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

Overview

Gill’s account first presents Tiaio as a Mangaian warrior king who defeats an invasion from Atiu. A dispute follows when he wears red hibiscus flowers in the restricted district of Keia. Mouna, a priest of Tane, kills him. His blood enters a brook near Motoro’s marae, where an eel drinks it and receives his spirit.

The eel travels through an underground fissure to the sea. Tiaio’s spirit then leaves the eel and inhabits a large white shark. Gill associates the resulting worship with the Mautara clan, a small marae and an ironwood image carved by Rori. He names Tereavai as its last priest, later a Christian deacon who died in 1865. This is a collected ancestral transformation account; the coconut-origin Tuna story is a separate narrative.

Eel and shark-bodied ancestral deityNamed narrative relationships
01

Origins & earliest records

William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King, 1876), II: Tiaio, King and God. General contributor acknowledgements name Tereavai and Sadaraka; individual prose narrator not supplied.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected prose narrative and interpretive ending read in consecutive bounded OCR sections. Variant endings and compiler judgments retained as such.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, II: Tiaio, King and God, pp. 29–30

    William Wyatt Gill, collector and translator · 1876

    Direct digitized printed witness; original-language scan collation remains 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.

  1. Primary collected textMyths and Songs from the South Pacific, II: Tiaio, King and God, pp. 29–30Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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