Moso

Moso, one of the high gods of the land/earth in Samoan religion — the counterpart of Tagaloa of the heavens — and among the most widely-invoked village aitu, incarnate in the pigeon and the fuia starling and symbolised in one village by the shell-decked tanoa (kava-bowl). No genealogy is attested in the corpus used here — see SOLITARY flag. Documented by Turner and Stair (secondary).

Domains

• the land and earth
• village tutelary protection

Powers

• Become present and answer prayer through incarnations (the pigeon, the fuia starling, and other forms)
• Guard the village and its people as their tutelary god

Sources

• G. Turner, Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before (1884), the gods invoked by the Samoans, Moso among them
• J. B. Stair, Old Samoa (1897)
• G. Turner, Samoa (1884): Moso, high god of the land opposite Tagaloa of the heavens