Author Archives: Jerayah Davis

Long Handled Spoon

Nationality: American
Age: 40's
Occupation: Head Track and Field coach at USC
Residence: Los Angles area
Performance Date: April 15, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant was born and raised in Colorado. She all her life has used proverbs that her grandmother taught her to develop relationships. Her grandmother helped in assisting her by giving her proverbs to live by that apply to any situation and any human.

“feed them with a long handled spoon”

Informant…

“My grandma use to tell me Feed them with a Long Handled Spoon when she said this it was usually in regards to when I would have a fight with someone, if one of my friends really hurt my feelings, or even now while I am in my profession she will use it if I don’t necessarily like someone I am working with. It means, if someone does you wrong, you deal with them, you are still nice to them, but you don’t have to trust them anymore or let them get close to you. My grandma really was big on how people interact with each other and she thought that if someone was going to violate you and your trust, you keep them in front of you so they can’t stab you in the back again, you are still nice to them, and you deal with them when you have to, but you donut rust them enough to let them get close to you.”

Analysis…

When the informant was telling me her proverb, I could tell that she was excited to tell me about it and share with me what her grandmother had previously shared with her. This information the informant uses whenever she feels like she needs guidelines on how to act of how to feel she remembers the proverbs that her grandmother taught her and tries to apply them.

This proverb I connect with the proverbs keep your enemies in front of you and keep your enemies closer. I think that I associate the three because the al have something to do with people who have done you wrong or you don’t like for whatever reason. Differences that I can point our is the informants proverb says if anyone wrongs you to keep them at a distance and don’t allow them to have a chance to be close to you. Whereas the keep your enemies closer that I mention says to keep the people who have wronged you closer than anyone else. They are different because one thinks you should let them no where near you because they will wrong you again and the other believes you should keep them close so the won’t wrong you again. The point of both of these is trying to generate a way to prevent enabling harm to yourself from others but from two different perspectives. The informant’s proverb is similar to keep your enemies in front of you because then they can’t stab you in the back again, so it is protecting yourself without being close to someone who has wronged you. I was glad that I was able to make sense of this proverb and have my own thought process behind it.

 

The Story Of Pili and Sina

Nationality: Samoan American
Age: 19
Occupation: USC student athlete
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 23,2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Samoan

The informant’s family originated in Samoa, his parents were born and raised there before traveling and moving into the United States. He takes many visits to Samoa and is very in touch with his Samoan heritage and culture. He shared some common folklore with me that he could think of off of the top of his head. 

Informant…

“Loa of Fagaloa was the husband of an Afagaloa woman named Sinaletigae, a town that isn’t a town anymore in between Taga and Salailua in Savai’i. The couple made their home at Afagaloa and had four children there. The children were named Sinasamoa the only girl and three boys Pili, Fuialaeo and Maomao . Pili took on the form of a lizard and as he grew older he grew until he filled the house, causing his other siblings and parents to go find another house  to live in. Loa and his wife became so afraid at the size of their son Pili that they fled, and took their other three children with them. They went to Fagaloa where Loa was from. Sinasamoa brought the water bottle in which she always carried water to her brother Pili with her. It had been her job to give Pili water and the two brothers gave him food. They all still loved Pili and whenever they sat down to eat in remembrance of him they first threw a small portion of food and poured out some water from the water bottle of Pili. Pili missed his parents and brothers and sister and knowing that Fagaloa was the home of his father he took on the form of a human being again and looked for the District of Fagaloa, or the land of plenty. He got to Fagaloa and Pili asked about where his family was in the village and was told that they were out working on their plantation. He found his sister sitting alone on the family’s plantation. She did not recognize Pili’s human form. He begged his sister to go and tell the rest of the family that a visitor had arrived but Sina refused to go. Pili then asked her for a drink of water from the bottle she had with her. She again refused stating that the bottle was only for her brother Pili. Pili said “very well, this place will now be known as Vaitu’u” and the place is called by this name which means “water reserved or kept here.” The place was then looked upon as the ruling town of Fagaloa. Pili asked Sina to say why they had run away from Pili. Sina told him that Pili had gotten so big that they were afraid of him and Loa had made them to run away and go to his old home. They knew that Pili would follow them once he had taken on a human form. Pili told her, “I am Pili and I have come to you.” The rest of the family who were hiding in the bush came out and happiness reigned.

Sina grew into a very beautiful girl and the word of her beauty traveled around the world and was talked about. The King of Fiji head about Sina and he went to Samoa to see her. Loa told his daughter to become the wife of the King of Fiji but she would’t unless her brother Pili gave her permission. Pili told Sina to marry him because he believed that if children were born as the from the marriage power would come to Fagaloa. The wedding happened and the Fijians thought their King had found a beautiful wife. As they prepared to leave for Fiji, Pili heard of the plans and asked Sina to take him with her. He thought that if anything bad happened on the trip he would help. Sina didn’t want to tell her husband so she decided to hide Pili. She made a small basket and put Pili in his small lizard form in the basket to hide. The trip took longer than normal and all the food was gone. The Fijiians blamed it on Sina and said she was possessed by a Devil. When Sina heard what the Fijiians were saying about her she told Pili who told her not to worry about it and tell her husband to stop on a small Island. stopped at the island and the King was surprised. They would found plenty of food like taro, yams, bananas, pigs, fowls etc. They replenished their food supplies the canoes continued on the journey but day after day passed and Fiji wasn’t appearing. The food supply was low again and the people again became anxious. Pili who was the cause of all this trouble tapped with his tail on the basket in he was hiding in to get Sina’s attention. He told her to ask the King to again stop at an island. They found a small island and again found a lot of food. The Fijiians got more suspicious that Sina possessed a Devil because how else would she know to stop at the island and knew that they had an abundance of food on them. When Sina heard all this she was scared and when the King wanted to search her to find where the Devil was hiding she dropped the basket with Pili in it into the sea and this gave started to the saying “Pili a’au” which means swimming Pili in english. Back in Samoa Loa had a dream which showed that his son Pili had been treated badly, so he made his other two sons to launch their canoe and proceed to Fiji to search for Pili. The two brothers left on their trip and after a time came across Pili swimming in the sea. Pili asked them to take him to the Island named Pu’agagana leave him there and they could go back to Samoa. Tagaloalagi, Loa’s brother, predicted what would happen to Pili when he left with Sina. A some point later Tagaloalagi told two of his sons to go to Fiji to watch the group. The sons did as they were told and on their way stopped at the Island of Pu’agagana. As Tagaloalagi predicted, they found Pili sitting on a Pua tree. When Pili heard that they were going to Fiji he asked if they would take him to the King’s house. The oldest brother told him that there was not enough room in the canoe for another person and their father had forbidden them to take a third person. Pili said that he didn’t need a seat and he could be put in the bilge of the canoe and he could become very small. The brothers agreed and they got to one end of the town of Tuifiti. Pili immediately went into the forest and planted different foods with the help of the two brothers. Other than Sina, the King of Fiji had a wife from Fiji and this wife loved by her people. When famine was in the country the people brought food for the King by giving it to his Fijian wife hoping that love only her and hate his Samoan wife couldn’t present him with food. This worried Sina that it caused her to cry hysterically. Pili heard that Sina was sad and crawled into the town where the King lived and this started to the expression “Pili totolo” which in english means crawling Pili. He asked Sina to go inland with him and he would show her ways to keep her husband’s love. He told her not to worry because she had brothers who would assist her. Pili told her that all her troubles were because she was weak and threw him into the sea. Pili’s words hurt her heart and caused the tears to flow faster than ever and when he husband noticed her sadness he asked why? She said that her tears were only for her brother Pili in Samoa. She then went with Pili and saw the plantation Pili and the two brothers created for her  the whole plantation was full of food fit for the King. Pili told Sina that he would create a spring of hot water and also one of cold water so that she could cook and clean her food. A yam would also grow down to her doorstep so that she could reach out and break off pieces to cook. He also told her that she should always visit him by herself when she wanted anything and she must never tell her husband of Phili’s plansation. Sina was filled with joy and went back to the village where she found the springs both hot and cold. These springs still exist in Fiji today. Sina also found the yam and this yam was the origin of the saying used by Orators “O le Tuli matagau nei le ufi a Sina” which means in english “searching after the broken end of Sina’s yam.” The King continued to love Sina and he not his Fijian wife. Pili and his two friends returned to Samoa after his sister had given birth to two children; a daughter named Sinavaituu and a son named Latu-Tuifiti.”

Analysis…

The Informant told me that this story was passed down to him by his mother and his mother’s mother probably told her. He had heard parts of it from his aunts or his friend’s mothers as well. In his culture this is an important myth and they will refer to it by the phrases that were derived from it like “Pili a’au” or swimming Pili. He wasn’t sure where it had originated but he figure “a really really really long time ago in Samoa.”

This myth kind of captures the traditional Samoan family. It shows how the family structure works and usually how the siblings would interact. It is just following one family, but it shows the closeness and the connection that the entire family might have including aunts uncles cousins; they are all a closely nit family. This myth gives its audience an inside look on a traditional Samoan family. The informant told me that in Samoa family is very important and those relationships are the relationships that they invest most of their time and energy into.

Myths are created by cultures around the world to explain how things of the world have come to be. The one that I am most familiar with is the story of Adam and Eve although the Bible isn’t considered a form of folklore, it is still a believe that many people have. This Samoan Myth has a man who takes on the form of a lizard that the people on the Fijian canoe think is an evil spirit, in the Bible the evil one or devil takes on the form of a serpent and I draw a connection here. Also the myth says that Pili made a plantation that was full of food and made a spring for his sister Sina which reminds me of the Garden of Eden. The point of making this connection shows that there are many similarities through the stories of how the world or whatever else has come to be. Usually there is an animal involved and that is interesting to me. This Myth also explores the closeness of family particularly the relationships that siblings have. I know for me I have the mentality that I can do and say whatever I want to my siblings no matter how mean but if anyone else were to do those exact same things I would go to war with that individual over my siblings. The relationship of siblings is really expressed and explored in this myth and shows just how far siblings will go for each other.

 

Bones

Nationality: American
Age: 40's
Occupation: Head Track and Field coach at USC
Residence: Los Angeles area
Performance Date: April 15, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant was born and raised in Colorado. She all her life has used proverbs that her grandmother taught her to develop relationships. Her grandmother helped in assisting her by giving her proverbs to live by that apply to any situation and any human.

“A dog that brings a bone takes a bone”

Informant…

When I was a lot younger and still in my adolescent years, I would try and keep up with the latest drama and gossip. I was all in his business or her business and always had the latest gossip. So and so would tell me something about someone and I would talk to my grandma like oh so and so said that she’s been doing a,b,c and my grandma would respond with A dog that brings a bone, takes a bone. At first the didn’t really mean much to me, I had to experience it on my own to have a full understanding of what she meant. A dog that takes a bone brings a bone to me means that if someone is coming to you with gossip, they are going to leave with something about you and talk about you to other people the same way the were talking to you about so and so. I just always have kept this in the back of my mind when someone is gossiping  about someone else to me. I realize that if i egg in that conversation, there might be something that I said that would give the person a bone to run off with. I guess what I get from this is be aware of conversations you engage in and how much you trust to tell people.”

Analysis…

A dog that brings a bone takes a bone. I haven’t heard this before, so it is new to me. When to informant was explaining it to me I think she could sense my confusion probably by my facial expression and thankfully she continued to elaborate until she thought I could make sense of it. I think this just goes along with the proverbs about being careful who you trust and spend your time around. Not everyone in this world has good intentions and I think that in informant’s grandmother kew that and she was wise enough to share them with her granddaughter to hopefully help her in life. A dong that brings a bone takes a bone puts an all new perception of people and relationships into my head. It makes sense that a gossip who gossips to you is most likely gossiping about you, so it is important to choose carefully who you also yourself to be around.

Fa’amuamua Le Atua

Nationality: Samoan American
Age: 19
Occupation: USC student athlete
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Samoan

The informant’s family originated in Samoa, his parents were born and raised there before traveling and moving into the United States. He takes many visits to Samoa and is very in touch with his Samoan heritage and culture. He shared some common folklore with me that he could think of off of the top of his head. 

“Fa’amuamua Le Atua”

Informant…

“A common saying that is used pretty religiously in my family goes:

Fa’amuamua Le Atua meaning: Put God first.

My family is extremely religious and we use this pretty often. We believe in the high power of God and we realize that we wouldn’t be where we are today or blessed with what we are blessed with if it weren’t for God. We use it as a reminder to help us line up our priorities with God and our duties to God being the first thing on the list [priority list], to be grateful for what he has done for us and will continue to do, and to remind us that without him being in our lives we wouldn’t thrive. ”

Analysis…

This statement is definitely not new to me. I have heard it before and it has also been expressed to me from my parents and their parents. I think that this statement on how you should essentially run your life is widespread throughout the would because of the common christianity that many cultures have. It is interesting that other cultures besides our own use similar sayings and statements that mean the same thing and are interpreted the same way. This statement in particular “Fa’amuamua Le Atua or Put God First” is translated and applied differently by different people but essentially it means the same thing and can be applied the same way.

Rise and Shine

Nationality: Samoan American
Age: 19
Occupation: USC Student Athlete
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Samoan

The informant’s family originated in Samoa, his parents were born and raised there before traveling and moving into the United States. He takes many visits to Samoa and is very in touch with his Samoan heritage and culture. He shared some common folklore with me that he could think of off of the top of his head. 

“Ole manu e muamua ala nate maua le anufe”

Informant…

“Something my parents expressed to me when I was a kid goes:

Ole manu e muamua ala nate maua le anufe meaning: The early bird gets the worm.

I can apply this to most every aspect of my life, so it has really  helped me mature as I’ve grown. To me, well you can have your own interpretation of it but to me, it means literally the one who rises early will have the most success. I translate this into meaning that if you work hard, and out work everyone and anyone you will be rewarded and be just fine in life. I use this with my school work, with football, with almost about anything. I believe that everything takes hard work and nothing good is going to be easy to get hence, Ole manu e muamua ala nate maua le anufe. ”

Analysis…

The statement “The early bird gets the worm” is nothing new for our culture. This statement I have heard by my parents, mentors, teachers, coaches, you name it almost anyone (old enough to know its meaning) has heard this proverb before. It essentially means to most people the person who arrives to any location, event, opportunity first has the best chance for success in that area. The informant meant in his translation that he makes she he works the hardest so he can essentially “arrive first” and have the best chance for success.

It is interesting that a very common proverb in America would be used in another culture as well. As phrases.org.uk says, “The early bird gets the worm” originates from the Latin phrase Carpe diem which means “seize the day”. Both of these proverbs are advice on how to attack our days and make the most of our lives by working hard.