Tuna- Polynesian CreatureCreature · Monster

The Eel in Hina's Pool

In the Mangaian tradition recorded by William Gill, Tuna was a great supernatural eel who lived in the floodwaters. When the land flooded in ancient times, Tuna came swimming through the rising waters and arrived at the dwelling place of Hina, the beautiful woman who would become central to many Polynesian narratives. He took her as his lover, and for a time they lived together. Tuna would visit Hina in eel form, sliding through the pools where she bathed, coiling around her in the water.

But Hina grew weary of her eel lover. In the Mangaian account, she told Tuna that she desired a different husband. Tuna accepted this and prophesied his own death, telling Hina that a great flood would come and bring with it a new lover for her. He instructed her that when he was killed, she should cut off his head and bury it. From that buried head, he said, a great tree would grow that would provide food and drink and shelter.

The flood came as Tuna foretold. In its waters arrived Maui, the great trickster-hero. Some versions from Tonga and Samoa present the encounter differently: Maui discovered Tuna as a rival for Hina's affections and confronted him directly, without the prophetic farewell.

The Origin of the Coconut

Maui and Tuna fought. In the Mangaian version, Maui struck the eel with an axe and cut him to pieces. The severed segments of Tuna's body transformed into the various eels that populate freshwater streams, explaining their origin. But the head Hina buried as Tuna had instructed.

From the buried head of Tuna, the first coconut palm grew. The Mangaian tradition holds that the markings on a coconut shell, the two dark spots and the groove between them, are the eyes and mouth of Tuna's face, still visible in death. The sweet water inside the nut is his gift, and the hard shell is his skull. This origin narrative gave the coconut tree its sacred significance across eastern Polynesia, connecting the sustenance of daily life to the body of the slain eel.

Gill recorded this myth as one of the most important origin narratives in Mangaian cosmology, linking food production to sacrifice and transformation. The story appears with variations throughout the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, and Tonga, with the core elements of eel lover, heroic slaying, and coconut origin remaining consistent across the regional tellings.