Fiji Legends

W. REED & Inez Hames.

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A while later they were given a little blessing and Degei was also very lucky because he knew that men and woman were born out of solitude and would venerate him as their deity. Dakuwaqa, one of the most famous deities of Fiji legends, is the wild lake beast.

Close to Beqa his old pal Masilaca, another great white sharks deity, tells him of the great power of the deities who guard the Kadavu and secretly asks Dakuwaqa if he is scared to have them. Dakuwaqa raced like a gunshot towards Kadavu and found a huge squid near the riff, watching the area.

Dakuwaqa recognized his peril and asked for clemency and said to the squid that if his own lives were not harmed, he would never hurt Kadavu humans wherever they were in any part of Fijian water. The squid set him free and Dakuwaqa kept his pledge, and the Kadavuans are not afraid of shark fish or swim.

According to the mythical traditions of the Sawau people on Beqa is the fire running ceremonies still held today on important events. Sawau tribes who live in the four towns on the upwind side of Beqa have the ability to run fires. Dakuibeqa, where the tribal leader Tui Sawau resides.

In order for the celebration to take place, several members are selected from each of the villages, the overall number usually coming from the immediate Prayer group. The men of the town are being lead by prayer in queer insignia as the day comes to set up the firefighters' area.

Then a long trefoil named waqa-bala-bala-bala-bala, which is supposed to contain the God of the Spirit, is placed over the beet. Now the villagers who were preparing the mine are surrounding the district, and leave only a space for firefighters to enter. There is a ribbon of score-dry trefoil leafs named drau-ni-bala-bala around the ankles and it is significant, although a tissue thrown on the rocks will go up in fire, this ribbon of ferns will not be ignited.

The ribbons are removed gently and placed in the stove together with four root cages, the so-called root cages, which are supposed to take the place in the performers' stove. Years ago, a strain named Sawau was living on the Isle of Beqa (pronounced Mbengga) in a hilltop Navaca.

There was a well-known story teller named Dredre in this town, who kept the members of the local community up-close. The villagers of Dredre used to deliver presents to pay tribute to his conversation. A warrior of Beqa, named Tui-na-Iviqalita, went rewai in the mountains.

Namuana is located on the Kadavu Isles (pronounced Kandavu), one of the largest Fiji Isles and about fifty leagues from the capitol Suva. Namuaana lies at the bottom of a wonderful cove next to the government station in the port of Vunisea.

Kadavu is narrowed to an isthmus and you can climb the hills behind the town of Namuana, standing on the ridge and looking southwards and northwards to the seas. According to tradition, the Kadavu Wars pushed their kayaks on wheels over the country's small necks to rescue the long voyage around the eastern and western parts of Kadavu Isle.

Namuana still has a very peculiar ceremony of summoning tortoises from the ocean. When visiting the town of Namuana to see the tortoise call, your protector will anchor in a gorgeous cove just below the rocks of a cliff. You will find all the girls of the Namuana community who sing a serenade.

An interesting side effect of this show is that when a member of the near Nabukelevu is present, the tortoises do not climb to the top of the cove and the reputation of the tortoise must be forsaken. In Fiji, as usual in such peculiar rituals and traditions, the reputation of the tortoise is founded on an old myth that is still handed down from one generation to the next among the Fiji population.

Many many years ago there was a very pretty chieftain of Namuana, Tinaicoboga, who was living in the pretty little town of Namuana on the Kadavu Isle. She had a very nice girl named Raudalice and the two girls often went to fish at the reef around her house.

Tinaicobaga and Raudalice went further than normal on one particular occassion and wade onto the immersed cliffs just outside the cliffy headlines just south of the cove where the town of Namuana is located. So preoccupied with angling that they did not even realize the secret arrival of a large battle cannon with anglers from the near Nabukelevu town.

It is located in the shade of Mount Washington, the highest peak on the Kadavu isle. All of a sudden the fisherman jumped out of their boat and grabbed the two ladies, tied their arms and legs with wine and threw them into the bottom of the boat and hurriedly made their way home.

Though they prayed for their life, the horrible Nabukelevu soldiers were numb to their pleas and would not heed them. Sinking into the ocean, the anglers were amazed to discover that the two ladies who were in the cargo bay of the boat had turned into tortoises and wanted to survive, and the men grabbed them and tossed them into the ocean.

Nabukelevu fishers continue their voyage to their home town and the two Namuan ladies, who have been transformed into tortoises, continue to live in the waters of theulf. Today it is their offspring who stand up when the girls of their own villages are singing to them.

Though you may question the true meaning of the story, you cannot be in any doubt that the singing of this peculiar hymn actually draws the tortoises to the sea floor of the sea near the town of Namuana on the Kadavu isle. There is a wonderful and vast reservoir in the high Taveuni hills, known as Fiji's Garden Isle.

Tagimoucia, a blooming herb, is found only on the banks of this area. Any attempts to move the vines have been unsuccessful. Tagimoucia is one of Fiji's most attractive wilderness bouquets, the bouquets of the Reds have a small square in between. Tagimoucia flora is something like this.

One of the most strange places of interest in the Pacific Ocean can be seen on Nananu-i-ra just off the northeastern edge of Viti Levu. Paul Miller, who is living on the isle, holds a summer camp for gentle sea bass. There' s a myth "NANANU-I-RA", which reads something like this: "Once upon a stretch of land there was the town of Nanukuloa (village of dark sand) on Viti Levu (queen of sand).

The town was known for its woods of fine sandal wood with scented wood, and the Bua folk were great canoeists. Unfortunately, however, the Bua and Viti Levu strains were not kind, and the young chief's dress was refused by Adi's dad and the Nanukuloa warden.

A long time ago there was a very pretty chief's daugther named "Yalewa-ni-Cagi-Bula" or "Maiden-of-the-Fair-Wind" on the Vatulele Isle. She was so pretty that every legitimate chieftain who came to Vatulele tried to take her as his fiance. Nearby on the Viti Levu land was a very pretty and spirited prince-chieftain' Son who was the successor of the provincial people.

He' had known about the chieftain of Vatulele' s fair maiden and thought that she was worth becoming his woman. The present was the greatest Fiji treat, a bunch of king shrimps from the Viti Levu rivers boiled in a glass of chocolate and hazelnut juice.

She was furious and with sparkling faces she ordered the women to grab him and take him to the highest rock on the islands above the "Caves of the Eagles" (known in Fiji as Ganilau) and throw him out to the ocean. Legend has it that he once even started to construct a rock viaduct to cross the ocean between Vatulele and Viti Levu, and the remnants of this viaduct can still be seen near the hamlet of Votualailai.