Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Ethnology of Tokelau Islands

Totemic Gods

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.