Palulop, the 'great navigator', is the primordial captain and ancestral source of Carolinian wayfinding. He stands at the head of the line of sea-gods, and his son Aluluei becomes the patron deity of navigators. Through this lineage the star-paths, canoe-craft and sailing-lore transmitted in the pwo navigator-initiation are traced back to a single divine origin. His name pairs palu, the word for a master navigator, with the augmentative lap, 'great'.