b a ttle for H ina’s affections and s ta te s th a t her descend ant by one of th em was the first to b e a r the nam e M alupö. Gifford, however, claim s th a t the M alupö line descends from a la te r T u ‘i Tonga and the d a u g h te r of th e Tui N ayau of Fiji. N g a n a tata fu was also said to h ave settled on the island of H ä‘ano in the H a‘apai group, seem ingly w ithout the b eau tifu l Hina, and to have founded the H a‘a n g a n a lineage, a nam e which celebrates his foreign conquests.
Lom i‘a e tu p u ‘a was th e next T u ‘i Tonga. L ittle is rem em bered of his reign. His son, T u ‘i T onga H avea II, was assassinated w ith an arrow by a F ijian matapule nam ed T u lu v o ta0 . The son and successor of H avea II was T ak alau a. His wife was V a‘e, a
q r
w om an rep o rted0 0 to have been born w ith the head of a pigeon. Her p a re n ts abandoned her on th e island of ‘A ta w here she was found by a childless couple and raised. As she grew up her head was transfo rm ed to th a t of a very beautiful w om an. W hen T u ‘i T onga T a k a la u a heard of her b eau ty , he had a ship sent to ‘A ta and V a‘e was brought to his c o u rt a t M u‘a. Her beauty was so great th a t it continually d istrac ted th e T u ‘i T onga and he repeatedly hit him self in th e face w ith a drum stick while he was trying to accom pany V a‘e’s dance. Hence her nam e becam e V a‘e la v e a m a ta (‘Va‘e, the face-w ounder’). She soon becam e the wife of T a k a la u a . T heir children were K a u ‘ulufonua, M o‘u n g äm o tu ‘a, L ätü to evav e, M elinoatonga and L o ta u ‘ai.
T h e underlying them e of the m yth of V a‘e la v e a m a ta seems to be dem arcation of d iv in ity . This is indicated a t several points. T he m ysterious appearance and d isap p earan ce of the girl’s p a re n ts suggests t h a t they may have been sp irits (f a la h ike h e )i as does the anom aly of her birdlike head. This point is clearly made in the version recorded by M alupö. T hen there is her unrivalled beauty w hich, as m entioned in th e previous ch apter, characterizes the influence of the gods. G u n so n 8G asserts th a t V a‘e la v e a m a ta was, in fact, th e T u ‘i M anu‘a of Sam oa; her divine a ttr ib u te s would then be explicable by her exalted b irth and title. T he reason for asserting V a‘e lav eam ata’s d iv in ity could also be in recognition of the great changes her sons brou g ht to Tonga. A sim ilar situ a tio n was m entioned above concerning N ua, the d a u g h te r of Lo‘au and m o th er of T u ‘ita tu i, and this practice of m arking as divine the m others of cultural in n o v ato rs may represent, like Lo‘au, a n a rra tiv e device for designating and interpreting m ajor tra n sfo rm atio n s in the T ongan socio-political system , especially as m others are th o u g h t to pass th eir essence and rank through th eir b l o o d .
84. Gifford 1929:54; Wood 1932:9; Bott 1982:95
85. Interview, 26 August 1985; other accounts can be found in Gifford 1924:60-65; Malupö, Ancient Tradition:6-8 who records that her name was Ulukihelupe, Wood 1932:9. Thomas (Tongatabu:63) states that Takalaua also married Toloa and Hamula.
86. Gunson 1987b: 150,153 87. Rogers 1977:171,172,177
Like H avea 1 and H avea II, T u ‘i T o nga T a k a la u a was assassin ated 88, by T a m asia and M alofafa of the T u ‘ifaleua people w ho, like th eir ancestor, T alafale, had caused m uch tro u b le to the T u ‘i T o ng a people (see Figure 3.2). P erhaps there was ill feeling over p a st usu rp atio n of seniority am ong the T u ‘ifaleua people, for T alafale was th e elder b ro th e r of ‘A ho‘eitu (see C h a p te r Tw o). In ad d itio n to slaying T a k a la u a , the assassins m u tila te d his body and hung it in a tree as a fu rth er insult. They were said to have sm elled of th e ‘sorcerery b a s k e t’89. W hen th e sons of T a k a la u a found their fath er so tre a te d , they were enraged and th e eldest, K a u ‘ulufonua, ordered th a t his fath e r’s body was n o t to be buried until revenge could be exacted. Revenge, however, was n either quick nor easy, and K au ‘ulufonua and his b ro th e rs chased th e assassins from place to place, including th e islands of ‘Eua, H a‘ap ai, V ava‘u, N iu a to p u ta p u , Niuafo‘ou, Niue, Sam oa, Fiji and F u tu n a , before they were caught a t ‘Uvea. It is said th a t before K a u ‘ulu fonu a allowed the prisoners to be killed, he ordered th a t th eir teeth be pulled and they be given kava to chew (chewing being the tra d itio n al m ethod of p reparing kava). T he scene m ust have provided a strong and grisly symbol of their subm ission to K a u ‘ulufonua. The cruelty which K au‘ulufonua displayed is recalled in th e suffix fek a i (‘sa v ag e ’) which was a tta c h e d to his nam e. In Sam oa he was called T u ‘i T o n ga F a isa u te le (‘m aking great cannibal feasts’) and was said to have drunk ‘the blood of his fa th e r’s m u rd e re r’99.
K a u ‘ulufonuafekai’s actions are also rem iniscent of th e m urder of ‘Aho‘eitu by his elder celestial b ro th ers in the creation m yth (see C h ap ter Two) where the victim ’s blood was placed in the k u m e te of H ikule‘o. The allusion in the m yth to the kava ceremony and its im plication in the estab lish m ent of rank is implied in K au‘ulufonuafekai’s edict t h a t th e assassins chew the kava root in th eir bloody, toothless m ouths. Vengeance is th u s e x tra c te d for both th e m urder of T a k a la u a by T am asia and M alofafa, and the m u rd er of ‘A ho‘eitu by T alafale and his b ro thers (see Figure 3.2). As K au ‘ulufonuafekai and T a k a la u a are the direct lineal descendants of ‘A ho‘eitu and T a m asia and M alofafa are th e d ire c t lineal descendants of T alafale the actions are interchangeable; in S ahlin s’ ‘m eta p h o rs of m ythical realities’, they are one and the sam e9 *.
T h ere is little doub t th a t K au‘ulufonuafekai’s pu rsuit of his fa th e r’s assassins Q O
rep re sen ts a m ajor conquest and overseas expansion of the Tongan em pire . T ongan
88. Accounts of this incident and its consequences are numerous see, among others, Thomas,