The sky shell and the octopus
“Papa,” said Claudine, “what’s this?” She was holding the little wooden
statue that had stood on a shelf in their living room for as long as she
could remember.
“That came from the island of Tahiti, in the South Pacific Ocean,” her
father told her. “I used to work there, before you were born. It’s a
statue of the ancient Tahitian god Ta’aroa. According to an old story,
he made the world out of a shell.”
“How did he do that?” asked Claudine, her eyes round with wonder.
“Let me see if I remember the story.” Her father
rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It was told to me by an old, old man. As
I remember, it went like this:
“Once, there was no sky, no land, no sea, no sun, no moon, and no stars.
There was only emptiness. In the middle of the emptiness was a shell.
Inside the shell was Ta’aroa.
“For many ages Ta’aroa sat in his shell and thought. Once he left his
shell and looked about, but there was nothing to see. ‘This is not
good,’ said Ta’aroa.
“He made a new shell and sat in it for a few more ages. Then he felt a
stirring within himself. He was filled with a wish to make things. So he
took the new shell he had made and turned it into the world. He made the
old shell into the sky and set it upon the world. He shook his feather
cape so that feathers fell onto the earth. They became grass, trees,
clumps of bananas, and other growing things.
“Then Ta’aroa made the other gods. The gods looked around, but they
couldn’t see anything. This was because Tumu-ra-i-feuna, the great
spotted octopus, was holding the sky tightly against the earth with his
eight arms. The world was like the inside of a closed clamshell.
“So the god Rua killed the octopus with magic. But even though he was
dead, Tumu-ra-i-feuna did not let go of the sky. The gods tried to pry
his arms loose and push the sky up, but it was no use.
“Finally, they went to Tane, who was the greatest of all gods except for
Ta’aroa. With his great ax, Tane cut down huge trees and pushed them
between the earth and the sky. Then he tugged and heaved on the trees.
At last the sky broke free and light came into the world.
“Then Tane decorated the sky with stars and set the
sun and moon on their paths. He gave a place to everything on earth.
From that time on, fish, turtles, and whales swam in the ocean, birds
flew in the sky, and people lived on the land.”
After he finished, Claudine was silent for a time. Then she said, “I
guess the gods needed light to see with—but I feel sorry for the
octopus!”
