3. Asomua—First Day.
This was a household god, and particularly useful to the family in detecting and telling out the name of the thief when anything was missed. He was called first day, as it was supposed that he existed in the world before mortals.
4. Leatualoa—The long god, or the centipede.
This was the name of a god seen in the centipede. A tree near the house was the residence of the creature. When any one of the family was ill, he went out with a fine mat and spread it under the tree, and there waited for the centipede to come down. If it came down and crawled under the mat, that was a sign that the sick person was to be covered over with mats and buried. If, however, it crawled on the top of the mat, that was a sign of recovery.
5. O Le Aumā—The red liver.
This family god was seen, or incarnate, in the wild pigeon. If any visitor happened to roast a pigeon while staying there, some member of the household would pay the penalty by being done up in leaves, as if ready to be baked, and carried and laid in the cool oven for a time, as an offering to show their unabated regard to Aumā.
The use of the reddish-seared bread-fruit leaf for any purpose was also insulting to this deity. Such leaves were in common use as plates on which to hand a bit of food from one to another, but that particular family dared not use them under a penalty of being seized with rheumatic swellings, or an eruption all over the body called tangosusu, and resembling chicken-pox.
6. Iulautalo—Ends of the taro leaf.
To this family god the ends of leaves and other things were considered sacred, and not to be handled or used in any way. In daily life it was no small trouble to this particular household to cut off the ends of all the taro, bread-fruit, and cocoa-nut leaves which they required for culinary purposes. Ends of taro, yams, bananas, fish, etc., were also carefully laid aside, and considered as unfit to be eaten as if they were poison. In a case of sickness, however, the god allowed, and indeed required, that the patient should be fanned with the ends of cocoa-nut leaflets.