Land of the Dead

The spirits of the dead (nganga) were thought to go to Tualiku, where the god Te Sesema reigned. Tualiku was not localized, but the meaning of the name, “the back of the sea”, suggests that it lay over the rim of the horizon. It was a true paradise of Polynesian imagination, where the blessed danced and ate all day and night and wore flowers in their ears, and pearl shell ornaments (lei) around their necks, forbidden to all common men in life. In Tualiku there was also a purgatory where the souls of men who were damned by never having been circumcised in life (ngatino seki faeloa) walked through eternity with great stone discs like grindstones on their backs.

The natives believed that their spirits could select their residence for the afterlife. As death was approaching, a man told his friends that he was going to the moon or to some part of the heavens where he might be seen by his friends. A soul might also elect to remain on earth in the grave, according to Turner (32), who adds:

They believed, moreover, that there were certain evil spirits always on the watch for human beings, and that, if any were caught, their souls were dragged up and down the universe forever, as the slaves of these demons, and never found a resting place. Hence it was a common saying at Tokelau, “Take care of the soul. It lives forever. Never mind the body, it rots in the grave!”