The Story of the Sun-Child

                        The Story of the Sun-Child                        

(A Legend from Tonga)

Once upon a time, there was a great chief in Tonga who had a beautiful young daughter. She was so fair that her father hid her from the eyes of men so that no one could see her, for he had not found a man whom he thought worthy to be her husband.

The chief built a high, thick fence down on the shore. Behind this, she was allowed to sit and bathe in the sea every day, until she grew up to be so beautiful that there was no maiden to compare with her.

Now it happened one day that the Sun looked down from his home in the sky and saw her as she rested on the white sand. Immediately he fell in love with her, and after a time a child was born to her, and she called him the Sun-Child.

The child grew and developed into a handsome lad. He was proud and strong and used to beat the other children as if he were the son of a great chief. One day while all the village lads were playing together on the green he was angered by something. And he picked up a stick and beat them with it until their bodies were sore and his arm ached.

Then they rose up and taunted him, saying, “Who are you, and why should you beat us? We know who are our fathers, but you-you have no father!" At this, the Sun-Child was filled with a great rage, and he would have tried to kill them. But he seemed to be rooted to the ground, and his voice became hoarse and his eyes brimmed with tears.

For a moment he stood and glared at them. Then with a loud cry he ran quickly to his own house. His mother was inside, and he seized her by the arm, crying out. “Tell me, mother, who is my father? What do the village boys mean?" And he burst into tears.

“Hush, my son," said his mother, “take no notice of them and do not let them trouble you, for you are the son of a greater chief than their fathers."

“But who is my father?" asked the lad again.

His mother laughed scornfully and said. “Who are those village boys, and why do they despise my son? They are the children of men, but the Sun is your father."

So the Sun-Child wiped away his tears and was happy. “I will not talk to those children of men any longer. I will not even live with them, for I scorn them. I shall go and find my father," he said defiantly.

He called “Farewell” to his mother and set off without ever a backward glance, and she gazed after him until he was hidden by the bushes and the trees. Through the forest, he strode until he came to the beach where his own canoe lay, and at high tide, he launched it and sailed away to find his father.

Now it was the early dawn when he hoisted his sail, and he steered toward the east, where the Sun was rising, but as time passed the Sun rose higher and higher, and though the boy shouted loudly his father did not hear him.

Then he tacked and sailed over to the west as the Sun began to dip toward the horizon, but although he made a fair speed he could not reach his father before he disappeared beneath the waves. The boy was left alone in the wide sea to ponder his next plan.

“My father climbs up out of the water in the east,” he said to himself, “so it is there I must go to catch him.” He tacked again and sailed eastward all night, and as morning dawned and the Sun rose close to him he shouted aloud. “Look, father, I am here!”

“Who are you?” asked the Sun as it climbed steadily higher.

“Surely you know me! I am your son." cried the lad, “and I have left my mother behind in Tonga. Stay, oh, stay awhile and talk to me."

“I may not stay,” said the Sun, “for the people of earth have already seen me. You should have been a little earlier. Now I must go on my way." He bade his son goodbye and rose even higher in the sky.

“Father, stay,” cried the lad. “Could you not hide your face behind a cloud and then slip down and talk to me.

“Truly you are wise, my child,” said the Sun, laughing. “For a mere lad you have much wisdom." Then he called for a cloud, and when he had disappeared behind it he slipped down again into the sea. There he met his son and greeted him, and he asked after his mother, and they talked of many things.

“I can stay no longer," he said after a little while, “but listen to me: if you remain here until the darkness comes over the water, you will see my sister the Moon. She is your aunt, so call out to her when she begins to rise from the sea. She has two very precious things: ask her to give you one of them. You must ask for the one called Melaia, and she will give it to you. The other is called Monuia, and you may not have that. Now remember what I have told you and all will be well, but beware of evil if you disobey me."

Then the Sun leaped above the cloud again, and the world men thought how slowly he was climbing into the sky that day. Meanwhile, the Sun-Child furled his sail and lay down on the folds in his canoe and slept until evening. When he awoke he hoisted his sail and waited for the first pale streaks of moonlight. Then he hastened with all speed to his aunt, and he was close upon her before she had risen above the water.

“Luff, luff, child of the earth." she cried out, “or you will pierce my face with the stem of your canoe."

So the Sun-Child altered his steering oar and kept away a point, but he almost touched the moon's face as he passed. Then luffing into the wind suddenly, he shot up alongside her and caught hold of her firmly.

“I am no child of the earth,” he said. “I am the Sun's child, and he is your brother, so you are my aunt."

“Oh, are you indeed !" said the Moon. “That is a great surprise, but you are hurting me, nephew, so I beg you to loosen your hold."

“No, no," said the boy, “if I let you go you will leave me, and then you will not give me the present that my father told me to ask for."

“Truly I will not leave you, nephew,” replied his aunt. “I am indeed glad to see you, only let me go.” So the lad loosened his hold, and then the Moon asked what it was that the Sun had bade him ask for.

Now all this time the Sun-Child, who was a disobedient and high-spirited youth, had made up his mind not to follow his father’s instructions. So he said. “My father told me to ask for Monuia."

“For Monuia ?” cried his aunt with surprise “Perhaps, nephew, you have forgotten your father’s words? Did he not tell you to ask for Melaia

“No, he did not,” the lad replied indignantly. “He said I might have Monuia, and that you were to keep Melaia."

This is strange indeed, thought the Moon. Surely my brother cannot hate the boy and wish to harm him, and yet I must obey his commands. Then aloud she said to her nephew, “Very well, you shall have Monuia. It is only a little thing and wrapped in a piece of cloth. See, I will put it inside yet another wrapping and I will bind it around and around many times to make it firm so that it cannot come open by itself. Take it now, and I implore you to remember my words. Do not undo the wrapping and take out the present while you are still at sea. Now away with you, and set your sail for Tonga, and I warn you once more not to look at Monuia until you have landed or a terrible evil will befall you."

She bade him good-bye and climbed upward in the sky, giving her pale light to many. The mariners at sea welcomed her, and the children in the villages came out of their houses and started to dance on the grass.

Then the Sun-Child steered for Tonga and sailed for two nights and a day until on the morning of the second day he saw land. Then he could wait no longer, for he was an impatient lad and self-willed. So he took up the parcel that his aunt, the Moon, had given to him and untied the string. He unrolled each fold of cloth until at last, he held Monuia in his hand.

It was a most beautiful pearl shell of an unusual red colour. Such a one had never been seen before, and it shone in his hand as he gazed at it. He thought how fine it would look like an ornament hanging around his neck, and how all the boys would envy him.

At that moment he heard a mighty noise like a rushing and a splashing over the water. He looked up and saw from every side a great throng of fishes swimming toward him. There were fish of every kind, and great whales and sharks, porpoises and dolphins and turtles, and they leaped upon him in their eagerness to reach the shell. So great was their weight that his little canoe sank beneath the waves, and the Sun-Child was seen no more.

Source:

Tales from the South Pacific Islands

Anne Gittins

1977

Pages: 60-65