2. In Polynesia the coconut palm could be regarded as a tree of life due to its usefulness. Furthermore, it had a mystic aura because the nut has spots like openings for eyes and mouth:

"... When viewed on end, the endocarp and germination pores give the fruit the appearance of a coco (also Côca), a Portuguese word for a scary witch from Portuguese folklore, that used to be represented as a carved vegetable lantern, hence the name of the fruit. The specific name nucifera is Latin for nut-bearing ... (Wikipedia)

In the Garden of Eden there is a devious snake involved and I cite from Legends of the South Seas:

"Though this is possibly the most ancient and most remote in origin of all Polynesian myths, referring as it does to that one who in our Genesis was 'more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made', its meaning has usually been disguised in printed versions on grounds of delicacy - Tuna being said to have 'struck Hina with his tail', or 'bitten her', or something of that kind.

Since snakes are unknown in the Pacific Islands, our very old friend the phallic serpent must needs assume the form of a monster eel (tuna) in stories that require his ritual killing to originate the principal food-plant of the region..."

"Tuna's origins are much more remote than anything that can be described as Polynesian. He is Joseph Campbell's 'great Serpent of the Eastern Planters' ... Campbell has shown us ... that the myth must be related to that critical point in the palaeolithic at which 'the idea occured to some of the women grubbing for edible plants to concentrate their food plants in gardens'. It is certain, he says, 'that the functions of planting and of this myth are related and that the myth flourishes among gardeners... We may guess the date [of its origins] to have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of 7500 BC ..."

Maui cut the great eel into pieces according to Maori Myths:

"... Soon afterwards Maui took a wife, and this led to the first of the exploits that he performed with the help of the jawbone of his ancestress. His wife went one day to wash herself in a still stream, and while she was in the water Tuna roa, the ancestor of eels, came slithering around her and made himself objectionable. That is, he touched her most improperly. When she went home she said to Maui: 'There is a man in that pool with very smooth skin.'

Maui at once felt jealous and decided to kill Tuna. He dug a trench beside the pool, and laid down nine logs as skids, so that Tuna might slide over them as when a canoe is launched. Then he told his wife to sit near the trench while he put up a screen to hide himself. Soon Tuna was seen swimming towards her, and as he slithered over the skids Maui ran out and slew him with the enchanted weapon. One end of Tuna went into the sea and became the ngoiro, or conger eel. The other end of Tuna became the fresh-water eel and is still called tuna. A part of him became the kareaou, or supple-jack, whose smooth black canes, like eels among the river-weed, entangle the forest undergrowth today. And the blood of Tuna was absorbed by the rimu, the totara, and other trees, giving their wood its reddish colour. After this exploit Maui lived quietly with his wife, and children were born to them ..."

Another myth relates how Hina first belonged to Tuna, but grew tired of him and of his cold watery kingdom. She walked away and searched for a new man. Huahega, the mother of Maui, told him to marry Hina.

To cut the 'monster eel' into more manageable parts is a well-known concept in ancient mythology.