Title: Sina and the Eel

General information about the item:

• Myth
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: American Samoa
• Informant: Wilson Fitiao
• Date Collected: 24 May 2020

Informant Data: Wilson was born and raised in American Samoa where he now lives. He is a traditional tattoo artist.

Contextual Data: 

• Social Context: Wilson heard this story when he was young as a bedtime story around the ages of 9-11.
• Cultural Context: Sina means white, it’s a common name in Samoan. The name is usually given to a beautiful woman. The nut part of a coconut has three dots on one end, two smaller and one larger, it resembles a face. The Samoans use all parts of the coconut, so the tree and fruit are important in the culture.

Item: There was this woman named Sina in the south pacific. She was so beautiful and gorgeous the stories of this young woman spread out throughout the south pacific. The story gets to Fiji and a prince decides that he would go get her. The guy decided that he would turn into an eel and swim from Fiji to Samoa and turn into a person again. He gets to Samoa, in Savaii, and he can’t turn into a human anymore. He tells his story to Sina and she finds a pond where she can keep him. The eel started to grow bigger and bigger. One day the eel gets weak and old, the eel said to sina, “I know that I’m going to die pretty soon, I can feel it, but when I die I want you to take my head and grow it in front of my house. The tree that grows out of where you bury my head is for you to use.” The eel passed away, Sina decided to chop off the head and grow it in front of her house and it grew into the coconut.

Collector’s name: Jack Tuiolosega

Tags/keywords:

• Myth
• Coconut
• Pacific Islands