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

Overview

In Gill’s opening creation account, Vari-ma-te-takere produces Vatea from a piece of her right side. His body is divided sideways: one human eye and one fish-eye, a right arm and left fin, one proper foot and half a fish-tail. Gill associates the marine half with taairangi, which he identifies as porpoises. This is not the usual upper-human, lower-fish arrangement. A separately introduced account instead describes a man whose two magnificent eyes are the sun and moon, generally seen in different realms.

Vatea occupies Te-papa-rairai, the Thin Land or Bright Land. His mother moves it above his younger siblings’ territories to acknowledge seniority. Two marriage accounts follow. In one he catches the visiting woman during a dream. In another, grated coconut disappearing down a chasm reveals her dwelling; he descends on a current of wind and finds Papa, daughter of Timatekore and Tamaiti-ngava-ringavari. Both ascend together on another eddy. Gill prints an explicitly imaginary representation and compares it with a Western fish-god image; that comparative illustration is not treated here as an independently preserved island artifact.

Side-by-side human and marine halvesAlternative solar and lunar eyesWind-assisted passage between lands
01

Origins & earliest records

William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King, 1876), I: Myths of Creation, pp. 3–8. 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: I: Myths of Creation, pp. 3–8

    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

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  1. Primary collected textGill 1876, I: Myths of Creation, pp. 3–8Research 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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