Whenever the dead ones return to the gods' original homeland of Bulotu, some of them are used as building materials by Hiku-leo, the perfidious god that was left in charge of the sacred land. In fact, they become poles for his outhouses, posts for his fences, and bars for his doors.

This has been happening since the moment in which Ata-longa, son of the powerful god Maui escaped to Tonga stealing his father's boat. Akau-lea, the Tree of Speech turned into melancholy when this happened. It was just the confirmation of his worst fears: nothing was going to be the same from that moment on. The young god and his friends had left arcadia and now they would learn about thirst, disease and death.

Part of the tree itself died after this event. From a fallen branch three boats took form. The boats traveled empty and on their own to Tonga. From there, they retrieved the first three casualties from the fleeing journey, Ata-longa's friend Fifita, his wife and his daughter.

Their death had occurred after a brief period of abundance and happiness in the colony that the disaffected gods formed in the Islands. The episode of death struck them enormously, as they had never seen anything like that. They did not even have a word for this fatidic event.

Frightened, the ex-gods decided to return to Bulotu, but they were never able to find the way back. The only alternative to return for them and their descendants was the boat that the Tree of Speech would send whenever each one's time came. But even in that case, they would only come back as slaves, or as the stakes for Hiku-leo's estate improvements.