SAMOAN GROUP. 139 



districts. These various gods owned certain animals, reptiles, fish, 

 and birds. In some few districts inanimate objects were worshipped, 

 thus : a branch of bamboo, with a bunch of cocoa-nut fibres tied on 

 the top, was worshipped in Manono. They also had carved blocks 

 of wood and stone erected in memory of dead chiefs, which they 

 worshipped. 



The account they give of the creation of their island is as follows : 



Tangaloa, their great god, who lives in the sky, sent down the bird 

 Tuli (a kind of snipe), his daughter, to look what was below. She 

 reported to her father that she saw nothing but sea. Tangaloa then 

 rolled a stone from heaven, which became the island of Savaii, and 

 another which produced Upolu, and the same for the others. 



This did not suit Tuli, who returned to ask for inhabitants. He 

 gave her orders to plant the wild vines (fuefue), which after growing 

 were ordered by him to be pulled up and thrown into heaps, from 

 which worms were produced. Then it was desirable that they should 

 become human. Spirits were accordingly sent to them by Tuli, and 

 the worms became man and woman. 



Their notions of a future existence are quite vague. They believe, 

 however, in a happy future state, where every thing good is provided. 

 Some say that it is on their own island, others on distant islands, and 

 for the chiefs at the residence of the gods on Pulotu, an island to the 

 westward. They also believe that the spirit goes there immediately 

 after death; that in these places it never rains; that they eat and 

 drink there without labour, and are waited upon by the most beau- 

 tiful women, who are always young, or as a chief expressed it to one 

 of our officers, " whose breasts never hang down." 



The spirits, according to their belief, often come down to wander 

 about at night around their former dwellings; some spirits are be- 

 lieved to die, while others are immortal ; some dwell in subterranean 

 abodes, and are eaten by the gods. Some persons believe that after 

 death they become "aitus," or inferior gods. 



They believed in many omens, which were carefully watched. If 

 the black stork, called matuu, flew before them on a war expedition, 

 in the direction they were going, they deemed it betokened success ; 

 but if in any other direction, it was an ill omen. If a dim moon, or 

 very bright starlight, or comet, were observed, it always indicated the 

 death of a chief; and a rainbow was a sign of war. 



The squeaking of rats was an unfortunate omen. Sneezing was 



