Part 7 (1/2)

This was a household G.o.d, and particularly useful to the family in detecting and telling out the name of the thief when anything was missed. He was called _first day_, as it was supposed that he existed in the world before mortals.

4. LEATUALOA--_The long G.o.d, or the centipede._

This was the name of a G.o.d seen in the centipede. A tree near the house was the residence of the creature. When any one of the family was ill, he went out with a fine mat and spread it under the tree, and there waited for the centipede to come down. If it came down and crawled _under_ the mat, that was a sign that the sick person was to be covered over with mats and buried. If, however, it crawled on the top of the mat, that was a sign of recovery.

5. O LE AUMA--_The red liver._

This family G.o.d was seen, or incarnate, in the wild pigeon. If any visitor happened to roast a pigeon while staying there, some member of the household would pay the penalty by being done up in leaves, as if ready to be baked, and carried and laid in the _cool_ oven for a time, as an offering to show their unabated regard to Auma.

The use of the reddish-seared bread-fruit leaf for any purpose was also insulting to this deity. Such leaves were in common use as _plates_ on which to hand a bit of food from one to another, but that particular family dared not use them under a penalty of being seized with rheumatic swellings, or an eruption all over the body called tangosusu, and resembling chicken-pox.

6. IULAUTALO--_Ends of the taro leaf._

To this family G.o.d the _ends_ of leaves and other things were considered sacred, and not to be handled or used in any way. In daily life it was no small trouble to this particular household to cut off the ends of all the taro, bread-fruit, and cocoa-nut leaves which they required for culinary purposes. Ends of taro, yams, bananas, fish, etc., were also carefully laid aside, and considered as unfit to be eaten as if they were poison. In a case of sickness, however, the G.o.d allowed, and indeed required, that the patient should be fanned with the _ends_ of cocoa-nut leaflets.

7. O LE ALII O FITI--_The Chief of Fiji._

This was the name of a G.o.d in a certain household, and present in the form of an eel, and hence the eel was never used by them as an article of food. This G.o.d was supposed to be unusually kind, and never injured any of the family. They showed their grat.i.tude by presenting the first fruits of their taro plantation.

8. LIMULIMUTA--_Sea-weed._

This was the name by which another protector was known. If any members of the family went to fight at sea, they collected some sea-weed to take with them. If in pursuit of a canoe, they threw out some of it to hinder the progress of the enemy, and make the chase successful in obtaining a decapitated head or two. If the enemy tried to pick up any of this deified sea-weed it immediately sank, but rose again and floated on the surface if one of its friends paddled up to the spot.

9. MOSO'OI.

This is the name of a tree (_Conanga Odorata_), the yellow flowers of which are highly fragrant. In one place it was supposed to be the habitat of a household G.o.d, and anything aromatic or sweet-scented which the family happened to get was presented as an offering.

At any household gathering the G.o.d was sent for to be present. Three different messengers had to go at short intervals, as it was not expected that he would come before the _third_ appeal or entreaty for his presence.

10. FATUPUAA MA LE FEE--_The pig's heart and the octopus._

Another family supposed that two of their G.o.ds were embodied in the said heart and octopus. Men, women, and children of them were most scrupulous never to eat either the one or the other, believing that such a meal would be the swallowing of a germ of a living heart or octopus growth, by which the insulted G.o.ds would bring about death.

11. PU'A.

This is the name of a large tree (_Hernandia Peltata_). A family G.o.d of the same name was supposed to live in it, and hence no one dared to pluck a leaf or break a branch.

The same G.o.d was also supposed to be incarnate in the octopus, and also in the land crab. If one of these crabs found its way into the house, it was a sign that the head of the house was about to die.

12. SAMANI.

This was the name of a family G.o.d. It was seen in the turtle, the sea eel, the octopus, and the garden lizard. Any one eating or injuring such things had either to be _sham_ baked in an unheated oven, or drink a quant.i.ty of rancid oil as penance and a purgative. This G.o.d predicted that there was a time coming when Samoa would be filled with foreign G.o.ds.