The legend of the Sawa-i-Lau caves
RISING majestically out of the magnificent waters of the Yasawas, Sawa-i-lau Island is a rocky crag that may look like any other uninhabited island in the Fiji Group.
Sawa-i-Lau is owned by the people of Nabukeru, the village that hosts the group’s only secondary school and sits on a coast off the Yasawa mainland adjacent to the island.
It is home to a group of mysterious caves known as the Sawa-i-Lau Caves gaining prominence as one of the ‘must-do’ activities for travellers visiting Fiji’s spectacular Blue Lagoon (a term for the Yasawa waters).
The ancient limestone formations in the cave, carved by constant wave action are hidden by the little island.
In his detailed records of his adventure in the Fiji Group, traveller and researcher Doctor Aubrey Sparks also mentions his experience about these amazing caves.
He details his tour of the caves and stories related to him by inhabitants of Nabukeru two centuries or so immediately prior to the Deed of Cession on October 10 1874 as many of these tales are lost to this people.
There are many stories about the caves, but the well-known ones are centred on the fate of a manulevu or eaglehawk, and another relates to the fate of a female nitu or spirit who once lived there.
I was told of three series of caves that occur at various levels in the western face of the island.
Qwara ni Manulevu
The top most part of the cave series is known as the qwara ni manulevu or Cave of the Eagle.
It contains an extensive complex of passages and caverns, in which there are some impressive stalagmites.
The entrance used to be shaded by a baka or fig tree usually associated with spirits.
Back in the days of yore a Curei, a manulevu from Vasilele (Vatulele, Nadroga), used to live in the cave, living on turtle and porpoises and on men; and used to traverse the seas looking for them.
Once captured these unlucky finds were taken back to the cave where the beat consumed them for its meal.
Once the women of Naicobocobo - the strongest chiefdom in Bua, Vanua Levu - went out on a fishing trip.
According to legend the curei appeared and seized one of the women taking her back to his cave.
Meanwhile, the remaining fishing party returned to Bua telling their kinsmen including the husband of the unlucky women of the tragedy.
Together with the Naicobocobo warrior - Rokoua the woman’s husband - and other men set out to look for the woman.
Upon reaching the island of Yasawa, they went to Dalomo in the Yasawa’s where they were informed that the manulevu came from Sawa-i-Lau.
Opting for the roundabout route to Sawa-iLau to evade the watchful eyes of the beat, the party from Bua sailed towards the cave and anchored nearby.
They climbed up into the cave, carrying one spear, and found it empty, though they saw an arm in the cave with certain tattoo marks (qia). As individual woman had their own special
qia (tattoos) the men recognised the markings as those of the missing woman realising quickly that the manulevu living in the cave was the one that had seized her.
The men were hiding inside the cave when the manulevu came back with turtle and porpoises which it started to eat.
At this point, Rokoua told the husband of the missing woman to avenge his lover and spear the bird, but a fear had seized the man and he had urinated in his bark cloth stunned.
So he asked Rokoua to spear the manulevu, chanting: O na coka lau, daru sa toki; (Spear and hit, and
we will leave); O na coka cala, daru sa mate. (Spear and miss, and we will die).
Imbued with special powers, Rokoua prayed for a wind, and the wind blew the tail feathers of the manulevu up around its head exposing its vulnerable windpipes.
Wasting no time, the nimble warrior then struck its windpipe and killed it and disposing its carcass into the pool below its den.
Legend says it made such a big splash that created a wave dividing Votua in Ba, and Tamasua which until then had been connected.
On the wall of the cave there is a wet patch indicating where the husband had urinated, and those who know where to look can still see the bones of the manulevu lying at the bottom of the pool called Tobukobuasali.
This myth may reflect connections between the people of Tamasua/Nabukeru and Bua, Vatulele and Votua, and also between the Teci people of Dalomo and Bua.
It is within the same cave complex where one can find a narrow passage known as Oso na Bukete.
Legend says that women concealing their pregnancies back in the days were taken to this passage to be tested.
If she was at any stage of pregnancy, she would not be able to pass through this passage.
Lower down the series of caves is another cave known as the qwara ni sisili or Cave of the Bathing Pool. We will leave that story for another day.
Whoever thinks the underworld is a bad scary place, has never visited some of the magnificent caves in this world including the Sawa-iLau caves in the Yasawa groups.
The most interesting thing about exploring a cave is finding the contents of it which is hidden from plain sight almost like a puzzle waiting to
be solved.
Qwara ni Sisili
With the mysterious caves of Sawa-i-Lau this is no different and this week we look into the lowest of the series of caves known as the qwara ni sisili or Cave of the Bathing Pool which is divided into two chambers connected by an underwater passage.
The outer chamber may be approached on foot directly from the beach and is easy of access, but while the outer chamber is full of water legend says that the deep pool is home to a
gwadru or small shark and a damu or red fish. These animals are said to be the waqawaqa or manifestations of nitu or spirits, but deeper in the case is what are described as yams turned to stone.
There is a series of steps carved into the side of the chamber which leads up to a small cavity in the wall in which a person can sit and overlook the pool.
On walls of the chamber approach there are many petroglyphs of unknown prehistoric origin and significance, although they are referred to as the ivakatakilakila or signs of Lewaqoroqoro who is a female nitu or spirit that used to live on Sawa i Lau.
People in the nearby village of Nabukeru claim to hear her singing meke or chants until one day when she was heard no more.
On that day she was standing on the rocks (her footprints can still be seen on the rocks) while she urinated.
Tutusilo another nitu of Malolo smelt this and it stirred his desires, upon which he stretched out and lifted her up carrying her off to Malolo.
Lewaqoroqoro never returned to Sawa-i-Lau
and her singing has not been heard since.
The approach to the inner chamber is along a short passage below sea level and in the inner chamber which legend describes as a hiding place for a princess who was promised to another yet had offered her heart to a man on the Yasawas.
The cave is guarded by a shoal of uruuru a kind of fish.
In his journals traveller and researcher Doctor Aubrey Sparks mentions about Lewaqoroqoro, a spirit famous in the West, who spurred his interests with the incident surrounding her reflecting a possible socio-political connection between Malolo and Yasawa islands.
He says it was very difficult to comment on the petroglyphs.
“Petroglyphs in large numbers have been found engraved on a large rock at Dakuniba, south Vanua Levu, and on a large rock and a series of nearby smaller ones found by me in 1996 at the spiritual centre at Edronu, at the west end of the Tualeita near the coast bordering Sabeto and Vuda (see Vuda and Sabeto),” notes Mr Sparks.
“There is no obvious resemblance in the design between those at Edronu and those at Sawa-i-Lau, but there are similarities between the Sawa-i-Lau petroglyphs and those at Dakuniba.”
During his travel of the Yasawas he mentions of the middle cave which has not been explored but that to his knowledge that the people of Tamasua and Nabukeru knew nothing about it.
■ History being the subject it is, a group’s version of events may not be the same as that held by another group. When publishing one account, it is not our intention to cause division or to disrespect other oral traditions. Those with a different version can contact us so we can publish your account of history too — Editor.