagoon red or yellow also signifies death. A rainbow is nuanua.
Violent phenomena of nature were dreaded in ancient times. Close thunder (faitilitili) and distant thunder (tangulu) were thought to come from supernatural objects rolling about on the shelf (takataka) of the sky. Thunder and lightning (uila) bring out the ufu and kone fish that live in the coral of the lagoon.
An eclipse of the sun predicts some catastrophe. The sun is thought to lose its blood and become lifeless, ngase toto o te la (the sun's blood becomes like that of a sick person).
A full moon setting in a clear sky is an indication of calm weather. According to Turner (32) the ancient people believed that the moon was a residence of departed chiefs and that its waning (kaina te masina, the eating of the moon) was caused by its being eaten by the inhabitants. This was cause for great consternation and feasts and ceremonies were held. The name for an eclipse of the moon, which brings the atu and malau to the surface of the sea, suggests that this was explained in the same way as the waning moon.
Stars and constellations were used as guides in navigating among the islands and on voyages to Samoa. The following stars are remembered at Atafu as part of the old voyaging captains' lore of navigation.
The winds are counted and named in 12 points of the compass. Burrows (5) and Lister (14) collected lists of these names in Fakaofu and I collected one at Atafu. The names in these three lists are identical except for the omission of Luata and Tefa by Lister, but their order and arrangement in quarters is different. Burrows' list is probably the correct one. Tefa should undoubtedly precede Sema in the Atafu list. Atafu has two local names which are synonymous with names in the list: tafenga a le malu (a south-southwesterly wind) and taumuliava (west wind or wind which comes from behind the passage in the reef; at Atafu this is on the west side of the village). The lists are arranged in table 5 for comparative study.
The Tokelau year is divided into 12 lunar periods, thus omitting one moon for which no system of intercalation is provided. My informant at Atafu stated that the first month of the year (tausanga) was December. Burrows' (5) informant said that January was the first month, an attempt to adjust the native calendar to the European. But if the year begins in December or January the succession of months does not coincide with the sequence of winds, stars, and fish habits described for each month. However, if the year begins in June as in the calendar given to Lister (14) at Fakaofu in 1889 the natural phenomena described coincide with their actual occurrence in the equatorial year. In Samoa the ancient calendar began in June. At Vaitupu in the Ellice Islands the calendar year was divided into two seasons,
The lunar month is divided into the nightly phases of the moon which are all named and counted in two series of tens, the first ten nights of the waxing of the moon and the last ten nights of the waning and dying of the moon. With the eleventh and twelfth nights a second counting begins, but the thirteenth and fourteenth are named utua, the night when the moon is “drawn up”, and malama, the night of the full moon. After the full moon
The last night of the month, the moon and sun travel together (fanoloa). The first two days of the month are celebrated with feasting and a general holiday.
Fakatasi
Fakalua
Fakatolu
Fakafa
Fakalima
Fakaono
Fakafitu
Fakavalu
Fakaiva
Mangafulu
Fakatasi
Fakalua
Utua
Malama
Fakatasi
Fakalua
Fakatolu
Fakafa
Fakalima
Fakatutupu
Mangafulu
Po hiva
Po valu
Po fitu
Po ono
Po lima
Fanouluata
Fanolotoata
Mate ki lunga
Fanoloa
The lack of fertile soil in the Tokelau atolls forces the inhabitants to depend on the sea for sufficient nourishment. The life of the men centers around fishing and canoes and the religion is permeated with gods of the sea, who must be continually propitiated to insure good fortune in fishing quests. Unfortunately few of the religious observances, prayers, and tapus have been remembered since the complete destruction of the former religion, but their significance at one time may be inferred from the memory of old rites and from the fishermen's lore concerning the proper technique and behavior.
Fish are abundant near Tokelau. Schools of large fish are attracted to feed at these isolated reefs, and the broad lagoons are filled with varieties of smaller fish. The population is so small that there is no danger of “fishing out” the holes and banks as in thickly populated islands like the Hawaiian group.
Fishing is the prerogative of men and they have become expert fishermen due to a lifetime spent on the water and the great accumulation of
It is the women's work to search the reefs for fish and edible crustaceans left in pools at low tide. They gather little fish, sea eggs, and crabs by hand and drop them into coconut-leaf baskets slung by a cord over their shoulders. They carry small sticks with which to probe the quarry out of holes.
To catch squid (feke) they thrust a stick (ngangie fou feke) into the squid, twirl it about to irritate the squid, and slowly withdraw it. The squid reaches out to secure its antagonist, and the fisherwoman drags it out of its hole. While enticing the squid she sings a little song.
Intermittently the singer makes a sucking sound (misi) through her pursed lips, a noise commonly used to attract another's attention and particularly to call children to the house. She kills the squid by pushing the head into the body and turning it inside out.
Men, women, and children swim under water about the coral heads of the lagoon, catching in their hands the small bright-colored fish that live in the deep recesses.
A man fishes for squid from a canoe. He drops a lure, which is attached to the end of a stick 3 or 4 feet long, over a hole and sings to entice the squid out.
When the squid reaches for the lure, the fisherman draws it up slowly until the squid seizes it. Then he jerks it into the canoe and turns the squid inside out or bites out its eyes to render it helpless.
Squid lures (pule taki feke) are made of shell (Cypraea tigris) and strips of leaf to represent crabs. They resemble the “rat” lures of Samoa (28, p. 434) and are derived from a now forgotten legend of a crab and a squid.
The lure is composed of a brown spotted shell lashed over the lower section of a second shell. A piece of sennit knotted at the end runs from the top surface of the upper shell through a hole above the distal end of the mouth, makes a half hitch around the middle of the under shell section and comes up through a hole at the proximal end of the upper shell, where it is knotted. The lure is dangled by the extension of this lashing. A stick 6 to 8 feet long is lashed longitudinally beneath the under shell with a piece of sennit secured at the ends by encircling the rim of the upper shell. Strips of coconut leaf are wrapped around the stick and secured by the end of the lashing that holds the stick. Strips of leaf are also wrapped around the lashing on the sides of the upper shell, the projecting leaf ends resembling legs. The upper shell is partly filled with small pebbles which rattle when the lure is jerked about imitating the “hoa, hoa” sound made by the ula crab when it is crawling along the bottom.
Fishing traps are not in common use in Tokelau. None were seen at Atafu, and only a few of one type at Fakaofu and Nukunono. This type (pl. 1, A) is made of twigs bent in an inverted U and lashed to a flooring of twigs laid lengthwise over three stout cross-pieces. The bent twigs form a hood over each end of the trap projecting from the entrance. Each end wall is made of vertical twigs held rigid by four cross-pieces. A circular opening is left in the middle of each end. A conical passageway of pointed sticks with the broad end at the opening projects into the trap. The pointed ends of the sticks prevent the fish from leaving the trap.
A circular fish trap with an entrance in the top was used in the past. It was made of stems of a vine and is identical with the Samoan trap illustrated by Hiroa (28, pl. XLII, C).
The fishing spear is seldom used at Atafu. The present weapons have single or multiple barbs, and iron points, fashioned from iron rods with a file, lashed to the end of a wooden shaft. The exact appearance of the ancient fishing spear (kalolo) could not be exactly ascertained.
Formerly the bow and arrow (tika) were used along the reef for shooting fish. However, it was more a pastime of young boys than an established pursuit of procuring fish by the men.
Small fish are caught both in the shallow water of the lagoon and in the deep sea with scoop nets (pl. 1, B). These are made in different sizes ranging from small nets held in one hand to large scoop nets worked by 5 or 6 men.
The scoop net consists of a rectangular net with one end folded and closed to form a pocket. The sides of the net are lashed with a cord to handles which cross at the closed end and diverge at the open end to spread the net in a triangle. The fore ends of the handle are flush with the edge of the net; the crossed ends project behind and are used as handles in the small nets. The fore edge of the large nets is weighted with shells to hold it to the bottom when the net is open. The netting of the small scoop is made of fau or sennit in a close mesh like the small Samoan scoop (28, pl. XLII, A). Nets of the large scoops are made of fau in an open mesh, like the Samoan large scoop nets (28, pp. 470–472).
The small scoop nets (kalele) are placed at ends of little channels between the lagoon and the outer reef through which fish travel at low tide, from pool to pool. The fisherman holds the small scoop at the crossing of the frame and sets the two outer ends against the bottom on either side of the channel. By tossing small stones into the pool above the channel he startles the fish, which dart down the channel and into the net. The fisherman closes his net by holding his thumb over the fulcrum of the crossed sticks and squeezing them together with his fingers. As he closes it, he scoops it out of the water and drops the fish into a deep basket.
Large scoop nets are worked on the same principle in larger passages of water. One or two men hold the net while several others form a semicircle some distance from the net and drive the fish into the passage leading to the scoop.
At Atafu a large scoop net made of sennit cord (pl. 1, C) is used for catching o, a tiny fish on which the bonito feed. The scoop (kupenga ta o) is a broad bag narrowed to form a pocket in the bottom of the net. One end is left open; the closed end is seamless. The open end and sides are edged by a heavy sennit rope under which the lashing to the frame is passed. A loop of this rope is left at each end of the sides, and the poles are run through them. Two heavy ropes are seized to the middle of the open end. When the net is filled they are pulled up and wrapped around the frame so that the fish will slide into the pocket of the net.
When the shoals of o move toward the reef of the island, the bonito fishermen in their canoes wave their paddles as a signal to the people on shore. Then the men and boys run from every part of the village to help
o scoop net from the beams of the meeting house where it is kept. Directed by one of the canoes following the course of the shoal, they carry the net across the reef and give it to the men in a canoe, who carry it out to sea and float it in the course of the shoal. Swimmers form two lines diverging from the net and, as the fish approach, plunge the far end of the net under water. Upon the signal of a leader who constantly watches the approach of the fish, the lines close in, driving the thousands of tiny fish to the net. The swimmers close the two poles of the frame together and pull up the two heavy ropes to close the fore end. The canoe comes alongside and the crew throws the catch from the net into the hull. Meanwhile the swimmers circle about the school of fish, trying to halt its progress. The fish come in such numbers that it is often possible to fill three or four canoes with them before the shoal has passed. The catch is always brought to the malae and divided among the entire population.
A dip net of fine mesh on a handle 5 or 6 feet long (pl. 2, B) is used for scooping the small o fish from the surface and for scooping other small fish from shallow water.
The frame of the net is made of two arms 3 feet long which diverge from the handle 14 inches above the end in a V-shape. They are held rigid by being lashed to a crossbar 1 foot long, under which they pass. The crossbar is lashed with sennit cord in figure-of-eight turns across the lower end of the stout handle. A fau net of very close mesh shaped in a truncated triangle is stretched between the arms of the frame. A sennit cord is threaded through the marginal meshes on three sides and passed along the open end of the net. It is twined three times around the end of each arm, secured with a half hitch, and brought up the sides, making several turns around the arms and at the corners of the narrower end. It is then lashed about the crossbar and arms to prevent the net from sliding off the frame.
Long-handled dip nets are used to catch flying fish, abundant off the reef at night.
The net is made of twisted fau bark knotted in 1.5 inch mesh. The frame is oval, made by lashing together the butts and tips of two peeled ngangie. The greatest diameter of the frame is near the supple tips at the outer edge. A crossbar about 12 inches long is lashed across the frame 10 inches from the butt end, flush with the end of the handle. The handle, 6 or 8 feet long, is lashed over the butt ends of the frame and under the crossbar. The net is tied to the crossbar at the ends and laced to the frame on the sides by a cord running through the marginal meshes and around the frame arms.
The usual time for catching flying fish is between dusk and moonrise or between the setting of the young moon and sunrise. The canoes set out at
Seines (talitali) with wooden block floats and shell sinkers (pl. 2, C) are more commonly used than any other nets. They are used for casting, as barriers across a channel or inlet, and as traps in a fishing weir. They are made in various lengths; the shorter ones are used for seining and casting, the larger ones, usually 5 feet deep, for big fish drives.
In casting the net is folded evenly in the right hand with the upper edge partly turned down and its ends tied together. It is swung back and forth three or four times, gaining momentum from the hanging shell sinkers. It is heaved, as in discus throwing, with a motion that swings the whole body and extends the arm. A twist of the hand and arm at the finish of the throw swings out the sinkers and drops the net in a circle about the shoal of fish.
The boys and younger men of a family often fish with a seine on the reef when the tide is at the proper depth. They set up their net across a small inlet with the lower edge lying closely against the sea bottom. One person stands at each end of the net. The others form a line at the opposite end of the inlet and, by shouting and splashing the water with sticks or their arms, drive the fish toward the net. The men at the net force the fish to the middle of the net. The others dive to catch with their hands the fish not enmeshed. The net is brought up and emptied, and the party moves on to another channel.
Seines are also placed around the coral heads or piles of large pieces of coral built in shallow water. Small fish enter the crevices to feed or hide; these are searched and the fish there driven into the net.
V-shaped weirs for fish drives are built of coral blocks in certain broad shallow parts of the lagoons where the water is seldom disturbed. These are found particularly on the south side of Atafu where the reef scarcely rises above the water line. At low tide when the tops of the walls are above water, a fishing party assembles above the opening of the V, some of the party forming a great semicircle and the rest forming two lines that continue the walls of the weir. The semicircle slowly closes in, driving the fish into the weir by shouting and splashing the water and probing the hiding places in the coral. A winged net with a deep purse or sack in the middle of it is set at the fork or point of the weir. Two men stand beside the mouth of the net and signal when the driving must go more slowly. When the purse is filled, the man at its mouth closes the net by tugging on the cord which runs around the mouth of the purse and signals the drivers to stop. The fork is blocked with a small net while the long purse is emptied into a canoe and reset. The drivers move closer and closer until they reach the ends of the weir and all the fish are hemmed within.
In olden days a net was not used without the proper invocation to the gods to bring good fortune to the fisherman. When a new net was completed, the maker invited another fisherman of the village to take it and fish with it. This was the rite of dipping the net and making the first catch. When the fisherman returned, the owner gave a feast (te auata) for all the fishermen of the village. The net was tapu until these initiatory rites had been performed and the feast given. A net not properly recognized would bring misfortune and ridicule to its owner.
Four large fish in the Tokelau waters are snared from canoes by noosed ropes into which they are led by baits. Kingfish (pala), a large aseu (ulua), a large variety of tuna (takuo), and sharks are so caught. The method of snaring is the same for all except sharks (p. 99).
The crew paddle up and down the fishing banks to troll. The fishing captain stands facing aft and trails a bonito head attached to a light line behind the canoe. He watches for the rising of a fish to the surface, and as soon as the water breaks behind the bait he jerks the bait ahead to lead the fish to the canoe and orders the man who sits before him (te liu) to throw out bits of the prepared chopped fish bait and to hold ready the noosed rope. He quickly draws in the bait line and takes the rope from the liu. This rope has a small stiffly-seized loop at the end through which the line is doubled to make a running noose and twisted three or four times over the end of the short stick by which it is suspended over the water. As the liu continues
liu drops a handful of bait under the water ahead of the noose. The fish, excited with the increasing amount of bait and unwary, moves forward for this food and enters the loop. At the moment the dorsal fin passes under the noose the fishing captain heaves backward with all possible effort and speed to pull the noose about the base of the broad tail of the fish. The liu seizes the rope also to prevent the fish from struggling away from the side of the canoe, where it can be clubbed with a short, stout killing stick (te siki), always carried on fishing expeditions to dispatch any large fish whose thrashing makes it too dangerous to be taken into the canoe alive.
Sharks are caught with hooks, but snaring with a noose along the edge of the reef is a more popular method because it demands more activity and skill of the crew and captain (tautai). The bait consists of the pounded flesh of two or three white eels of the unedible variety (pusi tea). When these are tied at the stern and dragged in the water, small particles wash off and leave a tempting trail in the wake of the canoe. As soon as the tautai sees the pointed dorsal fin of a pursuing shark, he calls to his crew to slacken their pace and drops his running noose, loosely turned about the end of the stick, just behind the eels. As the shark strikes at the eels, the fishing captain snaps the noose snug behind the dorsal fin with a sudden and tremendous jerk. He and the liu pull together and snare the shark around the tapering juncture of its body and tail. As soon as they can draw it alongside, they kill it with the club. If the shark is too large and powerful and cannot be drawn in without endangering the crew and upsetting the canoe, the line is slacked and quickly slipped over the shark's tail before it is carried away.
The Tokelau natives differ from the Samoans in this method of catching sharks, but use the same technique in snaring sharks alongside the canoe and in catching kingfish and ulua. They have recently copied the Samoan shark rattle, made of halves of coconut shells strung on a stick and tied in a ring. The rattle is shaken violently under water causing a commotion which attracts the sharks (28, p. 432).
Many turtles are caught off the sandy shores of the atolls during the mating period and the season when the females come ashore to lay their eggs. They are sometimes caught with a noose held alongside a canoe, but most commonly by swimmers catching them by hand.
When anyone sees the black back of a turtle, he shouts “Fonu! Fonu!” (Turtle! Turtle!). The men of the village run to the reef below the point
Two men attack a single turtle from beneath, one on each side lifting a fore flipper. A single turtle is always caught if two men can reach it before it sounds, but often one of a pair escapes a single man before his companions can close in to assist.
The men float the turtle to the reef in a vertical position, and carry or drag it to the beach by the flippers. Four young men carry it on their shoulders to the malae in the village for a ceremonial division. The turtle is first put on view and later cut up by a specially appointed man who divides the meat, blood, and immature eggs among the people of the village. The man who first sees the turtle at sea is the rightful owner and may claim a share of the better portion of the meat. Formerly the head was tapu and was given, on Fakaofu, to the head chief, a custom almost universal in Polynesia.
Tokelau fishhooks are of two types: a hook with the point projecting toward the shank, used with bait in line fishing; and a hook with the point projecting upward or outward without a barb, used in trolling with line and pole. The first type belongs to a class of hooks whose principle of construction and use is unique in the Pacific. These hooks are either a single piece or are composite. The parts are shank, bend or fork, point leg, and point, which, in the composite hooks, is formed of a small forked branch having a point and point pin. The shank has either an angular projection or a knob to keep the lashing of the snood from slipping.
The method of securing the fish is more complex than with the simple European barbed hook. The weight of the bait lashed on the point leg holds the shaft at an angle to the line. The fish strikes down the hook toward the bend (fork of the point and point leg), taking the point into his mouth through the clearance between the point and shank with the point directed outward. When the fish closes his jaws on the bait, the tip of the point penetrates the lining of his mouth or throat. The upward pull on the line, given by the fisherman as he feels the fish take his hook, tilts up the point leg which follows through the penetration made by the point and slides the fish down to the bend or fork of the hook. The downward and inward
c).
The second type of hook is the widely distributed trolling hook composed of a turtle-shell or bone point lashed to a pearl-shell shank (fig. 8, b). It is trolled by a long rod and line from the reef or a canoe. The shank attracts the fish to the surface, where they are hooked and quickly lifted out of the water. There is no inward projection or barb on the point in this type of hook, for the fish is quickly taken from the surface before it has opportunity to free itself. The straight point is absolutely essential in bonito fishing where the hook must be quickly freed and trolled again.
The smallest hook (matau sumu) is used with line and pole for catching sumu off the reef. The hook is made of turtle or coconut shell. It varies from the common Pacific type in having a short shank one half the length of the point leg, a wide angle between these two, and an extremely wide clearance between point and shank. The hook collected (fig. 8, a) does not function on the principle of the Pacific type of bent point hook, for the pull of the line on the shank set at such a wide angle to the longer point leg does not slide the fish into the fork between the point leg and shank. The small sumu is hooked in the fork between the point and point leg and quickly jerked out of the water.
Larger single-piece hooks of the bent point type with narrower angle between shank and point leg and with small clearance between point and shank are made from the strong, lower halves of the hard shells of fully ripened coconuts. The bend, which receives the greatest amount of strain in the hook, is formed from the thick base; and the shank and point from the side of the shell. The point projects inward and downward at an angle of 35 to 40 degrees, a distinguishing characteristic of Tokelau hooks, for the hooks of this type from neighboring islands have wider angles. The shank tapers toward the upper end and is slightly shorter than the point leg (fig. 9, a, d). The end of the looped snood is placed along the inner edge of the shank and lashed above and below the lashing knob.
The hooks described above were the only ones seen that were made of native materials, except for a wooden Ruvettus hook. Most present-day hooks are made from iron rods but the ancient forms have been retained in the iron hooks and are thought superior to European hooks sold by the trading schooners. Four iron hooks retaining the shape of native hooks are shown in figure 10. One hook (fig. 10, a) for catching malau has a double shank lashing now made by notching the projection at the end of the shank. It is more usual to bend over the end of the shank to form a small loop for attaching the snood (fig. 10, e).
The largest one-piece hook (fig. 10, b) seen at Atafu was used for catching fapuku, formerly a sacred fish. In olden days this hook was made of two forked branches, like the Ruvettus hook or the small wooden hooks used by the Tahitians to catch Epinephelus sp. (hapu'u; Tokelau, fapuku) (21). The shank has a lashing knob at the tip. The snood is looped and lashed below the knob and seized by the lashing thread. One end of the loop is divided from the snood and continued as a long sinker line. A short line is lashed to the point leg for binding on the bait. Other iron hooks (fig. 10, c, d) are made in the form of the ring-shaped hooks of bone and shell used in olden times. The points project characteristically downward as in the angular hooks. The end of the shank is doubled over, and a wire snood is looped through.
The Ruvettus hook (fig. 11) is composed of two forked branches of ngangie wood. The larger fork forms the shank and point leg, and the other the point and the pin which is joined to the point leg. The fork of the shank and point leg make an angle of about 40 degrees. The branch of the fork forms the shank, and the stem forms the point leg; the stem below the bend is cut off and thinned down. Both branches are left round in cross section. The upper end of the shank is trimmed and pointed and is provided with two knobs on the inner and outer parts for lashing the snood. A V-shaped groove is cut along the outer part of the upper end of the point leg, and a deep notch is cut in the tip. The inner part of the point pin has an angular face to fit this groove, and the angular under side of the point fits into the notch.
The point is quadrangular in cross section tapering to a point with the angles sharply defined. The upper sides of the point are broader than the under sides and form a more acute angle at the upper edge which is slightly convex. The angle between the point and point leg is approximately 35 degrees. The point deflects very slightly to the left from the axis of the point leg when the hook is held with the point directed toward one. This deflection is so slight that it appears to be accidental or due to rough workmanship. Gudger (10) does not mention any deflection in the Tokelau hooks that he studied. Kennedy (13) suggests that this characteristic deflection is due to the difficulty of making the scarfing for the joint with the point on the inner part of the point leg. The
b).
The scarf joint is lashed securely and wrapped with a piece of the fabric-like stipule of coconut leaves folded on the outer part. This is lashed with light sennit braid three times around the lower edge, twice around the middle, and six times around the upper edge (fig. 11, a). A bait lashing is secured at one end to the point leg outside the stipule wrapping. The snood is made of heavy 3-ply sennit braid ⅜ inch wide. Its lashing to the end of the shank is covered by a small piece of coconut stipule, which extends above the tip of the shank and is lashed spirally. These wrappings protect the inner lashings of the snood and scarf joint from being sawed by the fish's teeth.
Ruvettus (palu) does not hold a large place in the diet of the Tokelau people due to its purgative effect and is therefore only occasionally sought. Only two palu-fishing expeditions took place during the 10 weeks of the field trip to Atafu.
A calm sea is preferred for Ruvettus fishing because the canoe remains still and the fisherman can distinguish the pull of a fish from the drag of the heavy sennit lines. For this reason the expeditions go to the banks on the protected lee side of the island. But if a wind rises it blows the canoes away from the island. Therefore expeditions are held on moonlight nights when the fishermen can see the island to get their bearing.
The Atafu method of fishing for Ruvettus with a single hook corresponds identically with Ruvettus fishing at Vaitupu in the Ellice Islands, as described fully by Kennedy (13).
Composite hooks made of a pearl-shell shank and a turtle-shell barbless point are employed for casting from the edge of the reef and for trolling from canoes. The hooks used for casting and shore trolling are made in different sizes and are modified in construction for the different species of fish for which they are used. But they all adhere in general to the pattern of the single type of hook used in trolling for bonito.
The principal parts of these hooks are shank (pa), point (manga), hackle (senga), line or snood (afo), and lashings (alaloaloa). (See fig. 8, b.)
This type of hook is made to represent a small fish. The shank is cut in a long strip from the shell with the thick base portion left to make a raised head on the upper or concave side. The point is lashed at the tail end—the thin outer portion of the shell—through two holes in the point base. The distal lashing includes a hackle of feathers which project as a broad tail from the end of the shank. The end of the snood is looped through the proximal hole of the point base and seized. The upper part of the snood is secured along the head by a lashing which passes through a hole in this thicker part of the shank.
The smallest hook of this type (pa si malau) is used for fishing with a long pole and line from the edge of the reef on moonlight nights for a reddish fish called malau. The shank is made of a transparent, amber-colored shell called fole. The head and tail of the shank are broadly rounded (fig. 12, a). The greatest width is across the under side of the head. The top is rounded between the flatter sides of the head. The flat, thin, turtle-shell point has only two perforations in the short base in order not to weaken it. The proximal point lashing and the snood run through the proximal hole. The malau hook differs from the type hook in having a feather attached from each side of the eye of the head to represent gill fins. This was the only hook seen with this type of hackle, but it is evidently not an abnormal form, for Lister (14) noted similar hooks in Fakaofu. He says, “In some cases the feathers are so fastened that the front ones resemble the two lateral fins; and the end one, the forked tail fins of the fish.”
A small hook is used for trolling from a canoe along the edge of the reef for takipalu. The hook of this type collected at Atafu had lost its point (fig. 12, b). The shank is made of a dark brown shell proportionately thicker and broader in body than the shanks of larger hooks and is cut with the edges of the upper surface meeting in a single mesial ridge over the head. This shank has a single black feather hackle lashed on the under surface of the tail.
A slightly under-sized trolling hook (pa si aseu), identical in construction with the bonito hooks, is used in fishing for aseu. The shank of this hook (fig. 13) is made from the discarded ends of the pearl shells which are too short for shanks of bonito hooks. The different lusters of the pearl shell attract the fish. The hinge at the end of the shells is narrow and makes a small and abruptly formed head. A thin piece of shell which has no section of the shell base to form the raised head has been used for the shank of one hook (fig. 13, b). Two holes have been bored at the head end through the flat surface of the shank for the lashing of the snood.
Aseu are trolled for with a long line and pole from the edge of the reef. The fisherman stands on a head of coral projecting beyond the outer line of the reef. He whips his hook over the breaking waves and flicks it over the surface like a small fish in flight from a larger one. If a fish does not rise for the hook, he changes it for a differently colored one and tries again, moving along the reef if his hooks do not attract fish at the first place.
At Atafu the largest of the trolling hooks (fig. 14, a) vary in length from 2.5 inches to 3.5 inches. All are made with pearl-shell shanks and turtle-shell points, but at Fakaofu Lister (14) observed bone points as well.
The parts of the hook are prepared with the utmost care and the making of each bonito hook follows a prescribed technique. The shank is obtained from the black-lipped pearl shell, Meleagrina (tifa), by cutting a strip transversely across the rounded half of the shell. The hinge of the shell forms the thick head, and the outer surface makes the convex under surface. Formerly the cutting was done with files made of the skin of a sting ray and rough coral stone (punga). Punga was also used to rub down the rough outer surface of the shell to produce the nacreous sheen and the proper shade for the under side of the shank. Three colors in the shells are distinguished by the natives: pearl-white (lau tiale, petal of the Tahitian gardenia); a golden yellow which often grades into brown (lau milo, petal of the milo flower); and a black-tipped shell ranging from pale to deep gray (siku uli).
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The tip of the head of the shank is usually round and blunt. The two sides are sloped from a mesial longitudinal crest which diverges at the lower tip into the edges of the lower surface of the shank. From the distal slope of the head the ridge diverges and descends to the edges of the upper surface. A hole is bored transversely through the head with a pump drill or a shaft tipped with a pointed shell which is twirled between the hands.
The turtle-shell point with the base extending proximally is of the western Polynesian type, as distinguished by Hiroa (30). The point base has three holes: the proximal or head hole for the loop of the snood, the middle and distal or tail holes for the lashings which secure the hook to the shank. The sides and the outer edge, which rests against the upper surface of the shank, are made flat. The points differ in form; some are flat-sided, some flat-sided and beveled, and others round. The longitudinal axes of the point and point base vary from an almost parallel position to a divergence of 40 degrees. The inner curve of the point varies from a sharp form to a broad bend, and the outer edge is either straight or curved from the edge of the base.
In assembling the hook, the point is laid at the tail end of the upper or concave surface of the shank. The lashing is commenced by running a thread of fau bark through the middle hole in the point base and around the shank four times, knotting an end on each side with a half hitch. The lashing thread for the snood is next passed through the proximal hole, and one end is secured by a reef knot around the head of the base. The long end of this thread is brought to the head of the shank on the side on which it extends from the pole of the base. It is passed through the eye of the shank and back through the proximal hole in the base, and is knotted around the two strands leading to the head of the shank.
The snood is looped through the proximal hole of the point base and brought back to the head of the shank. The lashing left at the head of the base is given two half hitches about the snood. It is wound spirally with eight turns up the snood to the head of the shank and is passed through the eye and around the snood again. The lashing is seized about the end of the snood and brought four times through the eye again, being given one turn around the snood each time. It is finally secured by four half hitches below the seizing.
The hackle is made of the quills of two feathers which are inserted in two running half hitches at the tail of the shank while one end of the thread is held loosely in the teeth and then drawn taut with the free hand. The quill ends of the feathers are held with the convex side against the back of the shank at the tail while one end of the lashing is passed through the hole of the tail of the point base and brought around the shank and quills five times. This end is temporarily secured by a half twist around the tip of the point; the other end is similarly run through the hole and around the quills. The ends are given a half hitch around the lashing and knotted together at the end of the hook and left long as part of the hackle.
The only variation in the construction of this bonito hook from the Samoan hooks described by Hiroa (28) is a third hole at the head of the shank in the Tokelau hook, which is used only for the attachment of the snood. In this characteristic it corresponds to the hooks of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands, described by Kennedy (13).
The bonito fishing rod is composed of two pieces, a pole of puka, fetau wood, or imported bamboo 14 to 18 feet long, and a butt of kanava wood which is a combined handle and attachment piece for erecting the rod for trolling. The attachment of the two pieces is shown in figure 14, b. Along the upper end the butt has a groove which receives the lower end of the pole. The lower end of the butt turns into a short elbow which hooks into the socket of the stern seat when the rod is stood in the grooved block of the stern cover of the canoe. Around the butt is a small net of sennit cord for holding the several bonito hooks, each of which is attached to a separate line.
The shell used for shanks is valuable and the supply has grown less as succeeding generations comb the lagoon for the precious material. If a man paddling over the lagoon sees a shell at great depths and is unable to obtain it at the time, he claims it by announcing his discovery and its location on his return to the village. The discovered tifa shell is then tapu. In former times any man who removed it and hid it in another spot in the lagoon to recover it later as his own could be cursed to death by the original finder.
Formerly the making and keeping of a bonito hook was strictly an affair of the fishing captain, and his materials were not to be contaminated or his work interrupted. Each fishing captain (tautai) kept a wooden bowl in which he bathed his hooks in fresh water after each expedition. This water was kept in coconut water bottles and could not be used for any other purpose. His bowl and mat were also tapu.
Trolling for bonito (alo) is the greatest sport of Tokelau men. They fish daily during the season when the bonito rise to the surface near the island to feed on small 0 fish. Several canoes go out together and fish in one or more fleets according to the number of schools of bonito. Each fleet is led by a head fishing captain. Each canoe is manned by a crew of 4 or 5 men led by the fishing captain (tautai) who is the stern paddler and conducts all the fishing.
Before starting after a school of bonito the fishing captain sets up his fishing rod in the grooved block behind him. When he moves near the fish he drops his hook, sits against the butt of the rod so that he can feel any lift given to it by the pull of a striking fish, and continues to paddle and guide his canoe to the shoal. As soon as a bonito takes his hook he springs to his feet and picks up the rod. In the midst of a shoal he stands facing aft and skims the hook rapidly from side to side over the water, holding the butt with both hands, braced high up on the inner side of the right leg. The line is the
The utmost skill is necessary to land bonito and it is a great disgrace to let a fish slip back into the sea or to dip the end of the rod in the water. This blunder is known as te maumau (literally, wasting). If a fishing captain disgraces himself in either of these ways, he must give a feast to all the other fishing captains who accompanied him in the day's fishing. If a new fishing captain, with as yet little standing in the fleet, commits either of these errors he loses his right to the stern seat and a new captain is appointed. The natives have observed that many schools disappear following the dropping of fish overboard. They believe a dropped bonito will tell the others, so that all immediately flee from the fishermen. This is similar to the explanation advanced by Vaitupu fishermen (13) that a half-stunned bonito slipping into the water sinks rapidly with a tail-spin motion, and his strange descent alarms the school that follows.
There is a tapu placed on swordfish and shark fishing during the bonito season. One informant said that the old men had told him in his youth that these two large fish prey upon the bonito and that the killing of either a shark or a swordfish sends the bonito into such ecstasies that they swim all over the sea in their joy.
Bonito-fishing expeditions begin about 4 o'clock in the morning. The crews take the canoes from the beaches to the passage into the lagoon where the fishing captains get in. The captains never assist with the canoes until they are on the water. As soon as all the canoes in the fleet have safely passed the reef, the head captain says lotu (pray), the crews ship paddles, and all pray for good fishing and protection at sea. This prayer is a survival of the ancient rite to O Te Moana who lived in the sea and controlled the bonito.
The location of a school of bonito is indicated by birds hovering over the shoal to prey on the fish. The head captain raises his stern paddle in the air as a signal for the fleet to dash after the bonito. As the canoes approach the school, the crews and captain splash the water with their paddles to attract the fish to the hook. As bonito expeditions start before
When the bonito are running well the head captains may decide to hold a community ceremonial fishing (talangi) in which every canoe and every fisherman of the village partakes. The catch is divided among all the people. The head fishing captains announce the event several days before it takes place and all prepare hooks and canoes with special care. In the old days the priests invoked the gods of the sea to send a large run of fish for the village. On the morning of the talangi all the canoes meet beyond the reef, and the fishing captain of the village leads them to the fishing grounds. He starts the dash toward the rear of the first school, from which direction the bonito are best approached. The individual canoes carry on their pursuit of the fish until the fishing captain calls them all in. They assemble around the canoe of the fishing captain, who takes the report of the catch and decides whether each canoe will keep its catch or whether the whole will be divided among the community. The canoe with the record catch leads the file over the reef to the village. The rest follow, each taking precedence in line according to the number of fish in its hull. If the catch is large, the crew may raise their paddles as they approach the village; if they are bringing in 100 or more bonito, the fishing captain holds up his pole.
On the beach the children and old people of the village await the expedition and count the poles eagerly to learn the success of the fishermen. “Siaki, siaki-mauatuo,” they cry in greeting. The women carry the fish in baskets to the malae. It is their privilege to eat any remains of raw bonito and to take for themselves any fish which the men have left in their canoes.
The official (tauraenga) selected by the village council to supervise the division of any community food divides the bonito piled on the malae and gives a portion to each family. One large portion is set aside for the fishing god and his priest, who have lent their power to the good luck of the fishermen. Formerly as each division of the fish was counted out the older men exclaimed, “Aiooo-aoo”, a word of thanks for the great number of fish given by the god of fishing. At the end of the division the priest made an offering of fish and thanked the god. The ceremony ended, as it does today, by the entire village feasting on roasted bonito.
The canoe is the most important and valuable property of an atoll islander. It is a vital necessity in procuring his food supply from the sea and from his plantations across the lagoon. All contact with other islands is dependent on the canoe. The Tokelau men were skilled navigators, visiting Samoa, Uvea, and Fiji as well as the other Tokelau atolls.
Double canoes were used for long journeys but single-outrigger canoes
Three classes of canoes are recognized on the island today: the small outrigger canoe (paopao) with a single-piece hull, the single-outrigger fishing canoe (vaka) (pl. 3, B) made of segments of tree trunks, and the double canoe (lualua). Paopao, the Samoan name for the smallest dugout canoe, is said to be also a native Tokelau name. However, there is only one paopao in the group, and that was made for the use of the Samoan missionary on the lagoon at Atafu. This paopao is modeled after the vaka and has two outrigger booms and the Tokelau attachment to the float. The hull is made from a single tree trunk, but the sides are built up in one or two places where the sinuous growth of the tree left depressions. The small size and the name are probably Samoan features.
The fishing canoe is usually made of three sections of tree trunks. It has five outrigger booms indirectly attached to the float and carries five men. Each canoe is equipped with a support in the stern to carry a fishing pole for trolling for bonito. Some variation in the shape was observed between the canoes of Atafu and Nukunono. The Nukunono canoes have slightly rounded hulls in cross section and the upper part of the cutwater curves outward, whereas the Atafu hull has straight sides and the cutwater is straight, though sloped.
The double canoe is composed of two hulls lashed together by cross booms. These canoes were sailed with a mat lateen sail attached to the mast and were steered with an oar at each hull.
The making of a canoe is an important event for which the supernatural agencies associated with the trees have to be propitiated. A family, having obtained permission to use their kanava trees, formally requests a master carpenter (tofunga) to perform the work. He proceeds the next day with the male members of the family to the plantations and prays before each tree to the god Tongaleleva, that it may fall and be carried away. Abasing himself before each tree spirit the carpenter says, “Topalapala kai o tae. Aloha mai.” (Spirit bring your excreta to me to eat. I bring you aloha.)
At the beginning of each day, the master carpenter is given a new breech-cloth to wear and he and his assistants receive food for their morning meal. The carpenter makes a prayer for success in the day's work. The master carpenter is tapu during the period of the work—his clothes, his mats, the water bottles and wooden basin which he uses for washing are all untouch-
At the completion of the task there is a large gift of mats, sennit, and garments made to the carpenters. A great feast (te auata) is held at the launching and the other canoes of the village meet the new vessel on the lagoon and race it to test its speed.
The master carpenter, as designer and overseer, is known as the matamai. His apprentices do most of the labor, and younger assistants (te tino) sharpen the dulled edges of the shell adzes on a variety of hard coral.
Few varieties of trees grow on the atolls and most of these are unsuitable for canoe building. The kanava (Cordia subcordata) tree in Tokelau grows sufficiently thick to make canoe hulls. It is durable, resistant to water, but heavy and hard, making construction and handling difficult. The kanava is a stumpy tree with twisted trunk which quickly tapers from its broad base. Only the lower section of the tree can be used in the hull which must therefore be built of three or four sections lashed together at the ends. Kanava trees have never been plentiful, and their use has been rigidly controlled in order to preserve the supply (p. 58). The trees are larger and more numerous on Atafu and have always been demanded as gifts by the people of the southern atolls.
The one paopao seen was made from the wood of the puka tree (Hernandia ovigera) which is straight-grained and light but not as durable as kanava. The outrigger floats of both the large and small canoes are also made of puka.
fakanafala: posts used in bracing sections while joining them
foe: paddle
saumani: stern paddle of tautai
paopao: small lagoon canoe dugout
palelafa: split of coconut midrib lashed against seams
felakaaka: name of lashing design (interlaced)
fakasumusumu: name of lashing design (triangular)
tata: bailer
kofe: fishpole
tautai: fishing captain, steersman
mua: fore
muli: aft
pou kofe: rest for fishpole on outrigger
lango: cradle for hull, logs on which hull rests in building, skids
falelo: awl of coral
la: sail
velo: shell ornaments on cover pegs
In felling a tree the roots are often cleared and a fire built around them to burn through the base, but usually the tree is chopped with shell axes to avoid the chance of fire destroying the heart of the tree. The top and branches of the tree are cut or burned from the felled trunk, and the log is taken to the beach and floated to the workshop. Here the log is divided into three sections hollowed out by fire. The fire is controlled by cutting back the burning wood with adzes and soaking it with water kept at hand in wooden bowls. One section for the middle of the canoe is hollowed out completely; the other two sections for bow and stern are hollowed through one end, to be fitted to the middle section.
The sections are set end to end across a row of short lengths of coconut logs which are cut out on their upper surfaces to fit them. The joining ends of the sections are squared off and the centers dubbed out with an ualoa adz, a Tridacna shell blade hafted to an angular handle with long head which will reach deep into the hull but allow the worker's hands to remain above the sides. The finished surface is worked with a smaller and lighter adz. The shell of each section is left thick enough so that the outside may be shaped. The utmost care is taken to avoid cutting the inside too deep or driving an adz through the bottom. The carpenters periodically snap their fingernails against the sides to judge the thickness from the resonance of the sound and place a stick perpendicularly in the section to estimate the thickness of the bottom from the ground.
Holes are bored with a shell awl along both ends of the middle section and the inner ends of the bow and stern sections. The holes of one section are exactly opposite those of the joining section and often in sets of three pairs. A temporary lashing is made to hold the three sections together. The hull is turned over, and bow and stern are shaped. The bow section is tapered to the cutwater, which stands at slightly more than a right angle from the fore foot. The stern is tapered and cut down on top and bottom into the shape of a fishtail. The keel curves up to the cutwater and tail of the stern. A smooth surface is made over the entire underbody by light chipping with small adzes. At this time the master carpenter sets the sections in line. The canoe is turned over again in upright position and unlashed. The squared ends are trimmed to as even a surface as possible. Then one face of each joining is coated with a black mixture prepared from water and charcoal of coconut fibers, and the ends are laid together. The paint marks the high spots where further trimming is necessary.
A press of four stakes with a binding rope is set up to hold two sections of the canoe together while the permanent lashing is made. Two stakes are driven into the ground behind one end of the middle section and one stake on each side of the middle section in line with this pair. The end of the middle section is braced against the middle pair of stakes and the end section is held against the middle section by the binding rope carried around the outside stakes and the end section. Temporary lashings hold the sections together at the gunwales. Sennit braid is run through the top pair of holes on one side and drawn tight. A peg is driven into each hole to hold this end of the sennit while the entire joint is securely lashed. The sennit is carried through the small holes by a needle made from the midrib of a coconut leaflet.
The sides and edges of the sections are cut away in those places where, due to natural twists, the trunk does not provide ample breadth. Irregular edges and sides are not straightened. All that can be used of the solid piece is retained for strength and a saving of the precious wood. The sides are built up with pieces of planking trimmed to fit the uneven edges of the hull sections. These seams, with their lashings, have a zigzag pattern which gives an appearance of patching and crude construction.
The planking is hewn from the smaller pieces of the tree, which are first split by being burned through with fire. The edge of the plank is shaped to fit the edge of the section on which the plank is to be attached. The plank is then secured by sennit braid run through the holes of the section, around the planking, and pulled taut through the
Flaws or knots on the edges of the sections are cut out in triangular notches in which small pieces of planking are inserted and lashed with sennit braid.
The lashing in all parts of the hull of a fishing canoe is made directly through the sides and exposed on the outside (fig. 15, a). Between the sections it is usually evenly spaced from gunwale to gunwale. The holes are set back about an inch and a half to two inches from the edge and are made in opposing pairs. The permanent lashing commences at one gunwale. One end of the braid is knotted and the other is led through the topmost hole from the inside, across the outside, and through the opposing hole of the other section. The knotted end is pulled up to the hole but is tucked under the braid on
The planks are lashed in the same manner, but the lashings are not so closely spaced. At angles in the seams a triangular binding is made between one hole on the upper side and the two which are directly opposite on the section below. Eight-ply sennit braid (kaha vaka) is used for all these lashings.
A calking made from coral lime is sometimes used to plug the holes over the lashings. Calking is not used between the seams or sections of the underbody unless leaks develop. Then the lashing is loosened, strips of coconut-leaf midrib inserted, and the lashing pulled tight.
A cover, measuring six hand spans, is placed over the bow of the hull. The gunwale of the bow section is slightly stepped so that the cover, which extends to the point, will lie with its stern end almost flush with the uncovered gunwales aft. The point of the cover projects upward continuing the line of the cutwater. Behind the line of this projecion are several knobs or pyramidal projections, broader but not as high. White cowrie shells (Ovula) were formerly tied on these projections but they have become rare in the lagoons and were seen on only two canoes at Fakaofu. In modern canoes these ornamental projections have a connecting bar across the top.
The outer side of the bow cover is cut at an angle of 75 degrees to the deck and stands obliquely forward, keeping the water from spilling into the hull. In some canoes this guard is triangular; in others, convex on the fore side and straight across the aft side.
The stern section slopes from the angle behind the stern seat to the beginning of the tail piece and is inset to receive a stern cover. The tapering of the sides and the decline of the stern deck give a pleasing line to the hull as well as eliminating interference from the canoe in trolling or snaring with a noose. The stern cover is slightly shorter than the bow and also has pyramidal projections to which white cowries were formerly fastened. A grooved block to hold a fishpole for trolling stands on the forward end. The fore face of this block is oblique and flush with the end of the cover and has a deep slot to brace the fishpole which rests in a hole or against a raised brace in the stern seat. On each side is a wing or brace extending from the middle of the block to the edge of the cover. Although the block is cut out at different heights and in varying forms, it is either on a horizontal plane or tilted down, parallel with the decline of the cover. No leaf-shaped blocks tilted up at the rear, as seen in the Ellice Islands and Samoa, were observed on the stern covers of the Tokelau canoes.
The outrigger, which balances the long, narrow hull in the water, is composed of a set of booms, connecting pegs, a float, longitudinal stay poles, complementary lashings, and a platform. The usual number of booms is five, the foremost and aft booms extending beyond the float, and the three middle booms reaching just short of the float and connected to it by oblique pegs (fig. 15, d). The first four booms are evenly spaced between the ends of the bow and stern covers. The stern boom is close to the fourth, and between these two is hung a single plank as platform. The booms are lashed to the gunwales with sennit which is run through holes below the gunwale. The lashing is made through two holes under the bow and stern booms and through a single hole under the intermediate booms.
There are two techniques in lashing the booms. In the first, the braid is brought alternately from a hole on the inside of the gunwale, diagonally across the boom, to a hole on the outside. The next crossing is at a right angle to the first, and the lashing
The float is made in various shapes but usually with pointed ends, the bow being more tapering than the aft end (fig. 15, d). Some floats are made from wood with a sharp S-crook at the forward end, thus raising the point above the water line. The bow end of the float projects at some length beyond the bow connecting pegs, but the end behind the stern connecting pegs is extremely short. The float is toed in so that the bow point is closer to the hull than the stern point. This somewhat offsets the drag to port which the outrigger gives to the canoe. Unlike the Ellice Islands canoes, no compensation for the outrigger drag is made in the shape of the hull.
The float is attached to the booms by connecting pegs and a supplementary lashing from the bow and stern booms (pl. 3, B). The bow and stern booms have four connectives, two on each side of the boom, which stand obliquely diverging from the float (fig. 15, c). The tops of the connectives are flush with the top of the boom. The inner pair are lashed to the boom inside the outer stringer. The ends are tapered and set into the top of the float, one pair opposing the other. No wedges are used to secure the connectives in the float. A single connective attaches each intermediary boom with the float (fig. 15, b). It is lashed to the side of the boom outside the outer stringer. It stands obliquely from the boom and sets in the float along the same line with the inner pairs of connectives of the end booms. The pegs hold the float rigidly from the booms but do not keep the float and booms strongly connected. A suspensory lashing is made around the end booms and is the true binding between the two. The lashing is commenced at the end of the boom, where it is carried around both peg ends and then over and around the float on the inside. It is then brought up to the boom at the point where the inner pegs meet. The lashing is carried back again around the float, twice more to the end of the boom, the last time binding the crossing of the lashing together above the float and knotting the end under the boom.
The second longitudinal stringer is laid parallel to the first about a third of the distance in to the hull and is lashed to each boom. The plank platform is hung underneath the two after booms and extends from the inner stringer to the side of the hull. All canoes in the Atafu fleet today have this thin piece of planking which is said to be a modern feature for carrying fishing boxes and equipment. A piece of netting strung between two booms inside the hull is also used for carrying small articles. This is most common today in Nukunono canoes.
Two short, forked uprights to carry the fishpole when not in use are lashed to the bow and stern booms of some canoes. The stern rest is lashed to the center of the stern boom, and the bow rest is lashed near the hull on the bow boom. This keeps the pole away from the port paddlers and yet within ready reach of the fishing captain in the stern.
A lifting-grip is set at the juncture of the stern boom and the port gunwale. This is a short, flat piece of wood, broader at the boom end and cut out in the center. The broad end is trimmed down so that it does not stand up from the boom and is lashed through a single hole. The other end is lashed to the gunwale. In lifting the canoe, the right hand grips this handle and the left grips the stern boom. At the bow, just behind the end of the cover, is a convex cross piece lashed over each gunwale. This is the bow lifting-grip grasped by two men on either side of the canoe.
A seat is placed before each boom except the stern boom. These seats vary in form from mere cross planks to carved, concave seats with flanges across the ends on the under side. The stern seat, in which the canoe captain sits, is placed against the end of the stern cover.
The bailer (tata) of the Tokelau canoe is made of puka. It is similar to one type of Samoan bailer described by Hiroa (28) as “the typical Polynesian sugar scoop form”. The handle is a raised piece extending from the back edge to the center of the hollow and perforated to allow the hand to slip through and take a firm grip. It is carried in the bottom of the canoe and the man seated before the fishing captain does most of the bailing.
The canoes are kept on the lagoon side of the village; in Atafu and Fakaofu they are kept on beaches or slips between stone jetties. Each canoe is carried well above the high water line on slides of coconut leaf butts. These broad butts, when turned with the concave back uppermost, make excellent rests for the canoe and prevent the braid of the lashings on the bottom of the canoe from being worn down by rubbing against the sand and coral of the shore. Each canoe is covered with palm leaves, often roughly woven together or tied with the midribs of several leaflets.
The canoe is in constant use and requires much attention to keep it in good repair. Some members of a crew are always at work on the beach renewing rotted and worn braid or relashing the booms or seams. When the lashing between two sections is to be replaced, the carpenter sets up two braces to support the canoe. He drives a short stake into the ground to the height of the side of the canoe, beside the joint to be unlashed. He lays another stick across the end of the section and lashes it to the two gunwales and to the stake. This framework prevents the section from spreading when it is unlashed from the adjoining section and holds it in an upright position.
The outrigger canoe is sailed with the western Polynesian type of Oceanic lateen sail, stretched between a yard and the boom.
The yard is stepped on the bow cover. The boom is lashed to the yard about a foot and a half above the deck, where the yard is scarfed to keep the lashing from slipping down. The end of the boom projects a few inches beyond the yard. The mast is propped at an angle against one of the center booms and lashed at its top to the yard which it supports. A single stay braces the mast, running from the mast top to the outer end of the forward boom. The sheet is attached at a point three-quarters of the length of the boom and is held by the man before the helmsman in the stern.
The sail is long and narrow and sets aft at an angle up and away from the canoe. The mast stands forward at the same angle as the yard from the outrigger boom, against which it rests. The stay running from the crossing of the mast and the yard forms a tripod with these two and counterbalances the effect of the mast and yard pressing the sail to windward.
Canvas sails are made today in the form of the old triangular lateen sails. Formerly they were made of plaited strips of laufala. A bolt rope of sennit braid is lashed around the three sides. Along the head and foot seized loops of sennit are attached to the braid,
laufala folded over the edge and sewn to either side of the sail. The bolt rope is sewn outside this leaf strip. The ends of the bolt rope meet at the peak of the sail, where they are tied to the tip of the yard. At the tack and clew of the sail the bolt rope is knotted about the ends of the boom in the notches provided for these lashings. The sail is lashed by two sennit lines tied into the forward loops of the head and foot of the sail and wound spirally around yard and boom, and with each turn passed through a loop on the margin of the sail.
A temporary sail of coconut fronds is commonly used on the lagoon when traveling with the wind. Two or three interlaced fronds are stood on their butts in the bottom of the bow of the canoe with the breadth of the leaves facing the wind.
In sailing the outrigger canoe, the Tokelauans always keep the outrigger to windward as a balance to prevent capsizing. In a strong wind the float rides out of water, and one of the crew moves in and out on the boom with the changes of wind. In tacking against the wind, as the outrigger must always be windward, the sail is put in the stern and the canoe sailed stern forward.
Sailing today is almost totally limited to the lagoon. All inter-island voyaging is prohibited by the government, and there are few times when sailing outside the reef is required.
fualua, lualua: double canoe
vaka katea: starboard hull
vaka ama: port hull
itu ama, ama: port side
itu katea, katea: starboard side
vaialovasa: space between hulls
kiato: cross boom
kiato mua: fore cross boom
kiato loto: center cross boom
ulu kiato: ends of center boom
kiato muli: aft cross boom
puningalu: fore and aft weather boards
sai: side weather boards
laupapa: deck between hulls
pupuni: deck boards of hulls
pupuni liu: hatch covers
tafafa: cross bar just forward of stern weather board for securing sheet
faufau: lashings (general term)
fana: mast
tulafana: mast step
taulele: fore and aft mast stays
tauama: port mast shrouds
taukatea: starboard mast shrouds
ungakoa: “pulley loop” for halyard
taulanga: cleat or pin for securing halyard
tafue te la: moving mast forward of aft on step
tilatu: upper spar, yard
tilalalo: lower spar, boom
tungapoupou: end of upper spar below joining with boom
toku: halyard
fafa: sheet
la: sail
mulila: apex of sail, tack
sukui: peak and clew
ulula: leech or free edge of sail
kafa la: rope reinforcement along edges of sail, bolt rope
kafa taenga: bolt rope stitched along sail
ungakoa: sail loops
taufakaoko: lashing rope to spars
taupule, velo: ornamental shells
pule vaka: white cowrie (Ovula)
ulupokofana: cowrie atop mast head
hoe matua, katea uli: steering oar held on starboard side of canoe
hoe fakalakatau: steering oar held on port side of same canoe
hoe: paddle
hale vaka: deck house
The following description of the double canoe is based on a model constructed during my visit under the guidance of Mika, an old canoe builder. Throughout the building Mika discussed with me the parts and order of construction. Just before I left, I was presented with a model of the simple traveling canoe built from the hulls of fishing canoes for temporary use.
This temporary double canoe is made by lashing together two fishing canoes, from which the outriggers have been removed, by a set of four cross booms lashed over the same points in which the outrigger booms had been secured. This canoe is called faulua, a name derived from the verb, faulualua, which in Samoan (22) means “to bind together as two canoes”. The bows of the two hulls point in opposite directions. The sail is rigged like that of the fishing canoe, with back and outrigger stays and a mast set on the gunwale or bow cover.
The hulls of the large, decked sailing canoe, lualua, (pl. 3, A) are built in the same way as those of the fishing canoes. The largest hulls, 70 or 80 feet long, are said to have been composed of 5 or 6 sections. The two hulls, one shorter than the other, are placed side by side with bows pointing in opposite directions. Heavy cross booms are lashed to each gunwale of the hulls, the number of booms depending upon the length of the canoe. The middle booms extend beyond the sides of the canoe, providing projections for lashing the mast stays.
The bulwarks or weather boards are placed on the gunwales and ends of the deck covers as protection from the spray and overwash. Weather boards are lashed also at each end of the center deck between the inner, side weather boards. The lower edges of the side weather boards are cut away to fit snugly over the cross booms and are lashed directly through holes along the lower edge and through holes in the gunwales. The ends are lashed to the bow and stern weather boards which stand higher than the side boards. The bow weather board is convex on its outer face and concave on its lower edge to fit over the wave guard of the bow cover. The stern weather board is flat with slightly rounded ends. The lower edge is undercut to set closely over the fishing pole block, which runs completely across the forward end of the stern cover. A deck plank is placed between the hulls over the cross booms and lashed at the ends to the inner, side weather boards. The weather boards are sometimes ornamented with cowrie shells.
The decks of the hulls are in three sections: a long and a short piece of planking which are cut to set against the bow and stern weather boards, and a hatch cover which is placed between them. The longer plank extends over the first and middle cross booms, and the shorter plank over the last, leaving a space between the third and fourth booms as a hatchway. The opposing ends of the planks have projecting lips on the lower sides over which the undercut flanges of the hatch cover fit to make a watertight joint.
The hatch cover has two pairs of holes, through which two ropes are run from the under side, where they are knotted at each end. These form handles to raise the covers when it is necessary to bail the canoe or bring up stores from below.
In some double canoes the hulls were left undecked and the crews paddled as well as sailed. The largest double canoes had a small house or shelter constructed on the center deck between the two hulls.
The mast is stepped on a short, broad plank set on edge across the middle of the center deck between the hulls and lashed at its ends to the inner, side weather boards. A large U-shaped notch is cut in the upper side. The base of the mast is U-shaped and fits over the step so that it can be rocked forward or backward to the proper angle for the sail. The mast is of one piece tapering gradually to the top, surmounted by a white shell fastened with a fine cord.
The mast is stayed with six ropes, two to each side, one forward, and one aft. The port stays are made of one rope which is wrapped three times around the mast near the top and secured with a half-hitch. The two ends are brought down and lashed to the two projecting ends of the middle cross booms. The starboard stays are similarly secured but are lashed at the mast with a seized rope loop which acts as a pulley for the sail halyard. Below the lashing of the side stays, the fore and aft stays pass through a hole running abeam in the mast. They are knotted on each side of the hole to prevent the mast from sliding forward or backward and are lashed through holes in the weather boards of the center decking. A cleat for holding the halyard is tied to the mast near its base.
The sail of the double canoe is the usual western Polynesian triangular mat sail supported on its apex between a boom and an upper spar. The base and sides of the sail are straight. The spar is straight and somewhat broadened at its lower end, which rests on the deck of the starboard canoe against the weather board. The fore end of the boom is suspended from the spar by a short rope, which is run through holes in the spar and boom and knotted at either end. Two thirds of the length up the spar is a hole through which the halyard is led and knotted on the lower side. The halyard passes through the loop above on the mast and down to the cleat at the foot of the mast. The sheet is lashed around the boom and tied to a horizontal bar between the side weather boards at the aft end.
When the sail is hoisted, the apex is forward of the mast and the spar rests against the forward weather board. The mast is stood at an angle slightly sloping aft.
The sail is made of one piece of matting, plaited in check and reinforced along its sides by a basting of sennit. In preparing the sail for lashing to the boom and spar, a bolt line of sennit braid is laid along the edges, commencing and ending at the apex. A large loop is left at both peak and clew, and the ends are left projecting beyond the apex. The head and leech are folded over this line and basted down with a twisted cord. In the middle of the leech the basting cord is given a dozen turns about the fold to make it secure. Although the foot is not folded over, the basting is continued from the clew to the apex, which is bound to hold the fold of the head and the edge of the lower foot together. The bolt which is now projecting from the lower end of the leech is brought along the edge of the foot, leaving a large loop at the clew. The basting cord left at the apex is drawn between the strands of the bolt line, then through the sail, stitching the bolt line along the foot.
The sail is lashed to the spars by a rope running spirally around the spar and through five loops sewn on the head and foot. These loops are made of twisted cord doubled and seized and sewn on the edge of the sail. The peak and clew are tied to the ends of the spar and boom with the loops of bolt line. The ends of the bolt line are tied about the short rope between the fore end of the boom and spar.
A steering oar is used today in sailing canoes on the lagoon. It is smaller but shaped identically like the steering oars of the old double canoes. These are short-handled, broad-bladed, and blunt-ended oars, entirely different from the Samoan canoe paddle or steering oar. The blade is exceedingly long and broad in proportion to the handle.
The principle of sailing outrigger canoes (p. 119) is carried over in sailing the double canoe. The leeward canoe carries the sail, and the windward canoe
The modern Tokelau village has a great variety of houses due to the introduction of house types from other parts of Polynesia and innovations inspired by European houses. A common form of roof, said to be introduced from the Ellice Islands, has secondary rafters which extend from the high eaves to cover verandas which are supported by two outer rows of posts (poupo letito). Kennedy (13) describes this in a modern house at Vaitupu. Gilbert Islanders have built raised dwellings with an upper floor for sleeping and storage, and a ground floor of strewn coral for living quarters. Houses on piles and houses with many windows and doors are also seen. The usual house has walls of plaited coconut sheets (polatatau) or of evenly trimmed pandanus sheets (faselau) of the tapering leaf points, which make a very neat shingled effect (pl. 4, A).
The ancient dwelling houses were all rectangular with the four house posts in the corners. The gabled roof extended from 2 to 3 feet above the ground and was thatched with pandanus sheets. Lister (15) says, “There were no walls, but a low fence or railing formed a definite limit to the inside of the house.” A low terrace of coral pebbles retained by a curbing of coral slabs was laid under and around the house. The house floor of coral pebbles was raised about a foot above the foundation terrace.
Hale (11) describes the dwelling houses as being “of oblong shape with eaves sloping nearly to the ground. The height of the ridgepole was from 10 to 15 feet, and it projected at each end about a foot beyond the walls of the house, being covered over the whole length with thatch” (pl. 6,A).
Inside the house was divided into two parts for sleeping. There was no material boundary, but the side on which the men slept was the fasi, and the women's side, the faitotoka. The woman, who remained in her own home after marriage, slept by the entrance. Compartments were made for sick people or visitors by hanging mats from the beams.
A platform (fatatakataka), entirely or partially covering the space between the tie beams, was constructed by laying several poles across the tie beams (utupotu). Small saplings were laid side by side on these poles to make the floor. If the platform entirely covered the space under the roof, a rectangular opening was left at one end (occasionally in the middle) by using shorter saplings in the flooring on either side. The platform was reached by a ladder (kakela) made of a log that was notched for steps or had short pieces lashed across it. These platforms were used mainly for storing sleeping mats and surplus mats, fishing boxes, and extra clothing.
A net (tata) was often hung between the tie-beam plates as a place for storage.
Shelves (aloalofata) for water bottles, food bowls, and small articles were made of short pieces of wood lashed horizontally to the main house posts.
People lived and slept on the floor and the household furnishings were very simple. The coral floor was covered with coarsely plaited floor mats (taka-pau). The finer mats (moenga) for sitting or sleeping were taken from the platform only when needed. Whenever a visitor entered, a young person or the woman of the house immediately unrolled a fresh mat at the place where the visitor was to sit. This was rolled and stored again when the visitor left.
A crude pillow (ulungalakau) cut from a solid block is used today and is said to be of the same type as that used formerly. The modern pillow is made of a section of pukapuka wood (Hernandia ovigera) sawed squarely off at the ends and cut away underneath to leave two stout rests. Some pillows are undercut at the bases of the rests to give the barest suggestion of feet. Only one pillow seen on Atafu had a lip or extension of the upper surface beyond the rests. The surface of the pillows is straight and slightly convex in cross section.
A softer pillow was formerly made of finely woven fala pandanus matting folded over and the edges sewed together. The inside was stuffed with coconut fiber. This made a thin but sufficient pillow.
Water bottles and oil bottles were hung from the ends of the shelves or house posts, and food bowls for bathing babies were kept on the platforms. Fishhooks and small articles were kept in fishing boxes (tulunga).
Large houses were built in ancient times as residences of chiefs and gods. The framework differed slightly from that of the dwelling house in having center poles (poutu, poulotu) to support the ridgepole and roof and a greater number of wall posts. Kingposts (poutala) were lashed at the ends of the house to the cross beams and under the fork of the end rafters. This construction is still seen in houses with heavy framework of logs (pl. 5, B) and in the
fale atua) (pl. 6, B):
The house was oblong about 40 feet [according to Wilkes, 50 feet] by 30, and at the ridgepole about 20 feet in height. The roof, which curved inward somewhat like that of a Chinese pagoda, descended at the eaves to within 3 feet of the ground, below which the house was open all around. The circumference was supported by many short stanchions, small and roughly hewn, placed a few feet apart. But the ridgepole rested upon 3 enormous posts, of which the largest was about 3 feet in diameter. The roof was loosely thatched with coconut leaves, not disposed with that neatness for which the Samoans are noted.
Long houses were used by the men of a group or family for their meetings (fono), feasts, and daily lounging. These houses (fale pa) were supported by 6 or 8 posts and some had a center post. Today the long house (fale loa) (pl. 5, C) of Atafu has 8 wall posts but no center post. The walls are higher than the wall of the former fale pa.
The construction of the four-post small dwelling (fale paito) was also used for the kitchen (fale umu) and other small, lightly constructed houses and shelters. The kitchen was large enough to shelter the oven (umu) and to store food baskets, a little food, and utensils. A wall screen of plaited coconut leaf sheets protected the oven fire from prevailing winds.
A gable roof with eaves resting on the ground was formerly built as a canoe shelter (fale afolau). It was long and high enough to allow men to carry in the outrigger canoe. The land end was closed, the sea end left open. The construction followed that of the roof of the small dwelling (p. 123) and the principal rafters supported the entire dwelling.
A storage house (umusokosokai), similar to the canoe shelter with the roof resting on the ground but shorter and somewhat lower, is common today on Atafu. Purlins lashed underneath the rafters hold them rigid, and lighter purlins support the thatching. A light ridgepole rests in the crotch formed by the rafters. One end is often walled with plaited coconut sheets as a shelter. The construction is identical to that of the houses (whare tuku whakararo) built on Manihiki and Rakahanga during hurricane season (30).
My informant, Mika, said that the storage house was not used formerly, but other men in the village said that it was built to store coconut husk fuel in the early days. These houses are moved about the atoll during the copra-cutting season and set down wherever the copra is drying. If bad weather
The regulations and observances held during the construction of the canoe were the same as those held during house-building.
The ordinary dwelling house today is similar to the ancient house but has walls and higher eaves (pl. 5, A). The most usual dimensions are 25 to 30 feet long, 12 to 15 feet wide, and 15 feet high. The framework is supported by posts (pou) sunk in holes about an arm's length deep at the corners of the house.
The posts are cut from tree trunks with the stump of a branch forming a crotch at the top of each post in which the longitudinal tie beams rest. The end tie beams lie across the longitudinal plates and over the axes of the posts (fig. 17). A third tie beam lies across the middle of the longitudinal plates. The tie beams are undercut to cap the plates firmly and the joints are lashed with 3-ply sennit cord (kafa) or 2-ply sennit cord (kafaato).
Three pairs of principal rafters (kasomatua), one at each end just inside the posts and one in the middle, are lashed onto the tie-beam plates. Near the top each pair is lashed with the tips crossing to form a crotch. The main ridgepole (kaukau) lies in these crotches and extends 1 to 2 feet beyond the end rafters (fig. 16, b). The principal purlins are lashed across the outside of the principal rafters. The middle purlin rests on the extended ends of the tie beams. The upper purlin (talava, saialoa) runs across the rafters midway between the wall plate and the ridgepole. The lower purlin (palelau) runs across the rafters a few inches above their ends, below the wall plate (fig. 16). The end purlins lie across the extended ends of the middle side purlins.
Parallel to the principal rafters and lying over the purlins, the light thatching rafters (tamakaso) are lashed at even intervals across the sides of the roof. These thatching rafters extend below the lower purlin and cross at the top above the ridgepole, forming a second series of crotches in which the upper ridgepole (taufufu) rests.
End thatching rafters are lashed at the tips to the end pair of side thatching rafters. Near the base they are lashed over the end purlin which lies beyond the vertical plane of the end pair of thatching rafters thus giving an outward slope to the end of the roof. The sides of the roof are usually braced with struts (lakautaifi, fakatapanga) placed diagonally from the end thatching rafter at the ridgepole to the tie-beam plate at a point three-quarters along the side.
To prevent the long wall screens from blowing in the wind saplings (tokapola) are set in the ground against the foundation logs and are lashed to the tie-beam plates. The screens are dropped outside the saplings, which hold them against the wind—the saplings have no supporting function in the framework of the house.
Each house has a foundation (tanunga) and a floor of coral pebbles (kilikili), spread after the house is complete. Many helpers are called to carry baskets of the white, water-washed coral from the beach. The boundary of the foundation is not always defined, but there is a broad mound of coral which extends from 3 to 5 feet beyond the walls of the house and stands 1 to 2 feet above ground level. In the finished house this is retained by a wall (lotoa) composed of slabs of coral set on end or short lengths of coconut logs. Inside the house more coral is spread to build up the floor 6 or 8 inches above the level of the foundation. The coral floor is retained by small logs (palepale) or coral slabs (fatupaepae) laid around its boundary (pl. 5, C).
During the construction of the house the women and children of the family gather pandanus leaves and coconut fronds from the family lands across the lagoon. They pick up the freshly fallen leaves about the trees and put them in piles tied with a single leaf binder. At the end of the day they gather the piles in coconut-leaf carrying sheets and transport them to the village in canoes.
Each pandanus leaf is smoothed by pulling it tight around a stake set in the ground. When it is flattened, it is dropped to the base of the stake where it is held bent around the stake by the foot and leg of the worker, sitting crosslegged before the stake. The next leaf is dropped over it and drawn tight. When about 50 leaves are flattened, the tip ends and butts are lashed together and the bundle slipped off the stake for storage.
The midribs of coconut fronds are trimmed of their butts and thin tips and split. They are then cut into lengths of 4 feet, the usual span between the thatching rafters. The thatching sheets or pandanus are pinned over these splits.
Twelve to 14 inches of the butt end of a dried pandanus leaf is folded over the coconut split at one end. A long stitch is taken near the outer edge through both folds of the leaf with a bone needle (pl. 4, B). The folded leaf is held together with the left hand, while a thin coconut leaflet midrib is pushed through the hole made by the needle, which has been withdrawn. A second leaf is folded over the split, partially overlapping the first leaf. A stitch is taken with the needle through both leaves at the overlapping and the leaflet midrib is pushed through, securing the first leaf in its place (pl. 4, C). This technique is continued until the entire length of the split is covered.
Roof sheets (atopela) of plaited coconut leaf, and wall sheets (polatatau) are sometimes substituted for the pandanus sheets in modern houses.
The thatching (ato) of the roof commences at the eaves (tulutulu) and works up to the ridgepole. The first sheet (atolau) is laid across the thatch rafters at one end of the roof and slightly above the eaves. The rib of the sheet is at the top and the butt ends of the doubled leaves face upward. The long tips of the pandanus hang down, forming a thick protection against the heat of the sun and making a good draining surface. The sheets are carried straight up the rafters, each new piece overlapping the one below 6 or 8 inches and extending 3 or 4 inches above it. The sheets of one row are worked in between the sheets of the preceding row as they are laid down, so that they overlap 6 or 8 inches. Two men work together on a side of the roof during the thatching, each man lashing one end of the sheet to the rafter underneath.
The lashing or sewing line is of light 3-ply sennit braid fastened at the lower end of the rafter. Each worker has a thatching needle about 6 or 8 inches long made of ngangie wood (Pemphis acidula) with a barb at the pointed end. It is thrust through the thatch from the lower side close to the rib of the sheet. The free end of the lashing is brought over the upper edge of the sheet on one side of the rafter and hooked under the barb. The needle is then drawn back. The line is pulled through
The finishing piece of the roof is a sheet of plaited coconut leaf which is lashed along the ridge. In stormy seasons long coconut fronds are laid over the thatching to prevent the wind from getting underneath and blowing off the sheets.
The plaiting of mats, clothing and baskets is woman's work but the men also make the quickly plaited coconut leaf baskets and sheets. Plaited materials were widely used in pre-European times, for the Tokelau atolls grow no plants from which bark cloth could be made and the people did not practice weaving. Plaited breechclouts and kilts provided clothing for the men. Plaiting is still extensively used in building and furnishing houses, and for hats for both men and women. But its use for clothing and bedding has been decreased by the introduction of European cloth.
Plaiting materials are coconut leaves, fala or kie pandanus, and strips of prepared kanava bark.
The terminology used in the description of the plaiting process is taken from Hiroa (28) with the addition of the term “commencement corner”. (See fig. 18.)
Fala pandanus leaves are used exclusively in the making of the finer mats. The green leaves are removed from the tree and tips and butts cut off. The thorny edges are removed by a sharp-pointed fishbone or the point of a metal scraping tool which is used to pierce through the butt just inside the edge and to slit the length of the leaf. The women use their teeth to sever the butt of the outer surface of the spiny midrib on the under side of the leaf and to peel off the outer midrib surface with its thorns. The trimmed leaves are toughened by being drawn over hot coral pebbles of a ground oven. Afterward they are laid on the beach for three days to dry and bleach to a pale buff brown in the sun. They are brought indoors each night to prevent their being wet by showers. To make each leaf flat, the butt is held by the left hand and the leaf is drawn between the extended thumb and the edge of a shell or metal hook held between the first two fingers of the right hand. With the butt still in the left hand, the first leaf is wound around the fingers into a small roll. Each succeeding leaf is added to this roll by placing the butt under the tip of the preceding leaf and winding it on. The roll is fastened by tying a thin strip of laufala around the tip of the outermost leaf and through the central hole left by the fingers.
When the leaves are to be used for mat-making, each side of the leaf is stripped from the midrib, which is then discarded. The halves of leaves are flattened again and split into strips one-fourth inch wide.
Kie pandanus used in plaiting soft mats for babies and men's malos receives a longer preparatory heating before being trimmed and dried. The strips of kie are laid over a bed of green leaves on the hot coral of an oven and covered with more leaves; then heated coral is spread over these. They are left in this heat for an entire day and are then removed and carried to the sea in bundles, where they are weighted down and left to soak for five days. This soaking makes them soft and pliable. After being removed from the sea, the two layers of the leaf are split apart by making an incision across the butt of the leaf, and the upper, shiny layer is carefully separated from the dull, under layer. Both layers are washed in fresh water, trimmed at the ends, and placed in the sun to dry. Then they are flattened and rolled in the same way as described for the laufala.
Many of the mats are ornamented with black strips of dyed coconut leaves which are included with the plaiting (pl. 7, B). The black dye is produced from the charcoal of burnt fibers of coconut husks. These are ground and
kaulama) are set in this solution to soak until they become thoroughly blackened. Nowadays the leaf is stained with a mixture of the charred fibers and kerosene.
Sleeping mats and plaited clothing are made on a plaiting board made from a piece of canoe hull having a slightly convex surface which tilts toward the worker (pl. 8, A). The section of plaiting to be worked is kept on the surface of the board where the wefts can be easily handled and evenly laid. The mat is held against the board by a stick of kanava wood 10 or 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. The stick is slightly convex on the upper surface. The worker places her right foot on the stick as she sits with her left leg crossed and her right leg flexed against her body.
The fishbone points for splitting leaf strips and shells for scraping have been displaced by a single tool made of a rectangular piece of metal shaped to fit against the palm of the hand and between the fingers. One corner is sharpened for splitting.
The plating of a pandanus mat is commenced on a foundation strip (kaso) composed of two pairs of superimposed elements of weft material which overlap at the ends and extend in a line 4 or 5 feet long. As the plaiting develops, the foundation strip is increased by adding new elements and is carried around the entire border of the mat. Its purpose is to give a basis on which to commence the plaiting and to strengthen the edges of the mat. The first part of the foundation strip is laid horizontally on the plaiting board, the left half is turned forward at a right angle, and the strip shifted to place the apex of this angle pointing toward the worker and the two branches extending diagonally away from her to right and left (fig. 19, a). These branches will be referred to in the commencement of the plaiting as dextral and sinistral foundation strips.
The mats are plaited with double strips of leaf material. The strips will be termed upper and lower elements and the pair termed the weft. The beginning of the first three rows of the check pattern at the commencement corner is plaited with the elements treated as individual wefts, which hold the wefts firmly in place until the plaiting process is fully established. Two weft elements are placed side by side horizontally to the worker under the angle of the foundation strip, and two more elements are superimposed on the first pair over the foundation strip (fig. 19, b).
The elements and foundation strip are now in position for the beginning of the plaiting process. The fingers of the left hand are pressed against the wefts over the angle of the foundation strip, while the first weft is turned to make the first corner. The divisions of the weft elements separated at this point by the fingers will be called left and right elements; the weft nearest the worker, the first, and the next weft, the second. The upper left element of the first weft is laid back with the right hand while the lower left element is brought up with a right-angled turn and carried forward over the second weft (fig. 20, a). The upper left element of the first weft is brought into place again, turned forward at right angle, and passed under the upper left element of the second weft and the sinistral foundation strip, but over the lower left element of the second weft and placed directly under the former left element of the first weft (fig. 20, b). The left elements of the first weft have now become a vertical weft extending away from the worker.
By reversing the same technique, the right elements of the first weft are made into a vertical weft parallel to the left elements. To establish the check pattern, the upper right element of the first weft is brought forward, first with a right-angled turn under the dextral foundation and the right elements of the second weft. The lower right element of the first weft is brought up and passed with a right-angled turn under the upper right element of the second weft, over the dextral foundation strip, and placed directly over the other right element of the first weft (fig. 20, c).
The commencement is now established with one horizontal weft and two vertical wefts. The right vertical weft and the upper element of the left vertical weft are next carried back to form the first shed for the introduction of a new horizontal weft. The
The beginning of the edges of the mat is defined by the turning of the elements of the second weft around the foundation strips in exactly the same way as the turning of the left half of the first weft to establish the left side of the commencing corner. This technique is continued as new wefts are introduced. To form the left edge, each weft as it comes to the foundation strip, is turned back at right angles. The lower element beneath the foundation strip is passed around and across it and over the introduced weft; and the upper element is brought across and turned under the foundation strip but above the lower element of the next introduced weft. To form the commencement edge, the right edge of the plaiting as it is now held, the upper element of each weft is turned
When sufficient weft elements have been introduced to firmly establish the corner of the mat and a working edge, the plaiting is turned, placing the sinistral foundation strip vertical and the dextral foundation strip horizontal to the worker. These strips now form the left edge and commencement edge of the mat. This also places the wefts diagonal to the worker, the former vertical wefts becoming the dextral wefts and the former horizontal wefts, the sinistral (fig. 21, d).
The plaiting is now worked to the right along the working edge, and all new wefts are added as sinistral wefts. The upper end of each sinistral weft, turned on the left foundation strip, becomes a dextral weft; and the lower end, turned on the commencement edge foundation strip, becomes another dextral weft. In the plaiting process a constant number of dextral wefts are kept in the working edge. As each new dextral weft turned up at the commencement edge is added to the working edge, a top dextral weft is dropped.
When the desired length of the mat has been reached on the commencement edge, the foundation strip is turned forward at right angles. The right-hand sinistral weft is turned twice, repeating the same technique of turning the weft on an edge to form the corner over the foundation strip angle. The upper element of the right-hand sinistral weft is turned at a right angle under the corner of the foundation strip but over the lower element and left projecting from the right edge (fig. 21, a). The lower element is brought over the upper element, turned at right angles, and passed across the corner of the foundation strip. This completes the normal turn on the commencement edge (fig. 21, b). The process is repeated for the first turn on the right side. The upper element, as the weft now stands, is turned left at right angles and passed under the lower element of the first dextral weft (fig. 21, c). The lower element of the weft is brought around the upper element, turned at right angles, and carried between the foundation strip and the upper element of the first dextral weft, completing the corner (fig. 21, d).
When the mat has reached the desired breadth on the left edge, the upper left corner is formed by turning the left foundation strip at right angles to the left end, making two edge turns of the weft, passing over this angle by the same process as described in making the lower right corner of the commencement edge. The plaiting process is completed at the upper horizontal foundation strip by turning the dextral wefts over it, forming the finishing edge. As the last working section is plaited to the finishing edge, the sinistral wefts are left projecting beyond the foundation strip (fig. 22, a). The dextral wefts are turned by the same technique as on the other edges, but as each is turned down to become a sinistral weft, it encounters the sinistral wefts of the plaiting already laid in the shed of the working edge (fig. 22, b). The downward-projecting sinistral weft from the finishing edge is overlaid on the normal sinistral weft and included in the plaiting for several rows. The end of the downward projecting weft is allowed to extend from the plaiting until this has been finished, when all the ends and the projecting sinistral wefts at the finishing edge are torn off underneath crossing dextral wefts.
The turned-in wefts of the finishing and right edges overlap as these edges approach each other at the upper right corner. To avoid extra thickness of the mat from this overlapping weft material, the inner elements are torn off at the edges and only the upper elements of wefts turned in from the finishing, and the lower elements of the wefts turned in from the right edge are retained in the plaiting. In making the upper right corner, the foundation strip of the finishing edge is torn off at the point where it crosses the right edge foundation strip. This strip is turned to the left at right angles and overlaid on the foundation strip of the finishing edge. When the turning of the wefts on the finishing and right edges is carried to the upper right or finishing corner, two dextral wefts remain projecting at the angle formed by the foundation strip. The
Floor mats, carrying and roof sheets, wall screens, and baskets are plaited from coconut leaves with the leaflets left attached to the midribs or split sections of them. The process is exactly the same as that described in detail by Hiroa (28) for Samoa. The midrib is easily split and trimmed, each half making a base with the obliquely directed leaflets fixed in parallel and evenly-spaced wefts. Alternate leaflets are turned on this base at right angles across the other leaflets to form the second set of wefts, or two halves of a leaf are superimposed with the midribs parallel but with the leaflets crossing.
In plaiting a section taken from the left side of the leaf, with one set of leaflets naturally directed obliquely to the right forming sinistral wefts, and one set turned to the left as dextral wefts, the worker sits with the midrib before her as a commencement edge and, beginning at the left, interlaces several leaflets to form a working section. The plaiting is conducted from left to right. In plaiting the flat sheets, the projecting sinistral wefts on the left side are turned to form new dextral wefts, and the projecting dextral wefts on the right side are turned to form new sinistral wefts for the next working section above. In making baskets, these wefts are left projecting and are later plaited together to form the sides. Working sections are added until all but the ends of the leaflets have been included in the plaiting. The finishing edge of the wall screen
The joined section of carrying and roof sheets, made from the right side of the leaf, is plaited from right to left as the leaflets are naturally directed to the left.
The only serving dish, except the coconut-shell cup, is a coconut-leaf shallow bowl or platter which is used once and thrown away. It is made only for serving food at feasts and for guests. Ordinarily food is served on leaves placed on small fala pandanus mats. The serving dish is made in two forms, plaited and unplaited. The unplaited dish is made from a short section of coconut leaf midrib with 10 or 12 leaflets attached. The leaflets are divided into two bunches and knotted together. The end leaflets are pulled tightly, bending the midrib to make a curved end and leaving the middle leaflets slightly loose. The dish is turned out with the under surface of the leaflets up and with the loose middle leaflets sagging, making a shallow concavity in which the food is set.
The plaited dish is composed of two short sections of split midrib and attached leaflets taken from the left and right sides of the leaf. The midrib splits are placed end to end with the under surface of the leaflets uppermost, one set crossing the other. They are plaited together in check pattern and the projecting ends of each set knotted separately.
The two types of basket made in Tokelau differ in use and details of manufacture. The common basket is quickly made from green coconut leaves when needed and cast away as soon as it has served its purpose. It is made primarily for transporting food and copra. The second type is a permanent basket of closely-woven, dried coconut leaf for household use.
The temporary basket (kato) is plaited in check pattern from the leaflets of a single strip of midrib which is cut off long enough to make the rim of the basket. The end leaflets are left free for the joining of the two ends, the second leaflet at one end is left in its natural position, and the third leaflet is crossed at right angles to form the first weft opposite to that established by the second leaflet. The plaiting is commenced with this pair and continued, without turning the leaflets at the edges, until only a few inches at the ends of the leaflets at the plaiting edge remain free. These ends are turned back at right angles and pushed under the first cross wefts they overlie to secure the plaiting. The two ends of the midrib are brought together and joined by slightly overlapping each other. They are so placed that the wefts of one side are parallel with those of the same series on the other side; the free leaflet at the end of the plaiting, placed between the interval of the first and second leaflets, is carried through and pulled firmly around the join of the midrib ends and carried back again as a weft in the opposite direction to its natural position. The basket is turned up on its rim to finish the plaiting. The join is toward the worker. The first leaflet left free now makes a pair with
The bottom of the basket is made by braiding the plaiting edge. The basket is placed with the plaiting edge up and the join of the rim away from the worker. The plaiting edge forms two sides to be closed, as in the closing of the carrying sheet; but the extended wefts of these two edges now run in the same direction, for they are plaited from one section of midrib instead of two opposing sections from different sides of the leaf. The tucked-in wefts on the left side are pulled out, and cross the extended wefts on the right to form the elements for the first course of the braid. This is commenced at the far end at the point where the plaiting was joined on the side. The braiding is continued a few turns beyond the near end. The basket is reversed, and the free ends of the first braid are brought over and included with the braiding of the remaining two sets of projecting wefts.
A few people make a second type of this open leaflet basket, which varies in the braiding of the bottom. The plaiting of this basket was taught by Samoans and the method is described by Hiroa (28, p. 194), who states that it is a technique introduced from Niue Island.
Only one type of permanent household basket was seen at Atafu (pl. 8, A). This was very strong and tightly plaited in twill pattern with double weft sections like the Samoan chief's basket (28). Before plaiting, the coconut leaf material is thoroughly dried in the sun. The leaflets are doubled lengthwise and trimmed along their outer margins, making reenforced wefts. Two sections of leaflets are used in each set of wefts to avoid open plaiting from the narrowed wefts. The sets are taken from opposite sides of the leaf. One section is overlaid on the other, placing the leaflets of the upper section opposite the intervals of the lower strip and intertwining the two. The two sets of wefts are placed in position for plaiting by joining the sinistral set over the dextral set in a horizontal row of check strokes. The intertwined strips are laid with the midribs side by side and directed away from the worker. The leaflets on the left side point away from the worker and have the under surfaces facing down; the leaflets on the right side point toward the worker and have the under surfaces facing up. The right-hand leaflets are brought over the midrib and placed under and across the opposite left-hand leaflets. The piece is then moved with the midribs or commencement edge before the worker. The left-hand leaflets become the dextral wefts, and the right-hand wefts, which were carried over the midribs, become the sinistral wefts with the lower surface facing down like the dextral wefts. The plaiting in two-, three-, four-, or five-twill pattern is commenced at the left, the first two dextral wefts being dropped to make the join of the rim. The sinistral and dextral wefts are left projecting at the left and right edges for joining the sides of the basket, as the plaiting is worked toward the ends of the leaflets. In making the join, the midrib splits are first shaped and bent with the hands to make the ends come easily together to form the rim. The ends are joined by interlacing the free wefts left at each end, and the sides are completed by plaiting together the crossing wefts of the edges. The bottom is closed by double-course braiding and knotted at the tips, forming tails which are pushed through the ends of the bottom and tied together inside.
Fans are made in two distinct shapes; one leaf-shaped and one broadly oval with a straight lower edge. The leaf-shaped fan has slightly rounded sides which taper to single or triple points (pl. 8, B).
The construction of the fan is a rather simple and ingenious plaiting of wickerwork upon a rigid, elementary foundation whose elements radiate from the handle. The handle is composed of a bunch of coconut leaflet midribs which are bent and crossed over one another at one end and split to spread into fan-shape. The split midribs are held in this
Across the radiating splits, narrow, double strips of coconut leaflet are laid alternately on one side and the other in rows of converging arcs. These are bound in place with fine leaflet strips which are plaited parallel to and alternate with the splits of the radiating foundation. As the fan is constructed, the gaps between the elements of the foundation are filled in with plaiting of separate pieces of leaflet midrib. The semicircular double strips thus form the rigid warp, and the strips plaited across them form the weft in the wickerwork technique. The splits of the midribs leading from the handle make a rigid foundation to keep the fan stiff but do not form a functional part of the plaiting.
The border is finished by carrying the plaiting weft around the last warp and doubling the ends under a few wefts in the same manner as the finishing edge of a mat. If the fan is to be trimmed with feathers, the splits of the foundation are left extending beyond the final warp. The feather border hides the rough edge of the foundation. Some borders of fans are decorated with white feathers of the frigate bird (tavaki) or brown chicken feathers. A row of feathers is sewed at the edge of each face of the fan, with the convex side of the feathers back to back and the tips pointing outward. The tips are clipped off to make an even edge. Modern fans are further ornamented by overlaid strips of coconut leaf colored with imported dyes.
Two kinds of fibrous material are used in the making of cordage, bast of fau bark and fiber of the coconut husk. The bark is stripped from the tree and soaked in fresh water, after which the outer layer is peeled off. The bast is laid on a scraping board (papa valu fau), where the remainder of the outer bark and interfibrous material are removed with a shell—a very simple procedure after the bark has been thoroughly soaked. After being dried and bleached in the sun, the fibers are easily separated by rolling them between the palm of the hand and the thigh (milo). Cord made of fau is used primarily for fishing line and nets.
Twisting is done by holding several fibers, in the middle, between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and across the right thigh. They are rolled downward firmly with the palm of the right hand into a strand 5 or 6 inches long. Cord is twisted by the same process. According to the number of ply desired in the cord, 2 or 3 strands of twisted fibers are held between thumb and forefinger, radiating from under the thumb. The strands are held tightly during the commencement of the sweep of the palm of the hand over the thigh, twisting each strand on itself. Then the strands are released, and the end of the sweep of the hand rolls them together into a single cord. The strands are lengthened by adding new, partially-twisted strands with their ends overlapping those with which they are to be incorporated. These strands are rolled together before being twisted into the cord.
Fau cord is used primarily for fishline (alo). Because of its greater strength and durability it is much preferred to the cotton line sold by trading schooners. All large-meshed nets for fishing and snaring birds are made of
fau cord. To preserve the cord fishlines and nets, they are always washed in fresh water after being used in the sea. Thread for the lashing of fishhooks, tattooing instruments, and surgical lancets is made of twisted strands composed of a few fibers of fau.
A twisted cord of coconut fiber is used for suspending wall screens, for light house lashings, and for fishlines. The fibers are taken from either green or mature nuts selected for their long husks. The nuts are husked, and the split segments of husk put into baskets and weighted with lumps of coral to soak in the lagoon. The former population of Atafu built small circles of coral slabs laid in tiers at the water's edge, in which to soak their coconut fiber. One of these circles still remains (p1. 10, B) and is used by some of the present inhabitants. After several days of soaking, the fibers are removed from the husks, washed in fresh water, and dried in the sun. The matted fibers are finally separated by beating them on the flattened side of a coconut log with a short stick to loosen the interfibrous material so that it can be shaken out. The strands of the cord are made by the same twisting process used for fau cord. Because of the stiffness and roughness of the material, twisting the strands of coconut fiber into cord is done in the hands, with one end of the cord tied to a wall post of the house.
Although the join made by twisting together the overlapping ends of the fibers in the process of rolling is usually employed in making sennit cord, this method does not always make a cord strong enough to withstand the strain applied to it. A second and stronger join is made by doubling the end of the introduced strand over the shortening strand. The new strand is laid overlapping the shorter strand of the twist and with the end projecting above. One twist is made in the cord, the shorter strand and the new strand being wrapped by the second strand of the cord. The end of the new strand projecting upward through this twist of the cord is doubled over to lie along the second strand of the cord, and the twisting process is continued, enclosing the new strand end.
Three-ply braided sennit rope is the most widely used of all cordage made by the natives. It derives its name, kafa vaka (canoe line), from its primary use in lashing the parts of canoes. It is also employed in lashing house parts and thatch, and as carrying lines for waterbottles and wooden fishing baskets. A heavier three-strand sennit braid (kafa palu) is made for deep-sea fishing, especially for use with large wooden Ruvettus hooks (palu).
The preparation of the fiber and the process of rolling the strands for sennit braid are identical with those described in the making of sennit cord except for one additional step. In preparing the strands for braid, a number of fibers sufficient for a strand are selected and carefully arranged, the short ones being plucked out and tied together with a single fiber. This is placed across the
The braiding is done by holding the three strands in the left hand, the thumb securing them in the proper position and preventing them from unraveling. The thumb also moves the side strands into the middle position as the middle strand is carried alternately from side to side. The braiding is worked away from the body, and the finished line is coiled at the worker's left side. The addition of new strands to the end of a ply is accomplished by the doubling technique, as in joining new strands in making sennit cord; but here the projecting end of the new strand is doubled back on a second ply after two turns of the plaiting and before being carried into the braiding. The line is finished by braiding until one ply has ended, then twisting the remaining two plies on the bare thigh with the open hand, and knotting the end.
Five-ply sennit braid is termed kafa tupilaulima, kafa toku niu, or kafa kalanga. This also is used for deep-sea fishing. The strands of this braid are rolled similarly, although made of thicker and shorter bunches of fiber. As each new strand is added, it is drawn between thumb and fingers, first dipped in water to make the fibers adhere tightly together while the strand is worked. In plaiting five-ply braid, the plies are secured to a stake or post and worked toward the body. New strands are added by overlapping the ends with diminishing plies, and the end of the braid is finished by dropping one ply within the braid, rolling the two remaining pairs of plies into two twisted strands, and knotting the tips.
Cord and braid are wound in cylindrical coils for storage. A loop coil is first made as a foundation in the length desired for the cylinder. The loop is wound transversely with the free end of the braid from one end to the other. From the finishing end the braid is taken in three spiral turns up the cylinder, turned at right angles, and brought down again to the commencement point. This spiral winding is continued, each turn of the braid running parallel to the last set of spirals. When the coil is completed it has a geometric pattern of banded triangles.
Loin cloths and simply-cut dresses of Manchester print or white cotton cloth have taken the place of the former native clothing. This change has occurred because imported cloth is more durable and its use eliminates the arduous work of preparing and plaiting leaf material. Also the missionary disapproved of the scant native apparel and the natives desired to imitate the missionaries. On Sundays the natives wear shirts and coats, dresses trimmed with lace, and women's hats bought from the trading schooner. During the week the men wear a loin cloth (lava lava) and the women a simple homemade cotton dress with a lava lava either underneath or over the skirt. The men wear felt hats or native-made hats of split coconut leaflets fashioned in European style. These hats have supplanted the plaited coconut leaf eyeshades as protection for the head and eyes of the fishermen.
Formerly the men wore breechcloths (malo) plaited of strips of kanava or leaves of kie pandanus. Apparently the Tokelau men never wore the kilt titi which was worn in Samoa and the Ellice Islands. To prepare kanava bark for making malo, branches from several kanava trees were soaked in the salt water of the lagoon for about a month. This soaking softened the outer bark which separated from the branch, leaving the soft inner bark adhering to the wood. The inner bark was peeled off and dried in the sun, after which strips were easily split with a fishbone point into even widths for plaiting. This bark provided a very soft, pliable material suitable for clothing and made a good substitute for tapa.
The malo was plaited in a strip ranging from a few feet to several yards long and about 6 or 10 inches wide. The working malo was put on by holding one end over the lower abdomen while the band was carried between the legs and brought up to the back and around the right side. It was passed over the free commencement end and around the waist to the middle line, where it was knotted. The more elaborate malo was long enough to pass several times around the waist and to have the commencement end, often fringed, hang at some length over the girdle in front.
The men's fringed kilt (kafa malo), worn on ceremonial occasions, was woven of kie pandanus (pl. 7, A), plaited with the technique used in making pandanus mats. It was about 5 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and had a fringe about 2 feet long on each longitudinal border. The kilt was worn folded lengthwise with the fringes hanging down.
An ornamental black band running parallel to the edge of the girdle was formed of four strips of dyed coconut leaf which were entered into the plaiting from one end and were carried horizontally across by being turned at right angles between the wefts of alternate strokes. Each dyed strip was overlaid on one weft and plaited with it. On the next stroke the strip was passed underneath the weft and turned at right angles with the weft running in the opposite direction. On the next stroke of this weft the dyed strip was brought to the surface on the other side of the girdle and at right angles with the first stroke on the original side. The dyed strip was carried with the second weft under the next stroke, where it was turned at right angles again and carried down on a weft parallel to the first. It now appeared again on top of the girdle three strokes beyond its first appearance. This technique was carried on with four strips parallel to each other and commencing on parallel wefts. The fringe was applied to the girdle as the commencing edge and finishing edges were worked by leaving the wefts attached to the end of the leaf strip. The
The belt (kafa lauulu) of the kilt was braided of human hair (lauulu) in four strands which were knotted together at each end. These belts were 12 to 18 feet long and were worn wrapped several times around the waist.
Eyeshades, plaited coconut leaf headbands, ornaments of shell and bone, wreaths of flowers, and feathers completed the men's full dress for ceremonial occasions.
The woman's garment (titi), of leaf strips reaching from the waist to the knees, derives its name from the ti leaf from which it is made in Samoa and other parts of Polynesia. In Tokelau, it was made of kanava bark strips, prepared as for the malo, or of coconut leaves. The coconut leaflets were cut from green leaves and soaked in fresh water to soften them until the tougher outer layer of the leaflets could be split from the soft inner layer. The outer surface was made into the titimatu, worn in the daytime and while working. The softer portion was made into the titi fai fekau, worn for sleeping and for festive attire. Lister (14) states that the better titi were also made of kie pandanus. Titi were made very thick with strips secured to a braided belt or plaited girdle around the waist. Wilkes (34) describes them as being “well oiled and perfectly pliable, resembling a bundle of straw, tied about the loins. It was impossible to conceive a more unwieldy and ridiculous dress.”
Formerly the natives wore narrow headbands of plaited matting similar to the matting of their malos. They wore eyeshades (taumata) of braided coconut leaf to protect their eyes while fishing.
Sandals (taka) were used only for walking over the sharp coral reefs. They were made with sennit braid (kafa), but the technique has been forgotten. A temporary foot protection was made by binding sennit across the instep, under the sole, and around the ankle in a figure-of-eight pattern. Flat pieces of wood or coconut husk were sometimes bound to the soles of the feet for protection.
The natives of today say that their ancestors wore their hair long and dressed it with lime to kill vermin. Wilkes (34) says the men at Atafu wore their hair 1 or 2 inches long all over the head and that many had “false curls tied on a string to be bound round the head.” He believed this ornamentation due to the fact that many men were inclined to baldness—a common characteristic today. The curls were worn in the front, and the hair was dressed with
The ear lobes of all babies were perforated shortly after birth. The insertion of earrings of turtle shell or bone later in life was a matter of personal choice. Girls and women distended the ear lobes by inserting short flat sticks to stretch the opening. Larger sticks were put in week by week until the original perforation was 1 or 2 inches in diameter. It was common for older women to carry their mat-mending needles (susulu) twisted in the loops of their ear lobes.
The people have always used flowers and wreaths as their chief ornaments for any occasion. Young girls are constantly weaving wreaths of tiale or kanava blossoms. Everyone prepares some floral ornament of coconut leaves or vines for himself before all dances or feasts.
Formerly pearl-shell ornaments (lei) were worn by women and children, but were tapu to all men except the high chief. These ornaments were made in the shape of trolling hook shanks from the halves of mother-of-pearl shells unfit for use in fishhooks. Whales' teeth, cut into cylindrical sections (lei), were worn as necklaces or perforated and worn as pendants. These were the chief treasures of the people. Large pieces of shell also were ground into cylinder shape and worn as necklaces or bands across the forehead.
For festive occasions, adults rubbed the entire body with coconut oil until the skin glistened to attract attention to the beauty of the skin.
Tattooing, a conventional form of ornamentation, has disappeared since the advent of missionaries in Tokelau. Several missionary visitors in about 1870 remarked that they saw only one or two natives with any great amount of tattooing and that these stated their tattooing was much less than that practiced in pre-missionary days. The Tokelau people tattooed the face, upper arms, breast, waist, and sometimes the wrists and calves of the legs with a few lines and simple figures, but apparently did not tattoo the body from the waist to the knees as was common in Samoa, Uvea, Futuna, and Rotuma.
Both men and women were tattooed after marriage. The operator (tufunga ta tatau) drew the design on the skin with tattooing ink mixed from charred coconut and a little water. Then he placed the puncturing instrument (pakiau), made of a short stick with a set of fine teeth of turtle bone lashed at right angles at one end, over the design, and tapped deftly on the handle with another light stick.
The conventional facial tattooing for the men consisted of a band (sei) on each side of the face, extending from the juncture of the ear lobe and cheek toward the corner of the mouth (fig. 23, a). The bands were either a single line or a double line with a crisscross pattern between. Wilkes states
b). According to Lister (14), a large triangle or fishlike figures were tattooed on the hips. Bands of the same pattern as those on the cheeks were tattooed from the small of the back, around the body, and upward to the chest, ending several inches apart. The upper arms and shoulders were tattooed with fish-shaped figures, rows of triangles with apexes pointing toward the body, and with spearheads and dots (fig. 23, e). Single and double lines were also made around the wrists, forearms, and ankles. Lister describes one man with a transverse band across the calf of each leg.
Women were tattooed around the lips with a line of triangles like fish teeth (nifo ika), the base of which rested on the lip seam and, often, on the upper lip, extended to the septum of the nose (fig. 23, c). Lister states there were five teeth in each row. All women were tattooed with a band (lupe) below the waist line, commencing at the iliac crest and extending around the back just above the buttocks or sometimes converging from the sides into a point over the lower part of the sacrum (fig. 23, d). This band was covered by the leaf skirt (titi) and was never tattooed until the woman was married. Women had also two parallel lines (tau lima) tattoed around the wrist.
After the death of a member of the family, particularly a child, it was customary to have a “picture” of the dead person tattooed on the left side of the chest. Wilkes and Lister give sketches of these anthropomorphic figures with rectangular bodies and tiny heads, arms, and legs (fig. 23, a, b). At the time of Lister's visit the high chief had four such figures: one for the past king, one for a dead female relative, and two for dead children. He had also smaller triangular or geometric figures for children who had died at an early age.
All cooking is done in the small kitchen near the dwelling house. The fire-pit or oven is dug in the coral floor at one end of the kitchen. The bottom of the oven is covered with small, waterworn, coral pebbles, bleached on the beach. The coral breaks into tiny pieces after being heated and the fat from broiling fish gives it a strong odor; therefore a fresh supply of coral is carried in for each new oven. Every morning the girls who assist about the house bring back from the sea beach beyond the village limits a basket or two of coral pebbles which they pour into the oven. When the fire has burned down, the hot ashes are scraped away with the hottest pebbles. The used coral is banked around coconut trees for what little fertilizing value it may have.
Wood is scarce on the atolls today, and material for fires is gathered from the immense piles of coconut husks which accumulate from the copra industry. The dry flower sheaths (taume), which make excellent kindling, and the dead brush that gathers about vegetation supplement the dry husks.
A fire plough is always kept in the kitchen house but is never used when a brand can be borrowed from another fire. I saw two boys make a fire by the plough method one morning to light their cigarettes. One boy held the hearth, a broad stick of dry soft wood, on the ground in front of him by placing one foot against it. The second boy sat opposite and ran the plow back and forth rapidly, pressing down strongly with both hands folded over the end. It was
A stake for husking coconuts is implanted in the ground outside the cook house. With it is a food grater (kaukasalo), a four-legged stool with an arm tilted upward at an angle from one end. A white, fan-shaped shell (sisi) is lashed with sennit to the tip of the arm. The lip of the shell has a fine serration over which coconut meat or segments of fala can be grated. The nut is cupped over the shell and scraped downward with short, rapid movements. The hands are placed one over the other on the upturned nut.
The kitchen is furnished with a set of bowls and two or three baskets for storing or carrying food. Fresh leaves are gathered whenever they are to be used for wrapping food or making serving dishes. Only one type of serving platter made of coconut leaf is considered to be originally of Tokelau. Several other types have been introduced by the Samoan families of the village pastors.
The lower pointed half of the coconut shell (muli) makes a drinking cup (ipu) and container for baking fluids. It is also used as a ladle (ipu hele) and as a cover (ipu faka tau) to put over surplus cooked food. Coconut shells are plentiful, and the cups and covers are discarded after use. The polished cups kept in the households of Samoa and Tonga primarily as part of the kava drinking equipment are not made in the Tokelau Islands. All water is drunk from a coconut bottle.
Formerly a cup of coconut oil was kept suspended from a crossbeam in every house. These cups were made of three quarters or more of the shell with only the top removed. Two or four holes were perforated blow the rim, and a suspensory cord of fine twisted sennit was tied to them.
The coconut shell supplies a natural bottle (fangu vai) which has been utilized wherever coconut trees grow in Polynesia. The largest eye (mata) of a large nut is pierced, the juice drained out, and the nut refilled with salt water which is allowed to remain for a week or more to rot the meat. This is then poured out, and the shell rinsed with fresh water, which leaves it clean and ready for use. These coconut-shell bottles are usually hung in sets of three from the two ends of a heavy sennit braid, by which they are carried over the shoulders. The rope is made of several strands of sennit which are divided at the ends to join the sennit carrying net around each bottle. A carrying rope also serves to lower the bottles into the well for drawing water and to suspend the bottles from house posts or coconut trees. It is customary to keep the water bottles on a coconut tree near the house by wrapping the carrying rope around the trunk so that both sets of bottles hang close to the under side of the tree.
A replica of the water containers (pl. 8, A), formerly kept in the houses, is encased in a closely woven netting with a cord handle by which it was suspended from the beams of the house. The netting is made with twisted cord of coconut fiber in a 5-millimeter mesh. The technique of netting consists of drawing the cord through the adjoining mesh, pulling it taut, twisting it over on itself, and carrying it to the next mesh. The commencement is made upon a double strand of cord wound around the bottle just below the middle of the shell. The netting is worked around the shell to the bottom of the bottle and picked up again from the commencement cord around the middle and carried to the mouth. An inch from the mouth of the bottle the cord is carried through each mesh of the last row and drawn tight to form the finishing edge.
The handle is made of a loop of cord carried under the finishing edge at two opposing points. The cord is doubled back twice to make four strands which are firmly seized. One end of the cord projects through the seizing 6 or 7 centimeters above the attachment, and a perforated stopper of puapua wood is attached to the end.
A complete kitchen is equipped with four types of wooden bowls of various sizes and shapes (pl. 9, A), which are used for mixing the several dishes cooked with fish or pandanus and coconut cream. The largest wooden bowl is the kumete tula, in which a pudding of pandanus fruit and grated coconut (vaisu) is mixed. A slightly smaller bowl (kumete tau lolo) is used with the coconut grater to catch the particles of coconut meat. A third bowl (kumete pale ika) usually has a flat bottom and is used to hold fish before they are put into the fire or mixed with a sauce. The fourth type is the small bowl (lau kumete) commonly used for holding water and for preparing or mixing small quantities of food.
These wooden bowls are hewn from single blocks of wood. The larger bowls are made of kanava, and the smaller food dishes are made of puapua. The general shape is elliptical with handles projecting at either end flush with the rim of the bowl (pl. 9, A). The common type of handle is undercut to fit the hand, having knobbed ends which set at an angle from the longitudinal axis. A hole is bored in one handle, and a loop of seized sennit is drawn through for hanging the bowl. The bottoms are sometimes flat but are usually rounded. No bowls with legs were seen in the islands.
During a formal visit, the governing council of elders gave me the following list of recipes. They offered to describe the food of their ancestors which they said consisted solely of coconut, pandanus, fish, crabs, crayfish, turtles, and birds and birds' eggs.
The Coconut. The coconut forms the staple food in the diet of the people. It is easily obtained at all times, requires no preparation other than husking the
Tasi
Teaua
Tolongafua
Fangafua
Limangafua
Onongafua
Fitungafua
Valungafua
Ivangafua
Suiniu
Teamonga
Tolunga pulupulu
Fanga pulupulu
Limanga pulupulu
Ononga pulupulu
Fitunga pulupulu
Valunga pulupulu
Ivanga pulupulu
Te hua
Lua te hua
Kuapuli
The following nine stages of growth of the nut are recognized for the various purposes for eating and drinking:
Puakoili: first stage of the young nut.
Mokomoko: soft substance in base of husk, fibrous growth partially developed, flesh beginning to form.
Matatulua: soft flesh covers interior of shell.
Sua: drinking stage.
Niu mata: flesh thicker and at eating stage.
Angalele: flesh firm.
Popo: meat hard (katinga) and used for grating.
Takataka: fluid dried, flesh loosened from shell.
Uto: cavity filled with a soft, light substance. In the latest part of this stage the meat is dry and hard; it leaves the shell and can be rattled inside.
When a nut has reached the mokomoko stage it is peeled of its husk, and the soft, cellular substance between the fibers is scraped out and cooked with other parts of the nut. The soft mushy meat of the young nut is called ngai, and the hard meat of the popo stage is katinga. The katinga is grated in a a strainer of the clothlike sheath of the young blossom to extract the sweet white coconut cream (lolo katinga). The juice of the nut in any stage is suasua. In young nuts it is too bitter to drink, and in old nuts too flat. The uto which fills the cavity of the old nut is considered a great delicacy.
Vaisu ta moko is a very sweet cooked dish made from the coconut alone. Solid coconut meat (katinga) is cut up and slightly seared or roasted by putting hot coral with it “to make it smell”. Mokomoko is scraped from the fibers and mixed with the coconut juice.
Coconut cream is the form of the coconut most used in cooking. The opened nut is shredded and the fine particles caught in a wooden bowl below the shredder. They are gathered into a strainer of green coconut husk fibers or a piece of the sheath which is twisted to squeeze out the creamy oil. This is added to many dishes of fish or pandanus and to make the various vaisu puddings.
Fala pandanus. This fruit-bearing plant grows on all the atolls and next to the coconut is the most important plant food in the native diet. Its origin is unknown. It is eaten either raw or cooked. The soft inner ends of the keys of the ripe fruit must be pounded before chewing. Children eat them when hungry between meals. The hard outer ends are discarded. The keys of the flowering fala pandanus are preserved by slicing off the ripe ends with a shell and wrapping them in packages of laumca leaves. They are then cooked on hot stones and left in the sun to dry. The dried fruit (fala fakapita) is carefully wrapped in freshly made coconut-leaf baskets (kete) and hung in the house for the season when the fruit can not be picked. In this state it will last about three months. Coconut cream is often added to it before cooking, making a very sweet concoction.
The common cooked vegetable dish of the Tokelau Islands is made of coconut and fala grated and mixed together, pressed into small balls, and put into leaf packages to be cooked in the oven. This same combination of coconut and fala with coconut cream poured into it (lolo fala fakapita) is set in coconut shell cups and baked on the hot coral ovens. Sliced fala is also cooked in this way with coconut cream to make lolo fala. It is also combined with the grated kernel of a young coconut and cooked in laumea leaf wrapping (kofu) to make seoseo mata.
The fruit of two wild trees is eaten occasionally, especially in times of famine. A species of the Ficus has small, brownish green berries (mati) which are very palatable when boiled in coconut juice or cream. The nonu tree has light green fruit which is tart and dry. These are eaten raw by children, and boiled for the family meal in times of famine.
Europeans have taught the natives to create soil from leaf mold deposited in beds and to cultivate in their gardens the pawpaw (esi, Carica papaya), bananas (fa'i), quantities of pulaka (Cyrtosperma chamissonis) and ta'amu (Alocasia macrorrhiza), a coarse tuber of the taro family. This last is the only variety of taro which has grown well enough to become a part of the daily food supply. Three varieties of breadfruit, ulu aveaveloloa, ulu lalo, and ulu maopo, have been brought to Fakaofu and grow well. The trees are large but their fruit is small and still a luxury. No breadfruit was seen on Atafu. Introduced papayas and bananas are small. Polynesian arrowroot (masoa) grows freely on Atafu but is not used much in native cooking.
Fish is the staple flesh food which supplies proteins in the diet. Shellfish, crabs, crayfish, turtle, and squid supplement this diet of marine food. Sea-birds which are snared and netted, and their eggs, form a very small part of the food supply. Recently introduced, pigs and fowl are now owned by every family.
Several fish, particularly the bonito (atu), are eaten raw with great relish. They are usually prepared by broiling them on the hot coral pebbles of the oven, large fish cut into steaks and small fish laid on the coals without being cleaned. Whole fish or pieces of fish (ika fefile) are wrapped in leaves of laumea or plaited coconut and are baked in the covered oven.
Some fish, chiefly the bonito, are dried in the sun after cooking and thus preserved indefinitely. When they are needed they are cooked again, often with coconut oil or cream which softens the dry flesh. Sun-dried fish are kofu ika faka la.
Squid (feke) is cut up, mixed with coconut cream, and baked in a wrapping of leaves. A delicious soup is made of squid tentacles, coconut cream, salt water, and imported onions.
Crayfish and crabs are caught on the reef and roasted over the hot coals. Shellfish are gathered and eaten raw.
The turtle (fonu) supplies a seasonal variation from the regular diet of fish. The flesh is wrapped in leaves and baked in the umu. The entrails and blood are considered great delicacies and are cooked separately in leaf packages.
Sharks are caught for eating, but fishing for whales can not be attempted.
Cooking processes are few because the available foods do not lend themselves to many preparations. Informants were insistent that there was no boiling of food in olden days because there were no utensils which could be submitted to fire. Coconut meat was seared by putting hot pieces of coral from the oven into the bowl with it, and this method could have been applied to heat liquids as well.
At daybreak the men set out in their canoes to fish or to cross the lagoon to gather pandanus and coconuts. If there is cooked food in the storage baskets, they take a small piece of fish or a coconut before starting. Many of the fishermen return by the middle of the morning. Their catch is immediately taken to the cook house and prepared, and the first meal of the day is eaten. Workers in the plantations eat coconuts or pandanus during the day.
The second meal is eaten at sunset to make use of the last of the daylight for cooking. By this time everyone has finished work for the day and bathed in the lagoon, and is ready to relax and discuss the events of the day. Before
The men of the house are served their meals first, and the women take what is left for themselves and the younger children. The young boys are allowed to eat with their fathers. On Sundays groups of people eat together; the older men and women often sit with the pastor for the noonday or morning meal after the church service, and the young people meet together in the school house and bring their food in baskets from the home oven.
The labor of preparing meals follows the western Polynesian custom. The young men do the heavier work of making the large ovens and putting in the food; the women remove the food and serve it. The lighter meals are prepared by the women. At a large feast in which only the men participate the younger men of the village make all the preparations and serve the food.
Kava does not grow on the atolls, but the coconut supplants it to some extent as the cup of hospitality. A drinking nut is always offered to a guest as soon as he arrives, and a visitor in the village is constantly being called to from the houses to enter and drink. A drinking nut properly cracked around the pointed end and opened is placed before each person at meal times and is usually drunk at the end of the meal. The top of the nut is left on to protect the juice from flies. A more common method of drinking is to pierce the largest eye (mata) of the nut and to suck the juice noisily.
Considerable ceremony is associated with food. The usual presentations to visitors are gifts of food. Processionals with singing, speeches, and gifts are called ta'alolo, the Samoan name for similar ceremonies, and also by the old Tokelau term, momoli faka itu fenua (the carrying between the divisions of the land). In these processionals one part of the village goes to the other, bringing a great gift of food. The bearers march in pairs, singing some ancient chant. The food is laid before the house of the person or the head of the people for whom it is given, and the leader of the visiting party makes a speech of presentation (tauati). A dance often follows for the entertainment of the people to whom the gift is made, and the procession returns to its own part of the village. In a few weeks the recipients of the presents make a similar procession with gifts in return.
Whenever sacred fish (ika sa)—whale (tafola), swordfish (sakula), and turtle (fonu)—were caught they were brought to the village malae for ceremonial prayers of thanks and distribution among all the villagers. Anyone
Whales were never caught but were sometimes washed up on the windward side of the islands after dying in a storm. The men who discovered the whale on the reef decked themselves in wreaths of flowers and twined coconut leaves and carried short clubs cut from the heavy butts of green coconut leaves (langa). They went in canoes across the lagoon to the village where they shouted out their discovery. Immediately the men sitting in the men's houses rushed out, cut similar pieces of coconut leaf butts, and went to the point of the beach where the canoes were landing. The men in the canoes jumped out and a pitched battle (moamoanga) followed between them and the men of the village, which was only stopped by the intervention of the old men of the village when they thought it had continued long enough. Both parties then retired to the men's house to rest, while the news of the find was told in detail. The significance of this ritual is not known by the present natives.
All who could get into the canoes went to the reef, cut up the whale, and brought it to the village malae where it was heaped before the god house. The priest offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the bountiful supply of food. The official apportioner of food appointed a man to slice off and roast a small piece of the flesh in the great oven which had been prepared while the meat was being brought into the village. A second man was appointed to taste the cooked meat. If he considered it fit to eat he shouted, “Te tala mai Samoa” (literally, news from Samoa). The meat was then divided among all the families, the chief receiving the choicest and the sacred parts, and a great feast was held. The whale was not considered a god but there were some people who refused to eat its flesh.
Turtle were carried to the malae and laid on their backs, while thanks were offered to Tui Tokelau for his provision. The head was presented to the high chief of the village. Turtles are still divided among all the villagers although the man who first sights the turtle receives a larger share.
All ceremonial divisions of food are made by the tauvaenga who is today appointed by the official head of the village (faipule).
There is no stone on the Tokelau atolls suitable for fashioning adzes and tools. Shell adzes (fasua) were made from Tridacna, and black stone adzes were brought from Samoa. These stone adzes were rare and considered very valuable. On Atafu no shell adzes were found and only two stone adzes, one of basalt and one of tufa, whose origin was unknown.
The tufa adz (fig. 24, a) is the ground quadrilateral and tanged type found on the coral atolls of Rakahanga and Nassau, but it lacks the characteristic lugs on the poll. From the front, the tanged quadrilateral adz (toki talae) presents an even trapezoidal face tapering to the shoulder. The tang tapers more sharply toward the poll and
a, 3) is concave, due mainly to the angle at which the butt sets from the blade. The ends and sides are beveled out from this face. The bevel between chin and edge is broad. The poll extends at an obtuse angle, but the sides taper sharply, the right maintaining an even face for the entire length. The left side is asymmetrical with a gradual convexity which cuts away sharply above the shoulder. The left side of the tang is less steep and shows a flaw in making.
The basalt adz (toki koko) is relatively straight and narrow and is triangular in cross section (fig. 24, b). The width at the butt equals the thickness and increases very slightly at the chin of the bevel. The sides of the front surface (fig. 24, b, 1) meet in a median ridge. The extension of the ridge to the lower end has been removed by chipping and grinding. This work accidentally took away one corner of the lower end of the front face. Less than half of the wide ground surface at the lower end remains. Evidently this was originally a smooth triangular surface bounded below by the cutting edge and continued upward by grinding away the median ridge. The back (fig. 24, b, 3) has a slight convexity longitudinally and transversely. The surface is ground but shows shallow depressions from chipping above the bevel. The bevel curves gradually to the blade. The original cutting edge was convex and narrower than the width of the chin. The poll surface inclines upward. This adz is like the triangular Samoan adzes classified by Hiroa (28) as Type VI. The Tokelau adz with the median ridge of the front partially chipped and worn away is intermediate between the adzes illustrated by Hiroa (28, figs. 195, 196).
Tokelau craftsmen classified their adzes into three types, according to size and the work for which each was used. The largest adz (toki tingi) had a blade with flat sides and straight edge. It was hafted to a very long handle. This was used for the heavier chipping, the forming of timber into planks and the hollowing of a canoe hull after the inside of the log had been burned out. The second type (toki ualoa) had an angular handle, the two arms being of nearly equal length. The angle of the handle gave an almost horizontal line to the swing when the adz head was struck and prevented it from cutting too deeply. This was a safeguard against puncturing canoe hulls while dubbing out the inside. The small adz (toki atupa) had a very short handle that just fitted the hand. It was a trimming adz to smooth down the rougher work of the larger adzes. The blade had convex back and bevel.
The Wilkes Expedition found the natives of Fakaofu using a pump drill (vili vili) for boring small holes in their shell fishhooks, shanks, and pendants. According to the description of Wilkes (34), the drill (fig. 25, a) was identical with the one in use today except for the substitution of a nail for the point of shell or coral formerly used.
The drill was made of kanava wood in three pieces which formed the shaft, balance disc, and crossbar. The rounded shaft with shell point was 56 cm long and about 1 cm in diameter. It had a groove around the top in which the cord of the crossbar was bound, and at a point two thirds down the length was a raised knob against which the balance disc rested. The shaft tapered slightly from the knob to the tip. The crossbar was suspended from the top of the shaft by a cord of light sennit and hung 6 or 7 cm above the disc. The balance disc was a flat circular piece of kanava wood perforated in the center, 15 cm long and 1 cm thick. It gave momentum to the drill as it whirled around. The cord was twined around the shaft, raising the crossbar to the top; and the point was set on the piece to be bored. As the crossbar was pulled down, the cord turned the shaft. The balance disc served to continue this motion and as the shaft spun
a) was convex on one side and had a rabbet joint on the straight edge. The tip of the shaft rested in this joint, placing the point directly on the longitudinal axis of the shaft; the two were lashed together. Before steel was introduced a type of strong, sharp coral (tafalelo) and long-spired shells found on the beaches were used as points.
A simpler drill was made of a shaft and point lashed to the tip. This was called milomilo from the method of propelling it by placing the shaft between the hands and rubbing them back and forth. A long, tapering seashell with spiral whorls, which fit nicely in the palm of a man's hand, or a Tridacna shell gouge (fao) was used to bore the lashing holes in canoe hulls.
The end of a turtle flipper bone is used as an awl (fig. 25, d) for splitting the fala pandanus leaves of roof sheets before inserting the coconut midrib pins (pl. 4, B). With the concave side up, it is pushed through the folded leaf of the sheet from the upper surface and again through the leaf from the under surface in making a stitch for the pin. The curve and raised point of the awl facilitate making the second splitting of the stitch from the under side.
A needle (fig. 25, b) made of kanava wood with round shaft and hooked point is used for picking up the sennit lashing in binding thatch to the rafters of a roof. It is thrust through the leaf thatch, hooked over the sennit braid, and withdrawn, leading the braid through the perforated thatch.
A netting needle (fig. 25, c) of puapua or other light wood carries the cord in making the meshes of a net. The netting cord is wound lengthwise on the shaft, through the slits at the ends into the recesses. The loaded stick serves as a shuttle to release the cord as needed and as a needle to lead the cord through the meshes as they are knotted.
Gauges in various sizes according to the size of the mesh are made of rectangular pieces of wood or bone with slightly convex surfaces and very thin side edges.
A needle ingeniously improvised from a coconut-leaflet midrib is used for leading sennit braid through the lashing holes of a canoe hull. One end of the midrib piece is split and one of the loose strands at the end of the sennit lashing is inserted and wound about one arm of the split. Then a second strand is twisted about both, holding the sennit firmly enough to allow it to be brought through the lashing holes.
The Tokelau people make an elliptical covered container (tuluma) which they use primarily in the canoes to carry fishing gear. They also use them, carried over the shoulder, in reef fishing, and for storage containers in the house.
The container is usually about 15 inches deep, 12 inches long, and 10 inches wide (pl. 9, B). It is made from a section of the trunk of a kanava tree, a wood which is very resistant to salt water. The bottom of the box is cut flat. The sides are slightly tapered upward, and a perforated lug handle is left at each end flush with the rim. A raised flange is left around the inner edge of the rim. The cover is cut from a plank of kanava wood with an upright lug left transversely across the center and a narrow lug at each end to fit on the end lugs of the box. The upper surface of the cover is either flat or convex and the sides are beveled in from the upper edge to the sides of the box. A small protruding lip is left in the middle on one side of the cover to give a purchase for the fingers to lift it off. The lower surface of the cover is undercut, leaving a flange around the rim. This fits outside the flange of the box when the cover is set on. The inner face of the cover flange is beveled slightly outward to make a watertight fit when the cover is pressed into place. A sennit line is passed up through the perforations in one pair of end lugs, through the cover lug, and down through the opposite end lugs, and knotted. This line serves as a suspension cord to carry the box. It is also used to keep the cover attached when the box is opened and to lash the cover on by taking a knot in the long loop between the end handle lugs over the top.
Fighting was done with wooden spears and clubs. Wilkes (34) reports that there were battered spears and clubs resembling those of Fiji and Samoa around the largest post of the god house at Fakaofu. One informant at Atafu stated that there was but one type of spear (kalolo) used in ancient times. This was made of a single piece of pointed wood with barbs projecting toward the tail. No Tokelau weapons were edged with rows of shark teeth like the Gilbert and Ellice Islands weapons.
Spears which had survived many fights and had become famous for the victories they had brought to their owners were named and well-known throughout the islands. The names of only four of these are remembered: Tutu o Atua (The-messenger-of-the-gods), Tutu o Atahu (The-messenger-of-Atafu), Pilipili o te Akauloa (The-squid-of-the-akauloa-coral), Ponepone o te Lotovao (The-ponepone-fish-of-the-lake-in-the-bush). Spears became particularly famous if they had been used in duels between strong men (toa) of the islands. A war between two islands was often settled by a duel between two men chosen from the warriors on each side. A great warrior carrying his spear and accompanied by one or two followers appeared before the enemy and challenged their champion to duel. If the challenge was accepted, the two war parties assembled on either side of the malae or on the beach to watch the two individuals decide the outcome. The challengers, met, each carrying
The early inhabitants of the group and the later people who spread over the group from Fakaofu observed, by tacit agreement, certain formalities in battle. An attacking party might arrive by surprise, but on the first night they camped on an outlying islet, while messengers were sent to the village to state the cause of the attack and to challenge the defenders (p. 22). The following day the attacking party sailed to the village and landed on the beach. Taunts and challenges were hurled back and forth, and if a duel did not take place, a general onslaught occurred. It was customary to spare an enemy who had fallen and was found behind the lines. A famous incident of this took place at Nukunuku, where a Nukunuku man smeared himself with the blood of a child he had slaughtered and then lay down quietly until the Fakaofu war party had passed by (p. 19). He then demanded that his life be spared on the basis of this rule of war.
Based on the conclusions of Lister (14), Newell (19), and other nineteenth century writers, it has always been assumed that the Tokelau culture was derived from Samoa. It is true that the Tokelau culture is very similar to the Samoan, but, with our present detailed knowledge of the cultures of nearly all Polynesian groups, non-Samoan elements can be pointed out: the h and wh of the alphabet, the sharkskin-covered drum, and the mat-covered monoliths on the marae. The cultures of the Ellice Islands a few hundred miles to the west, the Gilbert Islands to the northwest, Manihiki, Pukapuka and central Polynesia to the east whence the trade winds blow for more than half the year, must be examined for comparable traits before the true position and relationships of the Tokelau culture can be stated.
Polynesia has been divided culturally into eastern and western areas (28), the dividing line passing along longitude 160° west, but extending westward to include Pukapuka Island and turning southwest below Tonga to include New Zealand. The Tokelau Islands are well within the western area.
Based on such historical details as are known, particularly the records of inter-island wars, it appears that two peoples settled in the Tokelau Islands. The Fakaofu people are a later intrusive group who, once established on their island, drove out the people whom they found on the other islands of the group. The fighting may have been caused by the aggression of the newcomers or, more probably, by the militant self-defence of the earlier settlers who resented intruders into their islands, and waged a long but losing fight to drive them back to the islands whence they had come.
The Tokelau dialect contains more consonantal sounds than any other Polynesian dialect. It also has the unique combination of h, wh, f, s, v, and w. No evidence exists in any other Polynesian dialect to suggest that the Tokelau alphabet is a single or an original form. Even the hypothetical proto-Samoan alphabet, postulated by Churchill (39) as one of the original Polynesian forms, lacks wh and w. Our present knowledge of Polynesian linguistics limits us to the explanations that the Tokelau dialect is either a single one containing the consonantal sounds, h, wh, and w, which are passing to s, f, and v, or the combination of two dialects, one containing s, f, and v which is slowly absorbing an earlier dialect containing h, wh, and w. No philologist has yet shown that the wh has become f or the h, s in any Polynesian dialect as a purely local and uninfluenced transition. Hiroa (30) believes
f is a later intrusive element for which wh has been interchanged in the greater part of the eastern area. S is a consonantal sound limited to the dialects of the western area, except Tongareva just beyond the eastern borders. In Tonga and Rotuma h and s are both in the dialect but they are not interchangeable. Words containing s are of Samoan origin. The dialects of Futuna (38) and the Ellice Islands contain f and s but not h and are considered to have a Samoan derivation. The Samoan language, containing the f and v, but no wh or w, appears to be the center of the s-using dialects. This leads to the belief that in western Polynesia there is a dialect containing f, s, v, and k, which was introduced into the Tokelau Islands and is now becoming the popular form. Lately impetus has been given to this form by Samoan pastors and school teachers. An eastern Polynesian dialect containing h, wh, and w, was probably spoken by the earliest settlers, as is evidenced by a few surviving words and place names of the early people in Tokelau.
The order of the individual's life and his relation to his own kindred and to other members of society conform very closely to the pattern of the life of the individual in Samoa (59) and other western Polynesian societies. However, the Tokelau pattern includes a few traits whose peculiarity points either to a local development or to an influence outside of western Polynesia.
The exhibition of a young mother five days after the birth of her first child, parading with her relatives through the village to the council, is explained by the natives as a display of a woman's beauty; if this is its purpose, it has its counterpart at Manihiki (30) and Leuaniua (61) where young girls, on reaching the marriageable age, were displayed unclothed for the community to admire. The Tokelau procession took place, however, at every island where a mother gave birth to a child. This suggests that the purpose was a ceremonial announcement of motherhood or of an heir in the family. If it was to announce an heir, it is curious that the mother and her relatives should make the announcement in a patrilineal society. Possibly this ceremony developed in a society which changed from a matrilineal to a patrilineal pattern—the matrilineal line satisfying its former claims to the children ceremonially.
The walking of the dead body of the chief about his house has never been reported as part of any other Polynesian funeral ceremony. The details and reasons remain unknown. Flexed burial on the back as described by Lister (14) is unique also in the Tokelau Islands. House burial was commonly practiced in Rotuma (15) and Vaitupu (13) and at Nauru in the Gilbert Islands (47), but was limited to the occasional burial of children in Tonga
The Tokelau system and terminology is basically similar to that of the neighboring islands, but contains a few terms differing in usage and connotation. The Tokelau term for mother, matua, is an eastern Polynesian and archaic Manuan term for parent, but is used also in the Ellice Islands (13). Pratt (22) gives matua as a Samoan word meaning parent, but the specific word for mother is tina, in Tonga, fae.
The Tokelau father's eldest sister is designated as matua sa which corresponds to the term of ilamutu used in Manua, Samoa. The Manuan ilamutu's son is termed tama sa, but in Tokelau the tama sa is the first-born son of a man. The change of the term tama sa reflects the great importance attached to the first-born son in matrilocal but patrilineal society and the attempt to emphasize the patrilineal line.
The adoption of the tama sa by the father's sisters is related perhaps to a custom formerly practiced at Vaitupu. The sisters and female cross cousins took his eldest son, in succession, to their homes shortly after his birth. The mother had to visit her child to feed him. Kennedy (13) suggests that this strange custom arose from the desire on the part of the father's family to emphasize their preëminence in a society which had at one time changed from a matrilineal to a patrilineal form. Possibly the custom arose, as it probably did in Tokelau, because of matrilocal marriage, which otherwise brought the rearing of the children among the mother's kin. Matrilocal marriage occurred at Manihiki (30) and Rotuma (14), but there it was more often for convenience or wealth and only a temporary arrangement. In the Tokelau Islands, however, matrilocal marriage was, at least in theory, the rule. Together with the adoption of the eldest son, frequent inheritance of family property by the daughter, and celebration of the birth of a child by the mother's kindred, there is the suggestion that Tokelau society was once more strongly matrilineal than when first seen by Europeans. Bird's comments (2) on the importance of women and the position they took in state affairs and official receptions substantiate this. Micronesian societies gave more respect and importance to their women than did those of western Polynesia; in eastern Polynesia, descent and inheritance were sometimes reckoned through the matrilineal line (48). Tokelau society became more patrilineal in later times, due to cultural influences from Samoa or elsewhere in western Polynesia.
The men's house is a special development in the Tokelau sa organization. This large blood group is found in most western Polynesian societies, but outside the Tokelau and Ellice Islands the definite institution of the men's house is not evident. The building of the Tokelau and Vaitupu men's houses along the sea walls is typical of the location of council houses at Mokil in Micronesia (42).
The Tokelau governmental organization is patterned after the fundamental social unit—the kindred. The high chief was a patriarch of the community, succeeding theoretically in the patrilineal line, but also by seniority among the four families who were eligible to the position. A council of elders aided and advised the high chief as the kindred council advised and decided kindred matters with the kindred chief. The executive head of the council, second in rank to the high chief, appears only in the highest branch of the government.
This same system of government appears also at Funafuti (12) and Vaitupu (13) in the Ellice Islands, and, except for the executive officer, at Pukapuka in the northern Cook Islands. At Funafuti, the executive officer succeeded the high chief. These two officials were chosen from two families which alternated in the high chieftainship. It is probable that a similar rotation was observed among the “royal” lines at Fakaofu. The chiefs and council members were always old men in the Ellice Islands. At Pukapuka, all society was graded by age, even more definitely than in Tokelau, and the eldest group was given the right to election into the highest council. Nowhere, however, does the great emphasis on old age seem so stressed as at Fakaofu.
The Tokelau and Ellice atolls had the simplest and most democratic governments in western Polynesia, due to the small populations, limited by the food supply. The first bands of people to come to these islands were under the leadership of one or two chiefs, one of whom became the high chief. Not enough people came or remained to have among them a body of chiefs who would form a hereditary aristocratic class.
The classification of the Tokelau gods and spirits is typical of western Polynesian religion, but several characteristics of the supreme deity—the temple and sacred enclosure, the coral slabs wrapped in mats, and the national annual ceremony—strongly distinguish Tokelau religion from that of Tonga and Samoa, type religion for all western Polynesia.
The supreme deity as a sky god, associated with thunder and appearing in the form of a bird, has analogies to Tangaloa, the great god of western
The Tongan title tui (highest ranking chief), applied to the name of a god, suggests the deification of a chief. It is possible that the first chief of the Fakaofu people was deified, an assumption for which there is good evidence in Newell's account (19) of the deification of a chief, Fafie, during his own lifetime.
The only god of second rank who has any significance in the Polynesian pantheon is Fakafotu. In eastern Polynesia Fakafotu is a goddess or female element, but no characteristics of this goddess are remembered in the Tokelau Islands. That Fakafotu's importance was once very great is evident in the special marae and coral slab devoted to him or her, an honor accorded no other god, except Tui Tokelau and his son.
Unlike the priests of Samoa who were outside the social pattern (59), the priests of Tokelau (taula) held a very high and important position in society. They took an active part in the government as well as in the religious rites, and formed an inner council which was very close to the high chief. This position is more like that held by priests in eastern Polynesian society where they developed into the dominating power of many islands.
The lesser priests (vaka atua) appear under the same name in Tonga and Samoa, and fulfilled the same functions as vehicles of the gods through whom they spoke to the people. The interchange of the terms taula and vaka atua by early writers in speaking of the different classes of priests and shamans has left in confusion whatever distinguishing characteristics there may have been between the two groups.
The coconut was spun at Vaitupu, Ellice Islands, like the Tokelau notched ball, but Kennedy (13) does not refer to its use in selecting priests or officials.
The Tokelau god house, in its construction, size, and consecration to the supreme deity, has no counterpart in the god houses of Samoa. Samoan god houses were much like the surrounding dwellings of the village, and were sacred to village or local war gods (27). McKern (58) states of Tonga that, “It is doubtful if there were any temples as such.”
In eastern Polynesia the construction of temple buildings varied in the different groups. In Hawaii, temples were built within the walls of the marae. In the Marquesas, sacred houses were built for the use of the priests during inspirational seances, but these were destroyed after the ceremony. At Tahiti, a moderately sized structure was built on the court of the marae or near it to house the idols and religious paraphernalia.
Temples did not exist in Micronesia. The Gilbertese (44) built small spirit houses similar to the Tongan house described by McKern (58), with no doors and an entrance under the eaves reached by a ladder.
The type of Tokelau god house is limited in its distribution, outside this group, to the Ellice Islands. Houses of the supreme god, Foilape, stood at Funafuti, Nukufetau, and Nanumea Islands. As at Fakaofu, weapons were kept in the temples at Nanumana and were brought out for religious ceremonies. These god houses were also festooned with strings of pearl-shell ornaments; this decoration was used in the special dwelling house of a Tongan priest (58). No god house outside Fakaofu is described as containing the wooden seats but such seats were once used by the talking chiefs of Samoa (27) and are still used in Sikaiana, an island of mixed peoples with a Polynesian culture, in the Solomons. Wooden seats were also commonly used by eastern Polynesian chiefs.
One of the chief differences between the cultures of eastern and western Polynesia is the form and function of the marae. In eastern Polynesia, the marae is marked by upright stones, by stone platforms, or a combination of both. In western Polynesia the marae is a cleared ground without stone construction. It is used chiefly for social gatherings and council meetings. Great stepped earth and stone vaults were built in Tonga for chiefs' burials, but they were neither termed maraes nor used for religious purposes. Monolithic slabs were erected to the high god on the marae of Funafuti, Nanumea, Nui, Nanumana, and Niutau in the Ellice Islands and at Onoatoa, Apaina, Nukunau, and Tapiteuea of the neighboring Gilbert Islands in Micronesia, but none of these were associated with stone platforms or stone enclosures.
Simple maraes of upright stones on a cleared area are found also in the interior of Tahiti and in New Zealand. In Emory's opinion (43) the simple form with sets of three upright slabs at one end of the ground and a single slab opposite is the original; from this form developed the complex marae of stone platforms with upright slabs placed on top of or before them. Emory (43) believes that the slabs are back rests for the gods and priests.
The Fakaofu marae (pl. 6, B) suggests very strongly the original Tahitian shrine without platform. At one end of the Fakaofu marae stand the high coral slabs of Tui Tokelau and his son O Te Moana, and opposite them stands a wooden stool, undoubtedly the seat of the priest during part of the ceremo-
The sacred stone enclosure, for the disposal of the cast-off mats from the sacred stones at Atafu, is also found in the early type of combined platform and monolithic slab marae in the Tuamotu Islands. Here the enclosures served as places for the disposal of sacred paraphernalia and bones of sacrificial food which had been eaten by the priests. The absence of these enclosures in the Ellice Islands can be explained by the absence of the practice of wrapping the sacred stones.
The annual ceremony of offerings and prayers for prosperity was performed to Foilape at Funafuti in the same manner as at Fakaofu (12). Mats and pearl-shell pendants were the main presents laid before the god. Although a prayer for abundance of crops, fruit, and fish was made annually by the high priest at Rotuma (15) and a ceremony to Tangaloa was held at the full moon in May in some villages of Samoa (27), no ceremony held before a temple and sacred upright stones has been fully or even partially described from any other islands of western Polynesia.
The fundamentals of the Tokelau ceremony are found in eastern Polynesia. At Tahiti great ceremonies called pai-atua (assembling and uncovering of gods) were held on a marae, before upright stones or a platform, for the inauguration of a sovereign, for the laying of a cornerstone of a new marae, for rain in time of drought, and for a great harvest. The ceremony was preceded by preparations similar to those made in Tokelau: everything at the marae was renewed, the god's canoe was patched, offerings of fine white mat cloth were made, grounds were weeded and cleaned, the moss and waste from the marae and the old coconut leaf images and matting were collected and thrown into the sacred refuse pit. All activity after this was forbidden and the people remained in their houses. The priests consecrated themselves at their homes, abstaining from mingling with their families, eating their food apart, living on a separate mat and having their private water
Headstones of graves were wrapped with mats at Leuaniua (61), an island with mixed Polynesian culture in the eastern Solomons.
In Oceanic mythology there are two distinct types of origin stories: an evolutionary or genealogical type that traces the origin of man from far distant beginnings, in which abstract elements and sky and earth ultimately evolved the gods from whom men are descended; and a creation type, in which a preexisting supreme god created the first man. This creation type of myth is centered in and characteristic of the western Polynesian area.
A third class of myths, unrelated to the origin tales, is the Maui cycle of stories concerning three brothers who go through many exploits. Maui, the youngest, is the foremost of the three and the great Polynesian culture hero. Two of his greatest feats are the fishing up of the islands from the bottom of the sea and the bringing of fire from the underworld to the people on earth. The name of this hero is known in different parts of Polynesia as Maui, Mauitikitiki, and Tikitiki.
The myths in the Tokelau legendary history contain elements from these three classes of Polynesian mythology garbled into strange and new forms. These elements can be summed up in the following episodes:
1. Man is created from a maggot. The myths based on this element belong solely to western Polynesia. Parallel details of the Tokelau tales can be found in Tongan and Samoan mythology.
2. Three brothers from Tonga—Maui the First, the Second, and the Third—fish up the three northern Tokelau islands. This episode is widespread over Polynesia.
3. A man and woman, Tikitiki and Talanga, draw up the islands. This couple are the parents of the first man in the islands. Tikitiki is another name for Maui and Talanga is the name of Maui's mother in eastern Polynesia. This tale is a local attempt to account for the islands and the origin of the people, based on figures and an exploit taken from the Maui cycle.
4. In other myths, Tikitiki and Talanga are the parents of Lu who pulls up two of the islands, raises the heavens to their present position with the aid of the twelve winds, and learns the secret of making fire and gives it to mankind.
Regarding the raising of the heavens Dixon (7) remarks: “The episode of the elevation of the heavens seems to have been originally a part of the cosmogonic myths prevalent throughout the Polynesian area, with the exception of Hawaii. In New Zealand it remained such, owing to the rupture of all communication with the rest of Polynesia after the period of the great migrations of the fourteenth century; but in central Polynesia, on the other hand, it largely lost its true cosmogonic character and was assimilated by the Maui cycle, being carried as such to Hawaii, which lacks any other form though the vestiges of the older cosmogonic type linger in the central area.”
The Tokelau tale associating Lu and Maui with the raising of the heavens would thus appear to be a direct introduction from the Cook Islands, where at Mangaia exists the closest parallel of the story. The other two exploits of Lu are properly feats of Maui. Although Lu appears in Samoan mythology he is never associated with the Maui cycle or acts of creation.
5. Talanga appears as a man, the giver of fire to the world. Talanga, a woman in eastern Polynesian mythology, is the father of Tikitiki in Samoan tales, to one of which the Tokelau tale is closely akin. The Talanga of this tale has no connection with the wife of Maui in the Tokelau tales.
6. Mafuike appears as a supernatural male being and as a supernatural, blind, female being. The stories of wresting fire from Mafuike, like those of Talanga, have two sources. The appearance of Lu in one story and of the fire goddess, Mafuike, in the second points to a definite central Polynesian origin. The appearance of the man, Talanga, with the fire god, Mafuike, points to a Samoan origin.
The elements of the three types of myths—evolutionary, creation, and the Maui cycle—combined in the Tokelau versions, show that Tokelau mythology has both Samoan and eastern Polynesian origins, the latter particularly from the Cook Islands. The best evidence of this local fusion of east and west Polynesian myths is the tale concerning Tikitiki and Maui, which shows that the identity of these two names was unappreciated.
The remainder of the Tokelau tales, including those of the well-known Polynesian figure, Sina, and others, are predominantly like Samoan stories. In “The story of the pearl-shell” collected by Burrows (4) at Fakaofu, the incident of the hero who eats the taro of a blind woman and afterwards restores her sight is a myth element common in many eastern Polynesian tales but absent in Samoan mythology. Comparison of all the tales collected from the Tokelau Islands shows that a minority of elements are of eastern Polynesian origin.
The skin-covered drum is in type and name (pahu) an eastern Polynesian instrument appearing only at Tokelau in the western islands.
The peculiar processional dance performed by a file of dancers in tripping steps is also danced in the Ellice Islands and has been noted by Burrows (5) as a Samoan dance, and by Wilkes (34) as a dance of Nonuti in the Gilbert Islands. The modern dances and the old paddle dances are common throughout western Polynesia.
The Tokelau calendar (table 7) shows eleven names in common with the calendars of Vaitupu and Nukufetau of the Ellice Islands and Manihiki and Rakahanga of the Cook Islands. One name, Kelekele, which is in the Vaitupu calendar but not in the Tokelau, appears in a compound name at Manihiki and
A basic calendar containing the eleven names, Palolo mua, Palolo muli (toe), Mulifa, Takaonga, Silinga mua, Silinga ma (toe), Utua mua, Utua muli (toe), Fakafu, Kaununu, and Oloamanu, is common to Samoa, Tokelau, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Tongareva, Manihiki, and Rakahanga. The twelfth and thirteenth names of this system cannot be determined from the existing data.
Tonga, closely related to Samoa in culture, has but five Samoan names in its calendar, one outside the basic system and two duplicative pairs included in the system. The Tongan calendar has its closest affinities with those of Uvea and Futuna.
Western Polynesia possesses three calendrical lists, the Tongan, the Rotuman—unique to that island (15), and the Tokelau-Samoan, called here the basic calendar which is also found in the western islands of eastern Polynesia.
Fishing methods and equipment have a great similarity throughout the whole Polynesian area. In fishing and techniques of manufacturing fishing equipment, the Tokelau and Vaitupu cultures are almost identical. The fishing culture of these atolls is also closely parallel to the Samoan, but has Ruvettus and shark fishing with wooden hooks, a widely distributed eastern Polynesian method, completely absent in Samoa. Although Gudger (10) describes Ruvettus hooks from Tonga, doubt still exists as to their origin; Ruvettus fishing has never been described at Tonga.
The Tokelau bonito hook is the western Polynesian type, but, like the Vaitupu hook, varies from the Samoan hook in having three perforations in the base instead of two.
The Tokelau fishing canoe is fundamentally the five-piece canoe found in both eastern and western Polynesia. The lack of large timber on the islands has forced the canoe-makers to build the hull in many pieces, but the style is that of the round-bottom dugout. The sides are built up with small pieces called tafai instead of a single plank strake, widely known in Polynesia as oa. The terminology suggests that the many-pieced sides are not technically strakes. Complete direct lashing to secure parts of the hull is a detail of the eastern Polynesian type of construction. The sharp cutwater and flat bow and stern covers, ornamented with a row of small pyramids and shells, are similar to those of the Samoan plank canoe.
The outrigger float is a general eastern and western Polynesian type, but the indirect attachment of a straight boom by four connecting pegs set in V-form are taken from the Samoan fishing canoe. The socket rest for the bonito fishing rod is a feature of western Polynesian canoes, but the rectangular shape of the Tokelau socket is purely local.
The Vaitupu canoe shows the greatest number of similarities with the Tokelau type. It is a five-piece canoe having pyramid-ornamented bow and stern covers, direct lashings, straight cutwater, “fishtail” stern, and round-bottom hull, often built up of irregular sections of tree trunk. This canoe and the Nanumea type, also in the Ellice Islands, have one important difference—the outrigger attachment—which Kennedy (13) states is a late development. Elsewhere in Polynesia the direct attachment has been assumed to be early Polynesian, surviving in some islands, particularly Hawaii.
The Tokelau canoe and two Ellice Islands canoes are survivals, with modifications, of the type which Hiroa (28) designates as the early type in western
The triangular sail resting with its apex before the mast in both the single and double canoes is common to sailing canoes throughout western Polynesia.
The odd feature of reversing one hull of the double canoe is found elsewhere only in Manihiki canoes. The double canoe made of two undecked hulls of fishing canoes attached by cross booms is a type commonly found in eastern Polynesia (56). It is this type, which was both sailed and paddled, that Europeans have actually seen in the Tokelau Islands. The limited timber supply suggests that the larger, decked, double canoe with stepped mast was a rare type. Except for the reversal of one hull, the Tokelau double canoe conforms to a Samoan pattern. The indirect lashing of the seams is a western Polynesian technique. It is more than likely that these larger canoes were brought from Samoa by Samoan settlers in Tokelau and that the reversed windward hull was not characteristic of them.
The rectangular house form is widespread in Polynesia. Linton (56) has shown that it belongs to eastern Polynesia and particularly to the peripheral region, but Hiroa (28) has demonstrated that it is still preserved in the center framework of the poorer type of Samoan long house. The presence of the rectangular house in the Ellice and Tokelau Islands establishes it as definitely in the west, although not necessarily part of the distinct western Polynesian culture.
The Tokelau dwelling has its closest counterpart in the Manihiki type (30). The Tokelau house had no definite entrance and according to Bird's description (2), was entered on hands and knees. The Manihiki house had an entrance at one end. The ends of both houses were slightly inclined but the methods of producing the effect were not the same.
The house platforms of low coral mounds for drainage obviously can not be compared to the terraced platforms of eastern Polynesian houses, but the difference is due to environment. The porous coral foundations of atolls draw off rainwater as quickly as it falls, making the high platforms of volcanic islands unnecessary. In form the Tokelau platforms are roughly rectangular. The differentiation which Linton (56) makes between rectangular and oval platforms seems a bit illogical, for the shape of the platform usually follows the shape of the house.
No material boundary or permanent beds were made in the Tokelau houses, although the men and women had their own parts of the home for sleeping. Shelves and upper stories were built in both the Tokelau and Manihiki houses. This feature may be an introduced trait from Micronesia, for in the Gilbert Islands an upper story, reached by a ladder leading to a small opening, is a customary feature of the dwelling houses.
In furnishings, the stuffed mat or soft pillow, also made at Nauru (47) and Funafuti (12), is an eastern culture trait heretofore not associated with western Polynesia. It is certainly foreign to the household furnishings of Samoa and Tonga. Linton (56) gives the distribution of this article as New Zealand, Marquesas, and Hawaii, the main islands of peripheral Polynesia.
The god house, as illustrated by Wilkes (pl. 6, B), is non-Polynesian in many features. The railing, the tying of the thatch in bunches at the eaves, and the peculiar curvature of the roof “like a Chinese pagoda” suggest Micronesian rather than Polynesian affinities.
The men wore a plaited malo or breechcloth, customary in the eastern Polynesian islands, but did not wear the bast shirt or titi, the ancient daily apparel of men in Samoa and the Ellice Islands. On festive occasions, Tokelau men wore a fringed mat kilt with braided belt of human hair, a dress also worn in Samoa and Tonga.
The exclusive use of the titi by the women is an eastern Polynesian trait. The prodigious thickness of the women's titi, described by Wilkes (34) as a great bundle of straw, was also characteristic of the Tongarevan titi, described by the first European resident on the island as “a mass of hay”.
Wilkes (34) alone has reported the men's custom of wearing a band of false hair across the forehead. According to Stair (27) “frontlets of human hair plaited to a kind of network” were worn by Samoan men at dances or in war. This ornament must have differed greatly from the wig worn by Fijian warriors. A kind of wig was also worn in the Society Islands, but had braids of hair attached to a piece of tapa (56). In Micronesia, false hair was worn at Truk (55) and wigs were traded in the Gilberts (34).
The peculiar practice of the Tokelau natives of perforating and then dilating the lobes of their ears, by inserting larger and larger pieces of wood, is not so typical of Polynesia as of Micronesia. Bone or turtle-shell rings, slipped over the loop of the distended ear lobe, are worn at Nukufetau, Nauru (47), the Marshall Islands (44), and some of the Caroline Islands (42).
The pearl-shell lei, a strip of shell shaped either like the shank of a bonito hook or like a fish with incised eyes and fins, is an ornament found at Tikopia, Tonga (58), and in Micronesia.
The description of Tokelau tattooing probably does not include all the designs formerly employed, for the sudden decrease of the population due to slave raids, followed by a missionary ban on the practice of tattooing, took
The limitations of atoll environment and the original absence of agriculture and swine make it impossible to compare fairly food and food preparations with those on volcanic islands. The Tokelau islanders used the fire plow, wooden bowls without legs (kumete), fire tongs, coconut graters, water bottles, and the ground oven—all familiar equipment throughout Polynesia. The water bottle net was made by the same technique used at the island of Nukuoro (42) in Micronesia. It is not described by Hiroa (28) for Samoa. The Tokelau Islands coconut grater was four-legged like the eastern Polynesian type.
The whale was sacred to Tangaloa in Tahiti (53), but was not sacred in Samoa. The Tokelau custom of fighting between the people who discovered the whale and the villagers suggests a mock combat between a foreign group landing on the island and the autochthons. A people worshipping the whale, or holding it sacred to their group in some semi-totemic way, may have once had their arrival at the Tokelau Islands contested, an event which is still celebrated when a whale drifts upon the reef.
It is impossible to draw any conclusions upon the Tokelau adzes from the two specimens collected, both made of material not indigenous to the island. The basalt adz is of a type not uncommon to Samoa (28). Basalt tools were undoubtedly much sought after by Tokelau men who traveled the sea, and voyagers to Samoa probably returned with a fair supply.
The appearance of a tanged quadrilateral adz, however, is remarkable in face of the distribution of this type in Polynesia. Both Linton (56) and Hiroa (28) have noted that the tanged adz is found in the central and marginal cultures of eastern Polynesia, and Hiroa has commented on Linton's
Hiroa (30) has noted that a tuluma or wooden fishing bucket, brought to Manihiki from the Tokelau Islands, had ten short legs, an interesting observation, for legged tuluma are not at present made in Tokelau and there is no information that they ever were. The tuluma at Manihiki is not unique, for the Funafuti tuluma (12) also had short legs. Otherwise the Funafuti tuluma are identical with those of the Tokelau.
The tuluma of Sikaiana are small cylindrical boxes with four legs and either tight-fitting wooden covers or coconut shell caps. These differ from the Tokelau boxes in being much higher in proportion to their width and circular instead of elliptical in cross section. The Sikaiana boxes are approximately 8 inches high. The same type of tuluma is also made at Liuaniua (61). Boxes with tight covers but without legs or handles are made at Rongelap in the Carolines, Nukuoro, Nukumanu, and Tauu.
Linton (56) shows that the distribution of these boxes, with tight-fitting covers and the same rim and flange, includes the Marquesas, Hawaii, Society Islands, and New Zealand in eastern Polynesia; he adds Samoa, a statement which Hiroa has since disproved. Round, covered boxes appear in Hawaii, but the boxes of the Marquesas and New Zealand are oval like the kumete and sometimes in the Marquesas made in bird form with a tail at one end of the cover, overlapping the rim. Linton believes that these covered boxes originated in eastern Polynesia, but the Micronesian distribution shows that it was a trait probably introduced into eastern Polynesia.
The study of the Tokelau culture shows that in its linguistic, social, religious, mythological, and material phases, many features are common to cultures of eastern Polynesia, but have no further distribution in western Polynesia, except in the neighboring Ellice Islands. Of the material traits in particular, many with eastern affinities are found in western Polynesia in
Hiroa (28), who has made the latest grouping of Polynesian material culture traits, has shown that a fundamental culture is common to both eastern and western islands. With this fundamental culture, Tokelau shares the five-piece dugout canoe, which, however, possesses a breakwater on the bow cover, has its seams closed by complete direct lashing, and its hull made of three sections—three details which Hiroa (28) designates as eastern Polynesian. The manufacture of the hull in sections has been pointed out as due to local wood supply. The other features, like many traits of the fundamental culture in Samoa, may have been lost with the advent of the later and extremely dominant culture. The Tokelau rectangular house belongs also to the fundamental culture but, like the Manihiki and Ellice Islands houses, lacks walls. The roof is constructed both with and without the ridgepole resting on end posts, but always with the purlins resting on the principal rafters in the eastern manner. The Tokelau culture also has similar fishing methods, bonito fishing by trolling with a hook with pearl-shell shank, the shark noose, and the bow and arrow (although this trait carries the name tika, possibly to be identified with the Tahitian te'a).
The other so-called eastern Polynesian traits found in the Tokelau culture appear at first hand to extend the known traits of this fundamental complex in the west, but manuscript material in Bishop Museum on Tonga, Uvea, and Rotuma Islands, as well as published works on Samoa and Futuna definitely show that practically all these “eastern” traits are limited in their western diffusion to the Tokelau and Ellice Islands.
Into the fundamental culture in the east, there came a complex of traits from the west, which swept north of the main islands of the western area without affecting them. In his theory of Polynesian migrations, Dixon (41) has shown one group, possessing stone construction, which passed through the Ellice and Tokelau Islands to eastern Polynesia. Linton (56) has supported this theory by evidence drawn from the Marquesas Islands culture. Hiroa (28) has noted such a possible diffusion in his conclusions on Polynesian material culture: “Certain culture traits, such as the marae type of religious stone structure, stone figures, stone food pounders, upright drums covered with skin at the upper end, and the nose flute passed into or developed in eastern Polynesia without affecting Samoa.” To this complex Linton adds the partially ground, tanged adz. From the distribution in the Tokelau and Ellice Islands, I would add the wooden box or bucket with tight-fitting cover and the stuffed mat pillow. The nose flute was not described to me by informants, but the wooden food pounder is found in the Ellice Islands culture.
In other phases, the Tokelau eastern complex shows a close affinity and characteristic general likeness with one cultural complex of the Society
Ruvettus hook is also like Tokelau usage, and indeed is found in the western area only in the Tokelau and Ellice Islands, with the dubious exception of Tonga. Dueling by champions before assembled warring armies, in which others took the places of fallen comrades, was practiced in both the early culture of the Society Islands and in the Tokelau Islands.
The early people of the Society Islands were organized in communal and democratic kindreds, which reckoned descent through both the patrilineal and matrilineal lines. Their kinship terminology contains metua as the term for mother and tupuna for ancestor. The political organization was headed by a chief who had both political and sacerdotal functions. Women were granted a high position in the Society Islands, and the term fatu (lord) appears in the Tokelau phrase, fatu paeape (head of the household).
The religion of the Society Islands culture included the deification of ancestors, the deity Fakafotu, seasonal ceremonies and accompanying periods of tapu of the land and activities, rites of tapu by priests such as the Tokelau master craftsmen observed, and sacred marae with upright monoliths and sacred areas for the deposition of refuse taken from holy places (53). The idea of a temple also belonged to eastern religions, but its greatest development took place in Hawaii. These general features were common to the early religion of all eastern Polynesia in contrast to the later religion associated with Tangaloa, which was particularly the religion of the western area.
Handy ascribes the Maui cycle of mythology to this same early culture, and, though the tales are common to the whole Polynesian area, some of the Tokelau tales incorporating the name Maui appear to have an eastern origin in contrast to other Tokelau Maui tales which name the hero Tikitiki in the western Polynesian manner.
The eastern Polynesian traits of the Tokelau culture, coupled with the evidence of an eastern Polynesian dialect in the islands and the historical tradition of two populations, lead to the conclusion that some of the people who settled in eastern Polynesia, particularly in the Society Islands, came to the Tokelau and Ellice Islands. These people must have been part of the first migration which came into Polynesia from Micronesia (41). After descending to the Tokelau and Ellice Islands, the migration moved directly eastward without influencing the major western Polynesian islands to the south. It is probable that some of these people reached Samoa but had little permanent effect, being absorbed by a later wave of people. Stair (27) remarks that stone slabs were erected to local gods in one Samoan village, and that Samoan
However, this early group of Polynesians could not have brought all the eastern traits appearing in the Tokelau culture. The fully ground, tanged adz of tufa must have come from the east into the Tokelau group, for it was developed in the eastern islands from the partially ground type (58). The other sporadic, ground, tanged adzes found in the western area are too few to have been indigenous there. The fusion of the Maui and Lu elements of mythology in Tokelau, demonstrated by Dixon (7) to have taken place in the central Polynesian area, can only be explained as diffusion from the Cook Islands. At the time of discovery the Fakaofu people knew of Pukapuka to the east but not the Ellice Islands to the west, and before much more European contact had taken place, a tale was given to a missionary that a man from Rakahanga had first settled Fakaofu (26). Such evidence proves irrefutably that there was contact with the neighboring eastern Polynesian islands. How much more of the eastern Polynesian culture in Tokelau is due to a rediffusion from this area it is impossible to determine. Perhaps the isolated marae to Fakafotu at Fakaofu was the shrine of a small group who came from the east.
That a great rediffusion or backwash of eastern traits could easily take place is obvious from the geographical position of the Tokelau Islands in the Polynesian culture area. Situated in the northwest corner, they are at the leeward end of the course of the trade winds which blow from the southeast during more than half the year. Fishing parties and even traveling groups, leaving their homes in the east, have been blown westward within recent times. Such drift voyages must have been at least as frequent in the pre-European era, when the Polynesians conducted many more voyages.
This same backwash from Polynesia westward to Melanesia has been described by Thilenius (66). Much of this traditionally came from Samoa, but the many eastern Polynesian traits of these islands, such as the food pounder and the fishing box with tight-fitting cover, suggest eastern and Tokelau origin. This backwash of eastern culture into the western area and beyond is extremely important in the discussion of Polynesian cultural diffusion, and must be borne in mind in seeking the origin of all easternlike traits in the western islands.
Western Polynesia is characterized by a distinct cultural complex. Historical and cultural evidence shows that a small band of people moved from this area (traditionally Samoa) into the Tokelau Islands. This second migration to these islands probably took place in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, about three hundred years after a similar movement to the Ellice and Gilbert Islands (46). These Samoans established themselves on Fakaofu and finally conquered the earlier peoples of Atafu and Nukunono. Perhaps they found early people at Fakaofu also whom they conquered and amalgamated into their
nafa gong, the wooden, legged pillows, the simple birth and marriage rites, the ilamutu relationship, exogamic kindreds, most of the kinship terminology in use today, the title tui, zoolatry or pseudo-totemism, the calendar, the creation myths, and the Tangaloa and Sina tales. It is their dialect and culture which is the most pronounced in the islands today.
The first Polynesians in the Tokelau and Ellice Islands probably remained without much outside contact for many centuries, during which their simple culture developed and diverged from the cultural forms in the east. Later, blended with the Samoan culture, it became a distinct complex greatly differing from the other cultures of the geographical western area.
The close similarity between the Tokelau culture and Funafuti and Vaitupu culture is due to the settling by peoples of the same migration and to a probable early contact between the two groups and a continued drift in the trade winds from Tokelau to the west. Communication probably passed between the northern Cook Islands and Tokelau as well as an eastward drift contact. The peculiar reversal of the Tokelau double canoe is no doubt an idea taken directly from the Manihiki double canoes.
Some contact was made, through occasional movements of people, with the eastern Micronesian islands; this explains the Micronesian traits appearing in the Tokelau culture. But the definite answer to this must await further researches in Micronesia.
The analysis of the Tokelau culture can be summarized as follows:
1. A migration of people moving through Micronesia passed through the Tokelau Islands and into the eastern Polynesian area. These people left a small number of their group in the Tokelau Islands, where they were the first settlers and the bearers of the so-called eastern Polynesian culture traits now found in the Tokelau culture.
2. A movement of people from Samoa to the islands of the northwest, through which their ancestors had probably come to settle Samoa, reached Fakaofu, introducing Samoan culture and ultimately conquering the whole group.
3. During the whole period of settlement of the Tokelau Islands there was a small but constant drift of Polynesians, brought by the trade winds from the eastern area, who introduced locally developed, eastern cultural traits and reënforced the early culture.
4. There developed in the Tokelau Islands, and the Ellice Islands as well, a culture based on an early form of eastern culture, later influenced by Samoan or western Polynesian culture and perhaps slightly by Micronesian cultures, which took on a form unique in Polynesia, and which must be considered a sub-culture in the western area, and in the future distinguished from the phrase “western Polynesian culture”.
The culture of Olosenga has been excluded from these conclusions, for we have but one brief account (23) of the people and customs of this island in which are given the following five points peculiar to Olosenga in the Tokelau group: the cultivation of taro, the wearing of a dyed leaf cloak, the possession of dogs, the bearing of chiefs on litters, and the fair skin and hair of the natives. Except for the leaf cloak, the four culture traits are common to both eastern and western areas. The leaf cloak is characteristic of the east. It is possible that these traits, except agriculture, existed in the northern islands but were never reported by early observers. Absence of aboriginal taro pits in the three northern islands indicates that cultivation was limited to the more fertile Olosenga.
The great detail with which Quiros and his followers described the people at Olosenga and in some of the Santa Cruz Islands shows definitely that they found in these island populations a light-skinned element. Dixon (41) and Linton (56) have distinguished a Caucasoid element in the Polynesian race which Dixon notes is dominant in the Ellice Islands peoples. The Olosenga people undoubtedly belonged to this racial element which had not thoroughly intermixed with the other Polynesian elements. From the foregoing conclusions on the Tokelau culture, we can only believe that the Olosenga people were part of the first population in the islands and members of the racial and cultural group which moved into the eastern area by the northern route.