Supreme Deity

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.

page 60

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.

Nature Gods

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.

page 61

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.

Ko taku sala ia e ko iloa
Ko te ulu o na Tongaleleva
Na ko taia kupu kese lava
Fakaofu e kona e mamala.

My wrong is known
The head of Tongaleleva
The mature tree was cut far away
Fakaofu is poisoned and diseased.

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.

Nature Spirits

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 page 62 waged a continual war upon the foreign spirits (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.

Ancestral Gods

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 aitu, though his character is not typical. At one time Nukunono had a fresh-water well and Fakaofu had none. A Fakaofu aitu⁵ came to Nukunono and carried off the well in a coconut-shell cup. Fenu chased him, caught him at the islet, Motu Akea, and hit his hands, spilling some of the stolen water he page 63 was carrying which formed a well. The aitu 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.

Totemic Gods

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.