Mafuiʻe

Mafuiʻe, the Samoan god of earthquakes and keeper of the subterranean fire, dwelling in the land of perpetual fire beneath the earth. The hero Tiʻitiʻi (the Samoan Māui) descends, wrests fire from him, and breaks off one of his arms; Mafuiʻe then reveals that fire is hidden in the trees. His single remaining arm is the Samoan reason that earthquakes are not more destructive. No genealogy is attested in the corpus used here — see SOLITARY flag. Documented by Turner and Stair (secondary).

Domains

• earthquakes
• subterranean fire
• the underworld

Powers

• Shake the islands by moving the handle/prop of the world beneath them
• Guard the underground fire and reveal that it is hidden in the trees

Sources

• G. Turner, Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before (1884), the Mafuiʻe and Tiʻitiʻi fire-myth
• J. B. Stair, Old Samoa (1897)
• G. Turner, Samoa (1884): Tiʻitiʻi breaks off Mafuiʻe's arm and wins fire