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Overview
Talanga visits his plantation beneath the earth, where Mafuiʻe keeps a burning fire. Tiʻitiʻi follows his father, enters the underground region and boldly asks the deity for some. Mafuiʻe initially allows him to take embers, but destroys the oven in which father and son begin preparing food. Tiʻitiʻi returns angrily, and the confrontation becomes a wrestling match.
The youth tears off Mafuiʻe's right arm and threatens the other. Mafuiʻe pleads to retain the left arm because he needs it to keep Samoa level. Instead of accepting his offered wives, Tiʻitiʻi bargains for fire, which is then available in wood. The account also connects earthquakes with Mafuiʻe shaking the earth's support and comments that one remaining arm limits his strength. This is a Samoan version; neighbouring Maui narratives are comparisons, not automatic aliases or identical biographies.
Origins & earliest records
Turner's 1884 chapter on fire preserves the selected Talanga, Tiʻitiʻi and Mafuiʻe episode; the inspected witness is its 1984 reprint. The author also compares a neighbouring Maui narrative, which remains separate here. Publication supplies a dated telling, not an original date for Samoan oral transmission or fire-making knowledge.
Records & interpretation
The wrestling, lost arm and fire bargain are explicit in the selected narrative, as is the connection with restrained earthquakes. This is literary evidence for a cultural account of those relationships. It provides no subterranean organism, geological measurement or evidence that every neighbouring fire-origin narrative concerns precisely the same being.
In the literature
“the earth has a long handle there”
Chapter XIX §1, earthquake explanation · Turner’s historical English rendering
Turner records the support imagined beneath Samoa in this account.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before
Chapter XIX, section 1: Talanga, Ti'iti'i and Mafuie, including the fire bargain and earthquake explanation.
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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Primary source witness
George Turner, first printed London 1884; selected hosted text explicitly identifies the Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific 1984 reprint. Chapter/numbered-section locators used because printed page numbers are not retained. Historical missionary-mediated accounts; differing village and household traditions remain distinct.
- Ti’iti’i follows his father into Mafuie’s underground plantation and gets fire. Mafuie destroys their oven; the youth fights him, breaks off his right arm and spares his left in return for fire accessible through wood friction.
- The ending attributes earth tremors to Mafuie shaking a long support and remarks that the loss of an arm limits the shaking. Turner then gives a distinct Niue account with Maui father and son and stolen fire, preserving its different names and sequence.
Chapter XIX §1, earthquake explanation and distinct Niue comparison
Specified numbered sections and complete episodes read; this is not a claim to have read the whole book. Turner’s missionary judgments and comparative labels are not adopted as contemporary Indigenous testimony. Prayer/song formulas omitted; no universal morphology or current practice inferred.
Encyclopedia background
An additional attributed reference, separate from the editorial profile above.
Read the open encyclopedia overview
In Samoan mythology, Mafuiʻe is the god of earthquakes. He dwells in the volcanic regions below the Earth, and has only one arm.
Mafuiʻe was also the keeper of fire. Tiʻitiʻi, a demigod, won the fire from him in a battle, thus introducing fire to the people of Samoa.
Text from Wikipedia contributors, “Mafuiʻe”. CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted introduction; formatting changed. Retrieved 5 October 2026. The source article may have changed since retrieval.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textGeorge Turner: Samoa, selected 1984 reprint of 1884 textResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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