{
  "country_code": "WS",
  "id": "sina-eel-coconut-variants",
  "title": "Sina and the eel: whose face is in the coconut?",
  "category": "legende",
  "date": "1884-01-01",
  "date_label": "1884 historical collection-publication anchor; no verified transformation date",
  "location": "Mataolealelo spring region, Safune, Savai'i",
  "lat": -13.48,
  "lng": -172.4,
  "summary": "An eel's pursuit of Sina ends with a coconut-origin story. Historical and modern versions connect the tale to a spring while differing in how the relationship begins.",
  "documented_claim": "Turner's collection contains a Sina-and-eel account, while the tourism authority associates the tradition with Mataolealelo spring.",
  "unproven_claim": "The coconut's markings prove an eel physically became a tree or identify one original version.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "George Turner — Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before, 1884",
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14224/pg14224-images.html",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Historical missionary collection · public-domain text",
      "note": "Published version is mediated and should be compared with local-language telling.",
      "id": "S1",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "Samoa Tourism Authority — Mataolealelo Spring",
      "url": "https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/mataolealelo-spring/",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Official place-and-legend account",
      "note": "Modern spring association and an eel-from-Fiji variant.",
      "id": "S2",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "New Zealand School Journal — November 2017",
      "url": "https://instructionalseries.tki.org.nz/content/download/39547/441030/file/SJL3%20November%202017.pdf",
      "language": "en",
      "kind": "Primary educational adaptation · PDF",
      "note": "A later dramatic retelling; not an independent ancient narrative witness.",
      "id": "S3",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    }
  ],
  "country": "Samoa",
  "author": "Eklipsis",
  "content_languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "path": "/investigations/sina-eel-coconut-variants",
  "source_url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14224/pg14224-images.html",
  "location_precision": "region",
  "location_note": "Approximate orientation marker for the named locality, not an exact encounter, burial, ritual or excavation position.",
  "location_source_url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=-13.48&mlon=-172.4#map=8/-13.48/-172.4",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-30",
  "edition": 1,
  "truth_type": "unknown",
  "verdict": "The Sina-and-eel tradition and a named Samoan landscape association are documented. A literal transformation and one definitive original version are not established.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mystery and the documented account",
      "text": "George Turner's 1884 collection includes a version in which a small eel is brought home for a child named Sina and grows into a pursuing creature. A 2017 educational play retells the eel's death and burial of its head, from which a coconut tree grows. Samoa's tourism authority associates the tale with Mataolealelo spring and describes an eel travelling from Fiji to be with Sina. These beginnings should remain distinct. The coconut's familiar marks become a narrative face, not physical evidence of an animal-to-plant transformation.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2",
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The question worth investigating",
      "text": "How do different beginnings change the tale's meaning, and when did a specific pool become its principal public location? Comparing versions is more informative than inventing one composite story.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence, provenance and uncertainty",
      "text": "Turner wrote as a missionary and mediated the stories into English. The school play is an adaptation, not an independent ancient account. The tourism source documents a living place association without dating the tale's origin. Parallels across Polynesia do not establish where the motif first arose.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2",
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Inspector’s assessment",
      "text": "The Sina-and-eel tradition and a named Samoan landscape association are documented. A literal transformation and one definitive original version are not established.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Next research and discriminating evidence",
      "text": "Compare complete texts and their teller or editor notes. Make a variant table for the eel's origin, pursuit, death and coconut ending. Preserve Samoan names and translation choices. Investigate the pool association through local histories with attributed dates, keeping literary adaptation separate from oral collection.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "1884",
      "text": "Turner's Samoa collection is published.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "November 2017",
      "text": "A school-journal play presents a later adaptation.",
      "refs": [
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "Contemporary place account, undated",
      "text": "The tourism authority connects the legend to Mataolealelo spring.",
      "refs": [
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 September 2026",
      "text": "Eklipsis compiles this English documentary investigation from the named sources. No field visit or new eyewitness interview is claimed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "text": "Turner's collection contains a Sina-and-eel account, while the tourism authority associates the tradition with Mataolealelo spring.",
      "status": "Documented in the named record",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The coconut's markings prove an eel physically became a tree or identify one original version.",
      "status": "Not established by the selected evidence",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2",
        "S3"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The Sina-and-eel tradition and a named Samoan landscape association are documented. A literal transformation and one definitive original version are not established.",
      "status": "Editorial assessment; stated limits apply",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "hypotheses": [
    {
      "title": "An origin tale linking relationship, loss and a useful plant",
      "status": "Supported narrative interpretation",
      "support": "Versions connect the eel and coconut origin.",
      "limits": "The starting relationship and episodes vary.",
      "test": "Compare whole versions and document the adaptation history."
    },
    {
      "title": "A literal animal-to-plant transformation at the spring",
      "status": "Not established",
      "support": "The landscape is associated with the tale.",
      "limits": "Association and visual resemblance are not event evidence.",
      "test": "Separate place tradition from an independently dated physical claim."
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "title": "Trace the earliest accessible record",
      "body": "For Sina and the eel: whose face is in the coconut?, record author or storyteller, collection date, language, translation, page and exact scope. Distinguish evidence of a story being told from evidence of its events. Note which full documents remain unavailable."
    },
    {
      "title": "Investigate the central question",
      "body": "Compare complete texts and their teller or editor notes. Make a variant table for the eel's origin, pursuit, death and coconut ending. Preserve Samoan names and translation choices. Investigate the pool association through local histories with attributed dates, keeping literary adaptation separate from oral collection."
    },
    {
      "title": "Compare explanations without merging evidence",
      "body": "Compare whole versions and document the adaptation history. Separate place tradition from an independently dated physical claim. Preserve contradictions and unsuccessful searches; proposed work remains unperformed."
    }
  ]
}