The Origin Of Taovala’

By Atunaisa Havea Katoa

ONCE upon a time, there was a ‘Tui Tonga ’ who was a cannibal. His usual practice was to have a male a day cooked for his meals. Each day he ordered a male from any family around the village of Mu‘a, the former capital of Tonga, and each family or household knew that one day they would have a turn. In the village there lived a couple who had just got married; they had no children but the wife was pregnant. One day the Tui Tonga sent a message to this man to be prepared for the next day. This couple didn’t know what to do, and they finally decided to run away. That night they fled to a place called Pelehake, and hid in a very deep cave there. No one knew about this cave except Ala’s father (Ala was the wife, and her husband was Fonua) who told them about the cave before he died.

Soon after, Ala gave birth to their first baby boy.

The boy was very well-built and strong. The couple used to sleep in the day time and did their work at night. The boy grew up with no name; and he wanted to explore and play around in the cave. He picked stones from the wall and roof of the cave and threw them around. Then his parents decided to name him Teputepui-maka meaning ‘stones-sticking-out-from-the stem’—{Maka means stone, and Teputepui means sticking out from something). They gave him such a name because of his type of play, picking stones stick ing out from hard rocks.

At this time, Teputepui-maka had never seen the environment outside the cave. Through his exploration, however, he found the passage out of the cave. On top of the cave he found a big ‘ifi’ tree and a pig tied to it. He returned and found his parents still asleep and unaware that he had discovered the way out of the cave.

THAT night, his parents told him to have his sleep while they went fishing. When Ala and Fonua reached the beach, they heard some people talking.

They found a big boat anchored near the shore. They immediately returned to the cave and talked about the

thing they had seen, unaware that the boy was still awake. He stood up and asked them who the people on board the boat were. His parents told him that they were the Tui Tonga’s fishermen. He was very curious about the boat. He decided to go and have a look at it.

When he arrived there, he found the crew asleep.

He lifted up the boat to his shoulder and put it under the ‘ifi’ tree, with the people on board still asleep. At dawn, a rooster crowed from the ifi tree; this woke up the fishermen. In utter surprise, they found out they were on land, under a ifi tree which they had never seen before. They also saw a big, tall man approaching them from the cave. The man asked them, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are Tonga’s fishermen, but who are you?” he replied, “I am Tepu tepui-maka.” .

They went and reported this to the Tui Tonga. The Tui Tonga knew that this boy was the son of the couple who had run away. He sent his men to kill those three in the cave, but Teputepui-maka killed most of the Tui Tonga’s men.

The rest returned and told the Tui Tonga about the bravery of this youth. The Tui Tonga was very angry and said, “You will go with me to fight this man”.

Off they went, and most of his men suffered the same fate as before. The Tui Tonga knew that Teputepui maka was a really brave man, so he surrendered. The Tui Tonga then ordered his men to tear down the sail of their boat which was made of woven mats. They tore the sail into pieces, and put them around their waists; then they also picked leaves of the ifi tree and hung them around their necks in a token of surrender.

After that, the Tui Tonga said to Teputepui-maka, “From now on you will be the Tui of Pelehake but I’ll still be the Tui of my people in my place”. Since then the title Tui Pelehake (King of Pelehake) has been handed down from generation to generation — our Prime Minister is now the ‘Tui Pelehake’.

Since then also the Taovala is worn by Tongans.

Beside Pelehake is a small village called Ala-ki-Fonua, named after Teputepui-maka’s parents Ala and Fonua.