Why the Kings of Lakemba Are Called Lords of Naiau

A great chief was the Lord of Lakemba, a great chief was he among the gods of old, though he was of mortal race by his mother’s side, for he was the son of Tui Langi, the Sky-King (he who sent Lekambai back to Samoa on the turtle); his mother, a woman of Tonga, was called the “Charitable one,” and there he was born.

When he grew to be a strong lad, he never played with the other boys, but kept himself apart; and his mother asked him why he acted thus.

“Why, my son,” said she, “do you walk alone all the day? Why do you not play with the other children of chiefs in the rara (the public square)? Truly, my son, it is not good for you thus to act; for they call you proud and haughty, and hate you; so that when you are a man you will have none to follow you in your goings forth to kill your enemies.”

Then the boy looked steadfastly upon his mother’s face. “Tell me, my mother,” said he, “tell me who is my father. The boys of the town have fathers who love them. Even little Tua-piko, the Hunchback, has a father, for I saw him run suddenly away from the other lads as they were playing together at ‘dragging the bodies of the slain’; he ran away to a man who was carrying yams from the gardens, shouting ‘Father, my father!’ And the man stopped, and put down his basket of yams, and, smiling upon Tua-piko, he took him in his arms, and kissed him, and danced him upon his shoulder; so that little Tua-piko shouted for joy. The big boys also — their fathers teach them to throw the spear, and to strike with the club, that they may be fitted for war; but no one teaches me.” Then the boy smiled, and his eyes glittered while he muttered to himself in a low tone, “But I teach myself. Yet a little while, and they shall see whose spear will fly the fastest through the air, and whose club shall be the best crusher of skulls.”

Then was the soul of his mother troubled, for she feared to hide from him the name of his father, and she was also afraid to tell him, lest he should go away and leave her. Great, therefore, was her trouble, and she wept. “Truly, my son,” said she, “you have indeed a father. Not such a one as the fathers of these children of men is the father of my child. But indeed, my son, I am afraid to tell you his name, lest you should leave me alone in this land. Leave me not, my boy, leave me not; for I love you dearly, and if you go away I shall die.”

And she wept bitterly; but the lad only smiled, and said quietly, in a low tone, “Tell me his name, mother, or I will kill you.” Then she told him, and without a word he turned round and went away, leaving his mother alone with her grief.

All day long he walked across the land, laughing softly to himself, and striking o£F the heads of the flowers with his walking-stick — a stick of noko-noko (or ironwood), and as the flowers fell around him, he said, “Thus will I strike off the heads of my enemies.” When it was night he thrust the stick into the ground, and lying down beside it slept till morning. Then waking, he saw a wonderful thing; for the stick of ironwood had grown up into a great and mighty tree, whose head was hidden in the clouds. And, climbing up the tree, he saw, when he had got above the clouds, that it reached quite up to the sky; for the sky was much nearer to the earth in those days. So he climbed and climbed till he reached the sky, and then he cried with a loud voice, “Here am I, O Sky-King, my father! Here am I!” And the Sky-King heard him. “Who are you?” asked the Sky-King angrily, for there had been fighting in the sky that day, and he had fled before his enemies, so that his soul was sore.

“I am the ‘Child that challenges Men,’ your son from Tonga,” answered the lad (for that was his name in those days; it was not till long afterwards that he was called Lord of Lakemba).

“Come up here, then, that I may see you,” growled the Sky-King. “Ugh, you are small. Why did you not wait till you had grown bigger? You had better go back again to your mother. Men are wanted here, now, not boys like you, for we are fighting.” And the sky-men, who were sitting round the King, laughed at the child.

Then the lad answered not a word; but smiling, as was his wont, while his eyes glittered, he stepped up to a big sky-man, whose laugh was the loudest of all, and smote him on the head with his fist so fierce a blow that he fell back senseless on the ground, and the laughter ceased, for they were all astounded at the boy’s strength and daring. But the King was mad with joy, and cried out, clapping his hands:

“Well done! Well done, my boy! A terrible stroke! Take this club, my son, and strike him again;” for the big sky-man was now sitting up, winking his eyes, and rubbing his head with his hands. So the lad took the club, and therewith struck him so dreadful a stroke that the club sank down into the midst of his broken skull. Then he threw the weapon down at his father’s feet, saying, “He will laugh no more. And now I had better go back to my mother; for it is men that are wanted here, not boys like me.”

“You shall stay with us, my boy,” cried the Sky-King, catching him by the hand, “you shall stay with us. Let the ovens be heated; for to-night will we feast with my son, and to-morrow shall we slay our enemies.” So the lad sat down with his father and made for himself a club out of the ironwood tree.

And on the morrow, in the early morning, the foe came up to the town, shouting for war, and crying, “Come out to us, O Sky-King, for we are hungry. Come out to us, that we may eat.”

Then the boy rose up, saying, “Let no man follow me. Stay you all in the town,” and, taking in his hand the club which he had made, he rushed out into the midst of the enemy, striking savagely right and left, and killing with every blow; till at length they fled before him, and he sat down on a heap of dead bodies, calling to the townsfolk —

“Come forth and drag the slain away.” So they came out, singing the Death-song, and dragged away the bodies of the slain, forty and two, while the wooden drum that we call lali sounded the Dorua or “Death-roll” in the town.

Four times afterwards, five times in all, did the boy smite his father’s enemies, so that their souls grew small, and they came bringing peace-offerings to the Sky-King, saying, “Pity us, my lord, and let us live;” wherefore he was left without an enemy, and his rule stretched over all the sky. And the lad stayed with his father, growing up into a youth great and tall; and you may be sure that no one dared again to laugh at him after the day when he climbed up the ironwood tree, and killed the big sky-man.

But after all the enemies had humbled themselves before the Sky-King and become his servants, there was no more fighting to be done; and the Child-that-challenges-men began to be weary, because there was no one for him to kill: so he said to his father, “I will now go back again to the earth, and seek a wife among the children of men;” and the Sky-King said, “Good are your words, my son. Go down to the earth, and take therefrom to yourself a wife.” Then he kissed his son, and wept over him; though indeed he was glad at heart at his going, for he feared him.

Now the ironwood tree had been swept away by a great flood, so that he could not get down again to the earth by it; nevertheless he came down to Fiji at Bengga. We do not know clearly how he got down; but the Bengga people say that two men, great and tall, whose faces were white, came with him; and whether they helped him or not we cannot tell — all we know is that he lighted first upon Bengga. And there, when the gods of the place raised their people and fought against him, he smote them with a great slaughter, and took their land, dividing it into two parts, whereof he gave one to his friends, the white men, and the other he gave to the King of Rewa. So he went from island to island, smiting the gods in every place, and forcing them all to make peace-ofFerings to him, throughout all the islands, and all Bau, and the inland parts of Great Fiji also, till he came to the Hill of Kauvandra, where the great Serpent-god dwelt, and with him he did not fight; for the great Serpent came forth to meet him, saying, “Why should we two fight, O Slayer that camest from Heaven? See, here is my daughter. Lady Sweet-eyes; it will be better for you to marry her, than to fight with me.” So these words pleased the Slayer that came from Heaven; and he married the daughter of the great Serpent. (Now “Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven” is the name that the men of Bengga gave him.)

Then he went to Bau, and to all the kingdoms of Vanua Levu, fighting with the gods of the land, and making them all his servants; so that he and the great Serpent are the two greatest gods in Fiji. Thus he came at length to Windward, landing here at Lakemba in the night; and in the morning an old woman found him on the beach, as she was going down to fetch salt water.

“Sa yandra — I salute you, sir stranger,” said she. “Whence do you come?”

“Take me up to the town,” said he; “lead me to the house of your lord.” So the woman led him along the path, and reported him to the chief.

Now, in those days Wathi-wathi was the chief town in Lakemba, as Tubou is at this present day. Each town had its own god, who lived among the people, and these were the rulers of the land: jealous also were they of one another, so that they were always at war, and men were clubbed every day. He who ruled here in Tubou was a god called Ratu-mai-na-koro, the “Lord that came from the Town,” and when he heard of the coming of the Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven he said, “Let him come hither.” So they two sat down together in the great house; and the Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven told him about his fightings, and how that he had conquered all the gods of Fiji, except the great Serpent whose daughter he had married. And the other replied, “Good is your coming, and good is your report. But now let us eat. Truly I am ashamed to-day, because I have no food to set before you. Everything is taken to Wathi-wathi. But the bananas are ripe. See, there is a tree. Let us pluck some and eat.”

“Sit you still,” said the Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven. “I will go and pluck the bananas that we two may eat.”

But when the townsfolk saw him at the tree, they cried aloud, “You there, what are you doing? The bananas are tabu, for the first fruits have not yet been taken to our lords at Wathi-wathi.”

Then the Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven smiled, as he looked upon them with glittering eyes.

“I know them not,” said he, “these lords of yours at Wathi-wathi. One thing only I know — that I am hungry;” whereupon he cut the bananas, and the people shouted for war, and fell upon him: but he smote them with his terrible fist, killing two outright, and hurting many more; so that the living fled from before him, leaving him alone with the dead. And, taking up the bananas and the bodies of the two who were slain, he threw them down in the house before the Lord-that-came-from-the-Town, saying, “Here is food. Come, let us eat.”

Thus also he did on the morrow at Nasangkalau, bringing the bananas and the bodies of the slain with him, to the Lord-that-came-from-the-Town in his house at Tubou. Then he went on to Vakano, but the people there brought him a peace-offering, as did all the other towns also, excepting Wathi-wathi, and it he destroyed with a great slaughter; so that all the chiefs came to Tubou, bringing offerings, and humbling themselves, whereby Tubou became the chief town of Lakemba, as it is to this day.

Then spake the Lord-that-came-from-the-Town: “It is not right, O Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven, that I should rule over this people. You alone have conquered the land, and you alone shall rule it.”

So the Slayer-that-came-from-Heaven sat himself down here in Tubou, ruling all the land. Moreover, he sent for his wife. Lady Sweet-eyes, and she bare him a son, whom he called Taliaitupou; after whom also I, the Lord of Naiau, am named. Thus he came to be the Lord of Lakemba. First he was the “Child that challenges men,” then he was the “Slayer that came from Heaven,” and lastly the “Lord of Lakemba.”

Many years did he rule here till his son was a grown man, and then he gave the kingdom to him, going himself to Tonga, where also he conquered all the mighty ones; and at length returned to his father the Sky-King, with whom he lived ever after, receiving the worship of many lands.

And this is why I, the ruler of this kingdom, am called the “Lord of Naiau”; for our fathers always said that if any man should take to himself the title of “Lord of Lakemba,” he would come down from the sky and crush his skull with a blow of his terrible fist.

Therefore is my title Tui, or lord, of Naiau.

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