Rata
Rata is the voyager hero of the Society Islands, whose cycle is one of the most widely told oral tales of the Pacific. When his royal father Vahi-e-roa was killed — swallowed by the great clam Pua Tu Tahi in the Tahitian version — Rata felled a sacred tree to build his canoe, only to find it standing whole each morning. He hid and captured the elf-god To'a-hiti and his band who were restoring the tree, and they became his friends and built him a magic canoe in a single night.