Fijian version...
English version...
The Serpent God plays an important role in many religions and myths from all over the World. However, most of the times its role is identified with that of Evil, even if the common denominator of the Serpent God is that he wants humans to get knowledge (such as the example of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden in Christian religions).
In the mythology of Fiji Island, in one of the more popular creation stories, the Serpent God is not only an important God but the first and ever living god that created the first humans. His name is the Great Serpent Degei, the supreme God. He is believed to be the creator of the Fiji islands and all men related to the islands. He is the one that judges the souls when they die and decides where they move onto in the afterlife.
According to the legend, in the beginning it was only water and twilight everywhere and only an island existed, the island of the Gods which floated somewhere at the edge of the world and could be visible during sunrise. Degei was alone and the only living creature was the female hawk named Turukawa.
Turukawa couldn’t speak and the only thing she would do was to fly around Earth, until she started gathering leaves and grass creating a nest and finally two eggs were created. The great God Degei took the two eggs to his house where he made a bed for them and kept them warm with his body. When the eggs hatched, two tiny human beings came out, they were his children.
Once the first humans were born, they were transferred to a vesi tree where Degei built a shelter for them, fed them and taught them the secrets of nature. But he kept his children separate. He planted trees around them so they could find food, trees like banana trees, dalo and yams. However, humans could only eat from the banana tree and not dalo (or taro) and yams (like sweet potatoes), because they didn’t know the art of fire and the fruits of those trees couldn’t be eaten raw. Dalo and yams were the food of the gods.
When the first humans grew up they met each other and asked Degei to show them how to harness the power of the fire and how to eat the food of the Gods, and so Degei taught them. And it was after a while that the first humans left Degei and went to live on their own and had their first children. Degei wasn’t upset since he knew that his children and their children would worship him as their God.
According to the legend, the first village that Degei landed on was Lautoka where he established the village of Viseisei. It is interesting to note that Fiji has no snakes, so the concept of the snake God Degei not only is strange, but his story is very similar to Hindu mythology and the snake Kaliya, but while Degei is a good God, Kaliya is presented as a bad Serpent.
Fijian myths are interesting because they are one of the few that represent the Serpent God as a good God and not associated with evil. However, carefully studying mythologies and religions from all over the World, we can easily identify that that was the case with all Serpent Gods, but for many reasons, their role was twisted to that of an evil one.
My 34 word summary of the myth...
The Serpent God Degei was alone. The female Hawk Turukawa couldnt speak but she laid two eggs. Degei took them and kept them safe until they hatched. Two human beings came out they were his children. Deigi planted trees to separate his children and he taught them about the forest. The trees grew bananas, dalo and yams but Deigis children didn't know how to set fires to cook the dalo and yams. When they are older they met and ask Deigi to teach them how to use fire to cook. They worship Deigi as their God and yams and dalo are called 'the food of the gods!'
