RULES ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII MAY 21 1948, WITH REGARD TO THE REPRODUCTION OF MASTERS THESES (a; No person or corporation may publish or reproduce in any manner, without the consent of the Board of Regents, a thesis which has been submitted to the University in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for an advanced degree. (b) No individual or corporation or other organization may publish quotations or excerpts from a graduate thesis without the consent of the author and of .the University. MYTHOLOGY of TUBUAI A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements fo r the Degree of Master of Arts at the UNIVERSITY of HAWAII AT by h/! Robert T. A ithen Honolulu, May, 1>2J This Paper is a portion of the complete report on the Ethnology of Tubuai, submitted to the Trustees of the Bernice P. Bishop Paseum, Honolulu, Hawaii, at the con­ clusion of the services of the author as Research Asso­ ciate in Ethnology, in Parch, 1923, and is based on the fie ld work done fo r that Institution by the author dur­ ing the years 1920, 1921, and 1° 22. ¿/ÛxAjv . C ô 5 H 3 go. / The hÿthûlcgy of T-ubuai — The raythologioal material hare presented waa obtained partly in Tubuai, partly in Haivavae, partly In Tahiti. The informants wero natives of Tubuai, Rurutu, or Haivavae and in each oaae tolâ the tale a3 being of their own island. I am A ■ . ( • gratefu l to Mr. Eugene Doom of Tubuai fo r the tales of Hina and Rupo, of Tematauira and Haatauhl, of tho Haivavae woman who gave birth to whales, of Totaohamai, the savare woman of Tubuai, of the evil spirit who went from Tubuai to Haivavae, and for one version of tho tale of Tematauira and Ututoa. Mr. Doom secured those talos fo r me from Tubuai people who found it possible to remember tho t- les wit on talking with one in whom thoy had complete confidence, he being the son of a Tubuai woman. In several ca3os I later obtained similar versions of these tales from the o rig in a l informants, but ^ r. Doom's perfect knowledge of the language decided me to uso his version in each oase rather than mine. In eaoh case the versions wore identical except for minor variations in wording, these variations being with ut doubt due to tho inclination of the peoplo to make tho language simpler fo r my understanding, a kindly fa u lt from which Mr. Doom was not always altogether free. To Tautu a Mauritera, I am grateful for the second version of tho tale of Temat&uira and Jtutoa, mid for the names of the various heroes given without information other than the names of their respective countries. Tautu had le> rned of these from his grandmother, a Tubuai woman, togethor with many odd bits of information concerning old-time customs, mentioned elsov/here in this report. For the tales of Mato and Tacaroa, the whale of Haiv&vae, and of Marai and Tangila, who battled to the f inish at Raivavao, 1 thank T'oata, a Rurutu woman, 1 believe, who had lived in Raivavae, and from whom I obtained tho tales while in Tahiti waiting the opportunity to go on to Tubuai, in Itovomber 19ii0. At that same tirae I obtained from Suzanno, or Terlhiane, of Rurutu, tho tales of Rina, the cannibal wo an of Rurutu, and of Taio. Theso tales, obtained boforo I had tho slightest knowledge of tho language, were recorded phonetically, and only a fte r many months were any of them arranged and translated. Copies of the tales of Tale, of H1na, and of the battle at Haivavae, wore left with Mr. iiroillet, tho official interpreter in Tahiti, for translation. loforo receiving his version I had ij^ready arranged and translated the ta le s , but thank him fo r numerous correct!ons and suggestions incorporated in the versions 1 present hero* To Araia, of Auti, Rurutu, I am grateful for the Rurutu version of tho chant of the sta rs, Pipinima, and for obtaining for no from various TUbuai people critical comments on hor vorsions. To hor I am Indebted also for Interpreta­ tions and explanations which helped greatly tho translation of various of tho other ta le s . Anyone familiar with the Tahitian language will at once recognise that in the text of the tale 3 hero presented tho Tahitian language has been sadly mistreated. One does not booome really proficient in the language in so short a time 2.17 as tho few months that I spent In the islands. I therefore cheerfully assume the responsibility for the many errors and omissions that have occurred. And my informants in many oases tried to simplify for my sake their grammatical forms, a mis­ taken kindliness against which I was forever remonstrating. However, rather than risk losing any of the o rig in a l meaning of the phrases, words, or passages, I have taken thorn directly « from my notes, corroding only such ob ious errors as mistakes in spelling. Myths of origin and tho aoluge were not obtained in even the moat fragmentary form. Repeated attempts to have such tales told roe raat either with utter failure, or with ready reply in the form of the ’iiblical account. Altho many tales of the la tte r form were told mo, there was not one that deviated s u ffic ie n tly form the Old Testament version to give tho slightest hint of any other form of origin or deluge myth evor havin' bnen known. when raoro definite questions were asfce' concerning the old Polyno3ian deities or the void or darkness or mist from which the present earth was formed, tho informants denied knowledge of any 3uoh deitioa or notions. It is my feeling that some of the oidor people in Tubuai remember more or less clearly some, at le a s t, of tho old oosmogonio myths, but that a ll aro either ashomod of suoh things, or afraid because of modern religious fe e lin g to admit ha knowledge. It saem3 quite certain to me that a porson long resident upon tho island von Id bo able to pet scattered jits, it least, of this material. And I was repeated­ ly info, mod that in Haivavae there woro ueople who could tell me all about suoh matters. very brief stay there did not, how­ ever, permit my acting upon this Information. The deity now considered as the creator is the God of the Old Testament. That such has not always been the case in tho A ustral Group is indicated by the wooden image of t he creative god of the group, now pro served in the British Museum. A oast i 3 in the Bishop Museum, and the best photographs I have seen are in the Occasional Papers of the Bishop Museum, Vol. V, Uo. 5, plates 2.If ¿'¿1 and 0158. This image is generally believed to have coroe originally from Rurutu. When described to Tubuai and Rurutu people, it roused only slight interest, and evoked tho comment that 3uch things belonged to the heathen times and had best not be hought of by modern people. In Tahiti there aro still to be obtained genealogical . tables, la which the ancestry of existing pors ms is traced back * to gods. mo 'uch table, relating to the genealogy of the present queen, *iarau, traoos the lino of descent from at least one god, tho god T ine. In Tubaai one similar genealogical tablo related to me traced descent from a certain god, but tho ancestors, beginning with tho generation fifth preceding that of tho informant, and in­ cluding all from that point back to the god, were Tahiti people. A second genealogical table stooped short of the gods, but included reference to the fact that the earliest mentioned ancestors were descended from the patron d e ities of certain marae. As I have mentioned in connection with the genealogical tables of the present day Tubuai people, these two '«.bios were related to me n strictest confidonoe; 1 thorofore ara not at liberty to say more of thorn than is included in the above stater onto. It may, however, bo added that the gods, from whom those genealogies are traced, aro by their present day descendants regarded as mere names, if one is to take as fact the statements of tho informants. Careful questioning did not j ield a single item of information as to the nature, function, or origin of those god3. The matter was dis­ missed by the informants as concerning only the people v?ho lived at that prehistoric time. Thus wo find fragmentary evidence, in the belief that the earth, troo3, plants, animals and man were made by a creator, even tho at tho present t ir e that Croator ia the Old Testament Cod, and in the fact that the only two genealogical tables obtained in­ dicate b e lie f in descent from gods, supporting the supposition that in past times t .ere oxiated the two oosmogonio ideas, evolutionary or genealogical, and creative. But tho evidence is so scant nd vague that its value is almost nil. Turning now to the class of myths included under the zz\ design: tion of culture hero or trio k star myths, we find o^idenoe h t the demigod Maui was not unknown to the Tubuai people. It is told thoro thnt Maui was a great tahu a or kahuna, a priest of the anoiont cult.