Sink hole

The drama of creation, according to the Hawaiian account, is divided into a series of stages. . . At first the lowly zoophytes and corals come into being, and these are followed by worms and shellfish, each type being declared to conquer and destroy its predecessor, a struggle for existence in which the strongest survive. Parallel with this evolution of animal forms plant life begins on land and the sea -- at first with the algae, followed by seaweeds and rushes. As type follows type, the accumulating slime of their decay raises the land above the water, in which, as spectator of all, swims the octopus, the lone survivor from an earlier world. ~ Roland Dixon, Oceanic Mythology, 1916