Pacific Legends

One year villages near her home suffered the effects of a great famine. Because of her blindness Fonueau was not able to find food. After many days of intense hunger, she and her daughter smelled the wonderful aroma of soi as it baked in the ground ovens of the village. Foneau and Salofa waited for food to be brought by villagers, but it never arrived. 

The woman and her daughter were so desperate, they decided to cast their fate upon the sea. The mother took her child by the hand and together they jumped off the cliff into the surf below. 

As they swam to the surface, their bodies transformed. One became a turtle and the other a shark. They swam away from the villagers who did not care for them. When they arrived in Vaitogi, a village in American Samoa, they resumed their human forms. They were welcomed with food and clothing by Chief Letuli and his people. 

The two women were so appreciative of the chief’s tender care that they vowed to return to the ocean to live just beyond the cliffs, returning when called upon to dance and entertain the villagers. They left a beautiful song with the Samoans that could be used when the shark or turtle were needed. Today, when villagers gather along the shore of that legendary site and sing the sweet melody, it is said that a turtle and a shark appear. 

The Eel and the Flounder were once great friends. One day they decided to carry a huge stone to test who was the stronger. They began to argue and then to fight. As they fought the Flounder was crushed flat beneath the stone. The Flounder became free and chased the Eel who was vomiting after getting a heavy blow to his stomach. The Eel became thinner and thinner until the Eel could hide in a hole. The Eel said some magic words as protection from the Flounder:

Wide and Flat, Wide and Flat,

To feed on you, te Ali.

Wide and Flat, Wide and Flat,

You will never, never kill me.

The Flounder’s flat body became the model for the atolls of Tuvalu. The Eel’s thin round body became the model for the coconut palm. After the Flounder died the Eel threw the stone in the air and said the magic words:

Black, white and blue,

I will always be true,

To myself and to you, too,

To make you and me friends.

By repeatedly throwing the stone in the air the Eel created night and day, the blue sky and the sea. The Eel then broke the stone into eight pieces to create the main islands of Tuvalu.^{[5]: 13–15} The name, Tuvalu, means “eight standing together” in Tuvaluan.