A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Gill’s Rarotongan account places a woman and man from the spirit world at Vaitipi fountain in Aorrangi. They come up at night to take cultivated food below. People watch the fountain and set a cord net: the woman is caught, while the man escapes through a gap. Chief Ati takes her as wife and blocks the fountain with stones, preventing her return.
She expects childbirth to kill her according to the practice she knows below, but Ati refuses that course and she survives the birth. She later asks to return and teach the people of the underworld what she has learned. The fountain is reopened, but Ati cannot endure the descent despite repeated attempts; only dead spirits and immortals can enter. They embrace in farewell, and she disappears beneath the water alone. Their boy is named Ati-veʻe, Ati-the-forsaken, and a quoted clan song remembers her departure. The text does not report that she returns to her husband afterward.
Origins & earliest records
William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King, 1876), Chapter XI. Individual prose narrator unnamed; named songs distinguished from prose contributions.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected prose section read with printed page markers; only relevant song context inspected.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, XI: The Fairy of the Fountain, pp. 265–267
Digitized OCR witness; broader contemporary accounts remain open.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected textMyths and Songs from the South Pacific, XI: The Fairy of the Fountain, pp. 265–267Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.