Читать книгу Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before - George Turner - Страница 15

1. This was the name of a war-god, and supposed to be incarnate in the Samoan owl (Strix delicatula). In time of war, offerings of food were presented to a pet one which was kept for the purpose. If it flew about above while the troops were walking along below that was a good omen; but if it flew away in the direction of the enemy it was supposed to have left the one party and gone to join the other, and therefore a calamity.

2. At the beginning of the annual fish festivals, the chiefs and people of the village assembled round the opening of the first oven, and give the first fish to the god.

3. A dead owl found under a tree in the settlement was the signal for all the village to assemble at the place, burn their bodies with firebrands, and beat their foreheads with stones till the blood flowed, and so they expressed their sympathy and condolence with the god over the calamity "by an offering of blood." He still lived, however, and moved about in all the other existing owls of the country.