the wife of the king of Fiji, and went there to live.  She had a son, and was wondering one morning what name to give him, when some canoe-builders passed along with their tools rattling in the baskets which they carried over their shoulders.  From the rattling of the tools she named her son Toi-va-i-totonu-o-le-ato-a-tufunga, or, as some would write it, Toivaitotonuoleatoatufunga.  The formidable polysyllable simply means, “Hatchets rattling inside the baskets of the carpenters.”  It was abbreviated, however, as in all such cases, and the lad was known by the name of Toiva.  She had another son, and called him Tasi, which means one.

After a time Lady Tapuitea became wild, horns grew out of her head, she ate human flesh, and ten to fifteen Fijians were used up on her cannibal appetite.  The king looked aghast when he saw the horns on the head of his wife, went and told Toiva and Tasi that their mother had become a cannibal demon, and that they had better make their escape to Samoa.  This they did.  Toiva and Tasi were soon missed by their mother.  She went about inquiring after them; her husband said he knew not where they were, and after searching all over Fiji she discovered their footprints on the beach in the direction of Samoa.  She jumped into the sea, swam to Samoa, and reached Falealupo.  She went right into the bush and lived there, but renewed her cannibal indulgences when she could secure a victim.  Many of the Falealupo people fled from the place.  Tasi became so afraid of his mother that he begged his brother to bury him alive.  Toiva did so, and hence the name of a stone there which is called Tasi.

One day Tapuitea, on going down from the bush towards the sea, saw the footprints of her son Toiva in the sand, followed them to a pool of water, and there she saw the shadow of Toiva in the water.  She was frantic with joy—­leaped, and laughed, and screamed, and then tumbled into the pool, clutching in vain the shadow.  As she dived her horns struck against a piece of rock and broke off.  She was soon on the surface again, however, and Toiva, sitting up in a pandanus tree, called out, “Look up!” She looked up, and there at last was the real body of her missing son.  She wept aloud, implored him to come down, and said he had been very unkind to her.  He, on the other hand, scolded her, blamed her for the death of all their friends, “and now,” said he, “you are going to eat me next.”  She admitted that she had been cruel, and had been the death of many of the people, but all that was now about to end; she had determined to go up to the heavens, and never again to return.  “Go,” said he, “go,” and away she went.  But before going up she promised to shine down as an evening star and give him light for his evening meal.  She promised also to give him light in the morning, when he went into the bush at the season of pigeon-catching.  Having said this she went up to the heavens, became the planet Venus,