On the island of Savaii, in the village of Salega, there once lived a blind old woman named Fonuea, and she had her only daughter, whose name was Salofa.
One day there was a terrible famine throughout the area. There was nothing to eat in Salega either. One of these days, Fonuea’s relatives began to bake yams.
Blind Fonuea sits, waiting for the delicious food to be ready. Now the smoke disappeared, which means that the stones were already hot and the yams, covered better, were set to steam.
A little more time passed, the old woman asked her daughter:
- Look, aren’t they bringing us our share?
“No,” Salofa answers.
She asked Fonuea many times if she and her daughter were invited to dinner, and every time Salofa answered “no.”
Finally, the old woman realized that her relatives did not want to share food with them.
Blind Fonuea despairs and tells her daughter to take her to the sea. She stood on the edge of the rock, grabbed her daughter’s hand and exclaimed:
- Jump with me!
They rushed into the sea waves and immediately turned one into a shark, and the other into a turtle. And they sailed east, away from their greedy and evil relatives.
They sailed for a long time and finally reached the village of Vaitogi on the island of Tutuila. Mother and daughter came ashore and again took on human form.
Supreme Chief Letuli greeted the guests very cordially. In his house, Fonueu and Salofa were well fed and clothed. Mother and daughter had a good rest and gained strength. They were very grateful to Letuli for his hospitality, and Fonua said to him:
“My daughter and I will return to the sea and stay under the rock near your village. When you want, we will swim to the surface and entertain you with dancing.” And you remember the song with which you can call us from the sea.
And Fonuea sang this song to the chief. And Letuli ordered to announce to all the inhabitants of the village that his guests would now become a shark and a turtle and that from now on they would live in the sea under a rock. And if anyone dares to offend them or shows disrespect for them, the leader will consider this a grave crime. Fonua and Salofa again took the form of a shark and a turtle and settled in the sea under the Waitogi rock. They lived there for many, many years and always swam to the surface when they heard a song addressed to them:
Fonuea, Fonuea, rise from the depths of the sea! You see, Chief Letuli's people have come to look at you. Look at your funny game and greet you.
As soon as the shark and turtle appeared on the surface of the sea and started dancing, people could not contain their enthusiastic cries:
- Lalelei! Lalelei! Wonderful! Wonderful!
Waitogi attracts a lot of people from all over the world. The best singers and musicians played and sang at the rock more than once, everyone tried to call the shark and the turtle, but until now the shark and the turtle swim only to the sounds of one calling song, the one that was once composed by the blind Fonuea for the supreme leader Letuli as a sign of gratitude.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru