A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Gill’s voyage makes the small avini, also called manini in the address to it, Ina’s first willing carrier. It touches her feet to accept, then overturns under her weight halfway across the reef. Her blows account for its stripes. A larger paoro also fails and receives blue marks; an originally white api overturns her at the reef’s edge and becomes black. A sole bears her to the breakers, where her angry stamping moves its lower eye to the upper side. These distinct episodes explain animal appearances within the narrative.

An unnamed shark then carries her toward the Sacred Isle. When she becomes thirsty, it raises its dorsal fin so she can pierce a coconut. For the second nut it lifts its head, and she cracks the shell on its forehead. Hurt, the shark dives and leaves her floating; the tale attributes a forehead protuberance to this blow. This first shark is separate from Tekea the Great, who subsequently completes the journey. The fish names are retained as Gill prints them, without an unverified modern species identification.

Willing transportNarrative colour and eye originsCoconut-opening dorsal fin
01

Origins & earliest records

William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King, 1876), VI: Ina’s Voyage to the Sacred Isle, pp. 91–92. The individual prose narrator is not named in these sections.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected prose read in digitized primary OCR; publication and printed page headings checked. Illustration pixels not inspected.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Myths and Songs from the South Pacific: VI: Ina’s Voyage to the Sacred Isle, pp. 91–92

    William Wyatt Gill, collector and translator · 1876

    Direct historical collected witness; translation and collector interpretations remain attributed.

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.

  1. Primary collected textGill 1876, VI: Ina’s Voyage to the Sacred Isle, pp. 91–92Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

FT·459 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑