"This is the resting place of the giantess, Rua'e," Sarua, shaman of the Popolu, told us. We had been permitted to visit and examine the vast cave where the rock formations did indeed suggest a body as tall as a skyscraper lying on the ground. The roof of the cave had fallen in, and low growing green plants covered much of the rocks like a shroud. The noon sun lit the cave.
"What is the story, Sarua?" I asked. "You agreed to tell us all the stories of Popolu."
Sarua nodded, and I took out my cell phone to record. Tano held up a microphone. Sarua walked away from the boulders forming the body and sat on a basalt rock nearby.
"Come. Sit. Tano. Deidre, you are pregnant. Rest." He folded his jacket and placed it on the rock. I sat down, sighing with relief. The jacket gave me a little cushioning. "The story is long. Do not walk on her, for our legends say she will wake again, and bring final destruction to our islands.
He began, "The Popolu Islands are in the South Pacific, a little below the equator, and are volcanic in origin. There are nine large islands, and many smaller ones. Tabi, the largest island, has a volcano that occasionally belches smoke and ash, and releases a small amount of lava.
"The Popolu claim to have arrived on the islands about 370 years ago and found a remnant of an earlier migration. According to them, the survivors, all women and girls, were the children and grandchildren of the few Popolans who escaped slaughter in the battle between the gods. All the other Popolans, but one, died in a war between the two queens and their goddesses.
"The newcomers settled among them, children were born, and the islands remained a kingdom under the descendants of Queen Otua. Ofu is Queen today. We thrive from farming, fishing, pearl harvest, and recently, the mining of Otua's tears, which are diamonds. We are popular with tourists."
Much of this we knew, for Tano, my husband, is a descendant of Otua. The current queen, Ofu, is his mother's cousin, and he is a considered a prince of Popolu although he was raised in New Zealand. We met when I spent the summer in Christchurch researching Maori legends, for I am an anthropologist. We married the next year and moved to Popolu at Queen Ofu's request, to teach at Po College. Tano teaches Computer Science, and I teach a course in anthropology, in addition to researching the history of Popolu. Our son, Brad, was born the next year, and I am pregnant with a daughter due in a month.
Ofu asked Sarua, High Priest of the islands, to show us the sacred locations, and tell us the history of the islands, which the priests and priestesses keep. He told us the early history and reached the battle between Lua and Otua for control of the islands, which brought us to this cave system, seldom open to tourists, on this warm summer day.
Sarua drank water and continued, "Po became king and conquered the six other kings who ruled various islands, killing them and most of their families. He took two of their daughters, Loku and Mui, as queens. Loku was heir of the more important king, and first queen. Mui became pregnant first, and Loku second. Po expected to have a son and daughter who would marry and continue the union of the islands but had two daughters. Otua was born of Mui, and Lua of Loku.
"When no more children were born, Po took many maidens for wives over the years, leaving many men without wives. Po had no child from any of them. A few had children, but it was obvious the child was not Po's. They and their lovers were sacrificed to Rorua, the volcano goddess, who gave power to Loko. The islanders wanted Po to stop, being happy with Otua, the elder, to be the next queen.
"Several years later, about the time when Lua and Otua were old enough to marry, Po died. His kingdom was divided between his two daughters. Lua took Tubi, the largest island, where we are now, and Otua took Anunu, the second largest, along with their shares of the other islands.
