Sina lived with her children in a village called Utuloaloa. There was a famine in the country. Sina's heart was heavy because her family had nothing to eat. So, Sina said, "My children, there is nothing more I can do. Come along; jump into the sea. Perhaps we shall find some food there."
Sina was deceiving them. Because of her love for her children, she preferred to see them dead rather than have their sufferings constantly before her eyes. The children jumped into the sea and were drowned. Then Sina went and climbed on a gardenia tree. She plucked the blossoms and threw them into the sea. Her children who had turned into bonitos came along and ate them. Bonitos now take the hook with the white pearl shell shaft because of the white gardenia flowers that Sina had thrown into the sea to feed her children.
© George Thurman, 1999