5.  Fire and water married, and from them sprung the earth, rocks, trees, and everything.

The cuttle-fish fought with the fire and was beaten.  The fire fought with the rocks, and the rocks conquered.  The large stones fought with the small ones; the small conquered.  The small stones fought with the grass, and the grass conquered.  The grass fought with the trees; the grass was beaten and the trees conquered.  The trees fought with the creepers, the trees were beaten and the creepers conquered.  The creepers rotted, swarmed with maggots, and from maggots they grew to be men.

6.  The god Tangaloa existed in space, but we do not know how or whence he came.  He wished some place to live in, and so he made the heavens.  He also wished to have a place under the heavens, and so he made the Lalolangi, under the heavens, or the earth.  Savaii was formed by a stone rolled down from the heavens, Upolu by another.  Other stories say that they were drawn up from under the ocean by a fishing-hook.  He next made the Fee or cuttle-fish, and told it to go down under the earth, and hence the lower regions of sea or land are called Sa le fee, or sacred to the cuttle-fish.  The cuttle-fish brought forth all kinds of rocks, and hence the great one on which we live.

7.  Tangaloa the god of heaven sent down his daughter in the form of the bird Turi, a species of snipe, Charadrius fulvus.  She flew about, but could find no resting-place, nothing but ocean.  She returned to the heavens, but was again sent down by Tangaloa to search for land.  First she observed spray, then lumpy places, then water breaking, then land above the surface, and then a dry place where she could rest.  She went back and told her father.  He again sent her down; she reported extending surface of land, and then he sent her down with some earth and a creeping plant.  The plant grew, and she continued to come down and visit it.  After a time its leaves withered.  On her next visit it was swarming with worms or maggots, and the next time she came down they had become men and women.

8.  The ants and the small coral made the small stones.  The small and large stones caused the loose rocks, and from the loose rocks and the fire sprang a man called Ariari, to appear, and from him and a woman sprang the cuttle-fish and the race of men.

9.  Man is formed from a species of mussel.  If made of the hard mussel he lives long—­it is difficult for him to die.  But if he happens to be made of the poisonous mussel, he is fragile, easily upset, and does not live long.

The soul of man is called his anganga, or that which goes or comes.  It is said to be the daughter of Taufanuu, or vapour of lands, which forms clouds, and as the dark cloudy covering of night comes on, man feels sleepy, because his soul wishes to go and visit its mother.

10.  All the gods had a meeting at a public place on Upolu to decide what was to be the end of the life of man.  One god made a speech and proposed that it should be like the extinction of the cocoa-nut-leaf torch, which when it goes out can be shaken, blown, and blaze up again, so that man after sickness and death might rise again in all the vigour of youth.