Topic: Oceanic Mythology

[Prometheus]

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13 s


and seeing all the provisions, resolved to get them. So he said
to the man’s wife, who had been left alone with the children,
“M7 cousin told me to tell you to give me a package of food.”
The woman gave him one, and he hid it in the forest, after



Fig. I. Native Drawing of a Sea-Spirit

Tliese spirits are thought to live far out at sea and are usually malevolent. They
shoot men with flying fish and are supposed to travel in waterspouts or on the rain-
bow* San Cristoval, Solomon Islands. After Codrington, The Melanesians^ p. 259.

which he returned and repeated his request, thus carrying
away all the food which the people had stored. Finally he
seized the woman and her children, shut them up in a cave,
and went away, so that when the husband returned, he found
his house empty. Searching about, he at last heard his wife



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calling to him from the cave where she had been imprisoned,
and she told him how the cannibal, after stealing their food,
had taken her and the children. Hard though her husband
tried, he could not open the cave, but was forced to sit there
helpless while his wife and family starved to death, after which
he returned to his town and plaited the widower’s wristlets
and arm-bands for himself. One day the old cannibal came by,
and seeing him sitting there, he admired the plaited orna-
ments which the man wore, but did not know what they were.
He asked the man to make him some like them, and the widower
agreed, saying, “You must first go to sleep, then I can make
them properly.” So they went to seek a suitable place, and
the man, after secretly telling the birds to dam up the river,
that the bed might be dry, led the cannibal to a great tree-
root in the channel of the stream and told him that this
would be a good place. Believing him, the cannibal lay down
on the root and slept, whereupon the man took strong rattans
and vines and tied the monster fast, after which he called out
to the birds to break the dam and let the flood come down the
river. He himself ran to the bank in safety, and when the can-
nibal, awakened by the water which rose higher and higher,
cried out, “What is this cold thing which touches me?” the
man replied: “You evil cave-monster, surely It was for you
that we prepared all the food, and you came and ate it up.
You also killed my wife and children, and now you want me
to plait an arm-band for you.” Then he tore off his own arm-
bands and signs of mourning and threw them away, while
the water rose above the head of the cannibal and drowned
him.®

The theme of the woman abandoned by the people of the
village, one form of which has already been given,^® is very
common in Melanesia, and another version ” presents several
interesting features for comparison. A woman named Gara-
wada one day went with her mother-in-law into the jungle to
gather figs. Coming to a fig-tree, Garawada climbed up and


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began to eat the ripe fruit, while she threw down the green
ones to her mother-in-law. The latter, angered at this, called
to Garawada to come down, but when she reached the fork
in the tree, the old woman, who was a witch, caused the forks
to come together, thus imprisoning her daughter-in-law, after
which she went away and left her. For many days the woman
remained in the tree, and finally bore a son; but after a while the
child fell to the ground, and though his mother feared that he
would die, he found wild fruits and water, and lived. One day
he looked up into the tree and discovered his mother, and from
that time he gave her fruits and berries in order that she might
not starve. Nevertheless, he longed for other companions,
and one day he said to his parent, “Mother, teach me my pari,
that I may sing it when I find my people, and that thus they
may know me.” So she taught him his spell:

“I have sucked the shoots of dabedabe;

My mother is Garawada.”

The child then ran off to seek his way out of the jungle. Once
he forgot his song, but after hastening back to relearn it, he
hurried away again and came to the edge of the forest, where
he saw some children throwing darts at a coco-nut which was
rolled upon the ground. He yearned to play with them, and
making for himself a dart, he ran toward them, singing his
charm and casting his missile. Not being used to aim at a
mark, however, he missed the coco-nut and struck one of the
children in the arm, whereat, thinking an enemy had attacked
them, the children all ran shrieking to their homes. The next
day he came again, and this time the children fled at once,
but though he followed, he was unable to catch them,
and so returned a second time to his mother. The children
now reported their adventure to their parents, and the father
of one of them determined to go with them the following day
and hide that he might watch what happened. Accordingly,
when the little jungle-boy came the third time, the man ran



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out and caught him and asked him who he was; whereupon
the boy told him the story of his mother’s bravery, and how
he himself had grown up alone in the jungle, and then sang
his song:

“I have sucked the shoots of dabedabe;

My mother is Garawada.”

At this the man said, “Truly thou art my nephew. Come,
let us go and set thy mother free.” So they went with many
of the villagers and cut down the tree, for they could not sepa-
rate the branches; but as the tree fell, Garawada slipped away
and ran swiftly to the beach, and there, turning into a crab,
crawled into a hole in the sand. Her son wept, because he
knew that his mother had left him, but his uncle led him back
to the village and took him into his own home, and the chil-
dren no longer were afraid to have him for a playfellow.^®

The theme of the swan-maiden, which perhaps occurs in parts
of Polynesia and widely in Indonesia,^^ seems quite well de-
veloped in the New Hebrides. According to the version told
in Lepers Island,^® a party of heavenly, winged maidens once
flew down to earth to bathe,“ and Tagaro watched them.
“He saw them take off their wings, stole one pair, and hid them
at the foot of the main pillar of his house. He then returned
and found all fled but the wingless one, and he took her to his
house and presented her to his mother as his wife. After a
time Tagaro took her to weed his garden, when the yams
were not yet ripe, and as she weeded and touched the yam
vines, ripe tubers came into her hand. Tagaro’s brothers
thought she was digging yams before their time and scolded
her; she went into the house and sat weeping at the foot of
the pillar, and as she wept her tears fell, and wearing away the
earth pattered down upon her wings. She heard the sound,
took up her wings, and flew back to heaven.^®

Another version adds that the returning sky-maiden took
her child with her; and when Tagaro came back to find his
wife and son absent, he asked his mother regarding them, her





PLATE XV


Mask of carved wood, ornamented with figures of
a bird, fish, etc. These masks are worn in religious
ceremonials, and the animals, birds, and fish represent
mythical creatures appearing in clan or family myths.
New Ireland, Melanesia. Peabody Museum, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts.







MISCELLANEOUS TALES 139

reply being that they had gone to the house and wept because
they had been scolded about the yams. Tagaro hurried to the
dwellingj but seeing that the wings were gone, he knew that
his wife and child had returned to the sky-land. Thereupon
he called a bird and said, “Fly up and seek for them in their
country, for you have wings and I have not.” So the bird flew
up and up and up, and perched upon a tree in the sky-country.
Under the tree Tagaro’s wife sat with her child, making mats,
and the bird, scratching upon a fruit pictures of Tagaro, the
child, and its mother, dropped it at their feet. The boy seized
it, and recognizing the pictures, they looked up and saw the
bird, from whom they learned that Tagaro was seeking them.
The sky-woman bade the bird tell Tagaro that he must ascend
to the sky-land, for only if he should come up to her would
she agree to descend to earth again. The bird carried the
message, but Tagaro was in despair, for how, without wings,
could he possibly reach the sky? At last he had an idea.
Quickly making a powerful bow and a hundred arrows, he shot
one of them at the sky. The arrow stuck firmly, and he then
shot another into the butt of the first, and a third into the butt
of the second, and thus, one after another, he sent his arrows,
making an arrow-chain, until, when he had sped the last one,
the end of the chain reached the earth.^® Then from the sky
a banian-root crept down the arrow-chain and took root in the
earth. Tagaro breathed upon it, and it grew larger and stronger,
whereupon, taking all his ornaments, he and the bird climbed
the banian-root to the sky. There he found his lost wife and
child, and said to them, “Let us now descend.” Accordingly
his wife gathered up her mats and followed him, but when
Tagaro said to her, “Do you go first,” she replied, “No, do
you go first.” So Tagaro started, and they followed; but when
they were half way down, his wife took out a hatchet which
she had concealed and cut the banian-root just beneath her,
so that Tagaro and the bird fell to earth, while she and her
child climbed back again to the sky.



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In its distribution the stor7 of the Isle of Women presents
a number of elements of interest. According to the version
from New Britain/” a man one day set some snares in a tree
to catch pigeons. One of the birds was caught, but suc-
ceeded in tearing the snare loose and flew away over the sea.
The man, thinking to secure it, followed it in his canoe, and
after having paddled all day and all night, in the morning he
saw an island and the bird perched upon a tree. Carefully con-
cealing his canoe, he started after the bird, but hearing people
coming, he hurriedly climbed into a tree and hid himself.
The tree stood directly over a spring, and soon many women
appeared, coming to get water. One of them preceded the
others, and as she stooped to dip up water, she saw the re-
flection of the man in the surface of the pool;^^ whereupon she
called out to her companions, “I will fill your water-vessels
for you,” for she did not wish the others to know that there
was a man in the tree. When all the vessels had been filled
and the women had started to return home, she secretly left
her sun-shield behind; and after they had gone a little way,
she said, “Oh, I left my sun-shield! Do you all go on, I will
catch up.” So she went back to the spring, and calling to the
man to come down, she asked him to marry her, and he agreed.
She took him to her house and secreted him there, and thus
she alone of all the women had a man for her husband; for all
the rest had only tortoises. In due time she had a child, at
which the other women were envious and asked her how her
human child had been born; but she refused to disclose her
secret, although by and by she confided to her sister that she
had found a man and agreed to let her also become his
wife. When later her sister bore a child, the other women were
again curious, and at last discovering the secret, each and
every one of them wished to have the man for her husband,
and they paid the sisters to let them all marry the man and
become his wives; so that the man had very many spouses.
After the man’s first child had grown, he determined to leave


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the island; and accordingly, uncovering his canoe, which he
had concealed, he paddled away to his own home, where he
saw the signs that were put up in the house of the dead, for
all thought him drowned. It was evening when he reached
his village, and as he rapped on the drum to let his wife know
that he had returned, she called out, “Who is there?” to which
he answered, “It is I.” She lit a torch and came out of the
house and looked at him; but was angry, and saying, “You
are the one who caused us to spend all our bead-money in vain
on your funeral ceremonies, while you have been living shame-
lessly with other wives,” she seized an axe and struck him so
that he died.^

Of tales in which inanimate objects become persons or act
as such, and which are apparently characteristic of the Melane-
sian area, we may take an example from German New Guinea.*®
One night, while two women were sleeping in a house, a tapa-
beater transformed itself into a woman resembling one of the
pair, and waking the other, said to her, “ Come, it is time for
us to go fishing.” So the woman arose, and they took torches
and went out to sea in a canoe. After a while she saw an
island of drift-wood, and as the dawn came on, perceived that
her companion had turned into a tapa-heaXer.,^ whereupon
she said: “Oh, the tapa-he&ttr has deceived me. While we
were talking in the evening, it was standing in the corner and
heard us, and in the night it came and deceived me.” Landing
her on the island, the tapa-htattv paddled away and abandoned
her; but she sought for food, and found a sea-eagle’s egg which
she held in her hand until it broke and hatched out a young
bird, for which she cared until it grew large. Then the bird
would fly off and get fish for her to eat, and also brought her
a fire-brand, so that she could cook her food. Her great desire,
however, was to return to her home; but when the bird said
that he would carry her to the shore, she doubted whether he
was strong enough. Then the bird seized a great log of wood
and showed her that he could lift that, so she finally trusted



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him and thus was borne safely back to her own island. Her
parents were delighted to see her, and she petted and fed the
bird who had taken care of her so well; but since the sea-
eagle could not be content, it flew away. Then the woman
told her parents how the tepa-beater had deceived and kid-



Fig. 2. Native Drawing of a ‘‘Dogai,” or Female Bogey, Named
Metakorab

The small striped object in the upper right-hand, corner represents a man, Bu,
who shot and killed her. The “ Dogai ” is now a group of stars of which Altair is
one; Bu is now the star-group known as the Dolphin. Torres Straits. Reports
of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits^ v, 12, Fig. 4.

napped her; and her father was angry, and building a great
fire, he threw the topa-beater into it and burned it up.®®

Equally typical of Melanesia are the many tales of ghosts;
and an example from the Kai, a Papuan tribe of German New
Guinea, runs as follows.®® One day a number of brothers who
were gathering material for making arm-bands had climbed
into a great tree, when the youngest made a mis-step, and fall-
ing to the ground, was killed. The other brothers, who could



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not see what had happened because of the thick foliage, called
out, “What was that which fell?” The ghost of the dead
brother, however, still stood in the tree and said, “I stepped
on a dead branch which broke, ” and thus l7ing to his brothers,
he descended from the tree before them, wrapped his body In
leaves, and hid it. When his brothers came down, the ghost
went along with them, but on the way he suddenly said,
“Oh! I forgot and left something at that tree. Wait for me
till I get it.” Accordingly they waited while the ghost went
back, picked up his body, and brought it along, but hid it
again before he came to the place where his brothers were.
Then they all went on toward the village; but after a while
he repeated the trick several times until his brothers, becom-
ing suspicious, watched and found out how they had been de-
ceived. Thereupon they all fled, and coming to the village,
cried out, “We have seen something mysterious. Shut your
doors.” So all the people obeyed, all but an old woman and
her grandson, for she had not heard the warning and left her
door open.

By and by the ghost came, carrying his body on his back.
He tried to throw his corpse into the first house, but it struck
against the closed door and fell down again; so he picked it
up and cast it at the nezt with like result. Thus he tried
them ail until he came to the last house, in which the old
woman lived; and here, because the door was open, the ghost
succeeded and threw his body Into the house. Quickly the
old woman seized the bundle and tossed It out again, but the
ghost caught it and hurled it back. Thus they continued to
send the body to and fro; but at last the old woman seized her
grandson by mistake and threw him out, at which the ghost
cried, “That is great! Now you have given me something to
eat.” The old woman then said, “Throw him back again,”
but the ghost replied, thinking to cheat her, “Do you first
throw out my body. Then I will throw him back.” So they
argued until dawn was near, when the old woman shouted.



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“The dawn is coming. Does that mean something for you or
for me?” Since the ghost replied, “For me!” the woman de-
layed until the day had come. The light of the sun put the
ghost in danger, so he threw the grandson back and received
his own body in return; but being no longer able to conceal
himself, he was changed into a wild tero-plant, while his body
became a piece of bark.^’^

In many parts of Melanesia a type of tale is found which
seems to be rare in Polynesia and Indonesia, but is, on the
other hand, common in Australia, i. e. the stories told to ac-
count for peculiar markings or characteristics of different
animals, plants, or inanimate things. In the Banks Islands
it is said that a rat and a rail, once finding a gariga-tr&o.
full of ripe fruit, disputed which should climb the tree. At
last the rat went up, but instead of throwing ripe fruit down
to the rail, he ate them himself and tossed down only stones.
Finding that the rat refused to give him any fully ripe fruit,
the bird said, “Throw me down that one. It is only red ripe,”
whereupon the rat took the fruit and tossed it at the rail,
so that it hit him on his forehead and stuck fast. The rail
was angry, and as the rat came down from the tree, he thrust
the unfolded leaf of a dracaena into the rat’s rump, where it
stuck fast. So the tail of the rat is the leaf of the dracaena
that the rail put there, and the red lump on the head of the
rail is the gariga-imit which the rat threw at him.

In Lepers Island in the New Hebrides the origin of good
and bad yams is given as follows.®® One day a hen and her
ten chickens came across a wild yam, which got up after a
while and ate one of the chickens. The survivors called to a
kite, which said to the hen, “Put the chickens under me,”
and when the yam came and asked the kite where the chickens
were, the bird replied, “I don’t know.” Thereupon the yam
scolded the kite, and the latter, seizing the yam, flew high
into the air and dropped it to the ground. Then another kite
took it up and let it fall, so that the yam was broken into

[Prometheus]

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two parts; and thus the two kites divided the yam between
them, whence some yams are good and some are bad.

The story of how the turtle got his shell is told as follows
in British New Guinea.®® The turtle and the wallaby, being
hungry one day, went together to the hornbill’s garden and
began to eat his bananas and sugar-cane. While they were
thus engaged, the birds were preparing a feast, and Binama,
the hornbill, asked one of them to go to the shore for some
salt water with which to flavour the food. Several made ex-
cuses, for they feared that an enemy might kill them, but at
last the wagtail agreed to go, and on the way passed through
Binama’s garden, where he saw the wallaby and the turtle
feasting. The turtle was much frightened at being discovered
and said, “Your master bade us eat his bananas, for we were
hungry.” The wagtail knew that this was not true, but said
nothing, got the sea-water, and returning to the village by
another path, cried out, “Friends, the turtle and the wallaby
are eating in our master’s garden.” Then all the people were
angry, and getting their spears, they ran and surrounded the
garden. The wallaby, seeing his danger, made a tremendous
leap and escaped, but the turtle, having no means of flight,
was caught and carried prisoner to Binama’s house, where he
was tied to a pole and laid upon a shelf until the morrow, when
Binama and the others went to get food to make a feast, at
which they intended to kill the turtle. Only Binama’s chil-
dren were left in the house, and the turtle, speaking softly
to them, said, “Loosen my bonds, O children, that we may
play together.” This the children did and then, at the turtle’s
request, got the best of their father’s ornaments, which the
turtle donned and wore as he crawled about. This amused
the children and they laughed loudly, for the turtle had put
a great bead necklace about his neck and shell armlets on his
arms and a huge wooden bowl on his back. By and by the
people could be heard returning; and as soon as the turtle
became aware of this, he ran swiftly to the sea, while the chil-

IX — n


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146

dren cried out, “Come quickly, for the turtle is running
away!” So all the people chased the turtle, but he succeeded
in reaching the sea and dived out of sight. When the people
arrived at the shore, they called out, “Show yourself! Lift up
your head!” Accordingly the turtle rose and stuck his head
above water, whereupon the birds hurled great stones at him
and broke one of the armlets; they threw again and destroyed
the other; again, and hit the necklace, so that the string gave
way, and the beads were lost. Then for a last time calling to
the turtle to show himself, they threw very large stones
which fell upon the wooden bowl on his back, but they did
not break it, and the turtle was not harmed. Then he fled far
away over the sea, and to this day all turtles carry on their
backs the bowl that once was in the house of Binama.

From New Britain comes the following tale of the dog and
the kangaroo. One day when the kangaroo was going along,
followed by the dog, he ate a yellow lafua-irait and was
asked by the dog, when the latter came up with him, “Tell
me, what have you eaten that your mouth is so yellow?” The
kangaroo replied, “There is some of it on yonder log,” point-
ing to a pile of filth; whereupon the dog, thinking that it was
good, ran quickly and ate it up, only to hear his companion
laugh and say, “Listen, friend, what I ate was a yellow lapua-
fruit like that; what you have eaten is simply filth.” Angered
at the trick played upon him, the dog resolved to have his
revenge, and so, as they went on toward the shore, he ran
ahead and buried his forepaws in the sand. When the kan-
garoo came up, the dog said: “Gracious, but you have long
forepaws! Break off a piece of your long paws. I have broken
off a piece of mine as you see, and now mine are beautiful and
short. Do you do likewise, and then we shall both be alike.”
So the kangaroo broke off a piece of each of his forepaws and
threw the pieces away, whereupon the dog jumped up and said,
triumphantly, “Aha! I still have long forepaws, but you have
only short ones. You are the one who deceived me and made



MISCELLANEOUS TALES 147

me eat the filth,” and as he uttered these words, he sprang at
the kangaroo and killed him, and ever since the kangaroo
has had short forepaws.** In several cases the parallelism be-
tween the Melanesian and Australian tales of this type is very
striking; its significance will be apparent later.



CHAPTER IV
SUMMARY


T he material on the mythology of Melanesia, though
incomplete and fragmentary, appears rather clearly to
prove the existence of two distinct strata, one of which
may be called Papuan, the other Melanesian. The former is
best represented among the Kai tribes of the region north of
Huon Gulf in German New Guinea, as well as by the Baining
and Sulka of northern New Britain, and may be traced, more
or less plainly, among the remaining coastal tribes of both
German and British New Guinea; whereas it is much less ap-
parent in the Banks Islands, the New Hebrides, and Fiji.
The Melanesian stratum, on the other hand, is perhaps best
developed in eastern Melanesia, i. e. Santa Cruz, the Banks
Islands, the New Hebrides, and Fiji; though it is well repre-
sented throughout the New Guinea littoral districts, among
the coast tribes of northern New Britain and in the Admiralty
Islands. What has been called the Papuan type of mythology
seems to be characterized by a relative absence of cosmogonic
myths, by the prominence of ghosts, and by a general sim-
plicity and naivete; and this category also appears to show an .
extensive development of tales of local distribution only, cor-
responding to the discreteness and lack of relationship on the
linguistic side. The Melanesian stratum, on the other hand,
exhibits a considerably greater evolution on the side of cos-
mogony, an especial fondness for cannibalistic tales, and a
rudimentary dualistic character which is revealed in the many
stories of the wise and foolish culture hero brothers. Further
examination of this Melanesian type seems to indicate that



SUMMARY


149


it is by no means a unit, although, because of the character
of the material, any conclusions must be wholly tentative.
The following grouping is suggested: (i) myths of general dis-
tribution throughout Melanesia; (2) those confined more or
less strictly to New Guinea and the immediate vicinity; and
(3) those similarly restricted in their distribution to Fiji, the
New Hebrides, and the Banks and Santa Cruz Islands.

If now, instead of limiting our view to Melanesia alone, we
include the whole of the Oceanic area and endeavour to dis-
cover the relationship of Melanesian mythology to that of the
adjacent sections, it appears that, whereas of the two main
types (the Papuan and Melanesian) the former shows little
in common with any of the other Oceanic regions, the latter,
on the contrary, exhibits numerous and interesting relation-
ships with Indonesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, and some
even with Australia. The Melanesian type of incidents which
reveal similarities with these other areas may be divided into
four groups: (i) those whose resemblances are only with In-
donesia; (2) only with Polynesia; (3) with both Indonesia and
Polynesia; and (4) with Micronesia. The first of these groups
is represented much more strongly in New Guinea than in the
eastern archipelago; and in New Guinea it is far more promi-
nent on the northern coast than on the southern. It would
seem to manifest influences from Indonesia which, in the course
of migrations eastward, did not extend beyond Melanesia,
and which were greater in New Guinea and its vicinity than
in the eastern and more distant archipelagos. The second
group — rather unexpectedly — is, like the first, more promi-
nent in New Guinea than farther east, but is better repre-
sented on the south coast than is the first group. From the
character of the incidents and their distribution in Melanesia
and Polynesia this group itself would appear to comprise
{a) incidents preponderantly Melanesian, borrowed by the
Polynesian ancestors and carried with them into Polynesia,
and {b) incidents of Polynesian development which have been



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


ISO

transmitted westward as a result of the probable late reflex
of Polynesian peoples into parts of eastern Melanesia.

The third group, comprising myth-incidents from Indonesia,
Melanesia, and Polynesia, is contrasted with both the others
in that it is best represented In eastern Melanesia. Theo-
retically, these incidents may be regarded as a portion of those
brought by the Polynesian ancestors from their Indonesian
homes and still preserved by them in Polynesia. Their pres-
ence in Melanesia would thus be hypothetically due to their
having been taken over from the migrant Polynesians, and their
greater prominence in the eastern archipelago would be ex-
pected, as it was presumably in this area, rather than in New
Guinea, that, during their migration, the Polynesian ancestors
made their longest halt and exerted their greatest influence
on the aboriginal population. The last group, which is com-
posed of those Incidents common to Melanesia and Micro-
nesia, Is about equally represented in New Guinea and the
eastern archipelago. The relatively large number of similari-
ties between Micronesia and Melanesia is only what we should
expect, owing to the many evidences derived from other
sources, of relationship between the peoples of the two areas;
but the amount of agreement with eastern Melanesia is rather
striking.



PART III


INDONESIA




PART III
INDONESIA

T he mythology of the Indonesian area presents problems
which are in many respects similar to those in Polynesia
and Melanesia, though more complex in that a larger number
of factors are concerned. In Polynesia the ethnic composi-
tion of the population was relatively simple, for it seems to
have consisted, as already stated, of a blend of several waves
of immigrants from Indonesia, who had, presumably in transit,
mixed to a varying extent with the peoples of Melanesia.
The relative proportions of Indonesian and Melanesian ele-
ments in the mythology have been found to vary in different
groups of islands, and indications of several strata of Indone-
sian myths have also seemed to be indicated. In Indonesia
itself, on the other hand, a larger number of distinct racial
types are present, for we have here the Negrito, Indonesian,
and Malay, as well as not inconsiderable elements from Se-
mitic (Arabian) and Hindu sources. The latter peoples have
brought with them the influence of the more highly developed
cultures of southern Asia, while the Arabs and later Malays
have everywhere introduced factors of Islamic origin. Mytho-
logical elements imported from these latter sources lie out-
side the scope of the present volume, so that, with some ex-
ceptions, we shall here consider only those tales which are
primarily local and presumably aboriginal in origin, although
it will be apparent that the task of separating the native from
the introduced mythology is often difiicult.

At the outset we may practically eliminate the Negrito from
our consideration, inasmuch as there is, as yet, no accessible



154


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


material derived from these people, who seem once to have
formed the underlying stratum of the whole area. Today the
Negrito survives only in the Philippines and the Malay Penin-
sula, and although it is probable that myth material may yet
be obtained from them, none has thus far been published. In
view of this serious gap in our knowledge, which, it is to be
hoped, may soon be filled, we are restricted to the myths of
the Indonesian and Malay population. Rather than attempt
to separate them at the outset, it will be more advantageous
to consider the material as a whole, discovering any subdivi-
sions into distinct types which we may.



CHAPTER I

MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE


A mong all the peoples of Indonesia, the mountain tribes
of northern Luzon in the Philippines seem to stand alone
in respect to cosmogonic myths in that, so far as material now
at our command is concerned, they lack entirely, or almost
entirely, any myths of the origin of the universe.* The world,
according to their belief, has always existed, although perhaps
not in its present form, as has also the upper or sky-world.
Of the creation of the earth or of mankind, of animals or of
plants, little or nothing is said. All of these tribes, as will be
seen later, possess deluge-myths, but of tales relating to the
preceding period there are few if any.

The apparent absence of cosmogonic myths among these
tribes is suggestive, for these peoples constitute, so far as can
be determined, one of the purest remnants of the earliest non-
Negrito stratum of Indonesia and have been practically un-
influenced by Indian and Islamic cultures, to which most of
the other Indonesian peoples have been directly or indirectly
exposed. In view of the affiliation of the earliest non-Negrito
population of Indonesia with the Mon-Hkmer peoples of south-
east Asia, which has recently been suggested on linguistic
grounds,® it is perhaps significant that this same trait of the
absence of true cosmogonic tales and the importance of deluge-
myths is found among them alsoj so far as is indicated by the
very scanty material that is as yet available.®

Some of the tribes in Celebes are also characterized by the
absence of any myths referring to the creation of the world or
of the gods, though they are unlike the type to which refer-



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


156

ence has just been made in that they have tales which account
for the origin of mankind. The Bugi and the people of Makas-
sar in the south-western part of the island state that in the
beginning the son of the sky-deity was sent down to earth on
the rainbow that he might organize and prepare the world
for mankind. This task accomplished, he took to wife six
female deities, three of whom had descended with him from
the sky-world, and three of whom were derived from the earth
or from the underworld, and thus he became the ancestor of
all mankind.'*

A more circumstantial myth is recorded from the Kei
Islands in the extreme south-east of the Indonesian area.
According to this tale,® there were three brothers and two sisters
in the upper sky-world. While fishing one day, Parpara, the
youngest of the brothers, lost a fish-hook which he had bor-
rowed from Hian, his oldest brother, who, angered by the loss
of the hook, demanded that it be found and returned to him.
After much fruitless search, the culprit met a fish who asked
him what his trouble was, and who, on learning the facts,
promised to aid in the search, at length discovering another
fish who was very ill because of something stuck in its throat.
The object proved to be the long-lost hook, which the friendly
fish delivered to Parpara, who thus was able to ;restore it to its
owner. Parpara, however, determined to have his revenge
upon his brother, and so he secretly fastened a bamboo vessel
full of palm liquor above Hian’s bed in such a way that
when the latter rose, he would be almost certain to upset it.
The expected happened, and Parpara then demanded of his
brother that he return to him the spilled liquor. Hian en-
deavoured, of course fruitlessly, to gather it up, and in his
efforts dug so deeply into the ground that he made an open-
ing clear through the sky-world. Wondering what might lie
below, the brothers determined to tie one of their dogs to a
long rope and lower him through the aperture; and when they
had done this, and the dog had been drawn up again, they found


MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 157

white sand sticking to his feet, whereupon they resolved to go
down themselves, although the other inhabitants of the heaven-
world refused to accompany them thither. Sliding down the
rope, the three brothers and one of the sisters, together with
their four dogs, safely reached the world which lay below,
and which was thus discovered for the first time. As the second
sister was descending, however, one of the brothers chanced
to look up, at which his sister was so ashamed that she shook
the rope and was hauled up by the other sky-people. In this
way the three brothers with their sister were the first occu-
pants of the world and became the ancestors of the human
race.®

Although the existence of the earth is postulated in Mina-
hassa, in the extreme north-east of Celebes, we find an origin
given for some of the gods and for mankind.^ In the beginning
the wind blew over the sea, and raising great waves, drove
upon the shore the spume which their beating caused, the mass
of foam being in the shape of an egg. The sun shone upon
this, and from it was born a boy, who grew miraculously.
One day, as he wandered along the shore, he saw a girl sitting
upon a rock from which she had just been born, and taking
her to wife, he thus became the parent of mankind. This and
the preceding type, in which the cosmogonic element was
wholly lacking, are, however, not common in Indonesia, and
it is only when we turn to the next category that we find one
current over large areas.

This more wide-spread class assumes the existence of a sky-
world or upper realm, and of a primeval sea below it in which
or on which the world is made. We may begin with the out-
line of a myth told in Minahassa which is a variant off the
one just given. According to this form,® in the beginning there
were only the sea and a great rock which was washed by the
waves, and which, after first giving birth to a crane, sweated,
from the sweat being produced a female deity called Lumi-
mu-ut.® Advised by the crane of the existence of the “original

[Prometheus]

IS8 OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY

land,” she got from thence two handfuls of earth which she
spread upon the rock, and so she created the world, on which
she planted the seeds of all plants and trees, obtaining
them from the same “original land.” Having thus made
the earth, Lumimu-ut ascended a mountain, where the west
wind blew upon her and made her fruitful. In due time she
bore a son, and when he had grown to manhood his mother
advised him to seek a wife, but though he sought far and wide,
he could find none. So Lumimu-ut gave him a staff, whose
length was equal to her own stature, bidding him to seek for
a woman who should be less tall than the staff, and telling
him that when he should find such a person he would know
that she was the one he was destined to marry. Mother and
son then separated, one going to the right and one to the left,
and travelled around the whole world until at last they met
again, without recognizing each other, and lo! when he set
the staff beside her, its length was greater than her stature,
for without his knowledge the rod had increased in height.
Believing, therefore, that the woman, who was indeed his own
mother, was she of whom he had been told, he married her,
and she bore him many children who became gods. This
form of myth does not, indeed, directly refer to the sky-world,
but speaks of the “original land” from which Lumimu-ut
obtained earth and seeds for the construction of the world.
It is interesting to compare the incident of the birth of Lu-
mimu-ut from the rock, which alone broke the surface of the
primeval sea, with the Tongan and Samoan myths of the
origin of the first beings and of the world from a stone which
split open; and a similar idea also occurs in Melanesia.^® Per-
haps more characteristic of this type of origin-myths are the
legends of the Kayan, Kenyah, and Bahau of central Borneo.
According to the Kayan,^^ originally there was nothing but
the primeval sea and over-arching sky; but from the heavens
there fell into the sea a great rock, upon whose barren surface,
in course of time, slime collected, from which were bred worms




PLATE XVI


Wooden mask representing a spirit or ghost. Worn
in dances by the tribes of Sarawak and central Borneo.
Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.














MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 159

that bored into the rock. The sand produced by this boring
collected, eventually covering the rock with soil, and after
many years there fell from the sun upon this land the wooden
handle of a sword which, taking root, grew into a great tree;
while from the moon fell a vine which clung to the tree and
rooted itself in the rock. From this mating of the tree and vine
were born two beings, a boy and a girl, who wedded in their
turn and became the ancestors of the Kayan.^® Another ver-
sion “ varies somewhat in its details. In the beginning a
spider descended from the sky*^ and spun a web, into which
fell a tiny stone that grew and grew until it filled all the space
under the horizon. A lichen fell from heaven upon this rock,
to which it adhered, and then came a worm, from whose ex-
crement the first soil was formed. This covering of earth
gradually spread over all the rock; and next there fell upon
the ground so made a tree, which at first was tiny in size, but
which took root and grew great. A crab now dropped down
to the earth and with its claws dug and scratched in the ground,
thus forming the mountains and valleys. Plants grew upon
the earth, and a vine, winding itself about the tree, mated
with it. Finally, two beings, one male and one female, de-
scended from heaven upon the tree, the male dropping a sword-
handle and the female a spindle. Mating, these objects bore
a child which had only head and body, but no arms or legs;
and this monster in its turn produced two children, a boy and
girl, who united and gave birth to offspring, which from gen-
eration to generation became more and more human in form
until finally they were wholly so. These and their descendants
then became deities of various sorts.^®

With them we may compare the origin-myths of several
of the tribes of south-eastern Borneo. One version states
that in the beginning there were only the sky and sea, in which
swam a great serpent upon whose head was a crown of gold
set with a shining stone.®® From the sky-world the deity threw
earth upon the serpent’s head, thus building an island in the



i6o OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY

midst of the sea; and this island became the world.^^ A slightly
variant account ^ declares that the deity sent down a mes-
senger or servant to report upon conditions, and that it was
this servant who spread the earth on the serpent’s head.
Still another version from this same region is interesting in
that it serves as a transition to those found in Sumatra. Ac-
cording to this tale,^® in the world of the gods there were two
trees, one of which bore a bud or sprout in the form of a ball.
By the motions of a bird, which sat on this tree, the bud
was shaken off and fell into the Spirit River, in which a great
serpent dwelt; but though the latter tried to swallow the mys-
terious object, it escaped him, and drifting to the shore, was
metamorphosed into a woman. Marrying a man who was
developed from a tree-trunk floating in the sea, she gave birth,
first, to six streams of blood from which all evil spirits came;
and finally to two sons, one of whom, taking with him the
seeds of all plants and animals, was lowered from the sky-
world, where all these events occurred, to the earth (of whose
origin nothing is said) that he might prepare it for men.

Deferring for the moment any discussion of these tales, we
may turn to a third group of myths, i. e. those of the Battak
of Sumatra. The Toba Battak (who of all the Battak tribes
are probably the least influenced by Muhammadan or Indian
culture) account for the origin of things as follows.^^ Mula
Dyadi, the highest deity, dwelt in the uppermost of the seven
heavens and had two birds as his servants. Having created
three male beings, he caused a tree to exist in one of the lower
heavens, its branches reaching to the sky; next he made
a hen, which perched on the tree and later laid three eggs, from
which came three maidens whom Mula Dyadi gave as wives
to his three sons.^ The daughter of one of these sons refused
to marry a cousin of hers because he had a face like a lizard
and a skin like a chameleon, and devoted her time to spinning.
One day she dropped her spindle, which fell down from the
sky-world. On the thread so unrolled she then descended to


MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE i6i


the surface of the sea which stretched everywhere below. In
this primeval ocean swam or lay a great serpent on whose head
f the heavenly maiden spread a handful of earth brought down

^ at her request from Mula Dyadi by one of his bird servants;

I and thus she formed the world. The serpent, however, dis-

I liked the weight upon his head, and turning over, caused

j this newly made world to be engulfed by the sea. Thereupon

Mula Dyadi created eight suns, whose heat should dry up
! the sea, and this being done in part, the divine maiden thrust

f a sword into the body of the serpent, revealed by the shrink-

j ing sea, and fastened his body firmly in an island block that

he might never again thus destroy the world. With more
i, soil she then re-founded the earth; but after this, having

questioned her as to what was to be done with the youth whom
I she refused as husband, Mula Dyadi declared that she now

j must marry him, and wrapping the unwelcome suitor together

j with a blowgun in a mat, he threw him down upon the earth.

[ Unharmed by his fall, and feeling hungry, he shot at a dove

’ which escaped unwounded, but caught the arrow dexterously

and flew with it to the village where the heavenly maiden dwelt.
Following in pursuit, the youth discovered the girl who had
! before refused him, found her more tractable, and married her;

; and so they became the ancestors of mankind.

' The Dairi Battak, who live to the north of the Toba and

‘ are .more or less in contact with the Muhammadanized Garo,

' have a version which presents interesting differences. Batara

Guru (Sanskrit Bhattara Guru), the highest of the gods, once
1 sent a servant to get some venison, which was greatly desired

t by the deity’s wife, who was about to give birth to a child.

The hunt being unsuccessful, the divinity then sent the raven
on the same quest, but he also could find no such food any-
where in the realms of the gods. In the course of his search,
however, he discovered a cave, in which was a pit whose bottom
he could not discern. The longest vine was too short to measure
its depth, and a stick thrown down the opening disappeared

t* IX — 12


i 62


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


without a sound to indicate that it reached bottom. Deter-
mined to solve the mystery, the raven flew down into the open-
ing, and after a long journey in complete darkness at last
reached the surface of a wide-extending sea. After exploring
in vain, the raven wished to return in order that he might re-
port his discovery, but could not retrace his way to the open-
ing through which he had come, though luckily he found
floating upon the sea the bamboo which he had thrown down
the hole, and on this he rested.

Meanwhile Batara Guru became impatient, and accompa-
nied by several attendants, he flew down the dark opening in
the cave, taking with him from the sky-world a handful of
earth, seven pieces of wood, a chisel, a goat, and a bumble-
bee; and reaching the surface of the sea, he built a raft from
the pieces of wood. The raven now appeared, sitting upon
the floating piece of bamboo, and at his request Batara Guru
called to the eight wind-directions, whereupon darkness at
once gave place to light. By his command the goat, accom-
panied by the bee, went down under the raft to support it on
his horns; but in finishing the raft the chisel broke, and the
handle hit the goat upon the head, which made him shake it
violently, and the raft with it, for which the deity chided him
and ordered him to keep still. Then taking the earth which
he had brought with him, Batara Guru spread it upon the
raft, thus making the world, and gave this to the raven for a
dwelling-place.

One more version may be given, that from the Karo Battak,
who, like the Dairi, live north of the Toba. According to this,^'^
Batara Guru, the heaven deity, and his wife, who was the
daughter of the divinity of the underworld, full of sorrow at
their childlessness, determined to try the effect of penance in
poverty and seclusion, and accordingly went to live in a little
hut by the sea. Here they planted a small garden, which
was destroyed by a great serpent that came out of the water,
but when Batara Guru went to drive it away, the monster


MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 163

demanded that he put food into its mouth. Fearing lest his
hand be bitten off, Batara Guru wedged open the mouth of
the serpent with his sword, and withdrawing his hand, found
upon his finger a magic ring which would grant his every wish.
The serpent then returned to the sea, and in due course of
time, aided by the ring, the wife of Batara Guru presented him
with three sons and three daughters. One of these sons created
the world in the space between the upper world and the under-
world, making it with seven handfuls of soil sent him by his
father, who, when the earth was finished, suspended it from
the sky by seven silken cords. The newly created world caused
the underworld to be darkened, which aroused anger in that
one of the three sons who had taken up his residence there.
Therefore he shook the world so violently that it was destroyed.
Seven times this was repeated, the earth being made anew each
time, until the world-maker besought his father to aid him,
and this Batara Guru did, setting up an iron pillar which sup-
ported four cross-beams, upon which the world was then
founded. After this the underworld-brother could shake the
world (as indeed he does to this day), but was unable to de-
stroy it.

Taking this whole group of myths together, there are a
number of points which will repay brief discussion. The con-
cept of an original sea, above which lies the sky-world of the
gods, is common to all, and is likewise characteristic, it will be
remembered, of the cosmogonic myths of central and western
Polynesia.®* The origin of the world, moreover, from a rock
thrown down from the sky, or from materials brought or sent
down from thence, appears not only iii the portions of In-
donesia from which the foregoing myths are derived, but also
in the Philippines,®* and is further characteristic of Samoa *®
and Tonga,*^ while it is likewise known from Micronesia.*®
The prominent part taken by birds, either as the original
beings who flew over the primeval sea, or as the messengers
and helpers of the deity in the task of creation, is also a fea-



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


164

ture of the mythology of Samoa ®® and Tonga.®^ Again, the
idea that the first beings, whether gods or men, were unde-
veloped, having merely bodies destitute of arms and legs,
is found not only in Borneo, but also in the island of Nias,®®
and recurs in Samoa and the Society Group;®® while the in-
cident of the mating of tree and vine, characteristic of central
Borneo, is known in Samoa as well.®’’

From the foregoing it would seem, therefore, that we were
justified in the conclusion that the cosmogonic myths of cen-
tral and western Polynesia show similarity to the type of
origin-myths just described in Indonesia — a similarity so
striking, indeed, that a genetic relationship seems almost the
only explanation. It has already been shown ®® that this type
of myth is unknown elsewhere in Polynesia, and that there is
reason to regard it as a comparatively late introduction into
the Polynesian area.

In one of the Minahassa myths which has been given, an
important incident is that of the incest of mother and son, the
tale describing the two as separating, meeting without recog-
nition after a lapse of time,®® then marrying when a test had
been applied which showed that the two were destined to be-
come man and wife. The episode is known in practically the
same form from the island of Lombok,^® and also from Nias,"^^
except that the staff is replaced by a ring as the test; and the
essential element of mother-son incest is likewise found in the
Philippines.® A modification of the original theme, by which
the close relationship is discovered in time to prevent incest,
is known among the Bantik of north Celebes ® and also in
west Borneo,® though here the motif occurs in other than
cosmogonic tales. Brother-sister incest is, moreover, a wide-
spread incident in Philippine myths® of the origin of man-
kind, as will be seen in more detail later. With this far-reach-
ing element of incest in Indonesia it is interesting and perhaps
significant to compare, on the one hand, the frequent appear-
ance of father-daughter incest in Maori mythology,® where



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 165

Tane marries His daughter, Hine-a-tauira, who flees to the
underworld in fear and anger when she discovers who her hus-
band is. (It may be added that in one of the Philippine ver-
sions we again find this same flight of the injured wife to the
underworld.) On the other hand, the incest theme as developed
in Indonesia may be compared with its occurrence among the
M 5 n-Hkmer and other tribes of south-eastern Asia.^’’ As al-
ready pointed out, suggestions of this motif are found in the
Society Group in Polynesia; and in the same connexion we
may, perhaps, compare the incident of Lumimu-ut’s fertiliza-
tion by the wind with the similar action of the sun’s rays in
Samoa and Fiji.®®

The origin-legends of the north-west Borneo tribes are re-
lated to the type of cosmogonic myth which has just been con-
sidered in that they set forth belief in a primeval sea and in
the important part played by birds, although they imply
something more of a direct creation. According to one of these,®^
in the beginning there was nothing but a wide-spread sea, over
which flew two birds, who, diving, brought up two objects
like eggs in size and shape, from one of which one bird made
the sky, while from the other his fellow created the earth. As
the size of the latter exceeded that of the former, it was pressed
together in order that it might fit, its resultant crumples and
folds producing the mountains and valleys. Other versions ®®
speak of an original deity without legs or arms, who seems to
have been supported upon an animal,®* and who by an act of
will created two birds, which then formed heaven and earth.

The cosmogonic myths thus far discussed are derived from
western and central Indonesia; and we may now turn to the
eastern portion of this area, where another type appears,
albeit the available material is exceedingly scanty. Indeed, of
true myth-material we have only fragments from the small
islands north-east of Timor (the Sermata and Leti Islands).®*
These seem to indicate a belief in a sky-world and a world
below, of whose origins, however, nothing is said.®® On the



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


1 66

other hand, it may be noted that in all of the islands, from and
including Timor to the Kei Islands, there is a belief in a male
deity living in the sky and associated chiefly with the sun,
and a female deity dwelling in or regarded as one with the
earth, these being described as husband and wife, and being
supposed to mate annually at the time of the monsoon, while
it was also believed that the sky once was closer to the earth.®®
In Ceram, Burn, and Amboina, the definiteness of this con-
cept of the heaven father and earth mother becomes clearer;
but we have no myths, not even fragments, regarding them.
In view of the almost total lack of cosmogonic myth material
from this region, as well as from Halmahera and the other
islands of the Moluccas, it is premature to draw any conclu-
sions from the resemblance of this concept to the similar, but
much more highly developed, ideas in Polynesia; yet it is diffi-
cult to avoid the impression that the strength of the belief
here in the extreme eastern portion of Indonesia, which is
geographically nearest to the Polynesian area, and its ap-
parent absence elsewhere farther west, are significant. Further
material, however, alone can settle the question.

[Prometheus]

In the Polynesian area one of the most characteristic and
interesting types of cosmogonic myths was that which ex-
plained the origin of the universe as due to a sort of evolu-
tionary development from an original chaos or nothingness;
and, at least in central Polynesia, this assumed a genealogical
form. This evolutionary genealogical type of origin-myths
seems, so far as available material goes, to be lacking in In-
donesia, except in one very restricted region, the island of
Nias, lying off the western coast of Sumatra. According to
myths from this island, there was in the beginning only dark-
ness and fog, which condensed and brought forth a being with-
out speech or motion, without head, arms, or legs; and in its
turn this being gave existence to another, who died, and from
whose heart sprang a tree which bore three sets of three buds.
From the first two sets six beings were produced, two of whom



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 167

made from the third set of buds a man and a woman— the
ancestors of mankind.®® The several variants of the myth
differ in details, but all agree in tracing the origin of things to
a primeval chaos, from which after several generations was
developed a tree that in turn gave rise to gods and men.
Although lacking the details and development found in Poly-
nesia, these Nias myths seem to show the same fundamental
conception.

Thus far we have mainly been concerned with the myths
concerning the origin of the world; but now we may devote
some consideration to those accounting for the origin of man-
kind. Two main types may be distinguished: one comprising
those in which man is not thought of as created or made, but
as either (a) derived from a sky-world, {b) the offspring of the
gods, or (c) of miraculous origin; and those characterized by a
definite account of the actual making of the first man by some
deity. The belief in a sky-world origin for mankind is in the
main confined to the extreme eastern part of Indonesia —
Ceram,®® the Kei Islands,®® and the Tenimber Group.®^ Only
in the Kei Islands do we have a detailed myth; ®® in the other
instances it is simply stated that the ancestors came down
from the sky, which was formerly nearer to the earth, by means
of a tree or vine. The Idea of a heavenly origin also appears
in the extreme west, for among the various conflicting myths
from the island of Nias ®® one gives the sky-world as the ulti-
mate origin of mankind, whereas others ®^ describe this as a
proximate source, the ultimate and earliest human ancestors
being derived from trees. A direct divine ancestry appears
comparatively seldom. Among the Toba Battak mankind
is descended from the divine maiden who came down to earth,
and from the heavenly hero who followed her; in the southern
Celebes the Bugi of Macassar believe themselves to be de-
rived from the son of the heaven deity and his six wives; while
in Nias ®® and among the Ifugao in Luzon ®® we also find the
belief in a direct descent from deities.



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


1 68

By far the most common, however, are those myths which
trace mankind to some miraculous source, an origin from
plants or trees being perhaps the most frequent of these. For
the most part we have from the eastern and south-eastern
islands only the statement that the ancestor or ancestors of
mankind burst from a bamboo or tree,®’^ although in some in-
stances the tales are more precise. Thus in the Ceram-laut
and Gorrom Islands it is said ®® that in the beginning a woman
of great beauty, called Winia, came out of a tree together
with a white hog, the woman climbing into a tall tree, while
the hog remained at its foot. After a time a raft floated ashore,
on which was another woman, Kiliboban by name, who had
drifted here from New Guinea and who became the comrade
of the hog. Later a man (of whose origin nothing is said) came
by and took off his clothing to go in fishing, but the two women
saw him and laughed at him, whereupon, surprised that any
one else was in the vicinity, the man sought for the source of
the laughter and found Kiliboban, whom he straightway asked
to be his wife. She, however, refused, but directed him to the
tree in whose top Winia was concealed; so he climbed the tree
forthwith, found the lovely damsel there, and taking her to be
his wife, became by her the ancestor of mankind.

In Amboina ®® and Buru the first human beings came from
a tree after a bird had sat upon it and fructified it. In the
latter island, according to one myth, the first to appear was a
woman, who built a fire near the base of the tree, which it
warmed, whereupon the tree split in two, and a man came
forth who married the woman. A variant makes the man the
first to appear. In Wetar ” the first woman came from the
fruit of a tree; and far to the north, among the Ami, one of the
wild tribes of Formosa,^* we find the same belief, for it is said
that in the beginning a being planted in the ground a staff,
which took root and became a bamboo on which two shoots
developed, a man issuing from one of them and a woman from
the other. Coming farther west to Celebes, traces of the idea



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 169

are found in Minahassa,^® where, according to one myth, a
tree-trunk floated ashore, and from it, when it was broken open
by a deity, a man (in reality a god) came forth. A similar
tale from the Tagalog, in the Philippines, is reported,^* in
which two hollow bamboos floated ashore on the first land;
these were pecked open by a bird, whereupon a man issued
from the one and a woman from the other, the two thus be-
coming the ancestors of mankind. The belief appears again in
Borneo in a tale from the Kayan,^® where the tree and vine
of miraculous origin produce the ancestors of the different
tribes; and a variant also occurs in south-east Borneo.’'® Lastly
we find in Nias that man originated from the fruit of the
tree, tor a’ a, which grew, according to one account, upon the
back of one of the first beings derived from original chaos; or
according to another, from his heart after his death.

That the first men were derived from worms or came out
of the ground as larvae is an idea apparently confined to the
easterly islands,^® although little more is given than the mere
statement of their origin. Perhaps related to this belief is that
held in Watubela and the Kei Islands,®® that the first men
arose out of the ground.®’- Among the Battak in Sumatra one
myth ®® tells of the birth of the first man from a featherless
bird, which was sent down from the sky.

Quite widely distributed, on the other hand, is the belief
that mankind originated from eggs. In the Philippines ®® a
bird laid two eggs, one at the source of a river and one at its
mouth, a woman coming from the first and a man from the
second. For long years the man lived alone, until one day
when he was bathing, a long hair, floating in the water, en-
tangled his legs so that he reached the bank with difficulty.
Examining the hair, he at once determined to find its owner,
and SO travelled up-stream until he met the woman, whom he
then married. From south-eastern Borneo ®^ comes a different
tale. After the world had been made by spreading earth on
the head of the great serpent which swam in the primeval sea.



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


170

a deity descended upon it and discovered seven eggs formed
of earth. Taking two of these, he found in one a man, and in
the other a woman, but both lifeless; whereupon, returning
to the upper world, he asked the creator for breath, that the
pair might become alive. While he was gone upon his errand,
however, another deity came down and blew into the mouths
of the two lifeless forms and vivified them, so that when the
first deity returned, he found himself forestalled, and man-
kind, which he had intended to make immortal, was now sub-
ject to decay and death. Another version speaks of only two
eggs, from which a human pair came forth and bore seven
sons and seven daughters, who were, however, without life.
At the command of the deity the husband went to get for
them the germs of life, bidding his wife in his absence on no
account to stir outside her mosquito-curtains; but she failed
to obey, and as she looked out a blast of wind came and blew
into the children, so that they breathed and became alive;
whence man is mortal, and wind (or breath) is his only life.
Another tale of the origin of mankind from eggs is found
among the Battak of Sumatra.®® In Celebes we have already
seen ®® how the first divine being was born miraculously from
the rock or from the sweat which formed upon it; and an
actual origin of mankind from a rock, which split open of
itself, appears in Formosa.®’^

In the consideration of the cosmogonic myths the frequency
of the incest incident has already been pointed out. In most
of these cases the offspring of the incestuous union are divine
or semi-divine beings, who may or may not be the ultimate
ancestors of mankind; but the belief in a direct origin of man
from such brother-sister or mother-son marriages seems es-
pecially characteristic of the Philippine area, where it follows
the flood-episode. As an example of these myths we may take
the version given by the central Ifugao.®® As the waters rose,
people sought refuge on the mountains, until at last only two
survived, a brother and sister, Wigan and Bugan, one of them



PLATE XVII


Image of Bugan, the wife of Wigan. She appears
prominently in the myths, and all prayers for women
are said to her, though no petitions are addressed to
her images. She is regarded as the perfect woman.
Ifugao tribe, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Peabody
Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.



II:




MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 171

on Mt. Amuyao and the other on Mt. Kalaultan. Bugan had
a fire, which at night lit up the peak of Kalauitan, and Wigan
then knew that sonaeone else beside himself was alive. “ As
soon as the earth was dry, Wigan journeyed to Kalauitan
where he found his sister Bugan, and their reunion was most
joyous. They descended the mountain and wandered about
until they came to the beautiful valley that is today the dwell-
ing-place of the Banauol clan — - and here Wigan built a house.
When the house was finished, Bugan dwelt in the upper part
and Wigan slept beneath.

“Having provided for the comfort of his sister, Wigan started
out to find if there were not other people left alive in the Earth
World. He travelled about all the day and returned to the
house at night to sleep. He did this for three days, and then
as he was coming back on the third evening he said to himself
that there were no other people in the world but themselves,
and if the world was to be re-populated it must be through
them ... At last Bugan realized that she was pregnant.
She burst into violent weeping, and heaping reproaches on his
head, ran blindly away. After travelling a long way, and being
overcome with grief and fatigue, Bugan sank down upon the
bank of the river and lay there trembling and sobbing. After
having quieted herself somewhat, she arose and looked around
her, and what was her surprise to see sitting on a rock near
her an old man with a long white beard! He approached her
and said: ‘Do not be afraid, daughter! I am Maknongan,
and I am aware of your trouble, and I have come to tell you
that it is all right.’ While he was speaking, Wigan, who had
followed his sister, appeared on the scene. Then Maknongan
placed the sanction and blessing of the gods upon their mar-
riage, assuring them that they had done right, and that through
them the world must be repeopled. He told them to return to
their house, and whenever they were in trouble to offer sacri-
fices to the gods. ... In the course of time nine children were
born to Wigan and Bugan, five sons and four daughters. The



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


172

four oldest sons married the four daughters, and from them are
descended all the people of the earth-world.” Here the actors
are treated frankly as human beings, as they are by the Igorot
and Mandaya,®® although in another Ifugao version (from
the Kiangan) ®* they are really divine. In Nias we again see
this distinctly human character emphasized. In these Philippine
versions the unintentional character of the incest, as recorded
in the cosmogonic tales and in those from Nias, does not appear,
though it does come to the fore in stories from other Philippine
tribes which do not relate to the origin of mankind, such as
the Tagalog,®® and in variants from western Borneo and
Celebes,®® where the relationship is discovered in time and
incest is avoided. Thus, in a legend from the first area, a man
deserts his wife and son, the latter of whom, when he has grown
up, goes in search of his father, returning only after many
years. In the meanwhile his mother has kept her youthful
appearance, and unrecognized by the son, who is captivated
by her beauty, is wooed by him. She, in her turn, does not
recognize her son, but just as they are about to marry, a scar
on his head reveals his identity to her. At first dismayed, the
pair finally resolve to carry out their plans, but are suddenly
turned to stone.

We have thus far dealt only with those myths of the origin
of mankind in which the element of an actual creation does
not enter. There remain to be considered those in which this
creative theme occurs, the most widely spread form of the
myth being that in which man is made from earth or clay.
Thus, beginning in the east, we find that in Halmahera ®® man
was made by a servant of the deity, who formed two figures
from earth, one male and one female. When these were finished,
he ascended to the sky-world to get the breath of life for them,
but while he was gone, an evil deity destroyed the images.
The divine messenger made the figures a second time, but
when they were again demolished, he took the faeces of the
evil beings, and from It shaped the figures of two dogs, which



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 173

he endued with life and ordered to guard the two new images of
human beings which he made. This time his efforts were suc-
cessful; for when the evil being came, he was driven away by
the dogs, and the divine messenger bringing the breath of
life, vivified the two human effigies so that they became the
first of mankind.

In Minahassa the deity makes two images of earth, one male
and one female, whom he vivifies by blowing powdered ginger
into their heads and ears. The Bagobo of Mindanao say
that after the creation of the sea and land, and the planting of
trees of many kinds, the creator took two lumps of earth, and
shaping them like two human figures, he spat on them, where-
upon they became “man and woman.” In Sumatra the Dairi
Battak say that after the deity, Batara Guru, had finished
the earth, he desired to people it and accordingly first sent
down a swallow, which returned, however, saying that it did
not like the dwelling assigned to it. Batara Guru then wished
one of his children to descend, but none of them were willing
to exchange their heavenly for an earthly home. Determined
to succeed, the deity himself came down to earth, bidding
the swallow return to the sky to bring thence some earth
from which he might shape man. With the material sp pro-
vided, Batara Guru made two images, one male and one
female, and set them in the sun to dry. After they had become
hard, he muttered a magic formula over them seven times,
and when they then began to breathe, he repeated another
formula with which one may force another to speak. Then
the two images spoke and said, “What do you wish of us,
Grandfather, that you cry thus loudly in our ears ? ” and he
replied: “I have called to you so loudly because I have created
you in order that you might speak. Never forget that I am
your grandfather. Obey my commands and never refuse to
follow them.” This the newly created pair promised to do.

An interesting variant of ordinary creation-myths occurs
in south-eastern Borneo.^®® Here the two wonder-trees on the*



174


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


new-formed earth mated and produced an egg, from which a
phantom maiden came. A divine being descended to earth,
and seeing the lifeless and intangible character of the maiden,
went to get what was necessary to give her life and substance;
but while he was away another deity became active, and gath-
ering earth for her body, rain for her blood, and wind for her
breath, made the beautiful shade alive and tangible. When
the first deity returned and discovered what had happened,
in anger he broke the vessel that he had brought; and the water
of life which it contained flew in every direction and watered
all plants, which thus acquired the power of springing up after
having been cut down; but man did not receive any of the
precious fluid and so failed to acquire immortality. The use
of stone as a material, instead of earth, occurs among the
Toradja in Celebes.^” The heaven father and earth mother
having made two stone figures, one male and one female, the
heaven deity returned to the skies to procure the breath of
immortality with which to infuse life into the images; but in
his absence the wind blew into them and vivified them, and
on this account man is mortal. Another version omits the
attempt to secure immortality. A somewhat different form of
origin-myth describes a series of attempts at creation in which
different materials are tried, the first trials being failures,
although success is finally achieved. Thus the Dyaks of the
Baram and Rejang district in Borneo say that after the
two birds, Iri and Ringgon, had formed the earth, plants, and
animals they decided to create man. “At first, they made
him of clay, but when he was dried he could neither speak nor
move, which provoked them, and they ran at him angrily; so
frightened was he that he fell backward and broke all to pieces.
The next man they made was of hard wood, but he, also, was
utterly stupid, and absolutely good for nothing. Then the
two birds searched carefully for a good material, and even-
tually selected the wood of the tree known as Kumpong, which
has a strong fibre and exudes a quantity of deep red sap.



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 175

whenever it is cut. Out of this tree they fashioned a man and
a woman, and were so well pleased with this achievement
that they rested for a long while, and admired their handiwork.
Then they decided to continue creating more men; they re-
turned to the Kumpong tree, but they had entirely forgotten
their original pattern, and how they executed it, and they were
therefore able only to make very inferior creatures, which
became the ancestors of the Maias (the Orang Utan) and
monkeys.”

[Prometheus]

A similar tale is found among the Iban and Sakarram
Dyaks,^®® only reversing the order, so that after twice fail-
ing to make man from wood, the birds succeeded at the
third trial when they used clay. Farther north, among the
Dusun of British North Borneo,^®® the first two beings “ made
a stone in the shape of a man but the stone could not talk, so
they made a wooden figure and when it was made it talked,
though not long after it became worn out and rotten; after-
wards they made a man of earth, and the people are descended
from this till the present day.” The Bilan of Mindanao ^®^ have
a similar tale. After the world had been formed and was
habitable, one of the deities said, “Of what use is land without
people?” So the others said, “Let us make wax into people,”
and they did so; but when they put the wax near the fire, it
melted. Seeing that they could not create man that way, they
next decided to form him out of dirt, and Melu and Finu-
weigh began the task. All went well until they were ready to
make the nose, when Finuweigh, who was shaping this part,
put it on upside down, only to have Melu tell him that people
would drown if he left it that way, for the rain would run into
it. At this Finuweigh became very angry and refused to change
it, but when he turned his back, Melu seized the nose quickly
and turned it as it now is; and one may still see where, in his
haste, he pressed his fingers at the root. Another account
says that the images made of earth were vivified by whipping
them.^®® In a few cases we find that man was supposed to have



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


176

been made of other materials. Thus the Ata in Mindanao
declare ^”® that grass was the substance used, whereas the
Igorot in Luzon say“® that the ancestors of all others than
themselves were made from pairs of reeds. In Nias one ver-
sion states “ that man was formed from the fruits or buds of
the tree which grew from the heart of one of the earliest beings,
while various gods developed from the buds on the upper part
of the tree. “When these two lowest fruits were still very
small, Latoere said to Barasi-loeloe and Balioe, ‘The lowest
fruits are mine.’ But Balioe answered, ‘See, then, if you can
make man of them. If you can do that, they belong to you;
otherwise, not.’ Latoere being unable to form men from them,
Lowalangi sent Barasi-loeloe thither; but he could shape noth-
ing more than the bodies of men, although he made one male
and one female. Then Lowalangi took a certain weight of
wind, gave it to Balioe, and said, ‘Put all of this in the mouth
of the image for a soul. If it absorbs all of it, man will at-
tain to a long life; otherwise, he will die sooner, just in pro-
portion to the amount which is left over of the soul that is
offered him.’ Balioe did what Lowalangi had told him, and
then he gave the people names.” In a few instances still other
substances are said to have been used from which to make
man.“®

Myths relative to the creation of animals ascribe various
origins to them. Some of the Kayan in Borneo say that
two of the descendants of the armless and legless monster de-
rived from the sword-handle and spindle that fell from heaven,
cast pieces of bark upon the ground, and that these turned
into swine, fowl, and dogs; while others declare that all the
birds, beasts, and fish were derived from the leaves and the
twigs of the wonder-tree. In south-eastern Borneo serpents,
tigers, and all noxious animals were formed from the body of
Angoi, the deity who had provided humankind with breath.
When the other divinity, who had wished to bring man im-
mortal life from heaven, found his endeavours forestalled, in



MYTHS GF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 177

his anger he attacked Angoi and killed him, after which he
cut up the body and scattered it far and wide, and from these
fragments came all the harmful animals. From the Ifugao
in the Philippines we have a more detailed account. The
child of a sky-maiden and a mortal was cut in two, the mother
returning to the heavens with her half and the husband re-
taining the other portion. Unable to restore this moiety to
life, the father left it to decay; but learning of this fact, the
mother descended and from it made various animals, birds,
and the like — from the head, the owl; from the ears, a cer-
tain tree fungus; from the nose, a mollusc; from the bones of
the breast, a serpent; from the heart, the rainbow; from the
hair, worms and maggots; from the skin, a bird; from part of
the blood, bats; and from the intestines, several sorts of animals.
The Mandaya in Mindanao state that “the sun and moon
were married and lived happily together until many children
had been born to them. At last they quarrelled and the moon
ran away from her husband. . . . After the separation of their
parents the children died, and the moon gathering up their
bodies cut them into small pieces and threw them into space.
Those fragments which fell into the water became fish, those
which fell on land were converted into snakes and animals,
while ‘those which fell upward’ remained in the sky as stars.”

Of the origin of the sun and moon several accounts are given.
According to the Kayan of central Borneo, the moon, at
least, was one of the descendants of the armless and legless
being sprung from the sword-handle and spindle which fell
from heaven; but in Celebes sun, moon, and stars were
made from the body of a celestial maiden while in Nias
sun and moon were shaped from the eyes ^ of the armless
and legless being, out of whose heart grew the tree from the
buds of which men and gods originated. Elsewhere in Indonesia
the sun and moon are either said to have been created, or noth-
ing is stated regarding their origin. In Polynesia a theme which
has been shown to be wide-spread is that of the separation of

IX — 13



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


178

heaven and earth and the raising of the heavens; or the belief
that formerly the sky was low and close to the earth, and that
a deity or a demigod later uplifted it to its present place.
The same concept appears also in the Indonesian area. Among
the Ifugao, in the Philippines, it is said that the sky was once
so very near to the earth that it interfered with the plying of
the spear, while its cannibalistic propensities were causing the
extermination of mankind.*^ The aid of the gods was accord-
ingly invoked, whereupon one of them, who had always re-
mained in a sitting position, suddenly rose and with his head
and shoulders thrust the heavens far above. The Tagalog
also state that the sky was once so low that it could be
touched with the hand, and when men were playing, they
would strike their heads against it, whence they became angry
and threw stones at it, so that a deity withdrew it to its present
position. The Manobo of Mindanao say that the sky was
so close to the earth that a woman hit it with her pestle
while pounding rice, whereupon the heavens ascended to a
great height. A similar tale is known also to the Bagobo in
the same island. The theme of raising the sky is well known
in Borneo. In the north-west the deed was accomplished by
the daughter of the first man,^®® while the Dusun of British
North Borneo declare that the sky, originally low, retreated
when six of the seven original suns were killed.^®® Similar tales
are told in the south-east and elsewhere in the island,^®^ and
also occur in Nias,^®^ Rotti, and Loeang-sermata.^®®
Deluge-myths appear to be fairly well developed in Indo-
nesia and show some features of interest; while in the Philip-
pines, as already pointed out, the origin-legends in many instan-
ces begin with such a tale. As told by the Ifugao of Kiangan,
the story runs as follows.^®^ “The first son of Wigan, called
Kabigat, went from the sky-region, Hu dog, to the Earth World
to hunt with dogs. As the earth was then entirely level, his dogs
ran much from one side to another, pursuing their quarry, and
this they did without Kabigat hearing their barking. In conse-



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 179

queace of which, it is reported that Kabigat said: ‘I see that
the earth is completely flat, because there does not resound
the echo of the barking of the dogs.’ After becoming pensive
for a little while he decided to return to the heights of the Sky
World. Later on he came down again, with a very large cloth,
and went to close the exit to the sea of the waters of the rivers,
and so it remained closed. He returned again to Hudog, and
went to make known to Bongabong that he had closed the out-
let of the waters. Bongabong answered him: ‘Go thou to the
house of the Cloud and of the Fog, and bring them to me.’ For
this purpose he had given permission beforehand to Cloud and
Fog, intimating to them that they should go to the house of
Baiyuhibi, and so they did. Baiyuhibi brought together his
sons . . . and bade them to rain without ceasing for three days.
Then Bongabong called . . . and so they ceased. Wigan said,
moreover, to his son Kabigat, ‘Go thou and remove the stopper
that thou hast placed on the waters,’ and so he did. And in
this manner, when the waters that had covered the earth be-
gan to recede, there rose up mountains and valleys formed by
the rushing of the waters. Then Bongabong called Mumba’an
that he might dry the earth, and so he did.”

The central Ifugao have a different version.^®® According to
this, “One year when the rainy season should have come it did
not. Month after month passed by and no rain fell. The river
grew smaller and smaller day by day until at last it disappeared
entirely. The people began to die, and at last the old men said:
‘If we do not soon get water, we shall all die. Let us dig down
into the grave of the river, for the river is dead and has sunk
into his grave, and perhaps we may find the soul of the river
and it will save us from dying.’ So they began to dig, and
they dug for three days. On the third day the hole was very
large, and suddenly they struck a great spring, and the water
gushed forth. It came so fast that some of them were drowned
before they could get out of the pit.

“Then the people were happy, for there was plenty of water;



i8o


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


and they brought much food and made a great feast. But while
they were feasting it grew dark and began to rain. The river
also kept rising until at last it overflowed its bank. Then the
people became frightened and they tried to stop up the spring
in the river, but they could not do so. Then the old men said,
‘We must flee to the mountains, for the river gods are angry
and we shall all be drowned.’ So the people fled toward the
mountains and all but two of them were overtaken by the water
and drowned. The two who escaped were a brother and sister
named Wigan and Bugan — Wigan on Mt. Amuyao and Bugan
on Kalauitan. And the water continued to rise until all the
Earth World was covered excepting only the peaks of these
two mountains.

“The water remained on the earth for a whole season, or from
rice planting to rice harvest. . . . At last the waters receded
from the earth and left it covered with the rugged mountains
and deep valleys that exist today.”

More or less fragmentary versions of similar tales have been
given from the Igorot,“® and it is probable that they also exist
among the Tinguian.^’' In Mindanao the Ata tell how in
very early times the earth was covered with water, and all
people were drowned, except two men and a woman, who were
carried away and would have been lost, had they not been
rescued by an eagle, who carried one man and the woman to
their home. The Mandaya in the same island have a still
different account, according to which all the inhabitants of
the world were once destroyed by flood, except one woman.
When the waters had subsided, she gave birth to a son, who,
when he grew up, married his mother, thus re-peopling the
world.

The Borneo versions are quite different. The Iban, or Sea
Dyaks of Sarawak say that once, just as the harvest was
ripe, it was found that a large part of the fields had been de-
spoiled during the night. Since no tracks could be found,
watch was kept, and a huge serpent was seen to lower itself



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE i8l

from the sky and to feed upon the rice, whereupon one of the
watchers, rushing up, cut off the snake’s head and in the
morning proceeded to cook some of the flesh from it for his
breakfast. Hardly had he eaten, however, before the sky was
overcast, dark clouds rolled up, and a terrible rain-storm caused
a flood from which only those few persons escaped alive who
succeeded in reaching the highest hills. The Dusun of
British North Borneo have a picturesque variant. “Long
ago some men of Kampong Tudu were looking for wood to
make a fence, and while they were searching they came upon
what appeared to be a great tree-trunk, which was lying on
the ground. They began to cut it with their parangs, intend-
ing to make their fence from it, but to their surprise blood
came from the cuts. So they decided to walk along to one end
of the trunk and see what it was. When they came to the end
they found that they had been cutting into a great snake and
that the end of the ‘trunk’ was its head. They therefore made
stakes and driving them into the ground bound the snake to
them and killed it. Then they flayed the skin from the body
and taking it and the meat home they made a great feast
from its flesh. The skin of the snake they made into a great
drum, and while they were drinking they beat the drum to
try its sound, but for a long time the drum remained silent.
At last, in the middle of the night, the drum began to sound
of its own accord, ‘Duk Duk Kagu; Duk Duk Kagu.’ Then
came a great hurricane and swept away all the houses in the
kampong; some of them were carried out to sea together with
the people in them, others settled down at what is now Kam-
pong Tempassuk and other places, and from them arose the
present villages.”**® In Nias the flood-myth takes a still
different form. According to this, “once there was strife be-
tween the mountains, each one desiring to be the highest.
This angered one of the deities, who, saying, ‘Ye mountains!
I shall cover you all,’ took a golden comb and threw it into
the ocean, where it was changed into a mighty crab, which



i 82


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


stopped up the overflow of the sea. Then came a great rain,
and these causes generated a vast quantit7 of water, which
rose higher and higher until three mountains alone remained
uncovered. All the people who fled to these with their animals
were saved, but all others were drowned.”

Very commonly in savage mythology we find the idea that
death was not originally intended to be the inevitable fate of
mankind. In Polynesia, as has been shown, death was due
to Maui’s failure to pass through the body of Hine-nui-te-po,
or to the express decree of some deity who wished man to die,
in opposition to another divinity’s wish that he should be im-
mortal. In Indonesian tales immortality is lost, in many cases,
by an error. Thus, the Dusun in British North Borneo
say that “When Kenharingan had made everything he said,
‘Who is able to cast off his skin.? If anyone can do so, he shall
not die.’ The snake alone heard and said, ‘I can.’ And for
this reason, till the present day, the snake does not die unless
killed by man. (The Dusun did not hear or they would also
have thrown off their skins and there would have been no
death.)”

The Nias myths ascribe mortality to a mistake. When
the earth was finished and complete, the divine being who had
spread it out and shaped it fasted for many days, after which
he received nine plates, each filled with a different sort of food.
Choosing that with the ripe bananas, he threw away the plate
on which were some shrimps, and in consequence of his hav-
ing eaten the easily perishable food man perishes and decays,
but the snake who ate the shrimps became immortal. In
Celebes, Borneo, and elsewhere we have already seen that
the immortality designed for man by his creator was lost
through the fact that while the creator had gone to secure the
breath of life, the image made by him was vivified by the wind
or by some other deity; hence man’s life is as unstable as the
winds.

Myths of the origin of fire present a number of different




PLATE XVIII

Dyak drawing on bamboo representing mytholog-
ical scenes in the spirit-world. In the upper row are
seen the soul-trees” with the souls ready to be re-
born; in the central section, among other things, is the
boat in which the souls of the dead are ferried across
to the spirit-island. The lowest band shows figures
of serpents, fishes, and crocodiles. Ethnographische
Rijksmuseum, Leyden, Netherlands.



















MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 183

forms in Indonesia. According to the Igorot,”® only two per-
sons survived after the flood, a brother and sister who had
taken refuge on Mt. Pokis. “Lumawig descended and said:
‘Oh, you are here!’ And the man said: ‘We are here, and here
we freeze!’ Then Lumawig sent his dog and his deer to Kalau-
witan to get fire. They swam to Kalauwitan, the dog and
the deer, and they got the fire. Lumawig awaited them. He
said: ‘How long they are coming!’ Then he went to Kalau-
witan and said to his dog and deer: ‘Why do you delay in
bringing the fire? Get ready! Take the fire to Pokis; let me
watch you!’ Then they went into the middle of the flood,
and the fire which they had brought from Kalauwitan was put
out! Then said Lumawig: ‘Why do you delay the taking?
Again you must bring fire; let me watch you!’ Then they
brought fire again, and he observed that that which the deer
was carrying was extinguished, and he said: ‘That which the
dog has yonder will surely also be extinguished.’ Then Luma-
wig swam and arrived and quickly took the fire which his
dog had brought. He took it back to Pokis and he built
a fire and warmed the brother and sister.” This theme of the
fire being brought from another country by animals is also
found in Melanesia,^®® while the Ifugao of Kiangan have still
another version.^®”- After Bugan, who was the sister-wife of
Kabigat, had become reconciled to her marriage by the praise
of Muntalog, Kabigat’s father, “Kabigat requested leave to
return, but Muntalog answered: ‘Wait one day more, until I
in my turn go to my father Mumbonang.’ Muntalog found
his father and mother seated facing each other; and, upon
his arrival, his mother, Mumboniag, came forward and asked
him: ‘What news do you bring from those lower regions, and
why do you come?’ The father . . . inquired likewise as to
the reason of his coming. Muntalog answered: ‘I have come,
father, to ask thee for fire for some Ifugaos who remain in the
house of Ambumabbakal.’ ‘My son,’ the father replied, ‘those
Ifugaos of yours could not arrive at (or, come to) Mumbonang

[Prometheus]

OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


184

without danger of being burned to cinders. ’ Then he continued :
‘It is well! Approach me! . . . Seize hold of one of those
bristles that stand out from my hair,’ and so Muntalog did. . . .
Then Mumbonang said to him again: ‘Come nigh! Take this
white part, or extremity, of the eye that looks toward the
north-east.’ . . . And he took it and placed it in his hand.
And Mumbonang said to him once more: ‘Come near again,
and take the part black as coal, the dirt of my ear which is
as the foulness of my ear.’ And so he did. Then Mumbonang
said to Muntalog: ‘Take these things and bring them to thy
son Amburnabbakal and to Ngilin, in order that the latter may
give them to the Ifugaos.’ And he said again to Muntalog:
‘Take this white of my eye (flint), this wax from my ear
(tinder), and this bristle or point like steel for striking fire, in
order that thou mayest have the wherewith to attain what
thou seekest.’” In this tale we have a closer approach to the
various Polynesian myths of Maui and of his securing the fire
from the fire-deity.^®®

From central Celebes a diflFerent type is recorded. Fire was
given by the deity to the first men; but they allowed it to go
out, and since they did not know the secret of how to make it,
they sent a man named Tamboeja to the sky (which at that
time was near the earth) to get flame. The inhabitants of the
sky-world told him that they would give him fire, but that he
must cover his eyes with his hands so that he would not see
how it was made. They did not know, however, that he had
eyes under his arm-pits also, which enabled him to watch their
actions and see how they made fire with flint and steel; and
this secret, together with the fire itself, he took back to earth
and gave to men.

Bornean myths of the origin of fire are as follows. Accord-
ing to the Kay an,“® fire was invented by an old man, named
Laki Oi, who discovered the method of making it by pulling
a strip of rattan back and forth under a piece of wood. The
Dyaks of the Baram District describe the origin of fire as



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 185

due to an accident. “One dajr when the man and the dog
were in the jungle together, and got drenched by rain, the man
noticed that the dog warmed himself by rubbing against a huge
creeper (called the Aka Rtiwa), whereupon the man took a stick
and rubbed it rapidly against the Aka Rawa, and to his surprise
obtained fire.” Later some food was accidentally dropped
near the fire, and the man, finding it thus rendered more
agreeable to the taste, discovered the art of cooking.*®®



CHAPTER II

TRICKSTER TALES

I N Polynesia the tales of the exploits of the hero Maui
formed a cycle which was current everywhere in one form
or another, and which was in many ways, perhaps, the most
characteristic of legends as it was the most popular. Cor-
responding to the Maui cycle in Polynesia in universality,
characteristic quality, and popularity, but differing entirely
in type, are the Indonesian trickster tales centring about the
mouse-deer (kantjil or pelanduk), the tarsier ape, or the tor-
toise; and these stories, of which there are very many ver-
sions, may well be considered next, and before taking up those
of more miscellaneous character.

In these tales or fables (for very many of them are indeed
such) the mouse-deer usually plays the leading part in Borneo,
Java, and Sumatra, as well as among the Malays of the Malay
Peninsula; whereas in Celebes and Halmahera the same ex-
ploits are often attributed to the ape. Sundry other tales of a
like character seem to be recorded only of the ape, and others
again only of the tortoise. The order of the incidents varies
considerably in different regions, although the series usually
starts with a tricky exploit which rouses enmity and pursuit.
In Java,^ the beginning is as follows. One day the kantjil was
resting quietly when he heard a tiger approaching and feared
for his life, wherefore, quickly taking a large leaf, he began to
fan a pile of dung which happened to lie near. When the
tiger came up, and overcome by curiosity asked what he was
doing, the mouse-deer said, “This is food belonging to the
king. I am guarding it.” The tiger, being very hungry, at



TRICKSTER TALES


187

once wished to be allowed to eat the royal food, but the kantjil
refused for a long time, advising him not to touch it and say-
ing that it would be wrong to betray his trust; but at last he
agreed to let the tiger have his way if he would promise to
wait before eating it until he, the kantjil, had gone; for thus
the blame might be escaped. No sooner said than done; so
when the kantjil had reached a safe distance, he called back
to the tiger, ^^You may begin now,’^ whereupon the tiger hun-
grily seized what he thought was a delicious morsel, only to be
cruelly deceived. Furious at the trick played upon him by the
little kantjil, he hurried after the fugitive to get his revenge.^
His intended victim had meanwhile found a very ven-
omous snake, which lay coiled up asleep. Sitting by this, he
awaited the tiger’s arrival, and when the latter came up rag-
ing in pursuit, he told him that he had only himself to blame,
since he had been warned not to eat the food. ^‘But,” said
the kantjil, ^^you must keep quiet, for I am guarding the
girdle of the king. You must not come near it, because it is
full of magic power/’ The tiger’s curiosity and desire being,
of course, only stimulated by all this, he insisted that he be
allowed to try on the precious girdle, to which the kantjil
yielded with apparent reluctance, again warning him to be
very careful and, as before, saying that the tiger must first
let him get safely away, in order that no guilt might attach
to him. When the kantjil had run off, the tiger seized the sup-
posed magic girdle, only to be bitten by the snake, which he
did not succeed in killing until after a severe struggle/

Thirsting for vengeance, the tiger again took up the pursuit
of his clever little adversary, who, meanwhile, had stopped to
rest, so that when the tiger caught up with him, he found
him sitting near a clump of tall bamboo. The kantjil greeted
the tiger warmly and said, without giving the latter time to
express his anger, that he had been appointed keeper of the
king’s trumpet. The tiger, immediately desiring to try this
wonderful instrument, was mdueed to put his tongue between



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


1 88

two of the bamboos, being told that, as soon as the wind
blew, they would give fine music. The trickster ran off, and
presently a strong gust arose, swayed the bamboos, and thus
pinched the tiger’s tongue entirely off.^

Again the tiger gave chase, and this time found the kantjil
standing beside a great wasp’s-nest. As before, the trickster
warned the tiger not to disturb him, for he was guarding the
king’s drum which gave out a very wonderful tone when
struck; but the tiger, of course, was most anxious to have the
opportunity of sounding it. With feigned reluctance, the kant-
jil at last agreed, stipulating, as before, that he be allowed to
get out of the way. As soon as he had put a safe distance be-
tween himself and the tiger, he gave the signal, and the tiger
struck the nest, only to be beset the next instant by a swarm
of angry wasps.®

For another famous exploit of the trickster we may take a
Bornean version.® One day the mouse-deer was going out
fishing when the tortoise, the deer, the elephant, and several
other animals asked to be allowed to go with him. He agreed,
and so large a catch was secured that the party resolved to
smoke a portion to preserve it. The elephant remained be-
hind next day to watch the drying fish; but while he was on
guard there came a great crashing in the forest, and presently
a huge giant appeared, a forest demon, who calmly stole the
fish, ate them, and walked away without the elephant daring
to stop him. When the fishermen returned, they were much
disturbed over the loss of their fish, but as they again had a
large supply, they left another of the party on guard next day.
Once more the giant came and ate the whole, this continuing
until all the animals had had their turn except the mouse-deer,
and all had failed to prevent the giant’s theft. The other ani-
mals laughed at the tiny fellow’s boast that now he would catch
and kill the thief; but as soon as the fishermen had gone, he
got four strong posts and drove them into the ground, after
which he collected some rattan and began to plait four large



TRICKSTER TALES


189

strong rings. Before long the giant came crashing through the
forest, but just as he was about to take the fish, he saw the
mouse-deer, who kept busily at work and paid not the slightest
attention to the intruder. Overcome by curiosity, the demon
asked what the trickster was doing, and the latter replied that
his friends suffered much from pains in the back, so that he
was preparing a remedy for them. “That is interesting,” said
the giant, “ for I, too, suffer much from pains in my back. I wish
you would cure me.” “All right,” said the pelanduk. “Go
over there and lie down, put your elbows close to your sides,
and draw up your knees; and I will massage you and apply
the cure.” The giant at once complied, and the tricky mouse-
deer, quickly slipping the strong rattan rings over the demon’s
arms, legs, and body, fastened them securely to the great
posts. In vain did the giant struggle to get free, but the rattan
bonds could not be broken, so that when the fishermen came
back, they found the mouse-deer sitting quietly beside his cap-
tive, whereupon they at once attacked the monster who had
been so neatly trapped and beat him to death. Almost the
same tale is found in German New Guinea, and the essential
theme of binding or tying a giant by a ruse or in his sleep also
appears elsewhere in Melanesia.®

One day the trickster fell by accident into a deep pit, from
which he could not climb out, try as he would. For a long
time he sat there wondering what to do, but at last an ele-
phant came by, and seeing the mouse-deer, asked him what he
was doing. The latter replied that he had information that
the sky was going to fall and that all creatures would be
crushed, whence he had taken refuge in this pit in order to
save himself. Greatly alarmed, the elephant begged that he,
too, might be allowed to come into the pit, and the trickster
agreeing, he descended, whereupon the kantjil, seizing the
opportunity, jumped upon the elephant’s back, from which
he was able to leap out of the pit; and so he ran away, leaving
the elephant to his fate.®



igo


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


Numerous tales are told of the tricks played by the mouse-
deer on the crocodile. Once the former wished to cross a river
which he was unable to wade or swim because it was in flood,
so, standing upon the bank, he called for the crocodiles, say-
ing that the king had given command that they should be
counted. Accordingly, they came in great numbers and by
the trickster’s directions arranged themselves in a row extend-
ing from bank to bank, whereupon the mouse-deer pretended
to count them, jumping from one to the other and calling out,
“one,” “two,” “three,” etc., until he reached the opposite
bank, when he derided them for their stupidity.^®

Resolving to be avenged, the crocodile bided his time, and
when the trickster came later to the river to drink, he seized
one of the mouse-deer’s legs in his mouth. Nothing dismayed,
the captive picked up a branch and called out, “That is not
my leg; that is a stick of wood. My foot is here.” The croco-
dile accordingly let go and snapped at the branch, thinking
that it was really the trickster’s leg; but this gave the needed
opportunity, and the clever mouse-deer bounded away to
safety, leaving the stupid crocodile with the stick in his mouth.^^
The crocodile, however, determined not to go without his
revenge, lay in wait, floating like a water-soaked log until the
mouse-deer should visit the river again. When, after a while,
he did come to the stream and saw the crocodile motionless,
he stood on the bank and said, as if he were in doubt whether
or not it was a log, “If that is the crocodile, it will float down-
stream.” The crocodile, resolving not to give himself away,
remained motionless; and then the trickster added, “But if
it is a log, it will float upstream.” At once the crocodile began
to swim slowly against the current, and the mouse-deer, hav-
ing discovered what he wished, called out in derision, “Ha!
ha! I have fooled you once more.”

The trickster is not invariably successful in avoiding cap-
ture, although he usually manages to escape by a ruse. Thus,
being caught one day in a trap while he was plundering a



TRICKSTER TALES


I9r

man^s fields, he feigned death. The owner of the field discover-
ing the culprit, and thinking that he was already dead, took
him out of the snare, intending to carry him off, but when the
man^s back was turned the trickster jumped up and ran awayd^
On another occasion, the kantjil was caught, carried home by
a man, and put in a cage to keep until his captor was ready to
kill and eat him; but though the outlook was dark indeed, at
last a stratagem occurred to him. A dog came by and asked
why the mouse-deer was thus shut up, whereupon the latter
said that he had been chosen as the husband of the chief s
daughter and was to be kept in the cage until the morrow,
when the wedding was to take place. The dog wished that he
might marry the beautiful maiden himself and asked the
captive if he would not be willing to have him change places.
With apparent reluctance the trickster agreed, and the change
being effected the mouse-deer was free once more.^^

Other adventures of the trickster in which he escapes by a
ruse of a different sort are as follows. Being about to be at-
tacked by the buffalo, who wished to kill him, the trickster
put on his head a false pair of horns to alarm his adversary,
and reddening them as if with blood, stood ready for the at-
tack. When the buffalo appeared, the ape (who was the trick-
ster in this instance) called out that he had just killed several
other buffaloes and was quite ready for further conflict, where-
upon his opponent, deceived by the imitated horns and blood,
fled, thinking that he had caught a tartard^

A somewhat different version, in which the tiger is the ag-
gressor, runs thus.^® The tiger was seeking the kantjil to
eat him, when the latter hastened to find a J/^j^f-plant, whose
leaves he chewed making his mouth blood-red; after which he
went and sat down beside a welL By and by the tiger came
along, and the trickster, assuming a fierce aspect and drivel-
ling blood-red saliva from his mouth, said that the tiger had
better look out, as he, the mouse-deer, was accustomed to
eat tigers, and if the latter did not believe it, let him look in



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


193

the well, in which he would see the head of the last one that
he. had finished. The tiger was much alarmed, though not
wholly convinced, so he went to look in the well, where he
saw, of course, the reflection of his own head. Thinking that
this was really the head of the tiger which the mouse-deer had
just eaten, and convinced of the trickster’s might, the tiger
ran away as fast as he could.

The ape, however, encouraged the tiger not to be afraid of
the trickster, who was not so terrible a person after all, and
to prove this, he said that he would go with the tiger to seek
the kantjil once more; while to demonstrate his good faith he
proposed that they should tie their tails together so that they
might thus make a common attack, the ape riding on the tiger’s
back. The latter agreed and in this way again approached
the clever little rascal; but as soon as the latter saw them
coming, he called out, “Ha! that is strange! There comes the
ape who usually brings me two tigers every day as tribute,
and now he is bringing only one.” Terrified at this, the tiger
ran away as fast as his legs would carry him; and the ape,
being tied to his tail, was dashed against the rocks and trees
and was killed.

The wide-spread tale of the hare and the tortoise is told
almost universally through this Indonesian area, with the
trickster, of course, playing the rUe of the hare. The story is
everywhere so much alike and so well known that it is scarcely
necessary to give these local versions.^®

The trickster tales so far presented have the mouse-deer for
their hero in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, as well as in the
Malay Peninsula; while the same narratives are told of the
tarsier ape in many instances in the rest of the island region
and of the hare in Cambodia and Annam. The following stories,
on the other hand, seem to be recounted almost wholly of
the ape and are confined within a somewhat narrower geo-
graphical area.

There was once an ape who was the friend of a heron and



TRICKSTER TALES


193


?wHo said, Friend, let ns louse each other, and let me be
loused first/^ The heron, replying, Yes, you first, then
picked off the ape’s lice, and when this was done, said, ‘^Now,
do me also.” While he was being loused by the ape, he said,
«^Ow! you are hurting me,” but the ape answered, /“^No, I
am only pulling off the lice.” In reality he was tearing out
the heron’s feathers; and after he had plucked every one,
he said, ^^I am quite finished; fly away,” whereupon the heron
started to fly, only to find all his feathers gone, while the
ape went off, leaving the heron very angry.^^ Shortly after-
ward the ape met another heron, who, determining to punish
him for his deed, said that there were very fine berries to
be had in a place of which he knew across the sea, and invited
the ape to go with him to get some. Taking a great leaf, he
made a canoe of it, and the two set out, the ape paddling and
the heron steering; but when they were well out of sight of
land, the heron pecked a hole in the bottom of the boat,
which quickly filled and sank, the bird flying safely away and
leaving the ape struggling in the sea.^®

In the versions from the Malay Peninsula, Sangir Islands,
and Halmahera the ape was just about to drown when a shark
appeared, and thinking he was to have a good meal, told the
ape that he was going to eat him; but the latter answered
that he had no flesh or entrails and that he would afford only
a sorry meal. The shark, surprised at this statement, asked
where his flesh and entrails were, and the ape replied that he
had left them ashore, but that, if the shark would carry him
to land, he would go and get them. The shark accordingly bore
the trickster to the shore, where the ape told his rescuer to
stay while he went to obtain his flesh; and in this way he kept
the shark until the tide had ebbed so that he was unable to
get away, and thus died. This episode of the rescue from drown-
ing, and of the ungrateful killing of the rescuer, shows an inter-
esting distribution, occurring in Annam and India, as well
as in Micronesia,®^ Melanesia,®^ and Polynesia.®^

IX — 14

[Prometheus]

194


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


Equallf significant in its dissemination is another tale.
The ape and the tortoise once determined to plant each a
banana patch, the ape choosing his place on the shore, where the
waves would save him the labour of keeping the ground clean,
while the tortoise planted his inland. As might be expected,
the ape’s bananas all died from the effect of the salt water,
while the tortoise’s trees grew finely. By and by the latter’s
bananas were ripe, but since he could not climb the trees, he
was forced to wait until the fruit fell to the ground. The ape
coming by, the tortoise asked him to climb for him and said
that if he would do so, they could divide the fruit. Nothing
loath, the ape sprang up into one of the trees, but did not
throw any of the fruit down; and when the tortoise asked
him why he did not give him some, the ape replied that he
wanted first to taste them. He kept on eating the bananas
and paid no attention when the tortoise begged him to throw
some down, until finally the latter said, “Well, you eat the
fruit, and throw me down the skins.” Even this the ape re-
fused to do, saying that the skins were still better than the
fruit, whereupon, angry at such treatment, the tortoise col-
lected a quantity of bamboo sticks, which he sharpened and
set thickly in the ground under the tree. Then he called to
the ape that when he had finished, he must jump down to the
ground; but in doing this, he fell on the sharpened randjans
and was killed. This tale, besides being wide-spread in In-
donesia,^® occurs also in Japan and in Melanesia.^®

A tale told variously of the ape, the mouse-deer, and other
animals may be included here, since it also shows a distribu-
tion outside the Indonesian area. According to this,*® the ape
and another animal meeting on the shore, the latter suggested
that they gather shell-fish, to which the ape agreed. They
soon found a monster clam, and by the advice of his companion,
on whom the ape had previously played a trick, the latter was
induced to put his hand into the shell, which was open, in order
to pluck out the mollusc; but no sooner did he attempt this.



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195


than the clam closed its shell, thus cutting off the ape’s hand.
In a somewhat similar form the story is found farther to the
east in New Britain.®**

In some of the tales the tortoise and the ape play parts else-
where taken by the mouse-deer and the tiger. After outwitting
and killing the ape by one of the various tricks already recited,
the tortoise took the body, making tobacco from the hair;
from the flesh, dried meat; from the bones, which he burned,
he made lime for betel chewing; and from the blood, sago
wine. By and by the other apes set out to seek their com-
panion, and coming to the tortoise, asked if he had seen him
whom they sought; but without answering their question, the
tortoise invited them to come to his house and chew betel.
After first declining his hospitality, they finally accepted it,
whereupon the tortoise gave them sago wine, which they
drank, saying, “Ha! but the wine looks red,” to which the
tortoise replied, “Well, there is dye in it.” Then he gave them
betel to chew, and after chewing a while, the apes went off;
and as they departed, the tortoise said to himself, “Bah! you
have drunk the blood and chewed the bones of your friend!”
One of the apes overheard him and said to his companions,
“Listen! what does he say?” whereupon the apes called to
the tortoise, “What are you saying?” to which the tortoise
replied, “Oh! nothing. I only said that it is going to rain, so
you had better run along.” Then the tortoise began to laugh,
saying, “Ha! ha! it makes me laugh heartily,”®^ but when the
apes heard this, they went after the tortoise and urged each
other on to crush him to death. The tortoise, however, thought
of a trick to save himself, so when the apes said to each other,
“Have n’t you crushed him yet?” he answered, “My father and
mother tried to crush me to death and I didn’t die. Do you
think that I shall die if you crush me ? ” Then the apes said,
“Let us rather burn him to death,” but the tortoise replied,
“My father and mother tried to burn me to death, but I
didn’t die. Do you think you can burn me to death?” Then



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


196

the apes said to each other, “It would be better to throw
him into the sea,” and now the tortoise was happy, but for
craft he wept, while the apes said, “At last we have won.”
Accordingly they picked up the tortoise and threw him into
the sea, but there he was in his element and laughed aloud and
said, “Ha! ha! the water is the very home of my father and
my mother.” At this the apes were greatly enraged and said,
“We must find the buffalo to get him to drink up the sea.”
The buffalo agreed, and had drunk up almost all of it when
the crab, bribed by the tortoise with the promise of a ripe
coco-nut, bit the buffalo in the belly and made a hole in it.
Thus all the water flowed out again, and all of the apes were
drowned but one, who was saved by leaping into the branches
of a tree. She later gave birth to young, and from them all
the apes of today are descended.®®

One day the trickster came across the ape, who said to him,
“Friend, let us stew each other,” to which the trickster an-
swered, “Good, but let me be the first to be stewed. Go and
get a bamboo, so that I can creep into it.” When the ape came
back with a piece of bamboo, the trickster crept into it and
said, “Now, friend, you must go and pluck leaves to pack me
in tightly. When you come back with the leaves, don’t look
into the bamboo, but stuff the leaves in snugly, while you
look another way.” The ape went for the leaves, but meantime
the trickster crawled out of the bamboo cooking vessel and
climbed up a vine which hung near by, while the ape came
back and stuffed the vessel, which was now empty, with leaves,
thinking that the other was still within. Then he blew up the
fire and set the vessel on. It bubbled away, and when he
thought the meat was done he took the vessel off, leaning it
against a tree while he went away to get large leaves on which
to pour out the food; but after he had disappeared, and the
water in the vessel had had a chance to cool a bit, the trickster
came down the vine and crept into the bamboo again. When
the ape returned, he arranged the large leaves, removed those



197


TRICKSTER TALES

stuffed into the vessel, and shook out the trickster, who said,
“Look, friend, how brave I am! When the water was boiling
hardest, I did not feel it at all.” The ape, replying, “Well,
well, I want to be stewed also, so that I may get warm,”
crept into the vessel, whose mouth the trickster stuffed tightly,
so that the other could not escape, after which he set the vessel
on the fire. Soon the water got hot, and the ape, no longer able
to bear it, cried, “Take me out, friend! take me out! I am
afraid,” only to hear the trickster reply, “Well, it was just so
when you cooked me.” “Good friend, have pity on me!” said
the other, “take me out!” but the trickster answered, “Well,
I did not complain when you cooked me.” So he showed no
pity, but when he thought the other was thoroughly cooked,
he turned out the contents of the vessel and ate him all up.®^

Not long after this, the ape, who in this instance was the
trickster, chanced upon some people in a village who were
watching a corpse; and when the chief told them to go and
prepare a cofiin, the ape said, “I will go with you and help
hollow it out.” The chief replying, “Very well,” the ape went
with the others to cut down the tree and make the coffin.
After it was finished, the people said that each one ought to
get in and try it, whereupon the ape said, “I want to get in,
too. Everyone ought to take his turn,” but when he was inside
the cofiin, his companions suddenly put the cover on, because he
was such a rogue and had tricked so many others. The ape
called, “Let me out, let me out!” but they paid no attention,
for they had decided that he must die. So the ape perished,
and the people took the cofiin and burned it with all its
contents.®®

In several of the tales the trickster plays the part of a judge,
or of one who calls on another to decide a difiicult case. Ac-
cording to one of these stories,®® a crocodile once was asleep
on the bank of a stream when a great tree, uprooted by the
wind, fell upon him and pinned him down so that he could
not move. The trickster came by, and the crocodile begged



198 OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY

him to aid him in getting free; but the former, saying that
he could not do anything by himself, went off and came
back with a buffalo, who was able to bite through the roots,
whereupon the river carried the tree away. The crocodile’s
appetite, however, got the better of his gratitude, and he
begged that, to complete their good deed, they should drag
him into the water. This the buffalo did, but the crocodile
little by little induced his helper to push him into deeper and
deeper water, thinking thus to get the buffalo in a position
where resistance would be difficult and where he could the
more easily catch him and devour him. Feeling that his suc-
cess was sure, the crocodile told the buffalo what he pro-
posed to do, but the latter was loud in his protests, saying that
to eat him was a poor way to reward his aid; and he accordingly
begged that the case be submitted to a judge, who should de-
cide the rights’ of the matter. The first thing to come along to
which he could make appeal was an old leaf-plate which floated
down the stream; but the plate, on having the case stated,
replied that he, too, had been treated ungratefully, since he
had been thrown away, although he was still good for some-
thing; and so, absorbed in his own wrongs, he drifted on down
the river. The same thing happened with a rice-mortar and
an old mat, so that the buffalo stood in great danger of death.
The trickster, however (in this case the mouse-deer), quite
unwilling to let his friend perish, ran off to get a deer and to
secure his help. When the latter came back with him, he was
appealed to as a judge; but saying that he could not decide the
case unless the circumstances were made quite clear to him,
he demanded that the whole affair be repeated for his en-
lightenment. Accordingly, he made the crocodile take up his
former position on shore with the buffalo coming to his aid;
after which he said that he himself would prefer to have the
whole scene enacted once more, but that if the buffalo did
not choose to do so, then never mind. Thus the buffalo was
able to escape, and the crocodile went away angry.






PLATE XIX


Ancestral image of. wood, consecrated by prayers
and soaking in the blood of a sacrificed pig or chicken.
•The spirits of the ancestors were sometimes thought
to enter into these images. Ifugao tribe, Luzon,
Philippine Islands. Peabody Museum, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.





TRICKSTER TALES


199


One day the boar and the antelope met, and the fornaer
said, “Friend, I dreamed last night that you would be eaten
by me,” to which the antelope replied, “How can that be, for
we are friends,” only to hear the boar answer, “What I have
dreamed must come to pass.” When the antelope heard this,
he said, “If that is so, let us go and put the case to our ruler,”
but neither of them knew that the ape had overheard. The
antelope and the boar came to the king, who, after he had
listened to the case, decided that the antelope must really
be eaten, because the boar had dreamed it. When the ape
heard this, he had pity for the antelope, so he dropped
down suddenly from the tree-top before them all, startling
the king, who said, “What are you doing here?” The ape
answered, “Why, I dreamed that I had married the daughter
of the king, and I have come for her.” The king replied,
“But what you say is impossible,” to which the ape retorted,
“No, it is very possible.” The king hearing this, and- seeing
the point, said to his servants, “The decision in the case of
the antelope and the boar cannot be carried out.”

Related to the class of trickster tales proper are some of the
stories which are told of another hero, who in many respects
resembles the Till Eulenspiegel of European folk-lore, as the
trickster does Renard the Fox. As examples of these tales
we may take the following.- One day the king sent a servant
to pick flowers on the land of the hero, in whose house he saw
three such beautiful women that he forgot about his errand
and returned to the ruler with empty hands, saying that he
had beheld three women who were so enchantingly lovely that
they put the king’s wives to shame. The king desired, there-
fore, to have them for himself, and planning to get rid of the
hero, he summoned him, saying, when he came, “Don’t be
disturbed because I have sent for you. I only want you to
go for me to the sky to see how my ancestors are getting along;
and I shall, therefore, burn you up, so that you can ascend
thither.” Full of sorrow, the hero went back to his wife and



200


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


her lovely sisters and told them what the king had commanded;
but his wife replied, “Don’t be distressed; I shall conceal you
in the sleeping-room, and for two days you must not come
out.” The three sisters next hastened to pound up a great
quantity of rice, from which they made an image of a man that
exactly resembled the hero, and then they wept and wailed
and let their tears fall upon the image and it came to life.
They dressed the impersonator in the hero’s clothes, instruct-
ing him to say that he would return from his journey in three
days; and so the false hero went to the king and said that he
was ready to start on the journey to the sky, “How long will
you be gone?” asked the king, and the image replied, “I shall
be back in three days.” Then the king’s servants, wrapping
the impostor in palm fibres, set him afire, and as he was made
of rice-flour, he was burned up entirely and left no trace,
whence they said, “He has gone on his journey.” Meanwhile,
the real hero remained in his sleeping-room, and the three
sisters cooked a great quantity of delectable viands. After
two days they had finished, and dressing the hero sumptu-
ously, and putting upon him golden rings, bracelets, and orna-
ments, they gave him the food to take to the king. When he
arrived, he presented this, saying that the king’s ancestors in
the upper world sent him many greetings and this food as
token of their affection; and that they begged that he himself
would come to visit them. The king was much surprised to
find the hero safe and sound, and said, “Have you already re-
turned? You said that you would stay away three days, but
only two have passed.” “Yes,” the hero answered, “I did not
think the sky was as near as it is. If all this food had not had
to be prepared, I would have been here much sooner.” “ Is n’t
it so far then?” asked the king. “Oh, no,” said the hero, “it
is only a little distance.” “Where did you get all these golden
ornaments?” queried the king. “Oh, your ancestors gave them
to me, and you also can have some if you go.” The king said,
“Shall I let myself be burned in order to go thither?” “Cer-



TRICKSTER TALES


201


tainly,” the other replied, “in no other way can you obtain
such fine things.” “Very well,” said the king, “set nae afire,”
but his companions cried, “Me too, me too,” for all were anxious
to go to the sky. “Well, wait a bit,” said the hero, “until I
gather enough palm fibres for you all.” So he went to the
forest and collected a great quantity, and then, wrapping the
king and his friends in it, he set it afire. When it was com-
pletely burned out, there their bodies lay, all shrunken and
charred; whereupon the hero called to the people, who had
hated their ruler because of his oppression of them, “Take
everything you find in the king’s house and apportion it
amongst yourselves, for all that he possessed he had taken from
you.” So the people divided the king’s treasure, and the hero
and his wife and her sisters lived happily ever after.®®

As another example of these tales we may take the story of
Taba. He was anxious to marry the king’s daughter, but for a
long time could think of no way in which he could compass
his wish. At last, however, he hit upon a plan. Finding that
not far from the house was a great zaaringin-tree, the path to
which was very roundabout and much obstructed, he secretly
made a short cut to the tree, after which he went into the
house and pretended that he was very ill, sitting by the ashes
on the hearth and groaning that he was surely about to die.
Asked what could be done to help him, he said, “Oh, if you
will only go for me to the great waringin-tree which grows by
the road. A spirit whom I worship lives in that tree, and if
you would ask it, it would tell you what I could do in order to
get well.” The people pitied Taba and went down the road to
the tree; but he, meanwhile, hurried thither by his shorter
path, climbed up into the tree, and secreted himself; so that
when the people arrived and asked whether Taba would regain
his health, he called out, “He must be married to the king’s
daughter. Only thus will he recover.” Before the people could
teach the house by the regular road, Taba got there, and when
they arrived he was sitting groaning by the fire. The people,



202


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


telling him what the oracle had said, agreed to aid him in
carrying out the command of the supposed spirit; and thus
Taba became the son-in-law of the king and soon was well
againd®

Two other animal stories or fables may be given in connexion
with the series already presented, since, although even more
clearly of extra-Indonesian origin, their distribution serves to
confirm the evidence of foreign influence in all of this type of
tale. One day the cat reproached the deer for having stepped
on the ear of one of her kittens, but the deer excused himself,
saying that he was startled by a bird and ran, and that the
blame thus rested with the bird, who, by flying up suddenly,
was the real cause of the accident. The cat then went to the
bird and accused it, but the latter shifted the fault on another
bird, who had alarmed it by appearing with white feathers about
its neck. In its turn this bird put the blame on another, which
had appeared with its whole body yellow, and this bird said
that it had done so because still another had a yellow beak.
The latter, on being approached by the cat, alleged that this
was owing to the fact that the crab had jointed claws, while the
crab transferred the blame to the mouse, who, he said, had
stolen his hole. When the cat, at last, charged the mouse with
the ultimate responsibility, the latter could not think of any
excuse to give on the spur of the moment, and so, losing pa-
tience, the cat jumped upon it and ate it up. Ever since that
time cats and mice have been at war.^°

[Prometheus]

The other tale runs as follows. One day an egg, a snake, a
centipede, an ant, and a piece of dung set out on a head-hunt-
ing expedition, and on arriving at the house which they planned
to attack, the egg stationed the party as follows: the centi-
pede under the floor, the ant in the water- vessel, the dung at
the top of a ladder leaning against a door, and the snake be-
side the door, while the egg itself took its place in the cooking-
pot. During the night the centipede came out of its hiding-
place and bit the occupant of the house, who, as a result, went



TRICKSTER TALES


203


to light a fire; but there the egg jumped from the cooking-pot
into his face, and blinded him. The man at once hurried to
the water-vessel to wash his face, whereupon the ant stung
him, and when he ran down the ladder, he slipped on the dung
and fell to the bottom, where the snake bit him, and he
died."

The group of trickster tales and fables of which a series has
now been given are of especial importance, not only in the
study of Indonesian mythology, but also in relation to the
whole question of the origin and growth of Melanesian and
Oceanic culture. Although widely spread in Indonesia, their
distribution brings out the following facts. The tales, as a
whole, fall into two rather clearly marked groups: {a) those
in which the mouse-deer figures as the hero, and (b) those in
which the ape or tortoise is the leading figure. The former group
is most fully represented in the south and west, i. e. in Java,
Borneo, and Sumatra, and is scarcely known in the Philippines;
the latter is best developed in the east and north — in Halma-
hera, Celebes, and the Sangir Islands — and is well represented
in the Philippines, decreasing in importance from south to north.
So far as any existing material goes, neither group of tales is
known to those tribes which have had very little or no influence
from Indian culture. The first of these two groups is, within
its region of main development, most fully exemplified among
the Javanese, who, of all the peoples of the Indonesian area
had the earliest and closest contact with Indian culture; it is
next best represented in those portions of Borneo, Sumatra, and
the Moluccas which were colonized from, or more or less under
the control of, the Modjopahit and other Hindu-Javanese
kingdoms which grew up in Java during the first centuries of
the Christian era. Outside of Indonesia, this group of tales is
strongly represented in south-eastern Asia, i. e. among the
Cham, and in Cambodia and Annam, where Indian influence
was strongly established even earlier than in Java. It is de-
veloped among the Malays of the Malay Peninsula, and even



204


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


among the Shan o£ Upper Burma (who have in the one case
early, and in the other case later, come in contact with Hindu,
i. e. Buddhist, culture) a considerable number of the tales are
found in typical form. Lastly, in India itself at least half of
the series is known. On the other hand, none of the stories of
thi s group has, the writer believes, thus far been reported from
Melanesia or farther to the east.

Turning to the second group (the tales which centre about
the ape or tortoise), it appears that in the eastern and northern
portions of Indonesia, where it is best developed, it is strong-
est in Halmahera, northern Celebes, and the Sangir Islands,
and is well represented not only in Mindanao and among the
Visayan tribes of the Philippines, but also in Luzon. Outside
of the Indonesian area its distribution is sharply contrasted
with the first group. Instead of being, as that is, strongly repre-
sented in India and south-eastern Asia and unknown in Mela-
nesia, it is comparatively rare on the Asiatic continent, but is
rather widely distributed in Melanesia, while at least one of its
themes has been reported from eastern Polynesia. One of the
tales of each group is known from Japan.

From these facts it would seem that we might safely draw
the following conclusions. The first group consists of two sets
of tales, the first comprising those which are manifestly of
actual Indian origin, occurring there in the Buddhist Jatakas
and other early sources, and obviously introduced into In-
donesia by the Hindu immigrants in the first centuries of our
era; and the second including those of which examples are not
known from India itself. The latter class the author believes
to be of local Indonesian growth, though perhaps copied after
Indian models. Such local imitation of foreign tales is a phe-
nomenon well known in other parts of the world, and appears
to be the most reasonable explanation of the conditions which
meet us here. The second group, on the other hand, seems
wholly or almost wholly of local origin, the rare instances of
the occurrence of any portion of it on the Asiatic mainland



TRICKSTER TALES


205


being plausibly explained as due to the well-known backwash
of Malayan peoples from the Archipelago at an early, though
as yet uncertain, period. Its apparent absence from western
Indonesia is, however, rather difficult to explain. It is possible
that further data may make it clear that this group of tales is
more purely Indonesian than Malayan, i. e. that it belongs to
that earlier Indonesian stratum of population which followed
the Negrito and preceded the Malay.

The extension of this second type into Melanesia and even
to Polynesia, together with the absence of the first group from
this easterly region, would seem to have still further significance,
for it is a fair question whether this does not prove that the
emigration of the Polynesian ancestors from the Archipelago
must have taken place prior to the period of Indian contact.
It will be noted, also, that one tale of each group has been re-
ported from Japan. On the basis of the hypothesis which we
have advanced, one of these would then be traceable to In-
dian (i. e. Buddhist) sources, the other to the supposed still
earlier influences which passed northward from the Philippines
through Formosa and the Riukiu Islands to Kiushiu and
southern Nippon.



CHAPTER III

MISCELLANEOUS TALES

I N Melanesia, and perhaps also in New Zealand, one of the
themes found to be characteristically developed was that of
the swan-maiden, i. e. the descent of a heavenly maiden to earth
and her capture and marriage by an earthly hero; and since
tales embodying this motif are numerous in Indonesia, a con-
sideration of the remainder of the mythology of this region may
well begin with examples of this type. The Toradja in central
Celebes say that once a woman gave birth to seven crabs which,
in terror and disgust, she threw into the river. The crabs gained
the bank, however, and there fixed seven places for bathing
and built a house; but when they entered the water, they put
off their crab disguise and assumed their human form. One
day, when they were disporting themselves in the river and
had left their crab garments on the shore, seven men crept
up and stole their clothing, thus making it impossible for the
maidens to resume their animal guise; and each of the men then
took one of the maidens as his wife.^

Another tale from the same tribe shows a more typical form
of the story. According to this, seven parakeets one day flew
down to bathe, doffing their bird garments and laying them on
a bench while they made merry in the water as beautiful maid-
ens. Magoenggoelota crept up and stole the garment of the
youngest, who, realizing that something was wrong, called to
her sisters, “Whew! I smell human flesh,” at which the others
were vexed and said, “Oh, how could any mortal come here?
You are joking.” Soon they all went out to resume their gar-
ments, but though the older sisters found theirs and donned



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


207


them, the youngest was unable to perceive her own until she
saw a man who held it in his hand. Her sisters had disappeared,
for they had flown up to the sky; and when they arrived, they
said to their mother, “Kapapitoe has gone away, for someone
took her dress,” at which their mother shed tears and berated
them for abandoning their sister, so that they did not dare to
go bathing any more. Meanwhile the younger sister wept and
begged Magoenggoelota to give her back her feather garment,
but he refused, saying, “Come, stop your crying. I shall do
you no harm, but shall take you to my house as my wife,” to
which she answered, “Very well, if you will, take me with you;
but first give me back my clothes.” When she had promised
not to fly away, he returned her feather garment, but when
she put it on, he held her fast until she said, “You don’t need
tp hold me; I will not go away, for I do not know the road.
If you are fond of me, put me in your betel-box, ” and accord-
ingly he took out his betel-box, put her in it, and took her to
his home.®

A version from Halmahera® shows a further development.
A man once had seven sons. Attacked by a mysterious ill-
ness, he gradually turned to stone, and the sons, wishing to
seek for medicine with which to cure him, determined at once
to set out in search of it. The youngest son, however, being
very ugly and covered with sores, was left behind; but he,
resolving to do what he could, started off alone in another di-
rection and came to the house of an old woman, who took
pity on him, cured bis sores, clothed him, and listened to the
story of his quest. When she had heard his tale, she told him
to hide among the bushes near a pool of water which was close
by, and he had not been there long before five maidens came
to bathe. They took off their garments and laid them on the
bushes under which he was concealed; and while they were
bathing, he stole the clothes of the youngest. The others,
when they came out, put on their winged garments and flew
away, but the youngest, unable to escape, begged in vain that



208


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


he would return to her her magic robes, only to have him re-
fuse and take her home as his wife. When he had told her of
his quest and had asked her if she could help him, she imme-
diately called for her flying-palace, and in it they both ascended
to the sky. She brought her husband to the presence of the
lord of heaven, who gave him, after hearing his story, the
medicine for which he had been seeking, and with this the son
now returned to his father, thanks to the aid of his wife’s
magic flying-house. There he cured his parent; but his six
brothers returning empty-handed, and being angry because
the youngest had succeeded where they had failed, were later
turned into dogs, while the hero and his wife lived happily
ever after.

Gne more version of this theme may be given, in this in-
stance from Java.^ A poor widow found in the forest an infant
that had been abandoned and left at the foot of a tree, and in
pity she took the child home with her, bringing it up as her
own. The boy developed into a keen hunter and used to wander
in the forest with his blowgun in search of birds, until one day
he saw a very lovely one at which he shot and shot in vain.
He followed it far into the jungle, and at last, losing sight of it
entirely, he found himself on the margin of a beautiful pool,
to which, as he looked, he saw a number of heavenly maidens
flying down to bathe. From his hiding-place he beheld them
lay aside their wings and enter the water, when he quietly
reached out, and possessing himself of one pair, made a slight
noise. At this alarm the bathers took fright, and hastening
out of the water, seized their garments and flew away, — one,
however, being unable to escape because the youth had pos-
session of her wings. She begged him to return them, but he
refused, saying that he would give her other garments if she
would agree to be his wife; and being forced to assent to this
proposal, she accompanied him to his home. One day she went
to the river to wash clothes and left her husband to mind the
kettle in which the rice was cooking, warning him on no



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


209


account to take off the cover of the pot or to look within.
After she had gone, he could not overcome his curiosity to
see what it was she did not wish him to observe, his inquisitive-
ness being especially keen since she had always been able to
provide abundant meals although he had given her only one
measure of rice. Accordingly he raised the lid, but saw noth-
ing in the pot except boiling water and a single grain of rice;
and so, replacing the cover, he awaited his wife’s return.
When she came, she hurried to the pot and looked in, only to
find the single grain of rice, since the magic power by which
she had hitherto been able to produce food miraculously ® had
been destroyed by her husband’s curiosity. This, of course,
made her angry, because henceforth she was obliged to labour
and to prepare rice for every meal in the usual manner.
The store of rice in the bin now rapidly decreased, and one
day, when she came to the bottom, she found her magic
garment which her husband had hidden there. On his return
she informed him that she must now go back to the sky,
though she said that she would leave with him their child,
which was still but young, and told him that whenever the
baby cried, he was to climb up, place it on the roof, and burn
a stalk of rice below, and that then she would descend to give
her daughter food. When she had said this, she took a stalk
of rice, lit it, and rose up to the sky in its smoke. The sorrow-
ing husband followed her commands, and the child grew up to
be as beautiful as her mother.

In these and other versions ® we may trace many variations
of the theme, from the simple forms like the first, which seem
to rest on the wide-spread belief which prevails throughout
the region, of human beings in animal guise who can put off
their animal shape and resume that of man; to those like the
latter, where it assumes the type common in Indian and
European mythology. It would seem that we have here, as
in the case of the trickster tales, one group whose direct Indian
origin is unmistakable and which has spread widely wherever



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OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


this early influence has come; and another which is native in
all its essentials, although this simple and apparently aboriginal
type may, after all, be a local imitation of a foreign theme.
The extension of the tale in its more typically Indian form
to Melanesia ’’ and even to western Polynesia (New Zealand) ®
is of great interest, and raises questions which may better be
discussed in a consideration of the Indonesian tales as a whole.

Many of the stories in Indonesia are based upon the theme
of the animal disguise, or “Beauty and the Beast,” the follow-
ing being typical of this class.® Once there was an old woman
who lived alone in the jungle and had a lizard which she
brought up as her child. When he was full grown, he said to
her, “Grandmother, go to the house of Lise, where there are
seven sisters; and ask for the eldest of these for me as a wife.”
The old woman did as the lizard requested, and taking the
bridal gifts with her, went off; but when she came near the
house, Lise saw her and said, “Look, there comes Lizard’s
grandmother with a bridal present. Who would want to marry
a lizard! Not I.”

The old woman arrived at the foot of the ladder, ascended it,
and sat down in Lise’s house, whereupon the eldest sister gave
her betel, and when her mouth was red from chewing it, asked,
“What have you come for. Grandmother.? Why do you come
to us?” “Well, Granddaughter, I have come for this: to pre-
sent a bridal gift; perhaps it will be accepted, perhaps not.
That is what I have come to see.” As soon as she had spoken,
the eldest indicated her refusal by getting up and giving the
old woman a blow that knocked her across to the door, fol-
lowing this with another that rolled her down the ladder. The
old woman picked herself up and went home; and when she
had reached her house, the lizard inquired, “How did your
visit succeed?” She replied, “01 alas! I was afraid and almost
killed. The gift was not accepted, the eldest would not accept
it; it seems she has no use for you because you are only a
lizard.” “Do not be disturbed,” said he, “go tomorrow and



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


21 1


ask for the second sister,” and the old woman did not refuse,
but went the following morning, only to be denied, as before.
Each day she went again to another of the sisters until the
turn of the youngest came. This time the girl did not listen
to what Lise said and did not strike the old woman or drive
her away, but agreed to become Lizard’s wife, at which the
old woman was delighted and said that after seven nights
she and her son would come. When this time had passed,
the grandmother arrived, carrying the lizard in a basket.
Kapapitoe (the youngest sister) laid down a mat for the old
woman to sit on while she spread out the wedding gifts,
whereupon the young bride gave her food, and after she had
eaten and gone home, the lizard remained as Kapapitoe’s
husband. The other sisters took pains to show their disgust.
When they returned home at night, they would wipe the
mud off their feet on Lizard’s back and would say, “Pitoe
can’t prepare any garden; she must stay and take care of her
lizard,” but Kapapitoe would say, “Keep quiet. I shall take
him down to the river and wash off the mud.” After a while
the older sisters got ready to make a clearing for a garden,
and one day, when they had gone to work, the lizard said to
his wife, “We have too much to bear. Your sisters tease us
too much. Come, let us go and make a garden. Carry me in a
basket on your back, wife, and gather also seven empty coco-
nut-shells.” His wife agreed, put her husband in a basket, and
after collecting the seven shells, went to the place which they
were to make ready for their garden. Then the lizard said,
“Put me down on the ground, wife, so that I can run about,”
and thus he scurried around, lashing the grass and trees with
his tail and covering a whole mountain-side in the course of
the day; with one blow he felled a tree, cut it up by means of
the sharp points on his skin, set the pieces afire, and burned
the whole area, making the clearing smooth and good. Then
he said to Kapapitoe, “Make a little seat for me, so that I
can go and sit on it,” and when this was done, he ordered the



212

[Prometheus]

OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


seven coconut-shells to build a house for him, after which he
was carried home by his wife. The older sisters returning at
evening, saw the new clearing and wondered at it, perceiving
that it was ready for planting. When they got home they
said to their sister, “You can’t go thus to the planting feast
of Ta Datoe. Your husband is only a lizard,” and again they
wiped their feet on him.

The nezt day Lizard and his wife went once more to their
clearing and saw that the house had already been built for
them by the coconut-shells, which had turned into slaves;
whereupon the lizard said, “Good, tomorrow evening we will
hold the preliminary planting festival, and the next day a
planting feast.” Ordering his seven slaves to prepare much
food for the occasion, he said to his wife, “Let us go to the
river and get ready,” but on arriving at the stream, they
bathed far apart, and the lizard, taking off his animal disguise,
became a very handsome man dressed in magnificent gar-
ments. When he came for his wife, she at first did not recog-
nize him, but at last was convinced; and after she had been
given costly new clothes and ornaments, they returned toward
Lise’s house. As they came back, the preliminary planting
festival had begun, and many people were gathered, including
Kapapitoe’s elder sisters, Lise, and the old woman. The six
sisters said, “Tell us. Grandmother, who is that coming.'’ She
looks so handsome, and her sarong rustles as if rain were fall-
ing. The hem of her sarong goes up and down every moment
as It touches her ankles.” The old woman replied, “That is
your youngest sister, and there comes her husband also,”
whereupon, overcome with jealousy, the six sisters ran to meet
their handsome brother-in-law and vied with each other for
the privilege of carrying his betel-sack, saying, “I want to
hold the jfnA-sack of my brother-in-law.” He, however, went
and sat down, and the six went to sit beside him to take him
away from their youngest sister, but the lizard would have
none of them.



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


213


Next day was the planting, and his sisters-in-law would
not let the lizard go in company with his wife, but took pos-
session of him and made him angry. Accordingly, when Lise
and the sisters were asleep, the lizard got up, waked Kapapitoe,
and taking a stone, laid four pieces of bark upon it and re-
peated a charm, “If there is power in the wish of the six sis-
ters who wipe their feet on me, then I shall, when I open my
eyes, be sitting on the ground just as I am now. But if my
wish has power, when I open my eyes, I shall be sitting in
my house and looking down on all other houses.” When
he opened his eyes, he was seated in his house lugh up on the
mountain, for the stone had grown into a great rock, and his
house was on top of it. His sisters-in-law tried to climb the
cliff, but in vain, and so had to give up, while he and his wife,
Kapapitoe, lived happily ever after.^^

A tale wide-spread in the Archipelago, and interesting be-
cause of its further extension elsewhere, introduces the theme
of the descent to the underworld, though not as in the Polyne-
sian examples of the Orpheus type. As told by the Galela,^*
it runs as follows. Once upon a time there was a man who was
accustomed to keep watch in his garden to prevent its being
plundered by wild pigs. One night a pig appeared at which
the man threw his spear; but the creature was only wounded
and ran away with the missile sticking in its back. Next day
the man followed the trail of the stricken animal and after a
long chase found that the tracks led to a deep cleft in the rocks,
which conducted him down into the earth, so that at last he
came out in the middle of a town. The tracks led directly
to one of the houses, which the man entered, and looking
around, he saw his spear leaning by the door. From a neigh-
bouring room he heard sounds of crying, and shortly a man
appeared, who asked him who he was and what he wanted.
When he replied that he had come to find his spear, which
had been carried off in the body of a pig the night before,
the owner of the house said, “No, you speared my child, and



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


214

her you must cure. When she is well again, you shall marry
her.” While talking, the man who was in search of his spear
happened to look up and saw hanging from the rafters a
bunch of pigs’ skins, which were the disguises that the people
of this underworld assumed when they visited the upper earth
to plunder the gardens of men. He finally agreed to try his
skill in curing the woman whom he had thus unwittingly
wounded, and in a short time she had wholly recovered. Some
time after he had married her, she said to him, “Come now,
you act just as if you had forgotten all about your wife and
children,” to which he answered, “No, I think of them often;
but how shall I find them?” A plan was proposed which he
accepted, and in accordance with which they were both to
put on the pig disguises and visit the upper world. No
sooner said than done, and for three months he lived in the
underworld, visiting the gardens of his own town in the upper
world in the guise of a pig. Then one day, when he and others
had come to the upper earth, they said to him, “Now, shut your
eyes, and don’t open them until we give the word. After this,
when you make a garden plot and the pigs come to break in
and make trouble, do not shoot at them, but go and call out,
saying that they must not come to this field but go to some
others; and, then they will surely go away.” He did as they
commanded and closed his eyes, but when he opened them,
he was back once more in human form in his own garden and
his spirit wife of the underworld he never saw again.

A still more characteristic version is told in Celebes.^® Seven
brothers were hunting and drying the meat of the pigs which
they had killed, but, as in one of the trickster tales, a man
appeared who stole the food and made away with it, the brother
who had been left on guard being unable to stop him. When
the turn of the youngest came, he succeeded in spearing the
robber in the back, but the culprit ran oif and disappeared
with the spear still sticking in him. Now the spear belonged
to the boys’ grandfather, who, angry at its loss, demanded



MISCELLANEOUS TALES 215

that they find it and return itd® The brothers, therefore,
went to a great hole in the earth, from which, they had dis-
covered, the robber usually emerged. Taking a long vine, the
others lowered the eldest, but he, soon terrified at the dark-
ness, demanded to be hauled up again; and thus it went with
all six older brothers, only the youngest being brave enough
to reach the bottom. Once arrived, he found himself in the
underworld and there soon discovered a town. Asking if he
might come in, he was refused admittance on the ground
that the chief was suffering from a great spear with which he
had been wounded, and which was still embedded in his back.
The young hero thereupon declared that he could cure the
sufferer and was accordingly admitted to the chiefs house;
but when he was alone with the patient, he killed him, pulled
out the spear, and hastened to regain the place where he had
been let down. On the way he met seven beautiful maidens
who wished to accompany him to the upper world, and
so all were pulled up together by the brothers stationed
above, and each of them then took one of the.' girls for
his wife.“ The occurrence of this tale in Japan,^’' and on
the north-west coast of America is a feature of considerable
interest.

A story of quite wide distribution is that of the half-child.
According to the Loda version,^® the first man and woman
lived by a river, on whose banks they had a garden. A boy
was born to them, but later, when a second child was about to
be brought into the world, a great rain and flood came and
washed away half of the garden, whereupon the woman cursed
the rain, the result of her malediction being that when the
child was born, it was only half a human being and had but
one eye, one arm, and one leg. When Half-Child had grown
up, he said to his mother, “Alas, what shall I do, so that I
may be like my brother, who has two arms and two legs?”
Determining to go to the great deity in the upper world and
beg him to make him whole, he climbed up and laid his request



2I6


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


before the god, who, after some discussion, agreed to help
him, telling him to bathe in a pool which he showed him, and
at the same time cautioning him not to go into the water if he
saw any one else bathing. Half-Child went to the pool, found
no one else there, and after bathing came out restored to his
proper shape and made very handsome.

Returning to his home, he found his brother eating his dinner,
and the latter said to him, “Well, brother, you look very beau-
tiful!” “Yes,” said Half-Child, “the deity granted me to
be even as you are.” Then his elder brother asked, “Is the
god far away?” and the other replied, “No, he is not far, for
I was able to reach him easily.” The elder brother at once
went up to see the divinity, and when asked why he had
come, he said that he wished to be made as handsome as his
younger brother. The deity replied, “No, you are now just
as you ought to be, and must remain so”; but since the other
would not be satisfied, at length the god said, “Well, go to that
pool there and bathe; but you must not do so unless you see a
dog (i. e. the image or reflection of a dog) in it, in which case
you must bathe with a piece of white cloth tied round your
neck.” So the elder brother went to the pool, tied a piece of
cloth around his neck, and bathed, and behold! he was turned
into a dog with a white mark around his throat; whereupon
he returned to this world and found his brother, Half-Child,
at dinner. “Alas!” said the younger brother, “I told you not to
go, but you would do so, and now see what has become of
you!” and he added, “Here, my brother, you must always
remain under my table and eat what falls from it.”

Tales which involve themes of the “grateful animals” and
the “impossible tasks” are quite common; and as an example
of one type of these we may take a Dusun story from British
North Borneo.^ Serungal was an ugly man, but he wished very
much to marry a rajah’s daughter. On his way to the village
of the rajah he saw some men killing an ant, but when he
remonstrated with them, they ran away and left the insect,



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


217


which crawled off in safety, A little farther on Serungal heard
some people shouting and found that they were trying to kill
a fire-fly, whose life he saved in the same manner as he had
that of the ant; and before he reached the rajah’s gate he also
rescued a squirrel. Arrived before the rajah, Serungal made
known to him that he had come to ask for the hand of one of
his daughters; but since the rajah did not want him for a son-
in-law, he said to him, “If you can pick up the rice which is
in this basket, after it has been scattered over the plain, you
may have my daughter.” Serungal thought that he could not
succeed in this impossible task, for the rajah allowed him only
a short time to complete it; but nevertheless he determined to
try, only to find that achievement was hopeless. He began to
weep, but soon an ant came to him, and learning the reason of
his lamentation, said, “Well, stop crying, and I will help you,
for you helped me when men wished to kill me, ” and accord-
ingly the ant called his companions, who quickly sought and
gathered the grains of rice, so that the basket soon was full
once more. When Serungal carried the receptacle to the rajah
and announced that he had accomplished the task, the latter
said, “Well, you may have my daughter, but first you must
climb my betel-nut tree and pluck all the nuts.” Now this
tree was so tall that its top was lost in the clouds, and Serungal,
after several vain attempts, sat at the foot of the tree, weeping.
To him then came the squirrel whom he had befriended, and in
gratitude for the aid which Serungal had given him it climbed
the tree for him and brought down all the nuts. The rajah
had one more task, however, for Serungal to accomplish,
telling him that he might have his youngest daughter if he
could pick her out from among her six other sisters when all
were shut up in a perfectly dark room. Serungal again was in
despair when the fire-fiy came to him and said, “I will search
for you and I will settle on the nose of the seventh daughter;
so wherever you see a light, that will be the place where the
rajah’s youngest daughter is.” “ Accordingly Serungal went



2I8


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


into the darkened room, and seeing the fire-fly, carried away
the woman on whom it had settled; whereupon the rajah
admitted Serungal’s success and thus was obliged to recog-
nize him as his son-in-law.^* Tales of this type present such
close analogies to Indian and wide-spread European types
that it is probable that they are directly or indirectly due to
Hindu contact.

Widely disseminated in Indonesia, and also occurring far
outside its limits, are stories based on a theme involving the
miraculous providing of food by women of supernatural
origin. A Bornean version ^ may serve as an example of this
type. One day a man named Rakian was out hunting for
honey, when in the top of a mangis-tree he saw a number of
bees’ nests. The bees belonging to one of these were white,
and as this was a curiosity, he selected this nest, removed it
carefully, and carried it home. He spent the next day working
in his garden and did not return to his house until evening;
but when he entered, he found rice and fish already cooked
and standing on his food-shelf above the fire. “Who can have
cooked for me?” he thought, “for I live here alone. This fish
is not mine, although the rice is. The rice is cold, and must
have been cooked some time. Perhaps someone has come and
cooked for me and then taken away my bees’ nest.” On going
to look, however, he found his bees’ nest still where he had
left it; so he sat down and ate, saying, “Well, if someone is
going to cook for me, so much the better.” In the morning he
went off again to his garden, and when he came back at night,
there was his food already cooked as before; and this continued
for some time until one day he resolved to return early to
see if he could not solve the mystery. Accordingly he set off
as if to go to his garden and then quietly came back and hid
himself where he could watch. By and by the door of the
house creaked, and a beautiful woman came out and went
to the river to get water; but while she was gone, Rakian
entered the house and looking at his bees’ nest found that



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


219

there were no bees in it. So taking the nest and hiding it, he
secreted himself in the house; and after a while the woman re-
turned and went to the place where the nest had been. “Oh,”
said she, weeping, “who has taken my box? It cannot be
Rakian, for he has gone to his garden. I am afraid he will
come back and find me.” When it was evening, Rakian came
out as if he had just returned from his garden, but the woman
sat there silent. “Why are you here?” said he; “perhaps you
want to steal my bees?” but the woman answered, “I don’t
know anything about your bees.” Rakian went to look for his
bees’ nest, but of course could not find it, for he had hidden
it away; whereupon he again accused her of taking his honey,
while she denied all knowledge of it. “ Well, never mind,”
said he; “will you cook for me, for I am hungry?” She, how-
ever, replied that she did not wish to cook, for she was vexed;
and then she taxed Rakian with having taken her box, which,
she said, contained all her clothes; but he replied that he would
not give it to her because he was afraid that she would get into
it again. “I will not get into it,” said she. “If you like me,
you can take me for your wife. My mother wished to give me
to you in this way, for you have no wife here, and I have no
husband in my country.” Accordingly Rakian gave her the
bees’ nest, and the woman then said, “If you take me as your
wife, you must never call me a bee-woman, for if you do I
shall be ashamed.” Rakian promised, and so they were married;
and by and by his wife bore him a child. Now one day there
was a feast at a neighbour’s, to which Rakian went as a guest;
but when the people asked him where his wife had come from,
as they had never before seen so beautiful a woman, he replied
evasively. After a while, however, all the men got drunk, and
then, when they kept asking him where his wife had come
from, he forgot his promise and said, “The truth is my wife
was at first a bee.”

When Rakian got home, his wife was silent and would not
speak to him, but after a while she said, “What did I tell you



220


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


long ago? I think you have been saying things to make me
ashamed.” Her husband denied that he had said anything
wrong, but she insisted, declaring, “You are lying, for though
you were far away, I heard what you said, ” whereupon Rakian
was silent in his turn. “I shall now go to my home,” said she,
“but the child I will leave with you. In seven days my father
will pass by here, and I shall go with him.” Rakian wept, but
could not move her, and seven days later he saw a white bee
flying by, whereupon his wife came out of the house, and
saying, “There is my father,” she turned into a bee once more
and flew away, while Rakian hurried into the house, seized
the child, and hastened off in pursuit. For seven days he fol-
lowed the bees, and then losing sight of them, found himself
on the banks of a stream where he lay down with the child
and slept. By and by a woman came from a house near by,
woke him, and said, “Rakian, why don’t you go to your wife’s
house, and sleep there? The house is not far off.” “When I
have bathed, you must show me the way,” said he, and she
replied, “Very well”; so they went, and the woman pointed
his wife’s house out to him. “Her room is right in the middle.
There are eleven rooms in the house. If you enter, you must
not be afraid, for the roof-beams are full of bees, but they do
not attack men.” Accordingly Rakian climbed up into the
house and found it full of bees, but in the middle room there
were none. The child began to cry, whereupon a voice from
the middle room asked, “Why do you not come out? Have
you no pity on your child, that is weeping here?” Then, after
a time, Rakian’s wife appeared, and the child ran to her, and
Rakian’s heart was glad; but his wife said to him, “What did
I tell you at first, that you were not to tell whence I came?
If you had not been able to follow me here, certainly there
would have been distress for you.” When she finished speaking,
all the bees dropped down from the roof-beams to the floor
and became men; while as for Rakian and his child, they
stayed in the bees’ village and did not go back any more.




PLATE XX


Ancestral image from the island of Nias (Sumatra).
The spirits of ancestors were supposed to enter these
images and to abide in them for a time. Peabody
Museum, Salemy Massachusetts.





MISCELLANEOUS TALES


221

[Prometheus]

A version from the Philippines ^ adds several features of
interest. “‘We go to take greens, sister-in-law Dinay, per-
haps the siksiklat [a sort of vine, whose leaves are used for
greens] will taste good. I have heard that the siksiklat is
good,’ said Aponibolinayen. They went to get her siksiklat.
When they arrived at the place of small trees, which they
thought was the place of the siksiklat, they looked. Aponiboli-
nayen was the first who looked. As soon as she began to break
off the siksiklat which she saw she did not break any more, but
the siksiklat encircled and carried her up. When they reached
the sky, the siksiklat placed her below the alosip-trte.. She
sat for a long time. Soon she heard the crowing of the rooster.
She stood up and went to see the rooster which crowed. She
saw a spring. She saw it was pretty, because its sands were
oday and its gravel pagatpat and the top of the betel-nut-
tree was gold, and the place where the people step was a
large Chinese plate which was gold. She was surprised, for
she saw that the house was small. She was afraid and soon
began to climb the betel-nut-tree, and she hid herself.

“The man who owned the house, which she saw near the
well, was Ini-init — the sun. But he was not in the place of
his house, because he went out and went above to make the
sun, because that was his work in the daytime. And the next
day Aponibolinayen saw him, who went out of his house,
because he went again to make the sun. And Aponibolina-
yen went after him to his house, because she saw the man,
who owned the house, who left. When she arrived in the
house, she quickly cooked, because she was very hungry.

“When she finished cooking, she took the stick used in
roasting fish and cooked it, and the fish stick which she cooked
became cut-up fish, because she used her magic power. When
she finished to cook the fish, she took out rice from the pot, and
when she had finished to take out the rice from the pot, she
took off the meat from the fish. When she finished taking the
fish from the pot, she ate. When she finished eating, she



222


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


washed. When she finished washing, she kept those things
which she used to eat, the coconut shell cup and plate, and
she laid down to sleep.

“When the afternoon came, Ini-init went home to his house
after he finished fishing. He saw his house, which appeared
as if it was burning, not slowly. He went home because it
appeared as if his house was burning. When he arrived at his
house, it was not burning, and he was surprised because it
appeared as if there was a flame at the place of his bed. When
he was in his house, he saw that which was like the flame of
the fire, at the place of his bed, was a very pretty lady .2®

“Soon he cooked, and when he had finished to cook he scaled
the fish, and when he had finished scaling he cut it into many
pieces, and he made a noise on the bamboo floor when he cut
the fish. The woman awoke, who was asleep on his bed. She
saw that the man who cut the fish was a handsome man, and
that he dragged his hair. The pot she had used to cook in
looked like the egg of a rooster, and he was surprised because
it looked like the egg of a rooster; and the rice which she
cooked was one grain of broken rice. Because of all this
Ini-init was surprised, for the pot was very small with which
she cooked. After Ini-init cooked, the woman vanished and
she went to the leaves of the betel-nut, where she went to
hide.

“After Ini-init finished cooking the fish, he saw the bed,
the place where the woman was sleeping, was empty. He was
looking continually, but he did not find her. When he could
not find her, he ate alone, and when he finished eating he
washed, and when he finished washing the dishes he put away,
and when he had finished putting away he went to the yard
to get a fresh breath. . . . When it began to be early morning,
he left his house, he who went up, because it was his business
to make the sun. And Aponibolinayen went again into the
house.

“When it became afternoon, Ini-init went to his home.



MISCELLANEOUS TALES 223

and Aponibolinayen had cooked, after which she went out to
the betel-nut trees. When Ini-init arrived, he was surprised
because his food was cooked, for there was no person in his
house. As soon as he saw the cooked rice and the cooked fish
in the dish, he took the fish and the rice and began to eat.
When he had finished eating, he went to his yard to take a
fresh breath and he was troubled in his mind when he thought
of what had happened. He said, ‘Perhaps the woman, which
I saw, came to cook and has left the house. Sometime I
shall try to hide and watch, so that I may catch her.’ He
went to sleep, and when it became early morning he went to
cook his food. When he had finished eating, he went again to
make the sun, and Aponibolinayen went again to his house.

“When the sun had nearly sunk, he sent the big star who
was next to follow him in the sky, and he went home to spy on
the woman. When he had nearly reached his home, he saw
the house appeared as if it was burning. He walked softly
when he went up the ladder. He slammed shut the door. He
reached truly the woman who was cooking in the house. He
went quickly and the woman said to him, ‘You cut me only
once, so that I only cure one time, if you are the old enemy.’
‘ If I were the old enemy, I should have cut before,’ said
Ini-init, and he sat near her who cooked. He took out the betel-
nut, and he arranged it so that they began to chew the betel-
nut, and he said, ‘Ala! young lady, we are going to chew,
because it is bad for us to talk who do not know each other’s
names.’ Aponibolinayen answered, ‘No, for if the rich man
who practises magic is able to give to the rich woman who has
magical power, soon there will be a sign.’ Ini-init said, ‘No,
hurry up even though we are related, for you come here if
we are not related.’

“He begged her, and he cut the betel-nut, which was to be
chewed, which was covered with gold, and he gave it to the
woman who had magical power, and they chewed. When she
laid down the quid, it looked like the agate bead, which has



224 OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY

no hole for the thread. And the quid of Ini-init looked like a
square bead.

“‘My name is Ini-init, who often goes to travel over the
world. I always stop in the afternoon. What can I do, it is
my business,’ he said. Aponibolinayen was next to tell her
name. ‘My name is Aponibolinayen, who lives in Kaodanan,
who am the sister of Awig,’ she said, and when they had finished
telling their names, both their quids looked like the agate
bead, which is pinoglan, which has no hole. Ini-init said, ‘We
are relatives, and it is good for us to be married. Do not be
afraid even though you did not come here of your own accord.
I go to Kaodanan,’ he said. Then they married, and the sun
went to shine on the world, because it was his business, and the
big star also had business when it became night.”

In some versions the woman who provides food miraculously
is a tree-spirit, or comes from a plant or fruit; while in other
stories she appears from the sea. In its distribution the tale
extends eastward into Melanesia.^®

The following tale embodies, among other incidents in
the Indonesian area, that in which an animal, insect, or inani-
mate object answers for an escaping fugitive, and so aids his
flight. Two sisters, whose parents had been killed and eaten
by a tiger and a garuda bird,®® saved themselves from their
parents’ fate by hiding in a drum; but one day a man went
out hunting, and his arrow falling on the roof of the house
where the two were hidden, he found the girls and took the
older, whose name was Sunrise, as his wife.

After a time the man said to his sister-in-law, “Bring me a
piece of bamboo, that I may knock out the partition (at the
nodes) and make a water-vessel for you to get water in,”
but when he fixed it, he secretly made holes through the bottom
also. He then gave her the water-vessel, and she went to the
stream to bring water, but the bamboo would not hold it; and
after she had tried for a long time, she discovered the holes
in the bottom. Accordingly she returned to the house, but



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


225


found that Sunrise and her husband had gone, for he had
pierced the bottom of the water-vessel so that he and his wife
might have time to run away.®^ Before going off, however,
Sunrise had left two lice behind her and had instructed them
to answer for her when her sister should return and thus delay
pursuit, her orders being, “If she calls me from the land-side,
do you answer from the sea-side; if she calls me from the sea-
side, do you answer from the land-side; if she asks you the
way, show it to her.” When the deserted sister returned to
the house, she called to Sunrise and thought she heard an
answer, but when she went thither, the reply came from the
opposite direction. Thus deceived by the false calls, she was
long delayed; but finally she discovered the trick, asked the
way which Sunrise had taken, and set off in pursuit.®®

By and by she came upon an old woman, to whom she
called, “Oh, granny! Oh, granny! look here!” The old woman
said to herself, “Well, ever since the world was made, I have
lived alone, so I won’t look,” but, nevertheless, she did look,
and then asked, “Well, Granddaughter, where do you come
from?” “Granny, I am seeking my older sister,” said the other
sister, whose name was Kokamomako; and then hearing the
sound of a drum, she inquired, “Granny, why are they having
a feast over there?” The old woman answered, “Just now
they went by with your sister,” and so Kokamomako con-
tinued on her way.

When she came to the house, she called out, “Show me the
hair of my sister in the window,” but the people inside held
up the hair of a cat, whereupon Kokamomako said, “My sister
is indeed ugly, but that is the hair of a cat. You must show
me her foot.” Then the people took the foot of a cat and thrust
it out of the window, saying, “If you want us to produce
your sister, you must pick up a basket of rice that we will
throw out,” whereupon they threw it out and scattered it.
Then Kokamomako wept, for this was a task which she could
not accomplish; but a rice-bird came up to her and asked,

IX — 16 ? '



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“ What is your trouble, and what do you want, that you are
picking that up?” She replied, “I have no trouble, and I
don’t want anything, but they have hidden my elder sister.”
Then the rice-bird helped her, and it was not long before the
rice was all gathered; but still the people would not bring out
her sister. Sunrise; whereupon Kokamomako said, “If you
don’t produce my sister, I will go home and set fire to my
house,” adding, “when you see blue smoke, that will be the
furniture; when you see white smoke, that will be money;
when you see red smoke, that will be 1.” Then she went away,
and soon they saw that she had set fire to her house, perceiving
that the smoke was first blue, then white, and then red.
Knowing that her sister was now dead. Sunrise went and
bathed, and when she came back to the house, she took a
knife and stabbed herself and died. By and by her husband
went to carry her food, and found her dead, whereupon he
also took a knife and tried to kill himself, but did not succeed.

Now there was a slave in the house who went to get water
at the river, and when she looked in the stream, seeing the
reflection of Sunrise, she thought it was her own and called
out, “Oh, sirs, you said that I was ugly, but really I am beauti-
ful.” Proud of her supposed good looks and thinking herself
too good to be a slave, she threw away her water-vessel and
broke it; but when she went back to the house, they sent her
back again for water and once more she saw the reflection of
Sunrise, for the latter and her younger sister (their ghosts)
were hidden in the top of a tree that leaned over the stream.
This, however, the slave did not know, and again she said,
“Oh, sirs, you said that I was ugly, but I am really beautiful,”
and again she threw away the water-vessel and broke it, doing
this seven times before she told the people in the house that
she had seen the reflection of Sunrise.^

In the house was another slave who suffered from wounds
on his legs, and the husband of Sunrise ordered him to dive
into the stream in order to seize her, but he refused. So all



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set upon him, and he was forced to do as he was bid; but
though he dove and dove, and broke open his wounds, and
coloured the stream with his blood, he could not find Sunrise.®^
Accordingly he came ashore and said, “I told you just now that
I could not do .it, and now you have forced me to try, and I
have broken my wounds open again.” Thereupon, as they
sat by the stream, the husband happened to look up, and seeing
his wife in the top of the tree, he called out, “Let down a rope,
so that I may climb up.” So she lowered a copper wire, say-
ing, “When you get half way up, don’t hold on so tight,”
but when he climbed up and reached the half-way point, she
cut the wire, and he fell and was dashed to pieces.

In the Polynesian and Melanesian areas the tales relating
to cannibals were numerous; and they are also common in
Indonesia, as several examples will show. Once there was an
ogress called Bake, and a princess who spent her time weav-
ing. The brothers of the princess went fishing, and while they
were gone, she dropped her shuttle, whereupon she began
to sing a song calling upon them to come and pick it up. Then
the ground suddenly split asunder, and out of it came Bake
who wanted to carry the princess away, but when the lat-
ter said, “I must wait, I must wait for my brothers,” Bake
said to her, “Very well, pound some rice for me.” After the
maiden had pounded a little rice, she rested, for she wished
to delay until her brothers should come back from fishing;
but when the ogress could wait no longer, she herself took
the pestle and finished preparing the rice. The princess set
water on to boil and cooked the rice, which she ate from a
tiny vessel using a needle for a spoon, whereas Bake ate from
a trough with a great stone plate as a spoon. When, in spite
of all delay, the princess had finished, the ogress refused to wait
longer, and taking the maiden on her back she carried her off.

The princess, however, had secretly tied the end of a skein of
thread about the tip of her finger so that the thread unwound
itself behind the ogress as she went; ®® and just as the process



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was completed, the two brothers of the girl returned. They
called to her, but getting no reply, searched diligently and
found the thread, whereupon they started off at once in pursuit,
following the trail thus left for their guidance. They came to
some people who were making a garden and asked them if
they had seen any one passing, going inland; and when the
people replied, “Yes, Inang-i-Bake has just gone by, carrying
a white pig on her back, and dragging something that con-
stantly unwound as she went,” the two brothers pursued their
quest. From time to time they met other people, all of whom
gave the same information, until at last the brothers learned
that Inang-i-Bake’s. home was near by. Now close to the
house was a deep river over which was a bridge, and as the
two brothers went toward Bake’s house, they saw something
very white underneath it in a pen. When they got near, they
perceived that this was their sister; for Bake had taken away
all her clothes and had cut off her hair, and even shaved off
her eyebrows. So the brothers threw their head-cloths to the
princess for a covering, and then climbed into the house, but
found that Bake was not at home, though her daughter, Gina-
bai, was there. She asked them why they had come, and when
they replied that they had heard that she was looking for
someone to work for her, she answered, “Yes, you are right.
You can cook dinner for me. Go down and kill the pig that
you will find beneath the house.” Accordingly the brothers
went below the house to cook the dinner, but first they re-
leased their sister from the pen, and one of the brothers took
her away across the river. When he returned, he secretly cut
through all but one of the supports of the bridge, so that it
could barely sustain the weight of a man;®® and then came
back to help his brother. Again they went up into the house,
and killing Ginabai, they shore off her hair and hung it out of
the window of her room; after which they cut up her body
and cooked and spiced it well, and ordered a louse from her
head to answer for her when any one should call.



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On Inang-i-Bake’s return they set before her the food which
they had cooked, and it happened that Ginabai’s brother
found one of her fingers in his portion. When he recognized
it, he cried out, and the bird which was sitting on the roof of
the house said, “ Inang-i-Bake has eaten her child, and is
angry, ” whereupon the people that were working in the garden,
hearing the bird accuse Inang-i-Bake, said to each other,
“Keep still, what is that that it is saying, ‘Inang-i-Bake has
eaten her child and is angry’?” Then one of them replied,
“Be still! shut your mouth! why don’t you keep quiet and
listen to the bird who speaks, and who tells what is forbidden;
who speaks of what is not allowed?” Then Ginabai’s brother
sent his blind slave to look for his sister, and the slave went
and called, “Mistress, mistress!” The louse answering in
place of Ginabai, the slave returned and said, “My mistress
is there.” When, however, the bird had again called out, and
Ginabai’s brother had once more sent his slave, he finally
went himself and found that his sister was not there, but only
the louse which had answered for her. So he slew the louse and
cut it into small pieces and cried out to the brothers of the
princess, “Wait a bit, you have killed my sister,” but they ran
away as fast as they could to the other side of the river, and
when Ginabai’s brother followed them across the bridge, it
broke and he fell into the water and was drowned.®^

Another version from the Moluccas runs as follows. Two
women once went fishing, and coming to a river, one said to
the other, “There are many fish in that pool; reach down for
them, ” but when the other stooped for the fish, the first woman
gave her a push, so that she fell into the water, and then she
held her under with a forked stick. Great bubbles came up
as the victim struggled, but at last they ceased and she was
drowned, whereupon the murderess drew out the body, cut
off some flesh, put it in a bamboo vessel, and going home, set
the vessel on the fire to cook. Now the dead woman had two
children, a boy and a girl, and they asked the wicked woman

[Prometheus]

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what she was cooking. She replied, “Fish and eels,” and then
saying that she was- going back to her comrade, she told the
children to watch what she had left to cook. After she had
left, the flesh of the children’s mother soon began to boil,
saying, “I am your breasts here; I am your mother here!”
The girl, who heard this, called to her brother, and he came
and listened, whereupon the children said to one another,
“We must run away, whether we meet with good fortune or
bad.” The wicked woman now came home, and the children
asked her where their mother was, to which she replied that
her companion was still busy smoking the fish which they had
caught, and that she was now going to take her some food.
Then she went off again, telling the children to look after her
own little one, who was younger than they; but when she had
gone, the two children took the young child of the wicked
woman, put it in the pan to cook over the fire, and ran away.
They went across seven mountains and seven valleys and came
to a river which was full of crocodiles, so that they could not
pass. A bird saw them, however, and learning of their trouble,
told them of a log that lay athwart the river some distance
up-stream; and after they were safe on the other side, the bird
flew across the log, which it nearly severed with its beak.
The wicked woman returning to the house and finding her
child all shrivelled and burned, set out at once in pursuit,
saying, “You who did this shall die this very day.” By and
by she came to the log by which the children had crossed,
but when she attempted to follow them, it broke under her
weight, and she fell into the stream, and the crocodiles ate her
up. The bird now told the children that they must not follow
the path that led to the left, but must take that going to the
right. They did not heed this advice, however, and turning
off to the left, after a time they met Kine-kine-boro, an ogre
who had a carrying-basket on his back in which a man was
stuck head down. The children called out, “Good grand-
father, grandfather, look here!” and he, replying, “Ha! from



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the beginning of the world, I have never had any children or
grandchildren,” looked around and called to them, “Grand-
children, come here!” Accordingly they went with him to
his house, and after they had been there half a moon, they said
to him, “Grandfather, haven’t you an axe?” “Yes,” said he,
“here is the axe, what do you want with it?” “We want to
make a canoe to play with.” So they went to cut down a
tree, and Kine-kine-boro felled one and carried it home for
them; but next day, when the ogre and his wife had gone off
to seek for men to eat, the children finished their canoe, loaded
it with rice and precious goods belonging to the ogre, and pad-
died away. Not long after, Kine-kine-boro and his wife re-
turned, and as they had not found any men, they went to the
enclosure where the children were kept, purposing to eat them.
Since, however, their intended victims were not there, the ogre
and his wife climbed into a tree to look for them, but could not
see them, though by climbing a very tall tree Kine-kine-boro
at last descried them, the sail of their canoe being a mere
speck on the horizon. Then he took his hair and from it
plaited a rope, which he threw after the canoe like a lasso,
so that finally he caught the little boat and began to pull it
in. The two children tried to cut the rope, but in vain, until,
after sawing at it for a long time with a kris, it broke, where-
upon — so tightly had the rope been stretched — the tree,
in whose top Kine-kine-boro was, snapped back. Seven times it
swayed toward the land, and seven times toward the sea, and
Kine-kine-boro fell from the tree upon his wife who was below,
and they both burst with a noise like thunder and died, but
the children got safely away.®®

As an example of a different type of cannibal-story the fol-
lowing may serve.^® A swangi {on& who is secretly a vampire)
once was going out to eat the flesh of men when a youth met
him and begged to be allowed to accompany him, to which the
swangi agreed, but said, “If you go with me, you must shut
your eyes, and open them only when I tell you.” The young



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man promised and closed his eyes, and when, soon afterward,
the swangi ssid, “Open your eyes,” he found that he and the
swangi on the top of a rfn'A-plant that grew up a tall
tree. At the foot of this plant was a house, and one of the
children of the people living there was ill. Then the swangi,
saying, “You stay here. I will go down,” descended and took
the liver out of the child, and not only ate it himself, but also
gave the young man a small piece. The latter, however, did
not swallow it, but only pretended to do so, eating instead a
bit of coco-nut which he held concealed in his hand. Then
the swangi said to the young man, “Tell me, friend, isn’t it
good?” and the Latter replied, “It is very good.” Thereupon
the swangi climbed down again to get him more liver, but
after he had gone, the youth also descended, tied a rope to a
heavy rice-mortar, and then went up once more, hauling
the mortar to the top of the tree. By and by the swangi came
out, but just as he reached the foot of the tree, the young man
let the rice-mortar drop and called out, “It is falling; catch it.”
Thus the rice-mortar fell on the swangi and killed him, where-
upon the youth climbed down and showed the people in the
house the liver of their child, saying, “Look, this is your child’s
liver. A swangi has eaten the liver, so your child died. But
it was fortunate that I was there, for now the swangi is dead.”

The following Philippine tale " introduces a number of
incidents whose distribution is of interest. Aponibolinayen
said, “I am anxious to eat the fruit of the holnay-trce belonging
to Matawitawen;” but when Ligi asked, “What did you say?”
she replied, “I said that I want some fish roe.” Accordingly,
Ligi took his net and went off after fish, and when he had caught
some, he took out the roe, brought it back to the house, and
gave it to Aponibolinayen. She accepted it, but did not eat
it; and after Ligi had gone away, she threw the roe to the dogs,
who fought for it. Ligi heard them and said, “What are the
dogs fighting about? I think you threw away the fish roe,”
to which Aponibolinayen replied, “I dropped some.” Again



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Aponibolinayen said to herself that she wanted the fruit of the
bolnay-tree of Matawitawen; but when Ligi heard her and
asked what she said, she replied, “I am anxious for some deer
liver.” So Ligi went to kill a deer, and he got one and brought
the liver home; but though Aponibolinayen again took what
he brought, she did not eat it, but when Ligi slept, flung it to
the dogs, who quarrelled over it and woke Ligi. Once more he
accused her of having thrown the food away, but she again
denied it, after which she went to her room and lay down,
while Ligi, turning himself into an ant, crept through the
cracks of the floor, and hearing what Aponibolinayen was
saying to herself, learned that she had not told him the truth.
Thereupon he resumed his human form, and going to Aponi-
bolinayen, said, “Why did you not tell the truth?” She an-
swered, “I didn’t, because Matawitawen is very far, and I
am afraid that you will be lost,” to which he replied, “No,
give me a sack,” and so he took it and went off to get the
holnay fruit.‘“

Arriving at the place where the tree grew, Ligi took the
fruit and put it in the sack and carried some also in his hand;
but when he was passing the spring in Kadalayapan on his
way home, he met some beautiful girls, who said to him,
“How pretty the holnay fruit is ! This sack is filled, and you
have some also in your hands. Will you not give us some?”
Ligi, however, gave them all the fruit, whereupon they said,
“The child which Aponibolinayen is about to bear, and which
asks for the holnay fruit, is not your child. It is the child of
Maobagan.” At this Ligi was angry, and when he got home,
he gave Aponibolinayen only the empty sack; but there was a
small piece of the fruit which the other women had overlooked,
and Aponibolinayen ate it and said, “ I am anxious to eat more,
if there are more.” “What is that?” cried Ligi, angrily. “Get
ready, for I will put you in the place where the tree is, if you
want more, ” and so saying, he seized her and dragged her away
to the tree, and digging a hole at its foot, he buried her in it



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and went away. Soon Aponibolinayen was about to give birth
to her child.^® “What can I do?” she asked Ayo, her spirit
helper; and when Ayo replied, “The best thing to do is to
prick your little finger,” Aponibolinayen did so, and from the
wound was born a child ^ which was given the name of
Kanag.

Every time that he was bathed, he grew, and by and by,
when he had become a boy, he was anxious to leave the pit;
but his mother was afraid lest his father should find them.
Nevertheless, the boy got out, and when he was safely away
from the hole, he listened until he heard the sound of other
children playing and then went to where they were swim-
ming. The others inquired who he was, and one of them,
called Dagolayan, saying, “He looks like my uncle in Kadal-
ayapan,” asked Kanag who his father was, to which he re-
plied that his parent was of Matawitawen.® Dagolayan and
Kanag decided that they would go to fight, and Kanag went
back to where his mother was in the pit at the foot of the tree
to tell her; but though she did not want him to go, he insisted
and said, “No, I am going. I will plant a vine; and if it
wilts, you will know that I am dead.” ^

Next day Dagolayan and Kanag went off to fight, and when
they struck their shields, it sounded as though a thousand
men were coming. They met Ligi, who was surprised and who
asked where he got the other boy who was with him; but
when he heard, he wished to kill Kanag, who was saved only
by the pleading of Dagolayan. Then they went and lay in
wait to catch heads, and when a pretty young girl went by
the place in which Kanag was hidden, he seized her and cut
off her head, whereas Ligi and Dagolayan were able to get
only the heads of an old man and an old woman. At this
Dagolayan was angry and said to Kanag, “What did you
say when you took the girl’s head?” Kanag replied, “The
son of an alan [a minor spirit] of Matawitawen kills the pretty
girl,” is what I said; but Dagolayan answered, “No, that is



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235


not what you said. You said that you were the son of a man
who lived in Kadalayapan,” and thereupon they both went
to live with Ligi in that place. Now, one day they played and
danced in Kadalayapan, and when Kanag danced, the whole
town trembled, and when he moved his feet, the fish were about
his feet, which they went to lap, for the water came up into
the town; but when he stamped, the coco-nuts fell from the
trees, so that Ligi was angry, and taking his head-axe, he cut
off Kanag’s head. At this instant Aponibolinayen looked at
the vine which Kanag had planted, and behold, the leaves
were withered; so she made haste to go in search of him.
When she reached the place where Ligi lived, he saw her, but
she reproached him, saying, “How angry you were, Ligi, for
you killed your son.” At this Ligi hung his head, because he
did not know that Kanag was his son; but Aponibolinayen
said, “I will use magic, so that when I whip my perfume,
alikadakad, he will stand up.”

Thus she restored Kanag to life, and when he came to
himself, he said, “How long my sleep is!” “No, do not say
that, your father killed you,” said Aponibolinayen. Ligi
tried to keep Aponibolinayen and Kanag with him, but refus-
ing to stay, they went back to Matawitawen, and when they
arrived there, Aponibolinayen said, “I will use my power
so that Ligi cannot see us, and the trail will become filled with
thorns.” Accordingly Ligi could not walk in the trail, could
not find them, and was sad; and therefore he lay down, while
his hair grew like vines along the ground; and he did not eat,
for he was always grieving about the things which he had done
to his wife and son. At last, however, they forgave him and
returned to Kadalayapan; and Ligi ordered his spirit helper
to kill those women whom he had met at the spring, and to
whom he had given the holnay fruit, for they had told him
lies about Aponibolinayen.

Tales embodying the theme of the “magic flight” seem to
be rare in the Oceanic area, and the few which have been re-



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236

ported may well be introduced. As an example, a story from
Halmahera may be taken.'*® A woman once ate some mangoes
belonging to a giant, while her dog devoured the skins, the
consequence being that the woman bore seven children, and
the dog, seven puppies. When the giant heard of it, he said,
“Ha! ha! one of the children is mine.” So they brought out
one, but he would not take it; then they brought out another,
but he would not take that; and not until they brought out the
last, the seventh, did he say, “Ha! ha! that is my child.”
He took the boy home with him, saying, “Stay here, while I
go to get food,” and when he came back, he shut up the men
whom he had caught. One day he said to the boy, whose name
was Badabangisa, “You must not go away, but stay in the
house, and prepare your food and eat. I shall be gone a week.”
The next time he went off, he said that he would be absent
two weeks; but when he had left, Badabangisa released the
men whom the giant had shut up, and taking the monster’s
entire store of treasure, they all ran away after setting fire to
the house. The cinders from the burning dwelling fell on the
giant’s breast far away, and as he brushed them off, he said,
“Badabangisa has set my house afire.” Accordingly he went
home, and finding only the ashes of his abode, which were
not yet quite cold, he immediately set out in pursuit. The
fugitives, however, heard him coming, and when presently he
asked, “ Badabangisa, what wrong has your father done, that
you should leave him.?” Badabangisa replied, “I am waiting
for you here.” Then Badabangisa’s companions, the men
whom he had freed, threw salt behind them, and it became a
great sea which delayed the giant, though finally he drank
it all up.

Again he came after them, but when Badabangisa said to
his friends, “Throw some ashes behind you,” they did so,
and the giant’s eyes thus being blinded, he could not see.
Yet still he pursued, so that Badabangisa said to his friends,
“Throw some jungle marbles behind you,” and when they



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


237


had done this, the thorny plants on which these little fruits
grow, sprang up everywhere and covered the whole body of
the giant. This also he finally overcame, and again followed
after them, whereat Badabangisa said, “Throw some millet
behind you,” and when they did so, the ogre stopped to eat
it. Once more the monster came on, and since nothing was
left to delay him, Badabangisa said, “Now my father will
eat us up.” Thereupon he called out to the giant, “Father,
what is that in your flesh?” and the giant replied, “Do not
touch that; it is the life of my body. If you strike that, I
shall die.” But Badabangisa struck it, and his father dropped
dead, and when he struck the earth, he made part of the
mountain fall.

Then Badabangisa called out, “People, be still! because
you have urged me on, I have killed my father, ” and he ordered
them to bring him three pieces of white cloth to bury the giant,
but the monster was so large that these were quite insufficient.
After this they went on, and coming to a town, Badabangisa
kept firing guns for seven days and seven nights, so that the
people issued forth and said, “Who has become a king, that
he fires so many guns?” Then they came to Badabangisa,
and taking him with them to the town, they made him a king,
and held a feast for nine days and nine nights.

A tale which is wide-spread in Indonesia and which in
spite of traces of outside influence seems to be largely local
in development, is that of the “wonder-tree.” Once there were
three orphan sisters, the two eldest of whom one day found in
a harvested field a bird called Kekeko, and bringing it home,
they put it in a cage. A few days later they heard the bird
call, “Set me in a basket, and I will lay;” and though at first
they paid no attention, they finally did as it demanded, since
it frequently repeated the request; and lo! the next morning
the basket was full of cooked rice and fish, steaming hot.
This continued daily, and thus the children obtained their
food; but as there was always too much in the basket, and it



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238

could not be kept, after a while the7 asked the bird to give
them uncooked rice instead. This it did, and before long so
great a store of rice was thus accumulated that all who came
to the house were amazed at the wealth of provisions which
the three poor orphans had.

One day their uncle, who had heard of the great amount of
rice possessed by the children, came to visit them; and when
he asked them how they secured their supply, they said, “We
have a bird, Kekeko, which we caught, and it gives us all
the paddy.” The jealous uncle asked them to lend him the
bird, and they agreed to do so, but first whispered to it not to
give their uncle any rice, or at best, paddy of a poor grade.
This order the bird carried out; but when the uncle saw that
the bird failed to give him any rice. In his anger he killed it
and ate It. After a time the two oldest orphans, his nieces,
came to him to get their bird back, but the uncle said, “He
does not exist any longer, for I ate him up.” On hearing this,
the orphans were sad and rolled on the ground in grief, because
they thought that they had lost forever the Kekeko which
had helped them. However, they gathered up the bones of
the bird and buried them near their house; and lo! from them
a wonderful tree soon grew, whose leaves were of silken stuffs,
whose blossoms were ear-rings, and whose fruits produced a
pleasing sound. Thus the children were again helped by the
Kekeko, even after Its death.®^

Another tale, similarly open to suspicion of extra-Indonesian
influences, though probably in essence of Indonesian develop-
ment, is as follows. Once upon a time there was a hunter who
had a beautiful white cat to whom he one day happened to
give food out of a coco-nut-shell which he had used for house-
hold purposes, the result being that the cat later gave birth
to a beautiful girl-child.®^ The hunter adopted the infant as
his own, but later, when she was seven years old, he took to
himself a wife, who was very jealous of the girl and did not
know that the cat was her mother. When he went off to the

[Prometheus]

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239


fields, the husband always told his wife to take good care of
the child and the cat and to give them plenty to eat; but the
woman did nothing of the kind, for she starved them both, and
then clapping the empty rice-basket on the girl’s head, filled
her hair with crumbs. When the father came back home
and asked, “Did the child have enough to eat.^” his wife would
reply, “Just see! she has even got rice all over her hair,” but
if she ever gave the girl and the cat anything to eat, it was old
rice mixed with ashes. One day, when the man had gone off
to his fields, the girl went down to the edge of the stream, and
standing near a tall noenoek-tree, whose ripe fruits fell into
the stream and were carried away, she held the cat in her arms,
and the latter sang:

“The noenoek fruits are sweet.

Better than the rice and ashes
That the step-mother gives.”

By and by the man came home, and finding his child absent,
asked where she was, to which his wife replied, “ She has gone
to the river.” After a while the man followed her thither and
heard the song which the cat was. singing; but when he reached
the place, he saw his daughter sitting on the top of a niboeng
palm, holding the cat in her lap. Though the tree was very
tall, the man tried to climb up, weeping and beseeching his
daughter to come down; but she refused, and as he climbed,
the tree became taller and taller, until at last, when it had
grown almost up to the moon, a golden ladder was let down,
and the girl with her cat climbed up and entered into the moon.
The father tried to follow her, but no ladder was lowered for
him, and trying to reach the moon without one, he slipped,
fell, and was killed. To this day, when the moon is full, one
can easily see Nini-anteh, as she is called, sitting beside a
spinning-wheel with the cat beside her.



CHAPTER IV
SUMMARY

I N drawing general conclusions regarding Polynesian myth-
ology it was possible to employ a roughly statistical system,
though with the clear realization that the use of this methpd
was barely justified in view of the fragmentary character of
the material. In the case of Indonesia, this treatment is less
available, for here the incompleteness and in particular the
unevenness of our material are much greater. No attempt,
therefore, will be made to apply any statistical methods, and
conclusions must depend very largely on more general features.

Considering first the question raised at the beginning of this
section as to a distinction between specifically Indonesian
mythology as opposed to Malay, the results are, it must be
confessed, rather disappointing. Practically the only data
from the reasonably pure and uninfluenced Indonesian tribes
are from the Igorot and Ifugao of northern Luzon in the Philip-
pines, and even this material is as yet scanty. The Tinguian
seem to show fairly clear evidence of some outside influence.
From the wilder tribes of the rest of the whole East Indian
Archipelago no myths are available, so far as the writer knows.
Judging from this scanty store alone, it would appear that the
type of myths characteristic of the Indonesian tribes, who
presumably spread over the whole Archipelago before the
arrival of the Malays, was distinguished (i) by the absence of
any strictly cosmogonic tales, together with those relating to
the origin of man, and (2) by the considerable development of
flood-legends. So far as known, the trickster tales, so wide-
spread elsewhere in the Archipelago, are practically absent;



SUMMARY


241


but, on the other hand, a considerable number of miscella-
neous myths, prett7 widely current in Borneo, Celebes, and
the Moluccas, are present, at least among the Tinguian. It
is perhaps significant, however, that in several instances these
tales are more archaic and purely mythical here than are the
somewhat sophisticated versions current in the extra-Philip-
pine area. In many of the stories from the more or less mixed
tribes of Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas one feels a certain
indefinable Indonesian quality, and these elements seem, on
the one hand, relatively less marked among the purer Malays,
and on the other, are those which most frequently appear
outside the Archipelago to the eastward in Melanesia and
Polynesia; but it must be confessed that, as far as origin-myths
are concerned, Indonesian and Polynesian beliefs have little
in common. Affinities in the opposite direction, i. e. on the
Asiatic continent, are, it must be admitted, vague. One would
logically hope to find indications of relationship with the
Mon-Hkmer peoples of Indo-China and the adjacent territory,
with whom, on linguistic and perhaps on physical grounds, the
Indonesians seem to be connected. Unfortunately, we possess
little or no material on the mythology of the wilder Mon-
Hkmer tribes, who have been uninfluenced by Indian or Chinese
culture; although the few scraps which we have from these
latter — i. e. from those who have almost certainly been modi-
fied by contact with higher culture — seem to agree with what
has been regarded as the most typical Indonesian material, in
that the absence of any real cosmogony and the presence of
more or less elaborate flood-myths are characteristic. It would
be unwise, however, to lay much stress on these points, and
all that can safely be said at present is that, on the one hand,
there is no evidence against an affiliation of Mon-Hkmer and
Indonesian mythology, which would be probable on a priori
grounds; and that, on the other hand, there are suggestions of
Indonesian influence extending eastward through Melanesia
and beyond.



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


242

For the bulk of the myth material from the Archipelago,
exclusive of this more specifically Indonesian portion, the
questions of greatest importance are (i) the extent to which
it has been influenced by Indian and (2) by Islamic culture.
The earliest period of Indian contact was one in which Bud-
dhist influence was paramount, and perhaps the clearest evi-
dence of its effect is seen in the Trickster Tales, a large portion
of which appear in the Jatakas and other early Indian sources.
The same tales have been found, as has been said, in Cambodia
and Annam and among the remnants of the Cham, where In-
dian culture became dominant even earlier than in the Archi-
pelago; and some occur as far afield as Japan, where they are
clearly exotic elements introduced during the earliest period
of contact with China and Korea, in both of which areas
Buddhism had already long been established. In how far other
mythic elements in the Archipelago are to be traced to this
Buddhist period must be determined by those more familiar
than the writer with early Indian literature. Judging only
from the evidence of the Trickster Tales, this earliest Indian
influence shows itself in the mythology most strongly in Java
and parts of Sumatra and southern Borneo. The decline of
Buddhism in India and the reaction toward the later Hin-
duistic cults, which had already begun as early as the fourth
century a. d., was duplicated in large measure in the Archipel-
ago: Prambanan succeeded Boro-Budur; Hindu epics like the
Ramayana and Mahabharata replaced the Jatakas as a source
from which the Hinduized Javanese story-tellers could draw
their inspiration; and the spread of literature and writing
doubtless aided in the dissemination of this material. Beliefs
in a triad of gods, in serpent deities and cosmic eggs, in heavenly
beings with magic flying-houses {vidhyddharas) and roc-like
birds who preyed upon man {garudas) — these and probably
others seem attributable to this period and to Indian sources.
These elements have, as compared with the earlier features,
a wider distribution in the Archipelago, being noticeable in



SUMMARY


243


the more eastern Islands, such as Halmahera and parts of
Celebes. How far we may trace their influence among the
more interior tribes, such as the Battak In Sumatra and the
Kayan in Borneo, is hard to say, but in the former instance
appreciable influence must be admitted.

Islamic influences in the mythology of the Archipelago,
while observable, of course, among those portions of the popu-
lation which have become strongly Muhammadanized, seem,
on the other hand, much weaker among the wilder tribes, from
whom much of our material is derived. Even among the former,
however, older Indian influences can often be discerned, as
well as a surviving element of original Malay origin; but the
difficulty of separating the three constituents here becomes
very great.

When from the whole mass of the mythology of the Archi-
pelago we have eliminated everything that may with any show
of probability be regarded as due either to Indian or Islamic
contact, direct or Indirect, there still remains a large body of
material which must be regarded as native. The affiliations
of this group of tales and incidents are clear, at least in one
direction. With Melanesia and, so far as the scanty material
bears evidence, with Micronesia the resemblances are patent.
It is noteworthy that in the former area similarities occur
predominatingly among those peoples which are Melanesian
rather than Papuan in language and physical type, and which
lie In the track of the assumed migrations of the Polynesian
ancestors along the northern coasts of New Guinea and through
the lesser islands, extending thence toward Samoa and New
Zealand. With Polynesia itself the relations are also unmis-
takable. Where they are clearest, they coincide with what
we have denominated the later strata of myth, rather than
with the earlier; with that which is more characteristic of
Samoa and central Polynesia than of Hawaii and New Zea-
land. To the west the congeners of this aboriginal Malay
mythology are obscure. Our knowledge of the peoples of



244


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


south-eastern Asia which have been uninfluenced either by
Indian or by Chinese culture is thus far very meagre, and
material on their mythology is almost wholly lacking. If we
are to look to the Mon-Hkmer peoples for resemblances with
the strictly Indonesian myths, we may perhaps expect to
find the antecedents of Malay mythology among the Thai or
Shan, that great group of peoples which, at the beginning of
history in this part of the world, occupied so large an area in
southern China and northern Indo-China. Driven south and
east by the slow expansion of the Chinese on the north, they
have, from the first millennium b. c., pushed down into the
south-eastern tip of the continent, pressing in their turn upon
the M5n-Hkmer, who apparently occupied much of the Indo-
Chinese peninsula. Beset by peoples of Thai origin, on the one
hand by the Sinicized Annamese, and on the other by the
Siamese, the older M5n-Hkmer power of Cambodia finally
perished. Yet it is not to the modern representatives of these
conquering Thai peoples that we turn for help, for they have
suffered too much outside influence to preserve intact their
original beliefs. It is rather to the wilder tribes of Laos, the
Shan States, Yxin-nan, and the other provinces of southern
China that we might look for the prototypes of the Malay of
the Archipelago.



PART IV


MICRONESIA




PART IV


MICRONESIA

O F all the island-world of the Pacific the Micronesian area
affords the poorest store of myth material; not that the
people of these islands were relatively destitute of mythology,
but because until very recently practically no attempt had
been made to gather and record it. Much of the treasure
which was once so abundant has now disappeared for ever,
and the blame for this loss lies here, more than elsewhere in
the Pacific, at the door of the early European visitors. In all
the other Oceanic regions they, or at least part of them, made
some effort to record what their civilization was destined to
destroy, but here scarcely a fragment was preserved. Racially
the people of Micronesia show at least two or perhaps three
component elements. A Melanesian factor is certain at least
in some island-groups, although its relation to the other factors
varies widely, some islands showing a large mixture of Melane-
sian blood, others but little. The non-Melanesian element in
the population presents some difficulty ; it may be predominat-
ingly Indonesian or Malay, or a varying mixture of both, but
in the present state of our knowledge it would be premature
to come to any definite conclusions.



CHAPTER I


MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE

D etailed myths of creation or origin are largely lacking
from the Micronesian area, and the fragmentary cos-
mogonic material varies widely. The belief that this world
and the sky-world have always existed, together with an ap-
parent lack of interest in their origin, seems characteristic of
the Pelew Group ^ and the western Carolines;^ although in
the latter islands, at least, the original earth is modified and
made habitable. According to this account, Ligobund, a
female deity, descended from the upper realm to the earth,
but finding this a desert and infertile, she caused plants and
fruit-trees to grow, accomplishing it by the power of her
mere command. From the central Carolines ® the material is
not much fuller. Here there was in the beginning a deity,
Lukelang, who first created the heavens and then the earth;
but since the latter was bare and desert, he took trees and
plants from heaven and set them in the world which he had
made. In the Gilbert Group * we are told only that Nareau
and his daughter, Kobine, made heaven and earth.

The conception of an original sea, on which a deity floated
in the beginning,® seems characteristic of the Marshall Group
or at least of that portion of it which is comprised in the Ralick
Chain.® At the very first there was only the sea, which was
limited to the south by a low, far-reaching reef and to the
north by a swamp. A being named Loa said to the sea, “ Behold
thy island reef,” and a reef appeared; and again he spoke,
“See thy sand,” and the reef was covered with soil. Once
more he said, “See thy plants,” and the earth was covered



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 249

with living things; and when for the fourth time he spoke,
“See thy birds,” birds appeared. Then one of them, a gull,
flew up and stretched out the arching sky as a spider spins
her web. That this idea of an original sea was not foreign to
the Carolines seems to be shown by a myth reported from
Yap,!^ according to which in the beginning a great tree grew
upside down, its roots being in the sky, and its branches touch-
ing the sea. In the boughs of this tree was born a woman to
whom Yelafaz, a sky-deity, gave sand which she strewed
upon the sea and thus formed the earth. Although the tale
includes a jumble of ideas derived from missionary contact,
these features of the tree and of the strewing of the sand upon
the primeval sea are probably aboriginal, for the former is
known also in Borneo,® and the latter occurs widely through-
out Indonesia.®

The fullest and most interesting creation-myth comes from
the little island of Nauru (Pleasant Island), which lies almost
exactly on the Equator, just west of the Gilbert Group. Ac-
cording to this tale,^® in the beginning there were only the sea
and Areop-Enap, “Ancient Spider,” who floated above in
endless space. One day Ancient Spider found a great rounded
object, a tridacna mussel, and taking it in his hands, he looked
at it from all sides, for he wanted to know if there was not an
opening in it, so that he might crawl within; but there was
none. Thereupon he struck the great shell, and as it sounded
hollow, he concluded that there was nothing in it after all.
He tried in vain to open his treasure, and at last, repeating a
charm and making another attempt, he succeeded in prying
the mighty valves slightly apart. At once he crept inside, but
could see nothing for it was dark there because sun and moon
were not yet made; moreover, he could not stand upright, since
the space within the shell was too small. Ancient Spider
sought everywhere on the chance that he might find something,
and at last discovered a snail. Putting this under his arm, he
lay down and slept for three days that he might give power



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


2SO

to the snail; then he laid it aside and sought again, his
search being rewarded hy another larger snail, which he treated
like the first. After this, taking the smaller one, he said to it,
“Can you lift the roof a little, so that we might sit up?” The
snail replied, “Yes,” and raised the shell slightly; whereupon
Ancient Spider took the snail, set it before the western half
of the tridacna shell, and made it into the moon. There was
now a little light, and by it Ancient Spider saw a large worm
or grub, who, when asked if he could raise the roof still higher,
suddenly came to life and said, “Yes.” So he laboured, and
the upper shell of the tridacna slowly rose higher and higher,
while salty sweat ran from the worm’s body, and collecting in
the lower shell, became the sea.^^ At last he raised the upper
shell very high, and it became the sky; but Rigi, the worm,
exhausted by his great work, fell and died. From the other
snail Ancient Spider now made the sun and set it on the east
side of the lower shell, which became the earth.

Another version,^^ admittedly less original, presents in-
teresting similarities to Polynesian and Indonesian tales.
According to this, the great primeval divinity was Tabuerik,
the deity of lightning and thunder, who, in the form of an
omnipotent bird, soared in the beginning over chaos,^® for the
heavens still lay prone upon the earth and sea.^^ Then Rigi, a
butterfly, flew over land and water and separated them, and
other deities, thrust the skies up to their proper place. A fur-
ther possible element of Polynesian type is the fact that in
the larger group the first beings were two worms, one of whom
(a female) was named Lajnan (“Cliff” or “Rock”).^®

The myths relating to the origin of man are as varied as
those just, considered. Several tales accord a divine origin to
mankind. In the western Carolines “ it is said that Ligobund
descended from the sky to the earth, and after making this
habitable, gave birth to three children who became the an-
cestors of mankind. Somewhat inore detailed accounts come
from the central portion of the group.^^ After Luk had created





A AND B ??

Portion of the carved and painted decoration on the
beams of a priest-king’s house in the Pelew Islands.
The scenes represent episodes in myth and legend,
but the particular story to which this series relates is
not known. After Meyer, des ostindi-

schen Archipels und der SMsee^ i, Plate I IL

[Prometheus]

MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 251

the earth and planted it, he sent down his daughter, Ligoapup,
who, becoming thirsty, drank some water which had collected
in the hollow of a tree. Without knowing it, with the water
she swallowed a tiny animal, and made fruitful by this, she
bore a girl-child. She, when she had reached maturity, became
the mother of a daughter, who in her turn gave birth to a boy;
and from a rib taken from this boy, after he had grown, a man
was derived, who married Ligoapup and became the ancestor of
the human race. The incident of the rib is probably an ele-
ment derived from missionary teaching and well illustrates how
such exotic features may be incorporated into native tales; but
it becomes especially interesting when taken in connexion with
some of the other myths which, though wholly native, ascribe
somewhat similar origins to man or deities.

Thus, in the neighbouring island of Mortlok it is said
that Ligoapup, after drinking the water from the hollow in the
tree, bore a girl-child, and that then from her arm was born a
boy, and from one eye another boy, from the other eye a second
girl. From these the human race is descended. With this we
may compare the origin ascribed to several living beings in the
western Carolines,^® the Marshall Group,®® and Nauru, these
being born or bursting forth from blood-blisters or boils on the
bodies of one of the deities.®®

In Indonesia ®® the belief in the origin or birth of certain of
the deities from a rock was well developed in some instances;
and it is interesting (and perhaps significant) to find the same
concept in the Micronesian area as well, where, in the Gilbert
Group, it is said that in the beginning Na Rena or Rigi came
out of a rock.®* It is likewise to be noted that in the Marshall
Group ®® we find the theme of Blood-Clot Child again, an origin
from a clot of blood being given in the Ralick Chain for two
of the deities.

A divine source for the human race is, however, not the only
belief which is held, for it is widely asserted that the first an-
cestors of mankind were made. In the Pelew Group we merely



252 OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY

find the statement®® that the two original deities created the
first human beings, the male god making the first man and
the female divinity shaping the first woman. In the Gilbert
Group, at the other extremity of Micronesia, Nareua was said®’’
to have set fire to a tree, and mankind originated from the
sparks and ashes, which were carried in all directions. In
Nauru ®® Ancient Spider turned stones into men; but these
became the supporters of the heavens and were not ordinary
human beings. Indeed, no clear statement of the source of
mankind appears to be given in this group; some of the deities,
even, have no origin ascribed to them. Thus, Ancient Spider
set out, after the world was created, to see if there were any
other beings beside himself, and he came to a land where he
found men and women sitting on the shore in the shade of
the trees. Since he could not discern their faces clearly and
wanted to know their names, he made, from the dirt under
his finger-nail, a being, gave it wings, and told it to fly to
the people and find out what they were called. So the
bird-like being flew and settled upon the nose of one of
the people. Another, seeing this, called out, “Tabuerik! kill
it.” Thereupon the bird flew to the others, and each time
he thus learned the person’s name, until he had got them
all. Then he returned to Ancient Spider and told him the
names.

Throughout Micronesia mankind is believed to have been
originally immortal, or intended to be so, and to have become
mortal as a result of special causes. Thus in the Pelew Group ®®
Obagat wished that men should not die, and for this reason
desired to place a stone in their breasts that they might be
as lasting and as strong as the stone and not require food;
but the Rail was opposed to this view and advised that only
breath be put in man’s bosom so that he might be subject to
disease and death. Obagat, however, unwilling to despair,
sent his son to get the water of life to assure immortality to
man; but when the liquid was brought in a taro leaf, the



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 253

malicious bird caused a branch of a tree to strike and tear it
so that the precious fluid was spilled upon the tree, which
thus acquired long life and immortality, while man remained
mortal.

In the central Carolines mortality was decreed for man
by Olofat. Luk, the highest deity, asked, “How shall it be
with men? Shall they fall ill and die, and then live again?”
But Olofat answered, “When men die, they shall remain dead.”
In the western Carolines a different tale is told.®^ In the be-
ginning a woman named Mili’ar had two children, and when
she grew old, she said to them, “After I am dead, you must
bury me; but on the seventh day come and dig up my body.
Thus I shall be alive once more, and beautiful and young
again.” Soon afterward, the old woman died as she had fore-
told and was duly buried; but when the son and daughter came
away from the grave together, they saw a fine pandanus-tree
and stopped to eat its fruit. Here they lingered for several
days enjoying themselves, and only too late did they awake
to the fact that the seven days had passed and that they had
not fulfilled their promise. They hurried to their mother’s
grave, but found that she had died a second time, and thus,
because of their delay and forgetfulness, all men thereafter
were mortal. Although the story embodies one or two details
suggestive of missionary teaching, it is clearly aboriginal in
origin. Another version from this same region states that
in the beginning man did not die for ever, but like the moon,
rose again. Each month, when the nioon waned and disap-
peared, men fell into a short sleep; and when it reappeared,
they awoke; but an evil spirit did not approve of this and so
arranged that death was permanent.

Of the origin of the sun and moon several contrasted beliefs
are held. In the Pelews the two original deities were said to
have shaped them from stone with an adze and then to have
cast them up into the sky; whereas in the Gilbert Group ^ the
sun and moon, together with the sea, were the offspring of the



254


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


first two beings created by Na Reau. After he had formed the
first pair, Na Reau departed, saying, “I leave you here so that
you may watch over this land, which is mine. See to it that
you do not increase, for I will not agree to have any children
here. If you disobey my commands, I shall punish you.” De-
Babou and De-Ai, however, did not heed the words of their
creator, and De-Ai bore three children, the sun, the moon, and
the sea. Informed by the eel, his messenger, that his commands
had been disobeyed, Na Reau took his great club and came to
the island where he had left De-Babou and De-Ai; but in
terror they fell down before him, begging him not to kill them,
for, said they, “We find that our children are a great aid to
us, since the sun makes it light, so that we can see; and when
it goes to rest, the moon takes its place; and our third child,
the sea, abounds with fish and supplies us with food.” When
Na Reau had heard their plea, he saw that it was just, and
forbearing to execute his intention, he went away.

The source of fire is variously explained. In the Pelew
Group,®® Obagat, who is here a friendly deity, seeing an old
woman suffering from sores about her mouth, due to eating
raw fish and taro, took pity on mankind and taught them how
to make fire by rubbing two sticks together. In the central
Carolines®® Olofat was the owner or lord of fire, which he sent
down to earth by the aid of a bird, who took the flame in its
beak, and flying from tree to tree, put the seed of fire into
them in order that men might extract it by rubbing sticks
together.®’

In Nauru two tales relating to fire are told. According to
one of them,®® the retreating tide once left two fishes im-
prisoned in a tiny pool, but this soon evaporated, and the fishes
perished. From the maggots engendered in the rotting fish
were derived two women,®® one of whom wished, one evening, to
go fishing, but had no fire with which to light her torch. She
sought everywhere, but being unable to find any, she took two
sticks and rubbed them together; and after a while her finger



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 255

came in contact with the groove which she had made by
rubbing and was burned. Looking into the groove, she saw
fire and sang,

“Fire, Fire, whence do you come?

Fire, Fire, do you come from the nails of my finger?

Fire, Fire, do you come from the nails of my toes?

Fire, Fire, be warm, become hot, make the sparks glow.

Very hot, frightfully hot, terribly hot;

It is called e-kainir.”

Then the flame blazed up, and she was able to light her torch;
and thus the Nauru people first got their fire. The other tale is
not so much of the origin of the fire, but it presents features of
interest for comparison. According to this," Areop-It-Eonin
(“Young Spider”) was born miraculously from a boil upon
Dabage, the tortoise; and when he had grown up to be a boy,
he determined to visit the heaven-land. He climbed up through
all the heavens until he came to the last, where were only
Lightning and Thunder and Ancient Spider, the latter of whom
called to Young Spider and asked, “Whence do you come?”
The boy replied, “O! no, I do not come from a distant country,
but from below;” whereupon Ancient Spider said, “How can
you ascend hither, if your home is in your distant land?”
The boy answered, “ I was running about and saw this country,
and I saw you and came hither.” “Very well,” said Ancient
Spider, “you may stay here, and we will live in my house;”
but Ancient Spider laughed, for he knew how clever Areop-It-
Eonin was and what was his origin, so he said, “Go, and get
some fire from the house of Lightning, so that we may cook our
fish.” Young Spider started off, and as he went, the old man
said to him, “You must not wave the brand about, else you
will wake up the old woman’s husband. Thunder, and then he
will strike you.” Young Spider, however, laughed scornfully
at this warning, and coming to the house of Lightning, he said
to her, “Give me a fire-brand.” She got one for him, and shak-
ing her head, said, “You must not clap your hands in im-
patience, for my husband will wake and beat me, and I shall



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


256

flash out at you;” but the boy cried out loudly, “Give me a
fire-brand.” Accordingly she gave it to him, and as he went
away, he whirled it round and round; and then Thunder woke
up, for the fire flamed brightly, and he ran after the youth
to strike him; but the latter turned about and broke one of
Thunder’s arms, so that he fell weeping to the ground.^^ The
similarity of this to the Polynesian tales of Maui’s bringing of
fire is most significant.

Flood-myths have thus far been reported only from western
Micronesia — from the Pelews and the western Carolines.
In the latter,^* it forms the conclusion to a long tale. A man
and his wife, who was of supernatural origin, had endeavoured
in vain to satisfy the hunger of her father, whose name was
Insatiable, and who also was of heavenly origin, but had grown
so huge that he filled the whole council-house and had eaten
all the coco-nuts on the island. One day the husband, Kitimil,
went out to look at his sugar-cane field, and seeing that a
mouse had been eating in it, he came home and told his wife,
Magigi, about it. Thereupon she said, “My father must be
hungry; therefore he comes to eat the sugar-cane”; and though
her husband replied that this was impossible, Magigi in-
sisted, asserting that her father had the power to turn himself
into a mouse. Kitimil, still incredulous, set a trap in the field
that evening, and on hearing it spring during the night, shouted
for glee. When his wife asked why he rejoiced, he said that
at last he had found the mouse which had been eating his crop,®
but Magigi was terrified and exclaimed, “Alas! it is certain
that you have caught and killed my father. Go, and bring
him here.” Accordingly Kitimil went and brought the body
of the mouse, but when he looked in the council-house where
his father-in-law used to be, only to find it empty, be finally
knew that his wife had been right. Thereupon Magigi said to
him, “In the morning Twill decide what we had better do”;
and when the day dawned, she told Kitimil to take four of the
mouse’s teeth and his blood, and then to bury the body.



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 257

After Kitimil had done this, Magigi said to him, “Now a
great storm will come, and the sea will rise in flood, and all the
people of Yap will be drowned.^® We must, therefore, climb
the highest mountain, and build on its top a pile-dwelling of
seven storeys.” So they took some leaves and oil and the
teeth and the blood of the dead mouse and went to the top
of a very high mountain, where they built a pile-dwelling, seven
storeys in height; and on the seventh day a great storm of rain
and wind came, and the sea rose and covered all Yap. When
the water reached the top of the mountain, Kitimil and his
wife climbed into the lower storey of their house; and as the
waters continued to rise, they went up higher and higher until
they reached the topmost storey. Since, however, the deluge
still rose, Magigi took some oil, and putting it on a leaf, laid
it on the water ; whereupon the flood at once began to abate,
and the storm ceased. Finally the land was dry again, and they
came down out of the house, saying, “There is no one else left
alive in Yap.” Yet one other man had survived by lashing
himself to an outrigger of a canoe and anchoring it to a great
stone; and after they had found this man, Magigi and Kitimil
returned to their home, where Magigi bore seven children,
who scattered over all the land.

The Pelew version is much more simple. Here the flood
was caused in revenge by the friends of a minor deity who had
been killed. Only to one old woman did they reveal their plans,
advising her to take refuge on a raft; but though she did this,
the rope with which she anchored it was too short, and so, as
the waters rose, they covered the raft, and she was drowned.
Her body drifted far away, but her hair caught in the branches
of a tree, and there she was turned to stone and may be seen
to this day.


IX— 18



CHAPTER II

MISCELLANEOUS TALES

O NE of the most important myths or series of myths in
the Carolines, outside of the more strictly cosmogonic
tales, is that describing the exploits of Olofat or Olifat, the
eldest son of Luke-lang, the highest deity. In the version from
the central Carolines, which is here followed,^ he appears as
a mischievous, almost malicious, person who stands in marked
contrast to his brother or brothers, who are beneficent; and
it is interesting to compare this antithesis of malice and good-
ness with Melanesian types.^

Olofat saw that one of his brothers was better than he and
also more beautiful, and at this he became angry. Looking
down from the sky-world and seeing two boys who had caught
a couple of sharks, with which they were playing in a fish-
pond, he descended to earth and gave the sharks teeth, so
that they bit the hands of the children. When the boys ran
home crying with pain and told their troubles to their mother,
Ligoapup, who was the sister of Olofat, she asked them if
they had not seen any one about, whereupon they said that
they had, and that he was more handsome than any man whom
they had ever beheld. Knowing that this must be her brother,
Olofat, Ligoapup asked her sons where he was, and they an-
swered, “ Close by the sea.” She then told them to go and get
the man and bring him to her, but when they reached the
place where they had left him, they found only an old, grey-
haired man, covered with dirt. Returning to their mother, they
informed her that the man whom they had seen was no longer
there; but she bade them go back and bring whomsoever they



MISCELLANEOUS TALES


259


might find. Accordingly they set off, but this time they saw
only a heap of filth in place of a man; and so once more they
went home to their mother, who told them to return a third
time. Obeying her, they questioned the filth, saying, “Are
you Olofat.? For if you are, you must come to our mother”;
whereupon the pile of filth turned into a handsome man who
accompanied them to Ligoapup. She said to him, “Why are
you such a deceiver.^” And Olofat replied, “How so.^” And
she said, “First, you turned yourself into a dirty old man,
and then into a pile of filth.” “I am afraid of my father,”
answered Olofat. “Yes,” said Ligoapup, “you are afraid
because you gave teeth to the shark.” Then Olofat replied,
“I am angry at Luk, for he created my brother handsomer
than I am, and with greater power. I shall give teeth to all
sharks, in order that they may eat men whenever canoes tip
over.” When Luk, who was in the sky-world, became aware
of these things, he said to his wife, “It would be well if Olofat
came back to heaven, since he is only doing evil on earth”;
and his wife, Inoaeman, said, “I think so, too. Otherwise he
will destroy mankind, for he is an evil being.”

Accordingly Luk ordered the people of the sky-world to
build a great house, and when it was finished, he not only com-
manded that a feast be announced, but also had a large fish-
basket prepared, in which they placed Olofat and sank him
in the sea. After five nights, when they thought he would be
dead, two men went in a canoe and hauled up the basket; but
behold ! it contained only a multitude of great fish, for Olofat
had slipped away and seated himself in a canoe near by.
The men asked him, “Who are you?” And he replied, “I am
Olofat. Come here, and I will help you to put the fish into
your boat.” Taking one fish after the other, he handed them
to the men, but in so doing he removed all the flesh of the fish
and gave the men merely the empty skins. For himself he
kept nothing but the smallest ones; and when the people said,
“Why is it that you take only the little fish?” Olofat replied.



26 o


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


“Give Luk all the big ones; I am quite satisfied with the little
ones.” Then the people brought the catch to Luk, who asked
them, “Where is the fish-basket.? Who took the fish out?”
When the 7 replied, “Olofat did that, but has again placed
the basket in the sea,” Luk said, “Has he then taken no fish
for himself?” to which they answered, “Only the very small-
est ones.” Luk now ordered all sorts of food to be prepared
for the feast and commanded that the fishes should be cooked;
and when all were gathered in the house, while Olofat sat at
the entrance, Luk said, “Let every one now eat. Let the food
be divided, and let each receive his share.” Nevertheless,
Olofat refused to receive any; and when the guests took up
the fish, lo! there were only the empty skins, and within was
nothing, so that they had to content themselves with fruit.

[Prometheus]

Olofat, however, ate his own fish; but Luk said, “See, we
have nothing, whereas Olofat is able to eat his own fish, and is
still not finished with them.” Thereupon he became very angry
and sent word to Thunder to destroy Olofat; but since Thunder
lived in a house at a distance, Luk said, “Take Thunder some
food.” So one of the gods took some of the viands in order to
carry them, but Olofat, snatching them from him, himself
carried them to Thunder; and on arriving at the house, he
called out, “0 Thunder, I bring food.” Now Thunder had
found a white hen, and coming out, he thundered; but though
Luk cried, “Kill him,” and though Thunder blazed, Olofat
merely placed his hand before his eyes. Nevertheless, Thunder
followed him and thundered again and again behind him; but
from under his mantle Olofat took some coco-nut milk which
he had brought with him, and sprinkling it upon Thunder,
he quenched the lightning. After this he seized Thunder and
bore him back to his own home; and when Olofat had returned
to the feast house, Luk said, “Why has the man not been
killed?” Notwithstanding this, Olofat again took his place by
the door, while Luk now ordered another of the gods to take
food to Anulap. Thereupon Olofat stood up and walked along



MISCELLANEOUS TALES 261

behind the one who carried the food and he took the viands
away from him, saying, “ I myself will take the food tolAnulap.”
So he went to the god and said, “Here are viands for you”;
and then he turned about and came back to the great assem-
bly house, whereupon Luk said to Anulap, “Why have you
not killed the man?” Then Anulap took his great hook,
which was fastened to a strong rope, and throwing it at Olo-
fat,® he caught him around the neck; but Olofat quickly seized
a mussel-shell and cut the rope, after which he hastened to
the house of Anulap, where he sat down upon the threshold-
When Anulap saw him, he seized his club to strike Olofat; but
as he stretched it out, the latter changed himself into a wooden
mortar. Thereupon Anulap called, “Where is Olofat?” and
his wife, answering, “He must have run away,” they lay down
and slept. After all this Luk said, “We can do nothing with
Olofat; I believe he cannot die. Go, O Laitian, and tell the
people to come in the morning to make a porch for the house.”
When the people had come and asked how they should con-
struct the porch, Luk said, “Go to the forest and bring great
tree-trunks”; and when this was done, and the tree-trunks
were laid by the house, Luk commanded, “Now, go and fetch
Olofat.” Olofat came and said, “I shall go, too”; but Luk
replied, “You must aid us to build the porch. You must make
three holes in the ground, two shallow and one deep; and in
these the tree-trunks must be set.” Accordingly Olofat dug
three holes, but in each of them he made an excavation at
one side; after which Luk asked, “Olofat, are you ready yet?”
Thereupon Olofat, taking a nut and a stone, secreted them in
his girdle; and Luk said, “Now set the tree-trunks in the holes.”
In obedience to this, three men seized the upper end, while
Olofat grasped the lower part; and they pushed Olofat so that
he fell into the hole, only to creep quickly into the space which
he had made on the side. Not knowing this, however, they
then raised the tree-trunk high, and dropping it into the hole,
they made it firm with earth and stone.



262


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


All now believed that Olofat had been caught under the
great post and had been crushed to death. He, however, sat
in his hole on the side, and being hungry five nights later, he
cracked the nut with the stone which he had brought with
him and ate it; whereupon ants came, and taking the frag-
ments which had fallen to the ground, they carried the food
along the trunk to the surface, going in long rows. The man
who sat in the house above, seeing this, said to his wife,
“Olofat is dead, for the ants are bringing up parts of his body”;
but when Olofat heard the speech of the man, he turned him-
self into an ant and crept with the others up the post.'* Having
climbed high, he allowed himself to drop upon the body of the
man, who pushed the ant off, so that it fell to the ground,
where it was immediately changed into Olofat. As soon as the
people saw him, they sprang up in fear, and Olofat said, “What
are you talking about?” When Luk beheld him, he said, “We
have tried in every possible way to kill you, but it seems
that you cannot die. Bring me Samenkoaner.” After Samen-
koaner had come and sat down, Luk asked him, “How is it
that Olofat cannot die? Can you kill him?” To this Samen-
koaner replied, “No, not even if I thought about it for a whole
night long, could I find a means; for he is older than 1.”
Thereupon Luk said, “But I do not wish that he should destroy
all men upon the earth”; and so the Rat, Luk’s sister, advised
that they should burn Olofat. Accordingly they made a great
fire, to which they brought Olofat; but he had with him a
roll of coco-nut fibre, and when Luk ordered them to throw
him into the flames, he crept through the roll and came out
safely upon the other side of the fire. Then Luk said, “Rat,
we have tried everything to kill him, but in vain”; and the
Rat answered, “He cannot die; so make him the lord of all
who are evil and deceitful.”



CHAPTER III


SUMMARY

T he Micronesian myth material, as here outlined, clearly
reveals its relationships to Indonesia on the one hand,
and to Polynesia on the other. In the lack of detailed legends
of creation Micronesia seems to agree with what has been de-
nominated as the Indonesian as opposed to the Malayan myth
type in Indonesia. In other particulars its similarities are with
the general Indonesian material, which, as has been pointed
out, is at present difficult to separate into its constituents, al-
though the absence of the trickster tales seems to argue little
direct relation with the definitely later Malay type. With
Polynesia, the Micronesian data show many features of re-
semblance, and these are wide-spread in the whole Polynesian
area. Melanesian similarities are far less striking, and when
they exist, seem to be with eastern Melanesia rather than with
New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, though these are
geographically nearer. The eastern Melanesian mythology
appears to show evidence of greater Polynesian admixture or
affinities and to be relatively of later development than that
of the West; and this would argue that the Melanesian con-
tact was historically late in Micronesia, however it may have
occurred. Of the supposedly Papuan type of mythology little
or no trace is found.




PART V


AUSTRALIA




PART V
AUSTRALIA

T he continent of Australia is not only by all odds the
largest land-mass of the Oceanic area, but also presents
in its physical characters the sharpest contrast to the remainder
of the region. Continental in size, only a small section of its
great extent possesses a tropical environment, the whole of its
interior and most of its western portion being a vast and al-
most waterless desert. Instead of the conditions of life being
easy and the food-supply abundant, as in the tropical islands,
over great parts of its area the food-quest absorbed a large
proportion of the energies of the inhabitants. In the desert the
summer heat is terrible, while on the elevated plateaux and in
the mountains of the south-east the winters are snowy, and
the cold is often intense. The sad and almost shadeless forests
of eucalyptus, acacia, and she-oak are in sharp contrast to the
dense growths of the tropics, and the peculiar animal life,
characterized by the abundance of marsupials and great
struthious birds, sets it apart from most of the rest of the Pacific
world. Moreover, Australia is to a large degree isolated from
the remainder of the whole area in that only at the northern
extremity of Queensland does it closely approach any of the
surrounding lands, although its north-western coasts are not
very remote, as Oceanic distances go, from eastern Indonesia.

The native peoples of Australia were in great measure as
distinctive as its physical features, climate, flora, and fauna.
Ranked in their culture among the lowest peoples of the world
— wholly ignorant of agriculture, pottery, and domestic
animals (except the dog), and over large portions of the area



268


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


without any knowledge or means of navigation — they pos-
sessed at the same time an extraordinarily complex social
organization and an elaborate religious ceremonial. Although
presenting a notable degree of uniformity throughout the
continent, close study and comparison of the various tribes,
particularly In regard to the languages spoken, has quite
recently revealed ^ to us certain broad distinctions, which,
although requiring more evidence before they can be accepted
as entirely proved, suffice to divide the aborigines into two
contrasted groups (or three, if Tasmania Is included). The
first of these, which may be called the northern group, occu-
pied that portion of the continent lying north of the twen-
tieth parallel of south latitude, together with a large wedge-
shaped area extending southward into the interior for nearly
ten degrees farther. Throughout this area, comprising roughly
one-third of the whole continent, the languages spoken fall
into a large number of small, independent, unrelated stocks
comparable to those of the Papuan tribes of New Guinea.
Certain cultural and physical differences also seem to mark
this northern group In contrast with the second, which occu-
pied the whole of the remainder of the continent. The lan-
guages in this area, although separable into a number of groups,
show such a degree of similarity that they must be regarded
as related in some sense, although the precise extent is not yet
clear. The Tasmanians would seem to have constituted a third
group, although the fact that they have been extinct for many
years renders our information in regard to them so fragmentary
that definiteness on this point is almost impossible.

These three groups have been taken as evidence of three suc-
cessive strata of people. Of these the Tasmanians represent
the oldest and most primitive, and that which presumably
once spread over the whole Australian continent. The second
group is explained as due to a great wave of immigration from
the north which swept over and absorbed, or in places exter-
minated, the Tasmanoid type. Latest in point of time Is the



AUSTRALIA


269

northern group, which, coming from the same general direc-
tion, dominated the whole north and drove a wedge deep into
the central portion of the continent. That the racial history
of Australia has, however, not been quite as simple as this
has become more and more clear with increasing information;
but reference to other factors and possibilities may best be
postponed to the final discussion of Australian mythology.

Material on the mythology of the Australian natives is com-
paratively meagre. The rapid extinction of a large portion of
the population before any adequate observations had been
made, and the large areas, especially in the West, still remaining
unexplored, leave us little more than fragments available for
the continent itself; while for Tasmania we have almost lit-
erally nothing. Enough material, however, is at hand to pre-
sent an outline of the main features of Australian mythology,
and to indicate at least some of its relationships.



CHAPTER I

MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE

M yths of the origin of the world are largely lacking in
Australia as in Melanesia. With few exceptions the ex-
istence of the earth and sky seems to have been assumed, and
apart from certain special mountains, rocks, rivers, and other
natural features, no account is given of their origin.^ In a number
of cases,® mainly in the south-east of the continent, we find the
general assertion that “all things were made in the beginning
by a deity or supernatural being”; but in the absence of any
specific myths it has been pointed out ® that these statements
may not necessarily mean all that seems to be implied. Had
we anything more in the way of information than these brief
statements of early missionaries and others, it Is probable
that the real belief would be found to be that only certain
special features of the landscape were regarded as having
been so made. In one case — the Arunta of central Australia
— the belief In an original sea appears; and according to this
account,* in the beginning the world was covered with salt
water, though gradually the sea was withdrawn by the people
living to the north, and thus the land appeared.

Although native speculation as to the beginning of the world
seems undeveloped, the same cannot be said with regard to
the origin of mankind, for on that point there are many dif-
ferent beliefs. The myths relating to this topic may be di-
vided into three groups, according as they ascribe to man {a)
a wholly independent origin, (l>) an independent origin as
incomplete beings, who are then finished or completed; or (c)
describe a definite making or creation by some deity. The




PLATE XXII


Ground-painting, made with coloured sands, repre-
senting a mythical snake, which is shown descending
into a hole in the ground. The other series of con-
centric circles stand for trees and bushes; the foot-
prints are those of a man who followed the snake.
The paintings are used in connexion with ceremonials
of the snake-totem Gian. Australia. After Spencer
and Gillen, of Central Australia^ p.

740, Fig. 312.




WifrMi

25 .


P/iiMX




MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 271

first of these types seems to be mainly restricted to a series of
tribes stretching from Lake Eyre northward through the central
section of the country to the Gulf of Carpentaria.® Among
all these tribes the belief is held that the totem ancestors of
the various clans “came up out of the ground,” some being
in human and some in animal shapes. They travelled about
the country, usually leaving offspring here and there by unions
with women of the people (of whose origin nothing is said)
whom they either met or made; and ultimately journeyed
away beyond the confines of the territory known to the par-
ticular tribe, or went down into the ground again, or became
transformed into a rock, tree, or some other natural feature of
the landscape. These spots then became centres from which
spirit individuals, representing these ancestors, issued to be
reincarnated in human beings. Strictly speaking, although in
some instances they begat direct descendants, these totemic
ancestors should perhaps not be regarded as human creatures,
for often they were themselves the fashioners of men from the
incomplete forms in which they originated. As an example of
the myths of this type (which are usually very trivial), we may
take one from the Kaitish tribe.® In the past a Euro man arose
out of the ground as a child, and was found by a woman be-
longing to the Lizard clan, who gave it milk. Every day she
went to gather berries for her husband, who was a Wild Turkey
man; and every day she gave milk to the Euro child, who,
when he grew larger, ran away and met a number of Iguana
women, who tried to fight him with lightning. They could not
catch him, however; and so, after killing and eating them, he
travelled on and met a man from the Wren totem, whom he
also killed. Then he climbed a hill, scratching the sand with
his fingers as he went, and travelling on all fours, he came to
the camp of some Rain women. They offered him food, but
he grew angry when they would not yield to all his demands,
refused to eat the food, and threw it away; whereupon the
women killed him, after which he went down into the ground.



272 OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY

In general the myths of these beings seem to be independent
in origin and unrelated, and are mainly concerned with recount-
ing the way in which they taught certain ceremonies and cus-
toms to the people with whom they came in contact in their
wanderings; so that they present few details of value for our
purposes. Differing in some respects from these myths, yet on
the whole belonging to this class, is the account given by one
of the tribes from Victoria,^ according to whom the first man
originated from the gum of the wattle-tree, and issuing from
a knot upon its trunk, entered into the body of a woman and
was born as a male child.

The second class of tales relates more directly to the origin
of human beings. Myths of this type are apparently confined
to the series of tribes just mentioned as having legends of the
first category, but in this instance the area seems to extend
as far as Tasmania. As an illustration we may take the version
given by the Arunta.® At the time of the retreat of the original
sea to the northward there were in the western sky two
beings who were self-existing and of whose origin nothing is
stated. From their lofty position they saw far to the east a
number of Inapertwa, “rudimentary human beings or in-
complete men, whom it was their mission to make into men
and women.” These Inapertwa were of various shapes and
lived along the edges of the sea. “They had no distinct limbs
or organs of sight, hearing or smell, and did not eat food, and
presented the appearance of human beings all doubled up into
a rounded mass in which just the" outline of the different
parts of the body could be vaguely seen.” The two sky-beings
came down, therefore, from the sky and armed with large
stone knives, set to work to make these amorphous objects
into men. “First of all the arms were released, then the fingers
were added by making four clefts at the end of each arm;
then legs and toes were added in the same way. The figure
could now stand, and after this the nose was added and the
nostrils bored with the fingers. A cut with the knife made the



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 273

moilth. . . . A slit on each side separated the upper and lower
eyelids, hidden behind which the eyes were already present,
another stroke or two completed the body and thus, out of
the Inapertzva, men and women were formed.” Closely sim-
ilar tales are told by many other tribes of the central area ®
and the south-east,^® as well as in Tasmania.^

[Prometheus]

Myths of the third type are, on the other hand, characteris-
tic of the south-easterly portion of the continent. Although in
many cases there are no detailed stories of the creation of
mankind, the statement being merely that the first men were
created, more definite myths do occur. Thus, the tribes in
the vicinity of Melbourne say that in the beginning Pundjel
made two males from clay. “With his big knife he cut
three large sheets of bark. On one of these he placed a quan-
tity of clay, and worked it into a proper consistence with his
knife. When the clay was soft, he carried a portion to one of
the other pieces of bark, and he commenced to form the clay
into a man, beginning at the feet; then he made the legs,
then he formed the trunk and the arms and the head. He
made a man on each of the two pieces of bark. He was well
pleased with his work, and looked at the men a long time, and
he danced round about them. He next took stringybark from
a tree, . . . made hair of it, and placed it on their heads — on
one straight hair and on the other curled hair. Pund-jel again
looked at his work, much pleased . . . and once more he danced
round about them. . . . After again smoothing with his hands
their bodies, from the feet upwards to their heads, he lay upon
each of them, and blew his breath into their mouths, into their
noses, and into their navels; and breathing very hard, they
stirred. He danced round about them a third time. He then
made them speak, and caused them to get up, and they rose up,
and appeared as full grown young men.” Some of the Queens-
land tribes declare that the moon created the first man and
woman, the former being made from stone and rubbed all

over with white and black ashes, while the latter was shaped

IX — 19



OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


274

from a box-tree and rendered soft and supple by rubbing with
yams and mud. In South Australia/® on the other hand, there
is apparently a belief in the creation of men from excrement
which was moulded and then tickled, this causing the image to
laugh and become alive.

Another tale from Victoria records the origin of woman as
follows.^® One day Pallyan, the brother (or son?) of Pundjel,
the maker of man, was playing in a deep water-hole and in so
doing he thumped and thrashed the water with his hands until
it became thick and muddy. At length he saw something, and
parting the mass with a branch, he discovered hands and then
two heads, and at last extricated two female forms, which
were the first women and were given as wives to the two men
whom Pundjel had already made. An origin of mankind from
the sky is given by one of the tribes of the Northern Territory,^^
who state that Atnatu, a self-created deity in the heavens, being
angry at some of his children, threw them down to earth
through a hole in the sky, and that these became the ances-
tors of the tribe. The dispersion of mankind was explained
as follows by these same tribes. After men had multiplied,
they became wicked; and thereupon Pundjel, coming down in
anger from the skies, whither he and Pallyan had been carried
by a whirlwind shortly after they had made the first human
beings, with a great knife cut the people into small bits
which moved and crawled about like worms. Then a great
wind arose and scattered the pieces like flakes of snow far and
wide over the world; and wherever they fell, they developed
again into men and women.^® Although presenting some ob-
vious features of missionary influence, the tale probably con-
tains a nucleus of aboriginal thought.

Myths of the origin of the sun fall into two contrasted
groups. According to the tribes of the South-East, the sun
was made by throwing an emu’s egg into the sky; and as
told by the Euahlayi, the story runs as follows.^® In the
beginning there was no sun, only the moon and the stars;



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 275

but one day Dinewan, the emu, and Bralgah, the native com-
panion, quarrelled and fought. In rage the latter ran to the
nest of Dinewan, took one of the large eggs, and threw it
with all her strength into the sky, where it broke upon a pile
of firewood which was there and which immediately burst into
: flame. This greatly astonished the beings in this world, who
i had been used to semi-darkness, and consequently almost
blinded them; but the deity in the sky, seeing how fine a
thing this fire was in the world, determined to have it lit every
day and has done so ever since. Each night he and his assist-
ants gather wood and pile it up and then send the morning
star to inform people that the fire will soon be lit. Since, how-
ever, the sky-deity found this notification insufficient, as
those who slept did not see the star, he ordered a bird, the Gour-
gourgahgah, to laugh every dawn as soon as the morning star
paled and thus wake up the world; and the bird has done so
ever since. Similar tales are told in every portion of this
region.*®

Another series of myths from the eastern and north-eastern
parts of the continent describe the sun as a woman. Among
the Arunta and related tribes of central Australia,*^ she, like
many of the original totem ancestors, arose out of the ground,
and later, carrying a fire-brand, ascended to the sky, though
every night she descends into the earth, again to emerge in
the morning. In some instances there are said to be several
suns, who go up into the sky in turn.** Among the Narrinyeri
of South Australia** the sun is also considered to be a woman,
who nightly visits the land of the dead, although nothing is
said of her origin. “As she approaches, the men assemble
and divide into two bodies, leaving a row for her to pass be-
tween them. They invite her to stay with them, which she
can do only for a short time, as she must be ready for her
journey the nest day. For favours granted to some one among
them, she receives a present of a red kangaroo skin, and there-
fore in the morning, when she rises, appears in her red dress.”


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276

In Queensland the sun (a woman) was made by the moon,
and although given but two legs in the common manner of
mankind, was provided with many arms, which may be seen
extending like rays when she rises and sets. Some of the Vic-
toria tribes say that in the beginning the sun did not set, but
since people grew weary of the continual day, at length the
creator deity ordered the sun to set, and thus day and night
originated.®

In regard to the moon two classes of tales are also found.
According to the Arunta of central Australia,® in the mytho-
logical period a man of the Opossum totem carried the moon
about with him in a shield, keeping it hidden in a cleft in the
rocks all day long. One night, however, another man of the
Grass-Seed totem chanced to see a light shining on the ground,
this being the moon lying in the man’s shield; whereupon the
Grass-Seed man at once picked up the shield with the moon
in it and ran away. The Opossum man, discovering his loss,
gave chase, but being unable to catch the thief, he called out
to the moon to rise into the sky and give every one light during
the night; and the moon accordingly went up into the sky,
where it has remained ever since.*^

Elsewhere the moon is regarded as a man who rose into the
sky. In Queensland it is said ® that once two Sparrow-Hawk
brothers were out hunting for honey, and that one of them
in trying to extract a comb from a hollow tree in which he
had made a hole, caught his arm and could not get it out.
His brother went to get aid, but all whom he asked to help
refused, except the moon. The latter, however, went willingly,
climbed the tree, and putting his head well down into the
hollow, sneezed violently, the resultant sudden pressure of the
air enabling the captive to withdraw his arm. The Sparrow-
Hawk determined to be revenged on those who had denied
him aid; and so, first burying the moon in the ground to get
him out of harm’s way, he set fire to the grass, intending to
burn up the whole camp. Since, however, some persons were



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 277

not destroyed, he started another blaze, this time putting the
moon into the top of a tall tree; but again some of his victims
escaped, and accordingly, having this time placed the moon
high in the sky, he kindled a third conflagration and finally
succeeded in destroying all his enemies.

Quite a different tale, embodying several incidents valuable
for comparative purposes, is found in New South Wales.®®
According to this, the moon was an old man, very corpulent
and very lazy, who lived with two young men who were his
relatives. They aided him and did most of the hunting, but
since he treated them very badly, taking for himself all the
choice portions of meat and giving them only what was left,
after a while they decided that they could no longer stand this
and determined to leave. In camp they were accustomed to
sit or lie behind him, and as he could not easily turn over, he
used from time to time to call to them to see if they were there.
When their plans were ready they started off secretly in-
structing some rubbish, which they left behind them, to answer
for them if the old man should call.®® After they had travelled
some distance, they were fortunate enough to kill an emu,
and taking the bird with them to a large flat rock, they pre-
pared to cook and eat it; but when the food was about ready,
they remembered that emu flesh was still tabu to them as
young men and that they could not have it until they received
some at the hands of an older man. They therefore determined
to use a stratagem and accordingly called out to the old man,
who thus for the first time realized their absence. He has-
tened toward them, but before he arrived, they caused the
rock on which they were to grow tall, so that he could not
reach them. When he had come, they showed him the emu,
and he at once demanded that they throw some of the meat to
him, whereupon they tossed down a piece of the fat, which he,
not liking, hurled back at them; and thus the tabu was broken,
for they had received emu flesh at his hands. Since he was
desirous of ascending to them, they told him to get a sapling


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


278

and lean it against the rock so that he might climb; but
while he had gone to fetch it, they caused the rock to grow
still higher, so that his pole was not sufficiently long to reach
the top. Accordingly he went again, and this time bringing a
stick which was long enough, he started to climb up carrying
his two dogs with him. His hands, however, were greasy from
handling the emu fat, and when he was near the top, the two
boys twisted and shook the stick so that Gina, the old man,
lost his hold and fell to the ground, his two dogs being killed,
and his back so injured that he had to walk much bent over.
For this reason the new moon has a bent back when it appears
each month.®^

In central Australia the Arunta say that in the beginning
a man of the Opossum clan died and was buried, but shortly
afterward came to life again as a boy. The people saw him
rising and ran away in fear, but he followed them, saying, “Do
not be frightened! Do not run away, or you will die altogether.
I shall die, but shall rise again in the sky.” He later grew up
to be a man and then died once more, reappearing as the moon,
and has ever since continued to die periodically and come to
life again; but the people who ran away died altogether.

The northern tribes seem to have only a few myths relating
to the moon. The Warramunga,®® however, tell that the moon
came up out of the ground as a man and was one day walking
about when he saw the tracks of a woman. Following these
and finally catching sight of her, he called out, whereupon she
replied; and when he then shouted, “Don’t talk so far away!
I want to have you come near,” she came to him, and they sat
talking. Meanwhile two hawks had discovered the art of
making fire, but unfortunately they lost control of it, and thus
started a conflagration. The woman, seeing the flames ap-
proaching, said, “Look out, the fire is close up now”; but the
moon-man answered, “No hurry, it is quite a long way off
yet.” They were, however, suddenly surrounded by it, and the
woman was badly burned, whereupon the man cut open one



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 279

of his veins, drew some blood, and sprinkled it over the woman,
who was thus restored to life. Then both of them went up
into the sky.®*

Several accounts are given of the ori^n of the sea or of
lakes and waters; and in parts of the south-east of the conti-
nent a tale is found which recalls a type widely spread in
Melanesia.®® Thus, in western Victoria it is said ®® that origi-
nally water was kept concealed under a stone. Some birds,
however, spied upon the jealous owner, thus discovering where
the precious substance was hid; and in the man’s absence one
day they removed the stone which covered the opening, so
that the water immediately flowed out and became a great
lake.®^ The east-coast tribes have quite a different story.
According to this,®® once upon a time there was no water, for
a great frog had swallowed it all. At this the people were much
distressed, and holding a council to determine what to do,
they agreed that if only the frog could be made to laugh,
he would disgorge the water.®® Accordingly several animals
danced before him in ludicrous postures, but in vain, for the
frog remained as solemn as before. Finally the eel tried, and
at his wriggling and writhing the frog first smiled and then
laughed; and as he opened his mouth, the waters burst forth
and caused a great flood by which many were drowned.*®
The few survivors, comprising two or three men and one
woman, took refuge on a small island; and by and by a pelican,
coming along in his canoe, carried the men to the mainland,
one by one, leaving the woman until the last, because he wanted
her for a wife. She, however, was frightened, and wrapping
a log in her skin rug to look as though she were sleeping, she
swam away to the shore. When the pelican returned, he called
to her, but got no reply; so he came and kicked the skin rug,
and finding that it had only a log within it and that he had
been tricked, he was very angry. Now at that time all pelicans
were black, and accordingly he began to paint himself with
pipe-clay before going to fight those whom he had saved;


28 o


OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY


but just as he was half painted, another pelican came by,
and not knowing what such a queer looking thing was, struck
him with his beak and killed him. Since that day all pelicans
have been part black and part white.

Several other myths of a deluge or great flood have been
recorded. Thus, according to one account," a party of men
were once fishing in a lake, when one man baited his hook
with a piece of flesh and soon felt a tremendous bite. Hauling
in his line, he found that he had caught a young bunyip, a



Fig, 3. Native Drawing of a “Bunyip”


This drawing was made by a Murray River aboriginal in 1848. The hunyif is
a mythical animal, living in deep pools or streams, and attacking men, whom it eats.
It was greatly feared by the natives. After Brough Smyth, The Ahotigines of
Ftdona, L 437, Fig. 245,

water monster of which the people were much afraid; but
though his companions begged him to let it go, because the
water monsters would be angry if it were killed, he refused to
listen to them and started to carry the young bunyip away.
The mother, however, flew into a great rage and caused the
waters of the lake to rise and follow the man who had dared to
rob her of her young. The deluge mounted higher and higher,
until all the country was covered, and the people, fleeing in
terror, took refuge upon a high hill; but as the flood increased,
gradually surmounting it and touching the people’s feet, they
were all turned into black swans and have remained so ever
since.



MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE 281


Myths of the origin of fire are generally known and of several
different types. Most widely spread, apparently, are tales
which declare fire to have been originally owned by certain
birds or animals from whom the secret was then stolen. The
version of one of the Victorian (?) tribes runs as follows.*®
The bandicoot was once the sole owner of fire, and cherishing
his fire-brand, which he carried with him wherever he went,
he obstinately refused to share the flame with any one else.
Accordingly the other animals held a council and determined
to get fire either by force or by stratagem, deputing the hawk
and the pigeon to carry out their purpose. The latter, waiting
for a favourable moment when he thought to find it un-
guarded, made a dash for it; but the bandicoot saw him in
time, and seizing the brand, he hurled it toward the river to
quench it. The sharp eyes of the hawk saw it falling, and
swooping down, with his wing he knocked it into the long dry
grass, which was thus set alight so that the flames spread far
and wide, and all people were able to procure fire. A New
South Wales version is somewhat different.*® According to
this, fire was originally owned by two women (Kangaroo-Rat
and Bronze-Winged Pigeon) who kept it concealed in a nut-
shell. For a long time the other animals could not discover
how these women were able to cook their food; but at last they
set spies to watch them and so learned the secret, whereupon,
resolving to secure fire by a ruse, they arranged a dance and
invited the two women to be present. One after another the
different animals danced in ludicrous positions in an attempt
to make the women laugh; and at length one performer suc-
ceeded so that the women, convulsed with merriment, rolled
upon the ground. This was just what the conspirators had
been waiting for, and rushing up, they seized the bag in which
was the nut that contained the fire. Opening this and scat-
tering the flame about, they set the grass alight, and in this
way fire was caught in the trees, whence ever since it can be
procured from their wood by means of friction.**


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OCEANIC MYTHOLOGY