Sangone

Once upon a time Loʻau went to Tonga and reported the happenings to king Tuʻitātui, who expressed the wish to have these relics. According to other versions: Sāngone had been his pet turtle, but it had been stolen behind his back by the Samoans. He sent several envoys to get the shell. They all failed. Finally he entrusted the mission to his half-brother Fasiʻapule (in some versions he went himself). When the party arrived at Savaiʻi, Fasiʻapule spoke thus: "No one will do the apportioning (the giving around of the kava at a royal kava ceremony), except me." And when the first toast was given he said: "Fainting alone in the bush, leaf screeching and whistling." The Samoan hosts had no idea what he was talking about, and quickly sought consult with the ancient and decrepit dwarf Lāfaipana who lived in the bush. The latter told them that a wild hopa (plantain) standing lonely in the bush was meant, as ripe bananas bend down from the stalk, and that taro leaves picked by pulling them from the stem give a screeching sound. When the Samoans after that brought the Tonga party plantain bananas wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in the ʻumu, Fasiʻapule knew that the riddle was solved. Then he brought out a new toast with this statement: "Growling and lying down." Lāfaipana said it was a pig, a pig so huge that it could not stand on it legs but lay down and grunted for food all day. So a pig was dressed for the oven and served. Fasiʻapule took the feet, the back and the head for him, and gave the rest to his hosts.

In other versions, however, it was rather Lāfaipana who asked the riddles, and Fasiʻapule who had to answer them. The dwarf was extremely unwilling to reveal the burial place of Sāngone, because of the prophecy done to him. He only agreed to tell it to someone who would be clever enough to meet his wits. "Singing winds?", he asked. "A wild fowl flying low over the bush when startled", was the answer. "What gives dust when you clap your (cupped) hands?" Lāfaipana wanted to know. It was a bundle of dried kava roots which emits a cloud of dust when disturbed. When also Fasiʻapule showed that he knew how to apportion the kava at the congregation, Lāfaipana admitted defeat.

Queen Sālote summarised the riddles in the following stanza from her famous lakalaka Sāngone as follows:

Before he let the Tongans start digging under the then-dead candlenut tree, Lāfaipana had a personal request to make: he would like to have a branch for his dove to perch on. Fasiʻapule agreed, went to Niua, cut a toa tree and came back. "What is that?", Lāfaipana asked. "The perch for your dove", was the answer. "You fool, to cut a piece of wood for me to sleep with. I thought that if you can make riddles for me to solve, then you should solve mine. That dove is a woman for me."

But now Fasiʻapule proceeded to dig up the shell, and as soon as it became visible, Lāfaipana shrivelled up and died.

The shell of Sāngone was brought to Tonga and was kept as a precious heirloom by successive generations of Tuʻi Tonga. Until Laufilitonga, after becoming a Christian, sold it to a vessel, which sold it in Fiji. When king Maeakafa heard about it, he went to Fiji, searched for it and found some of the shell and brought it back to Tonga where it still is (see above). It is also said that the remainder was used to make a fishhook in possession of Tungī Mailefihi.

• ʻI. F. Helu; Critical essays; 1999; ISBN 0-9595477-9-7
• ʻO. Māhina; Ko e ngaahi ʻata mei he histōlia mo e kalatua ʻo Tongá: Ke tufungaʻi ha lea Tonga fakaako; 2006; ISBN 978-0-908959-09-9
• E.W. Gifford; Tongan myths and tales; BPB bulletin 8, 1924