Luao, or Luaoo, which may be translated “Hollow pit,” is another name for the place down which the spirits of the dead were supposed to descend on the death of the body.  “May you go rumbling down the hollow pit” was the common language of cursing.  At the bottom of this pit, according to the tradition which describes it, there was a running stream which floated the spirits away to Pulotu, the dominions of Saveasiuleo.  When they touched the water they were not to look to the right or to the left, or attempt to make for either side.  Nor could they come back, as the force of the current rendered that impossible.  There was a continued and a promiscuous company of them.  Those who had died of various diseases—­the good-looking and the unsightly, the little children and the aged, chiefs and common people—­all drifted along together.  They were, however, little more than alive, and this semi-conscious state continued until they reached the hades of Pulotu, where there was a bathing-place called Vaiola, or “The water of life.”  Whenever they bathed here all became lively and bright and vigorous.  Infirmity of every kind fled away, and even the aged became young again.

It was supposed that in these lower regions there were heavens, earth and sea, fruits and flowers, planting, fishing and cooking, marrying and giving in marriage—­all very much as in the world from which they had gone.  Their new bodies, however, were singularly volatile, could ascend at night, become luminous sparks or vapour, revisit their former homes and retire again at early dawn to the bush or to the Pulotu hades.  These visits were dreaded, as they were supposed to be errands of destruction to the living, especially to any with whom the departed had reason to be angry.  By means of presents and penitential confession all injurers were anxious to part on good terms with the dying whom they had ill-used.  In one place there was a hadean town called Nonoa, or Bound, where all the spirits were dumb, and could only “beat their breasts,” expressive of their love to one another.

Saveasiuleo, or “Savea of the echo,” was the king of these lower regions.  The upper part of his body was human, and reclined in a house in company with the chiefs who gathered around him; the lower was piscatorial, and stretched away into the sea.  This royal house of assembly was supported by the erect bodies of chiefs who had been of high rank on earth, and who, before they died, anticipated with pride the high pre-eminence of being pillars in the temple of the king of Pulotu.

Falealupo is also strangely associated in Samoan story with Tapuitea, or the planet Venus.  Tapu was a man who, with his wife Tea, lived there and had a daughter named Tapuitea, from the union of the names of her parents.  The spot on which their house was built they called Leviuli, or “Black apple,” from the appearance of the sun one day when covered with a cloud.  When Tapuitea grew up she became