10. Ga'e Fefe, Breathless fear.
A war-god in some of the villages, and seen in a cocoa-nut-leaf basket. It is said that during a battle between the gods of Samoa and those of Tonga the former crouched about the trunks of the cocoa-nut trees; but Ga'e fefe hid in a cocoa-nut-leaf basket, and escaped while many others were killed. Hence the basket became a sign of the god, and no one would step over such a thing, supposing the god might be in it. Hence, also, if in going to fight they fell in with a newly-plaited cocoa-nut-leaf basket turned upside down it was a bad omen, and sent them back. If, however, the basket was an old one, and not lying across the road, but to the one side, and "fore and aft," it was a good sign, and encouraged them to proceed.
11. La'ala'a—Step over.
1. A village war god in Savaii. Supposed to go before the troops, but invisible. When the people turned out, according to hospitality usage, to take food to a travelling party, they would arrange to lay down ten pigs. If the visitors, in recounting and shouting out in public, as they do, what they had got, said that there were eleven pigs, it was supposed that the god had added one. Then they would compare notes, and say: "Oh yes, it must have been that old woman we saw with a dry shrunk leaf girdle." There were other instances of the "devil's dozen" in Samoa.
Once, when the people were driven by a war fleet from Upolu, the god became incarnate in a yellow man, went and lay down in a house, and there they killed him to please the Upolu people and stop the war, which the latter agreed to do in return for killing the god. Out of respect to the god the people of that village never used the word la'ala'a for stepping over, but sought a new word in soposopo, which is still a current synonym for la'ala'a.
2. La'ala'a was also the name of a god who took care of the plantations. He guarded them by the help of the god thunder. They never spoke of lightning as doing harm, it is always the thunder. "Thunder" once struck the house of Fala and Paongo. The family rose up, caught him, tied him up with pandanus leaves, and frightened him by poking him with firebrands. He cried out in distress:
"Oh! Fala, I'm burning,
Oh! Paongo, I wish to live!"
They decided to spare him, and make him a god to keep the rats away from their food. They made a hieroglyphic scare for him, also, of a basket filled with pandanus leaves and charred firebrands, and hung it up among the trees, that he might know what to expect if he destroyed a house again. This basket was also a scare for a thief, and an imprecation that thunder might destroy his plantation.
3. La'ala'a was also the name of a god in Upolu, who was the champion of wrestlers. The place was supposed to be filled with gods who came to wrestle.
4. The same name was given to a god who predicted in war, sickness, and family events. In sickness the people of the village confessed crimes, and prayed that they might be stepped over or forgiven. He was supposed to dwell in the mountain, and any part of it sufficed as a confessional.