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The Story of Lata or Rata and His Boat

Lata (also know as Rata) builds a boat at Manu’a with the help of the fairies’ magic, sails to Savai’i to avenge his father’s murder, and settles in New Zealand.

Lata, who lived about A.D. 860, was the son of Fafieloa and Tula. The father of Fafieloa was Tavai who lived in Pago Pago. Fafieloa had been killed by a Chief named Matu’uta’ota’o who lived in Fogatuli on the southwest coast of Savai’i. Lata resolved to avenge the murder of his father, but first needed a boat. The Manu’a legends say that this boat was made by Lata himself at Tafagafaga, a place to the east of Ta’u (or Manu’a). When finished, Lata sailed for Savai’i, and the place where he landed was called “Lata”. This is now a well known village in Savai’i and not far from Fogatuli where the murderer of his father was supposed to be hiding.

As he did not find the man he wanted to kill, he sailed to Tonga. Here, according to the Manu’a legend, Lata died without successfully completing his mission. The Tongans then took his boat asunder in order to learn how to make a similar one. Thereupon, the Tongans built their first alia and the little house constructed on the platform between the two canoes was called “Fale Fa’amanu’a. (The Manu’a type of house).

Lata, or Rata as the others called him, sailed to Savai’i where his ship was thrown upon the reef and changed into stone. Lata went ashore to get Matu’uta’ota’o, but was told that the man had sailed away on a swift, large outrigger boat.

As Lata wanted to pursue him as soon as possible, and needing a new boat, he went into the forest picked out 2 fine tamanu trees and cut them down.

He then set to work with all his might, and, when the sun went down, his 2 hulls were nearly finished. So he returned to the village (now called Lata) to get some food and rest. Early next morning, he went to work on his boat. But instead of finding the two boat hulls, he saw the same trees standing and growing just as on the preceding day. He shook his head, for he thought that all must have been merely a dream. So again he took his axe and with a few angry strokes, he brought the two trees down to the ground. Immediately he set to work and finished the two hulls on the same day.

Tired from his great exertion, he returned to the village. The following morning, he proceeded again to the forest, convinced that this time he would finish his new boat. Great, however, was his amazement when he saw his two trees again standing erect and proud among their neighbors.

Notwithstanding this renewed disappointment, he again took his axe and cut them down. Working hard and rapidly, he had hollowed out the hulls and shaped them before the sun had set. But instead of going home, he hid under some bushes nearby, for he wanted to find out by what charm the two trees had been brought to stand up to grow as if nothing had happened to them.

It was a day after full moon; so he had to wait for some time. The moon rose above the horizon he beheld a wonderful sight. Soon a dozen fairies suddenly appeared, dancing around his boat hulls, while they sang: “Fly together, chips and shavings;
Then stand up, you two, our darlings;
Sticks ye, stick ye fast together;
old ye, hold ye fast together;
Fly together, chips and shavings,
oh, stand up, you two our darlings!”
Imagine the surprise of Lata, when he saw that, while the fairies were singing, all the cut-off chips from the boat flew together, each piece to the exact place it had been, and before the song had come to its end, his two trees stood once again upright in the forest! So wonderful was the feat he had witnessed, that he did not get angry at all. Then he approached the trees to convince himself that he was not dreaming.

As soon as Lata had entered the circle of fairies, one of them said to him: “Why did you cut down these our darlings? Who gave you permission to do so? Did you bring any offering or sacrifice to Tane, the god of trees? Having neglected the sacred custom, you cannot have these trees. Better go home and forget it all.”

Lata, however, needed the trees, so he begged pardon for not having acted in accordance with the old sacred customs. Furthermore, he promised to appease the angry Tane with a valuable offering, to induce the fairies to allow him to use the two trees for the boat he needed so badly.

Lata thanked the fairies for their promised help and went home. However, he could hardly sleep, for the amazing events of the previous days kept him awake. So early in the morning he returned to the forest, wondering all the while if the fairies had really built a boat for him or if they were playing on him another of their pranks.

Great, therefore, was his joy and satisfaction when he found a beautiful boat on the very place that the two trees had stood, but the fairies had gone.

He then returned to the village to arrange with the taulaitu (priest) for a suitable offering. This done, he put the boat into the sea and it proved to be a wonderful craft. He gave to it the name of Pualele (“Pua” -in honour of his ancestor , and ” lele” (flying) because it was so swift. Lata was confident that such a fast-sailing boat that would enable him to overtake his enemy Matu’uta’ota’o.

Lata spent a day assembling provisions, then off he sailed from island to island in pursuit of the murderer of his father. Finally, he discovered him on a small island of the Tongan group.

Lata immediately challenged him to a club fight. The fight was fierce but short. Lata, who was by far the strongest, killed him with a mighty blow on the head. Then in order to confer the strength of the slain to his own, he cut out his heart and ate it. From this feat, he was always called by the Maori “Rata-aitu”. He avoided the liver of the slain man, since that was never touched, since to do so was believed to produce cowardice. They even now often use Samoan words: ate’ai, atesu, and ‘aiate, all synonyms for a coward, which still testify to this belief.

Unbeknownst to Lata, before Matu’uta’ota’o died, he had cursed the ship that had brought Lata upon him . Due to this curse, the fine boat the fairies made for Lata was wrecked before he left Tonga . Urged on, however, by an irresistible desire for new adventure, he had soon built himself another one. To this boat he gave the name of “Riwara”.

With this third boat he crossed the Pacific in search for new lands and adventures. Many are the daring deeds he performed on the different islands he visited.

It is even said of him that he could change himself into any kind of bird. At about A.D. 875 he reached New Zealand, and as he liked that country, he remained there. He was perhaps the first Polynesian who settled in the South Island of New Zealand.

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