Mythology

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.”

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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.