Losi

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