Case file · Folklore / legend
Degei, the serpent god of Nakauvadra
Fijian tradition tells of Degei, a serpent god living in a cave in the Nakauvadra range, whose movements cause earthquakes and who judges the spirits of the dead; missionaries recorded the belief in the 1850s.
1858 CE · -17.43, 178.08 · status: legend
The account
The missionary Thomas Williams described Ndengei in 'Fiji and the Fijians' (1858). Spirits on their way to the afterlife were said to pass him for judgment.
The sceptical view
A traditional cosmology recorded by outsiders who were hostile to it; its details vary between regions.