Losi, the master-fisherman and demigod who ascends to Tagaloa's heaven, plays tricks on the gods and survives the ordeals they set, and on his expulsion carries the taro (talo) — and other food-plants — down to earth, where they become the staples of Samoa. A culture-hero of the demigod/legendary-ancestor stratum. No fixed genealogy is given in the corpus used here (variant traditions make him a descendant of Tagaloa) — see SOLITARY flag. Documented by Turner and Stair (secondary).
Domains
fishing and the sea harvest
origin of cultivated food plants
trickery and the outwitting of the gods
Powers
Ascend to and raid Tagaloa's heaven, surviving the gods' ordeals
Carry the taro (and other food-plants) down from heaven to earth
Sources
G. Turner, Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before (1884), the legend of Losi
J. B. Stair, Old Samoa (1897)
G. Turner, Samoa (1884): Losi the fisherman raids Tagaloa's heaven and brings down the taro