One day the butterflyfish saw Ti’otala flying overhead and yelled out from the water, “Hey little bird, you may be blue like the sea, but you’ll never rule the whole ocean like me.”
Long ago in Sāmoa there lived an extraordinary woman named Sina. Every day, Sina’s husband went fishing early in the morning and came back home with delicious seafood for breakfast. But one day, Sina’s husband did not come home for breakfast. She waited, but he didnʻt show up for lunch either.
Once upon a time there lived a couple named Sāfea and Falagaua. They had 11 children. The firstborn was Sefulu (Ten).
Prior to the influenza pandemic of 1918 (which wiped out more than 20% of Samoans), the sogi was the universal, everyday greeting in Sāmoa.
On the island of Savai'i lived three friends, ʻIsumu the rat, Tulī the plover, and ʻUga the soldier crab.
There was once a taupou named Vītaliutaolepaepae, the daughter of orator chief ‘Ulu who lived in Puipa‘a village, Faleata district, ‘Upolu island. Vī was renowned throughout the islands for her beauty -- especially her wavy, brown hair -- of which she was extremely proud and boastful.
Her pretty friends (also the daughters of chiefs) were just as conceited and self-centered, and they relentlessly teased all the other girls in the village.