Writing about Ma'afu sons

 Long ago,  there lived a significant tongan chief named Ma’af. he had two sons named Ma'afu- Lele and Ma'afu Toka. They grew to be handsome and strong, but they were always getting into trouble. 

The brothers had loved to practise throwing their spears, but they were never too careful about where they threw them. Sometimes their spears landed close to people which had terrified them, sometimes they hit fale and made holes in the walls. Once, a spear hit a man's leg and broke it,  that man could never walk again. 

The people of the village were very cross about the boys behaviour, but Ma’afu loved his sons very much, and he made excuses for them, then the boys started using him for target practise. ‘’ you boys have no respect!’’ the people cried, ‘’ your throwing spears at your father!’’ the brothers were shocked. ‘’We weren’t trying to hit him!’’ the brothers said, ‘’ we were trying to throw it close as we can without hitting him!’’ ‘’ but what if you had missed?’’ a voice came from a villager, ‘’ you could have killed our chief!’’ people cried out. 

The boys hadn’t thought that, they were very sorry but it was too late, the people decided they had enough. ‘’ send them to get water from Atavavea!’’ the people shouted, ‘’that should teach them a lesson.’’ Ma’afu surely didn’t want to send them there, he knew that a force, a duck , lived in the water hole at Atavavea. The boys were surely to be badly injured or even be killed. 

But a good leader listens to his people, and the boys deserved a punishment. So Ma’afu agreed, the next day the boys took their coconut shells to Atavavea. The sky was grey and heavy, and the wind was screaming, the boys were scared but they carried on, they wanted to show their father they were sorry. 

As soon as they got to the water hole, the huge duck attacked. It battered them with its wings and tore them with its huge beak, the boys fought with all their might and finally overpowered the bird. They filled coconut shells with water and started to go back to the village, taking the duck with them ‘’ this will show Ma’afu that we’re sorry’’ the brothers said, ‘’ we can cook the duck in the umu there’ll be enough meat for the whole village.  

But the villagers weren’t happy, ‘’ look at them grinning!  they're not even sorry!’’ they cried, send them to Muihatafa to get water from the bottom of the pool, that will teach them a lesson. 

Ma’afu shook his head knowing that there was a vicious triggerfish at the waterhole. His boys wouldn't stand a chance. But he listened and agreed, when the brothers got to  Muihatafa, everything look so peaceful, the air was still There were no insects screeching and no birds singing. 

It was way to quiet the boys were terrified, ‘’ lets just fill our coconut shells from the waterwhole’’ said Ma’afutoka, ‘’ the people will never know’’ Ma’afuelele shook his head, ‘’ we had to be really sorry’’ he said. ‘’ we have to get the water from the bottom of the waterwhole’’ 

As soon as the boys dived into the waterwhole an inormus triggerfish had rushed towards them. Snapping its giant jaws the boys fought as hard as they could, but they were running out of air. 

Just as they thought they might drown, Ma’afutoka thrust his arm through the fish's gills.After a few moments, the triggerfish stopped movement. The boys filled their coconut shells from the bottom of the pool. Heaved the fish on their back  and headed back to the village, the people weren’t happy to see the boys again, ‘’they killed 2 of the dangerous creatures on the island’’ they cried, ‘’ we’re not safe when they’re around. 

Ma’afu tried to change his people’s minds but they had spoken, ‘’ you’ll have to move away’’ the chief told his sons sadly, ‘’I’ll give you a plantation each, on the other side of the island,’’  the boys hated to see their father unhappy but they didn’t want to leave him either. ‘’No’’ the brothers said, ‘’we’ll move far away from the villagers so they can feel safe, but it has to be a place we can always see each other,’’ Ma’afu hugged his sons proudly, then the brothers took their duck and their fish and went to live in the sky. 

On clear nights, we can still see the boys forming two bright patches near the milky way. What we call the magellanic clouds, we can also see the triggerfish (humu) and the duck (toloa) humu is a dark patch known as the coal sack. We know Toloa as the southern cross, Traditional navigators used the magellanic clouds to find north, and they used the southern cross to find south.