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

Overview

Turner introduces Toa and Pale as brothers and glosses their names as Hero and Helper. Fleeing the king of Fiji, whose consumption of his people threatens them, they enter the bush and become trees. A party of carpenters is due to seek a straight tree for the keel of the king’s new canoe. Pale chooses a crooked stick covered with creepers and advises his brother to take the same inconspicuous form. Toa instead stands upright as a handsome, straight tree.

The carpenters choose Toa and fell him, but Pale immediately raises him again. The repeated cutting, falling and restoration continue until darkness, when the workers abandon the attempt. Toa then acknowledges the trouble he has caused his helper. Turner links the exchange to a contemporary apologetic expression using Toa as trouble. The ending is an escape achieved through the brothers’ contrasting choices and Pale’s repeated intervention; it does not describe them becoming a permanent species of walking tree.

Human-to-tree transformationCrooked creeper-covered disguiseStraight canoe-keel formRepeated restorationProverbial acknowledgment
01

Origins & earliest records

George Turner, Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before, chapter XIX, account 8. First printed London, 1884; hosted text transcribes the University of the South Pacific 1984 reprint.

02

Records & interpretation

A located nineteenth-century missionary collection records this particular narrative. Turner’s interpretations are distinguished from the narrated events.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Samoa, chapter XIX, account 8

    George Turner, missionary collector · 1884; reprint 1984

    Complete selected account, retaining the collector’s spellings and its narrative outcome.

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 historical collected narrativeTurner: Samoa, chapter XIX, account 8Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·544 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑