Derek Freeman, Margaret Mead and Samoa, p.181: "These texts reveal a concept of a supreme being, which far from being vague, as Williams had supposed, is to a remarkable degree for a preliterate people theologically sophisticated and mature. Indeed, so impressed was Powell with the "monotheism" of the Samoan myth of creation that he was led to conjection that "those who had handed it down, from father to son, from time immemorial, as and inviolable trust," must have been "closely allied to the original possessors of the Mosaic record."
The following are the texts of the "Solo ole Va" and the King James version of "Genesis" side-by-side. Interestingly, all I did was lining up the sections so that what I see as having similar ideas line up. I understand that the words and names are completely different, but I just find it very interesting. Let me know what you think. imanua@yahoo.com
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Solo ole Va
Rollers flooding, rollers dashing,
Rollers fighting, rollers clashing; -
The sweep of waters and the extension of waves,
Surging high, but breaking not; -
Waves reclining; waves dispersing;
Waves agreeable; waves that cross not;
Waves frightsome; waves leaping over;
Waves breaking; waves warring;
Waves roaring; waves upheaving;
The peopled waves; waves from east to west.
Whose companion is the wandering current.
Rollers flooding, rollers dashing,
Rollers fighting, rollers clashing; -
The sweep of waters and the extension of waves,
Surging high, but breaking not; -
Waves reclining; waves dispersing;
Waves agreeable; waves that cross not;
Waves frightsome; waves leaping over;
Waves breaking; waves warring;
Waves roaring; waves upheaving;
The peopled waves; waves from east to west.
Whose companion is the wandering current.
'O Tagaloa, who sittest at the helm (of affairs),
Tagaloa's (bird, the Tuli) desires to rest;
Tuli from the ocean must rest in the heavens;
These waves below affright my breast.
Where is the land which first upsprang?
Great Manu'a first uprose.
Beats on (Manu'a) rock his well-loved waves;
On it the Moon's desired light looks down;
The Sun, like statue, changeless found,
(Darts his refulgent beams around).
The waters in their place appear;
The sea, too, occupies its sphere;
The heaven ascends, the sky is clear.
To visit (the scene) Tagaloa comes down;
To the west, to the east, his wailing cry he sends,
A strong desire to have a place whereon to stand
Possesses him; (he bids the lands arise).
Savai'i with its high mountain then sprang up,
And up sprang Fiti and all the Tongan group;
Arose Savai'i; and afterwards,
The Tongan group and the group of Fiji,
Together with the group of small lands;
With the home of Alamisi (the two Samatas Arose)
- Samata-inland and Samata-by-the-sea;
The seats of Tagaloa, and his footstool.
But great Manu'a first grew up -
The resting place of Tagaloa -
After that, all other groups of islands.
Abide in thy mountains, these visit and rest;
abide, Tagaloa, on Manua's high crest,
But fly now and then to thy group in the west;
To measure and compare the space
Which lies between, from place to place.
The ocean between is long and breezy;
Terrific waves affright Tagaloa;
'Oh for a little coral strand.' thus to heaven he cries;
Upolu, a very small bit of rock,
And Tutuila, a little stony land,
Are isles that thereupon immediately arise;
Where chiefs in after times may find a place of rest;
And gods, tho' pinched for room, have many a feast.
And hither came from heaven the peopling vine,
Which gave to Tutuila its inhabitants,
And to Atua and A'ana, with Le-tuamasaga in Upolu.
The bodies only move, they have no breath,
Nor heart's pulsation.
The godlike Tagaloa learns (in heaven) above,
The sacred vine to gender life has now begun,
But that its offspring only wriggle in the sun;
No legs, no arms they have;
No head, no face,
Nor heart's pulsation
Tagaloa then, descending to the west,
Speaks but the word and it is done:
These fruits, the product of the vine are worms,
But them I fashion into member'd forms,
To each of you from above I now impart a will
Opacity must be the portion of your bodies still,
Your faces, they must shine, (I so ordain),
That they may Tagaloa entertain
When he comes down to walk this earth again.
O Great Fiti, with all thy eastern isles.
And thy mountains scattered throng,
You each and all to Great Manu'a look:-
Fiti, Tonga, the Slippery Rock,
The spreading Masoa
Which raised again the fallen heavens;
Savai'i, leafy like the teve,
In vain displays its lofty range;
She cannot supplant the firm seed stone of Manu'a
(Their father) the Stone, and (their mother) the Earth.
The Rock produced and soon could show
At least ten hundred sons.
Let none the truth again say (in unbelief)
Alele was Manu'a's first known chief;
The son of Tagaloa; he wrought unrighteous judgment.
Where is that land which first upsprang?
I answer, great Manu'a first upsrang.
The eastern point Saua is thy eastern bound
At Ofu and Tufue'e thy west limits are found.
Descend, ye gods, to the fono of Confusion.
But rest quietly at the fono of Tranquility.
Here Tagaloa the Builder's council was convened,
The council of the circle of the chiefs on high -
While thus he spake a solemn silence reigned:
'Let the Builder have the first kava cup in the circle,
Then perfect will be the ship whose keel is laid!
To heaven's disposal leave all fish besides
But offering unto Tagaloa made must be bonito.
Let fisher Losi ply his craft the wide seas o'er,
But offer unto heaven the choicest of his store.
And ye of Tagaloa's race, when ye desire to meet,
May make the heavens your noble council seat,
Or fono of the Rock, or where Confusion reigned,
Or peaceful fono which Tranquility is named;
The fono of Asia, the fono of Assembly,
Or of Lologo, or Pule-faatasi.
At fono of Tranquility, yaur councils you must hold,
When ye build ship or house;
But whether ship or house be first, (this is my will).
In heaven will Tagaloa sit at peace, with his peers,
But the Builder and his workmen will come down.
Pray, who was first, a work so honoured to begin!
The first to own a ship was great Manu'a's king.
This errand brought the people of the Builder down -
A class of workmen as ten thousand known,
With Architect-in-Chief, but one alone.
The rafter-breaking god came down,
(With wrath inflamed and angry trown;)
Alas! my building all complete
Is scattered in confusion great.
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Genesis
In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth. The earth was without form
and void, and darkness was upon the face of
the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving
over the face of the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light"; and
there was light. And God saw that the light
was good; and God separated the light from the
darkness. God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And there was
evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said, "Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it separate
the waters from the waters." And God made
the firmament and separated the waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which
were above the firmament. And it was so. And
God called the firmament Heaven. And there was
evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, "Let the waters under the
heavens be gathered together into one place,
and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters
that were gathered together he called Seas.
And God saw that it was good. And God said,
"Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants
yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit
in which is their seed, each according to its
kind, upon the earth." And it was so. The
earth brought forth vegetation, plants
yielding seed according to their own kinds,
and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed,
each according to its kind. And God saw that
it was good. And there was evening and there
was morning, a third day.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heavens to separate the
day from the night; and let them be for
signs and for seasons and for days and
years, and let them be lights in the
firmament of the heavens to give light upon
the earth." And it was so. And God made the
two great lights, the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night; he made the stars also. And God set
them in the firmament of the heavens to give
light upon the earth, to rule over the day
and over the night, and to separate the light
from the darkness. And God saw that it was
good. And there was evening and there was
morning, a fourth day.
And God said, "Let the waters bring forth
swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly
above the earth across the firmament of the
heavens." So God created the great sea
monsters and every living creature that moves,
with which the waters swarm, according to
their kinds, and every winged bird according
to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and
let birds multiply on the earth." And there
was evening and there was morning, a fifth
day. And God said, "Let the earth bring
forth living creatures according to their
kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts
of the earth according to their kinds." And it
was so. And God made the beasts of the
earth according to their kinds and the cattle
according to their kinds, and everything that
creeps upon the ground according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness; and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth." So God
created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created
them.
And God blessed them, and God said to them,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish
of the sea and over the birds of the air and
over every living thing that moves upon the
earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given
you every plant yielding seed which is upon the
face of all the earth, and every tree with seed
in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And
to every beast of the earth, and to every bird
of the air, and to everything that creeps on
the earth, everything that has the breath of
life, I have given every green plant for food."
And it was so. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. And
there was evening and there was morning, a sixth
day.
Genesis Chapter 2:
Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them. And on
the seventh day God finished his work which he
had done, and he rested on the seventh day
from all his work which he had done. So God
blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,
because on it God rested from all his work which
he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and
the earth when they were created. In the day
that the LORD God made the earth and the
heavens, when no plant of the field was yet
in the earth and no herb of the field had yet
sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it
to rain upon the earth, and there was no man
to till the ground; but a mist went up from
the earth and watered the whole face of the
ground-- then the LORD God formed man of
dust from the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living being.
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden,
in the east; and there he put the man whom he
had formed.
Genesis Chapter 3: Temptation and Fall of Adam & Eve.
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