a in Haapai was the
Eel-in-the-Open-Sea (_Toke-i-Moana_); as usual, the worshippers might
not eat the flesh of eels or approach a place where an eel was being
cooked.[121] The clan Falefa worshipped two goddesses, Jiji and
Fainga'a, whose sacred creature was the heron. Jiji was supposed to be
incarnate in the dark-coloured heron, and Fainga'a in the light-coloured
heron. When a pair of herons, one dark and the other light-coloured,
were seen flying together, people said that it was the two goddesses
Jiji and Fainga'a.[122] In the island of Tofua there was a clan called
the King of Tofua (_Tui Tofua_), which had the shark for its god;
members of the clan might not eat the flesh of sharks, because they
believed themselves to be related to the fish; they said that long ago
some of the clansmen leaped from a canoe into the sea and were turned
into sharks.[123] Another god who appeared in the form of a shark was
Taufa of the Sea (_Taufa-tahi_); but in another aspect he was a god of
the land (_Taufa-uta_) and a notable protector of gardens. To secure his
aid the husbandman had only to plait a coco-nut leaf in the likeness of
a shark and to hang it up in his plantation; a garden thus protected was
under a taboo which no one would dare to violate. A Christian, who
ventured to thrust his hand in mockery into the maw of the sham shark,
had both his arms afterwards bitten off by a real shark.[124] Other gods
were recognised in the shape of flying-foxes, shell-fish, and little
blue and green lizards.[125] We hear of two Tongan gods who had black
volcanic pebbles for their sacred objects,[126] and of one whose shrine
was the tree called _fehi_, the hard wood of which was commonly used for
making spears and canoes.[127] The gods of Niua Fo'ou, one of the most
distant islands of the Tongan group, were three in number, to wit, the
octopus, pig's liver, and a large lump of coral. The worshippers of the
two former deities might not eat the divine octopus and the divine pig's
liver.[128] Christianity itself appears not to have wholly extinguished
the reverence of the natives for the sacred animals of their clans. A
much-respected native minister of the Methodist Church informed Mr.
Collocot that to this day he gets a headache if he eats the sacred
animal of his clan, though other people may partake of the creature, not
only with impunity, but with relish.[129]

[114] E. E. V. Collocot, _op. cit._ p. 162.

[115] E. E. V. Collocot,