Agunua is the great serpent creator of the Arosi of San Cristoval (Makira), the chief and greatest of the figona, the class of serpent creator-spirits; the lesser figona are held to be his representatives or incarnations, so that he embraces them all. He is credited with making the vegetables, fruits and food-trees of the island. In the myth recorded by Charles Fox he fashioned a male child who could not care for himself, and then made a woman to kindle fire, cook, and weed the gardens; certain foods were ruined when his brother burnt them in the oven. The first drinking-coconut taken from a palm was sacred to him. As the original spirit in serpent form he gives a sacred character to snakes, which are honoured as his living representatives.