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One day Tapuitea, on going down from the bush towards the sea, saw the footprints of her son Toiva in the sand, followed them to a pool of water, and there she saw the shadow of Toiva in the water. She was frantic with joy leaped, and laughed, and screamed, and then tumbled into the pool, clutching in vain the shadow. As she dived her horns struck against a piece of rock and broke off.
After a time Lady Tapuitea became wild, horns grew out of her head, she ate human flesh, and ten to fifteen Fijians were used up on her cannibal appetite. The king looked aghast when he saw the horns on the head of his wife, went and told Toiva and Tasi that their mother had become a cannibal demon, and that they had better make their escape to Samoa. This they did.
The reason alleged for the star not rising higher was that Tapuitea did not wish to shine higher than the tree on which her son Toiva was accustomed to sit. After she went to the heavens Toiva went and called all the people back from the bush and elsewhere, telling them that his cannibal mother had gone to the heavens, and that there was no further danger to any one.
Toiva and Tasi were soon missed by their mother. She went about inquiring after them; her husband said he knew not where they were, and after searching all over Fiji she discovered their footprints on the beach in the direction of Samoa. She jumped into the sea, swam to Samoa, and reached Falealupo.
She went right into the bush and lived there, but renewed her cannibal indulgences when she could secure a victim. Many of the Falealupo people fled from the place. Tasi became so afraid of his mother that he begged his brother to bury him alive. Toiva did so, and hence the name of a stone there which is called Tasi.
The formidable polysyllable simply means, "Hatchets rattling inside the baskets of the carpenters." It was abbreviated, however, as in all such cases, and the lad was known by the name of Toiva. She had another son, and called him Tasi, which means one.
She was soon on the surface again, however, and Toiva, sitting up in a pandanus tree, called out, "Look up!" She looked up, and there at last was the real body of her missing son. She wept aloud, implored him to come down, and said he had been very unkind to her. He, on the other hand, scolded her, blamed her for the death of all their friends, "and now," said he, "you are going to eat me next."
The names of Tasi and Toiva are still perpetuated in family titles at Falealupo. O LE ITU O FAATOAFE, or the side of Faatoafe, was the name of the south side of Savaii; but it is now usually called "the side of women," in contradistinction to the north side, which has been named "the side of men."
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