The Origin of the Reef Matahina
There was a man and his wife living in the tract called Papatai (Scattered reefs at sea).
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“The Origin of the Reef Matahina” from Tongan Myths and Tales by Edward Winslow Gifford, 1924
There was a man and his wife living in the tract called Papatai (Scattered reefs at sea). The name of the man was Maungakoloa (Source of wealth), and of the woman Tamatangikai (Child crying for food). They had three children, a girl Hina, and two boys, Ngatai (Seawards) and Fanua (Landwards).
Maungakoloa and his two sons went out fishing and caught a little shark (anga), and brought it ashore to keep for Hina. The girl was overjoyed at receiving the fish. She took and put it in the water called Vahine in Tuanekivale (in Vavau), and tended it there. She used to call it with a piece of board and cocoanut shells. When the board was rattled and the cocoanut shells shaken the fish used to come for its food. In course of time the shark grew big in the water, but it one day happened that the sea rose high and overflowed the pool and the shark escaped to the open sea.
And when they went to see it it had disappeared. They sought it, but found no trace of it. Hina was inconsolable in the loss of her fish, and her father said to get a boat and for the three of them, Hina and her two parents, to go out to sea to seek it. They searched long, and at last discovered it far out in the open ocean. The board was struck and the cocoanut shells rattled and the shark came, but went away again. Hina thereupon told her parents to return to shore, but that she would stay and become a reef in that spot, so that her pet might come to her.
“I cannot possibly go away and leave it here. You return, and I’ll stay.” Hina at once jumped into the sea, and the man and his wife set out on their return, but as they were paddling along they said to each other, “What a pair of fools we are; we came with our child, and now we have deserted her.” Then Maungakoloa said, ‘‘You find your own way ashore. I’m going to stand where I can always see Hina.” And Tamatangikai said, “And I’m going to stand over yonder.” So the man went and took his station in Koloa and the woman went and stood in Eneio (the beach of Tuanekivale). And the boat is up in the sky and is called Alotolu and Tuingaika. (Alotolu, three in a boat; and Tuingaika, a string of fish; the names of two parts of Orion.)
Ngatai and Fanua were waiting ashore, and they said to each other, “Well, where have these parents of ours and the girl gone? We’ll go and look for them.” So they set out and found Hina in the ocean. She told them that their parents had returned. Ngatai said to his brother, “You go. I’m going to stay here where I'll be close to Hina.” So Ngatai stayed, and Fanua came farther inshore. And that is the origin of the shark (anga) and of the reef called Mata-o-Hina.
Gifford, Edward Winslow. Tongan Myths and Tales. The Museum, 1924.
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