Foilape is remembered as one of the principal gods of the pre-Christian Ellice Islands, a deity recognised on more than one island and described in tradition as a king and a famed warrior. Like the other old gods (atua) of the islands, he was approached at dedicated shrines through prayer and offerings of food and goods, mediated by the spirit-masters (vaka-atua) who served as intermediaries between the people and the gods. The worship of such gods, together with the office of the vaka-atua, was suppressed with the spread of Protestant Christianity through the islands in the later nineteenth century.