Tuvaluan · deity · Tuvaluan traditional religion; continuing · deity
te Ali, the Flounder, is the second of the two primal beings of the Tuvaluan creation account. In the contest of strength with the Eel over a great stone, the Flounder is crushed flat beneath it; freed at last, it chases the Eel and deals it the blow that leaves the Eel thin. The Flounder's flattened shape becomes the pattern of the low, flat coral atolls that make up Tuvalu, the counterpart to the upright coconut-palm form of the Eel. Together the two account for the characteristic landscape of the islands: flat land ringed by tall palms.
Domains
creation of the world
earth and land
Powers
to become, when crushed flat, the model of the flat coral atolls
Talakatoa O'Brien, 'Genesis,' in Tuvalu: A History, ed. Hugh Laracy (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific; Funafuti: Ministry of Social Services, 1983).
D. G. Kennedy, Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands (New Plymouth, N.Z.: Thomas Avery & Sons, for the Polynesian Society, 1931).