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Мифология народов Океании

 
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andy4675
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В основном речь идёт и мифологиях Полинезии, Микронезии и Меланезии.
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- Γεώργιος Σιεττός, "Παγκόσμιες αντιλήψεις για τη Θεογονία και Κοσμογονία", изд. Κυβέλη, Афины, 1997 год:

Космогония народов Полинезии 225 - 232
Космогония народов Меланезии 233

- "Женщины в легендах и мифах", под ред. Кэролайн Ларрингтон, изд. Крон-пресс, Москва, 1998 год:

1. Мифология маори.

Автор главы Маргарет Орбелл.

Мифология маори. Введение. Мифы о женщинах. Некоторые второстепенные персонажи. Мифография 373 - 396

2. Мифология Гавайев.

Автор главы Элизабет Диаб.

Введение. Боги. Богини. Мифы о Пеле. Древние Мифы и современность. Оправдание богини 397 - 427

- Мирча Элиаде, "Священные тексты народов мира", изд. Крон-пресс, Москва, 1998 год:

1. Полинезия и Новая Зеландия.

Высшее существо маори стр. 22 - 23 (текст номер 11)
Ио и Космогония маори 88 - 89 (47)
Сотворение женщины из Матери-Земли 130 (62)
Хайнувеле и "созидательное убийство" (серам, Новая Гвинея) 26 - 27 (15)
Мауи и Хиненуитепо (Полинезия) 141 - 143 (72)
Религиозная категория мана (Полинезия) 191 - 196 (90)
Путешествие в Загробный мир 360 - 361 (177)
Хуту и принцесса Паре, или "полинезийский Орфей" 369 - 370 (184)
Семейная молитва (Таити) 264 - 265 (130)
Плач (Гаваи) 265 (131)
Теогония и Космогония (острова Общества) 89 - 90 (4Cool

2. Меланезия.

Сброшенная кожа 138 - 139 (6Cool
Религиозная категория мана 190 - 191 (89)
Тайное общество Дукдук 383 - 385 (143)

- "The Hutchinson Словарь Мифологии", ред. Питер Бентли, изд. Торговый Дом Гранд, Москва, 2001 год, статьи:

Ареоп-Энап
Иолофат
Кайтангата
Кираперамун
Карихи
Ку
Культы "карго"
Ланг
Лоно
Малавейово
Маори
Мауи
На-Реау
Паао
Пани
Папа
Полинезийский (Маорийский) пантеон
Ранги-папа
Рата
Рона 1 и 2
Ронго
Сид
Тангароа
Тане
Таухири
Тафаки
Тивр
Ту
Хаумиа
Фрам, Джон
Хина
Хине-нуи-те-по
Хине-хау-оне
Хоноета

- Philip Wilkinson and Neil Philip, "Παγκόσμια Μυθολογία", Σκάι βιβλίο 2009:

Мифы Океании. Меланезийская религия. Мифы Микронезии. Полинезийские легенды 246 - 247
Бог Солнца демов (категория духов), маринд-аним (о. Ириан Джайя (Западная Новая Гвинея)). Наказание Геба. Солнце и Земля. Происхождение человечества. Подземный праздник. Рыбообразные существа. Определение полов 250 - 251
Рождение богов (Таити). Сотворение мира. Всё имеет панцирь. Полинезийские мифы 252
Происхождение смерти (маори, Новая Зеландия). Одинокий бог. Отец и дочь. Явление смерти 253
Мауи с тысячью трюков (Полинезия). Поднимание островов. Обманывая Солнце. Любовь со Смертью 254
Богиня вулкана (Гавайские острова). Танец. Возвращение к жизни. Мир взрывается. Проклятие Лоно 255
Макемаке и Хауа (рапануи, остров Пасхи). Жрица и череп. Переселение рапануи. Культ богов. Культ человека-птицы. Собрание родов. Яйцо найдено. Тайна статуй моай 258 - 259
Работа богов острова Тикопия (Соломоновы острова). Обмены с богами. Ритуал умиротворения Мапусии. Живой бог. Саку обретает бессмертие 260 - 261
Создание карт моря (племя ифалук, Микронезия). Островной рай. Каноэ полное богами. Уолфат приносит татуаж. Полное цветов небо. Уолфат обучает смертных. Любовная песня женщины ифалук 262 - 263
Творцы и высшие боги. Тангароа. Культ 285
Боги Моря, Неба и Вселенной. Ранги 299
Божества животных и охота. Макемаке и Хауа (рапануи, о. Пасхи). Культ 305
Божества животных и охота. Тинирау. Культ 305
Божества плодородия и земледелия. Тане 311
Божества плодородия и земледелия. Ронго. Культ 311
Боги-трикстеры. Мауи 329
Боги войны. Ту. Культ 337
Божества Нижнего мира. Хине-нуи-те-по 343

- "DK Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology. Heroes, heroines, gods, and goddesses from around the world", Philip Wilkinson, Dorling Kindersley Limited, 1998:

Австралазия и Океания. Мифы Тихого океана 119
Острова Тихого океана. Ранги. Папа. Хина. Мауи. Хине-нуи-те-по. Хаумеа. Тангароа. Тане. Хине-теи-Вауин. Пеле. Лоно. Духи. Ку. Остров Пасхи. Оро. Кокосовый орех. Вари. Таке 122 - 123
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Felix Guirand, "Παγκόσμια μυθολογία", изд. Παπαμάρκου, том 2, Αθήνα, 1998, стр. 252 - 285 (Океанийский пантеон (сложность Океанийского пантеона, естественный облик божеств, качества божеств, происхождение божеств, души умерших, запутанность Океанийского пантеона), великие мифы Океании (Космогонические мифы, море, небо, солнце и луна, звёзды, атмосферные явления, земля, живые существа, человечество, смерть, огонь, социальные характеристики, выводы). Автор главы - G. H. Luquet
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Felix Guirand, "Παγκόσμια μυθολογία", изд. Παπαμάρκου, том 2, Αθήνα, 1998 г., стр. 252 - 285 (Поправки-уточнения к переводам в книге Феликса Гюйран(д)а по Мировой мифологии издательства Папамарку от 1998 года (димотика, перевод некачественный, многие фразы просто не имеют смысла), привожу по книге: FELIX GUIRAND.Παγκόσμιος μυθολογία.μετφρ. Ν.Τετενέ. Επιμ.έκδοδ. Μ.Πετρίδης, 1953, стр. 663 - 707; к сожалению, поправки даются не для всех статей - много лет назад я полностью конспектировал эту книгу с кафаревусы, переводя её статьи целиком, но к сожалению эти записи у меня сохранились лишь для небольшого числа статей книги):

ОКЕАНИЙСКИЙ ПАНТЕОН

Сложность Океанийского пантеона

Иллюстрация 35: каменная статуя божества (тики (τίκι)), Пайваваэ (Παϊβάβαε) (вариант первого перевода книги: Райваваэ (Ραϊβάβαε)), Тубулайские острова (νήσοι Τουμπουλάι (вариант первого перевода книги: νήσοι Τουμπουλάϊ).

Иллюстрация: многоцветный фриз (το διάζωμα) из резного дерева (Новая Ирландия). В центре изображение предка между двух солнечных символов. Аборигены Океании приписывают сверхъестественные качества змеям, изображения которых мы видим по краям.


Если, как обычно в случаях мифологий, мы подразумеваем генеалогию, историю и качества богов, полубогов и героев, чья жизнь предстаёт на основании образа жизни людей, то есть Пантеон некоего конкретного населения, то очень трудно было бы представить вкратце общую картину этого Пантеона для Океании.

По рассказам путешественников, мы можем создать длинный список божеств, например, для Полинезии: Тангароа (ο Ταγγαρόα), Тане (ο Τάνε), Ронго (ο Ρόγγο), Ту (ο Του) и масса других божеств, из которых некоторые обнаруживаются, более или менее, на многих других островах и архипелагах, либо под этими именами, либо под различными вариантами звучания диалектов, как например Тангароа, Каналоа (Καναλόα), Тааора (Τααόρα), либо с синонимичным значением, либо с близким к нему, либо со схожими эмблемами.

Таким образом важнейший полинезийский бог, Тангароа обнаруживается в Микронезии под самым абстрактным именем, Табу-эрики (Ταμπού-ερίκι), то есть «священный владыка», в безымянном боге Грома в Понапе (Πονάπε), в неопределённом боге островов Ратак (νήσοι Ρατάκ) и в слепом боге Бигара (του Μπιγκάρ).

Полинезийский бог Ронго или Лоно (Λόνο) обнаруживается на Каролинских островах не только под родственными именами Ронгала (ο Ρογγάλα) и Мо-Ронгронг (ο Μό-Ρογκρόγκ), но и со схожими характерными чертами, а именно в виде того, что он был изгнан с Неба и принёс Огонь людям.

Но вместе с этими сходствами было и много различий. Нередко то же самое божество на различных островах архипелага, в различных областях одного и того же острова, либо даже в пределах одного и того же племени, в зависимости от различий между людьми, имеет различные качества, или даже концентрирует в себе качества, которые в других местах принадлежат другим божествам.

Так, Нгедей (ο Νγκεντέϊ) островов Вити (νήσοι Βίτι) это одновременно опора мира, таким образом, что когда он меняет позицию, то он вызывает землетрясение, бог сбора богатого урожая или неурожая, открывший Огонь и царь мёртвых, как полинезийский Мафуике (Μαφουΐκε); творец богов, мира и людей, как полинезийский Тангароа, и сверх этого он творец культивируемых растений, чьей обработке он обучил людей.

Он также сотворил Потоп - роль, которая в Полинезии приписывается различным богам: Тавхаки (ο Ταβχάκι), богу облаков и Грома в Новой Зеландии; Тангароа Ру (ο Ταγγαρόα Ρου), Богу восточного ветра, и Руахату (ο Ρουαχατού), морскому богу на Таити; Хине (η Χίνα), Луне на Гавайских островах. Также происходит такое, что от региона к региону одному и тому же божеству приписываются разные формы или даже разный пол, в случае с антропоморфными изображениями.

Обратным образом, различным богам приписываются одни и те же качества. Так, Сотворение мира, которое вообще на Полинезии приписывается Тангаров, на острове Лифу (νήσος Λιφού) в Лаулаати (Λαουλαάτι) и на Фате (Φάτε) приписывается двум божествам, Тамакайе (ο Ταμακάϊα) и Мауи-Тикитики (ο Μαουΐ-Τικιτίκι), который имеет полинезийское происхождение. В Эрроманго (Ερρομάγγο) это приписывается Нобу (ο Νόμπου); в заливе Гилвинг (ο κόλπος Γκήλβινκ) на Новой Гвинее это приписывается либо одному прорицателю, который носит разные имена (единственный, старший, старший который освежает), либо сыну Конори (ο υιός του Κονόρι); на островах Вити - то Нгедею, то Ове (ο Όβε).

На Вити происхождение человека приписывается либо Нгедею (который, согласно некоторым мифам, породил их выседев некое яйцо, подобное Яйцу Мира полинезийского Тангара), либо различным богиням, и в особенности Тули (η Τούλι), дочери Тангара, которая на островах Самоа считается творцом мира.

Чтобы несколько ограничить подобную путаницу, мы полагаем, что было бы лучше оставить в стороне собственные имена божеств, их индивидуальность, которая состоит из суммы различных характерных черт у различных групп населения, и распределить их в зависимости от их характерных черт абстрактно.

Божества - мы придаём этому слову очень широкое значение сверхъестественных существ, которые всегда существовали, либо стали различаться людьми - выделяются одни от других по природе своей сути. Мы можем исследовать их с трёх точек зрения: с точки зрения чувственного, с точки зрения их качеств или функций, и с точки зрения их происхождения.

Естественный облик богов

Хотя божества, как сверхъестественные существа, имели в первую очередь духовную природу, их бестелесная суть сопровождается, как и человеческая душа, видимыми явлениями, и в первую очередь видимым образом. Иногда божества считается что имеют в себе свой, так сказать, облик - хотя люди никогда не видят его. Иногда они могут представать в этом облике при некоторых условиях, либо для некоторых людей, особенно одарённых. Иногда же, наконец, не обладая в себе материальным образом, они одалживают образ существ или материальных предметов, внутрь которых они вселяются или обитают более или менее постоянно.

Видится, что они могли превращаться не только вселяясь в материальные существа различных обликов, но также и через преображение своего собственного облика. Это случай массы преданий из категории «красавица и чудовище», которые повествуют в Индонезии, в Меланезии и в Полинезии. Эти облики, не только заимствованные, но и присущие им, демонстрируют самое большое разнообразие.

Существуют антропоморфные божества, мужского и женского пола - как например большинство великих богов Полинезии, либо как духи-покровители Дорея (το Ντορέϊ), на Новой Гвинее.

Иные являются животными всех видов и размеров: акулами были в особенности разные морские боги (Таити, Бити), морские змеи, морские пауки, крокодилы, змеи, угри (Новая Зеландия), ящерицы (воплощения Тангара на островах Самоа), мыши, лягушки, мухи, куколки насекомых (οι χρυσαλλίδες), саранча, птицы (в особенности - божества воздуха на Таити и Тангароа по всей Полинезии).

Духом-покровителем новозеландского князя Тинирау (ο Τινιράου) и его потомков было одно божество в виде кита. На Новой Каледонии женский демон Кабо Мадалат (Καμπό Μανταλάτ), который предоставляет слониху, это гигантский краб, с ногами толстыми, как кокосовая пальма, живущий в панцире огромного насекомого черноротки Delium Melanostoma. На островах Вири (νήσοι Βίρι) многие божества не только живут внутри камней, но некоторые из них, как например мать Нгедея, даже считаются настоящими камнями.

Божества также могут предстать как мечущиеся небесные тела (так, в Торресовом проливе, падающие звёзды - это злые духи, дети звёзд; на островах Вити комета - это дитя Нгедея), как искры или как пары, причём эту последнюю форму зачастую принимают ночью души умерших.

Другие божества имеют облик фантастических существ. На Новой Зеландии некоторые из них - это драконы. Нгедей на островах Фиджи это наполовину змея, и наполовину скала. Рати-бати-дуа (Ράτι-μπάτι-ντούα), бог Ада в различных частях островов Вити, это человек имеющий лишь один зуб (именно так и переводится его имя), которым он поглощает мёртвых, а вместо плечей он имеет ласты, которыми он рассекает пространство как раскалённое небесное тело.

Другие божества имеют руки из дерева, восемь глаз (символ мудрости и проницательности), восемь рук (символ умения), два тела и восемьдесят желудков. Иные были волосатыми людьми лесов (Новая Зеландия), даконами или иными великанами (Торресов пролив, острова Вити, Таити, Самоа, Тонга (Τόγγα), острова Хервей (νήσοι Χέρβευ)), или наоборот карликами, людьми с белой кожей (как Пура (η Πούρα) Новой Британии и острова Рук (η νήσος Ρουκ), души на островах Банкс (οι νήσοι Μπάνκς), первые предки на Новой Зеландии), которых островитяне опознавали в лице первых европейских путешественников.

Иллюстрация: Абориген Океании у одного деревянного тики (статуи), Нука-Хива (Νούκα-Χίβα), Маркизовы острова.

Иллюстрация: Ритуальные маски, Байниг (Μπαΐνιγκ), Новая Британия.

Иллюстрация: статуи предков в виде тимпанов, Малекула (Μαλεκούλα), Новые Гебридские острова.

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Цитата:
OCEANIA MYTHOLOGY

THE PANTHEON OF OCEANIA

Complexity of the pantheon of Oceania

If, as is usually the case, mythology is taken to mean the genealogy, history and powers of gods,

demi-gods and heroes, whose lives are imagined to resemble those of human beings, in short the

pantheon of any given people, then it is very hard to give a brief general view of this pantheon for

Oceania. It is quite possible to extract from travellers' books a long list of divinities, for instance in

Polynesia Tangaroa, Tane, Rongo, Tu, and a host of other deities, some of whom turn up in a more

or less large number of islands or archipelagos, either with the same name in variants of dialect,

such as Tangaroa, Kanaloa, Taaroa, or with more or less synonymous names, or with approximate

or even identical attributes. Thus, the chief Polynesian god, Tangaroa, is found in Micronesia

under the more abstract name of Tabu-eriki (the sacred chief), in the anonymous thunder god of

Ponape, the invisible god of the Ratak islands, the blind god of Bigar. The Polynesian god Rongo

or Lono occurs in the Carolines, not only with the related names of Rongala (Fais island) and Morogrog,

but also with common features, notably those of being driven from heaven, to name one

example, and for another of bringing fire to mankind.

But numerous differences are mingled with these resemblances. Sometimes, in the different

islands of an archipelago, in the different districts of an island, even in a single tribe according to

different individuals, the same god is endowed with different attributes, or unites in himself the

attributes which elsewhere belong to different gods. Thus the Ngendei of the Fiji islands is the

supporter of the world, so that when he moves he causes earthquakes; but at the same time he is

the divinity of good harvests or of sterility, the revealer of fire, and king of the land of the dead

like the Polynesian Mahiuki, the creator of the gods, the world and mankind, like the Polynesian

Tangaroa, and, in addition, of cultivated crops which he showed mankind how to grow; he is also

the author of a flood, a part attributed to different gods in Polynesia: Tawhaki, god of clouds and

thunder in New Zealand; Tangaroa, Ru, god of the east wind, and Ruahatu a sea god in Tahiti;

Hina, the Moon, in Hawaii. It also happens that in different regions different forms are attributed

to the same god, or that when the god is represented in human form the sex is different.

On the other hand different gods in different populations receive the same attributes. Thus, the

creation of the world is usually attributed to Tangaroa in Polynesia, but to Laulaati in Lifu island

(Loyalty islands), to two deities, Tamakaia and Maui-Tikitiki (the latter of Polynesian origin), in

Efate (New Hebrides), to Nobu in Eromanga (New Hebrides), to a prophet called by different

names such as the unique, the old man, the man rejuvenated, or to his son Konori, in Geelvink Bay

(New Guinea), and sometimes to Ngendei, sometimes to Ove in the Fiji islands. Again in the Fiji

the origin of mankind is either attributed to Ngendei, who, according to some myths brought men

forth by hatching out an egg similar to the world-egg of the Polynesian Tangaroa, or to several

goddesses, particularly to Tuli, the daughter of Tangaroa, looked upon as the creatress of the

world in the Samoan islands.

To introduce some order into this confusion, the best way, in our opinion, is to leave the names of

the gods to one side, as well as their individuality as constituted by a collection of variable

characteristics in the beliefs of different populations, often indeed within the same population, and

to arrange them according to characteristics isolated by abstraction. Divinities, giving that word

the very wide meaning of supernatural beings who always were or have become different from

mankind, may be separated from one another by their nature or essence, which may be considered

from the three standpoints of visible appearance, of attributes or functions, and of origin.

Physical appearance of divinities. Although as supernatural powers the divinities are of an

essentially spiritual nature, this immaterial essence, as is the case with the human soul, is

accompanied by appearances perceptible to the senses, and especially by visual form. Sometimes

the divinities are thought of as possessing this form in themselves, so to speak, although human

beings never see it; sometimes they may appear under this form in certain circumstances or to

certain particularly favoured individuals; and sometimes, having no material form of themselves

they borrow that of material beings or objects, in which they dwell or are incarnated in a more or

less enduring way. It seems they can change not only by entering material beings of different

forms; but also by changing their own forms; as is the case notably in the rather numerous legends

of the

'Beauty and the Beast' type, to be met with in Indonesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. These forms,

not only the borrowed ones but those which are intrinsic, are very varied. There are

anthropomorphic divinities, male or female, like most of the great gods of Polynesia | or the

protecting spirits of Dorei (New Guinea). Others are animals of all kinds and sizes: sharks, chiefly

for the different sea gods (Tahiti, Fiji), sea-snakes, spider-crabs, crocodiles, snakes, eels (New

Zealand), lizards (an incarnation of Tangaroa in Samoa), mice, frogs, flies, butterflies,

grasshoppers, birds, especially the tropic-bird (above all the avian manifestations of Tahiti, and

Tangaroa throughout Polynesia). The protecting spirit of the New Zealand prince Tinirau and his

descendants was a divinity in the shape of a whale. In New Caledonia, Kabo Mandalat, the female

demon who causes elephantiasis, is a gigantic hermit crab, with legs as big as coconut trees, living

in the shell of an enormous Delium-melanostoma. In the Fiji islands there are some divinities

which live in stones, but some, such as Ngendei's mother, are thought of as having really been

stones. Divinities can also appear as meteors (thus in Torres Strait shooting stars were evil spirits,

children of the stars, and in Fiji a comet is the child of Ngendei), and as sparks and sorts of

vapour, a form often taken by souls of the dead at night. Other divinities have the forms of

fantastic beings. In New Zealand some are a sort of monster. The Ngendei of Fiji is half snake and

half rock. Rati-mbati-ndua, the god of hell in various parts of Fiji, is a man with only one tooth

(which is the meaning of his name) with which he devours the dead, while instead of arms he has

wings with which he can fly through space like a burning meteor. Other divinities had wooden

hands, eight eyes (a symbol of wisdom or clairvoyance), eight hands (symbol of dexterity), two

bodies, twenty-four stomachs. Others again were hairy men of wood (New Zealand), ogres or

other kinds of giant (Torres Strait, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Cook islands), or on the contrary

were dwarfs, or men with white skin (such as the Pura of New Britain and Ruk island, the souls

in the Banks islands, the earliest ancestors in New Zealand) recognised by the islanders in the

first European travellers.

Attributes of divinities. Divinities may also be classified according to their attributes or functions,

in other words according to that part of Nature in which they are interested and over which they

preside. The idea of a providence regulating the whole universe, even when limited by the narrow

horizon which for primitive people forms the limits of the world, if not wholly absent seems at

least very little spread in Oceania, except perhaps in the esoteric doctrines of some colleges of

priests, in New Zealand for instance. In general each divinity has a limited scope, rules over only a

part of Nature, where it habitually lives. There are superintending divinities, which are also

sometimes creative, of the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars (for instance, the Morning star in

Dorei), the clouds, the winds, the rain, the sea, the earth, men, animals, and plants. Alongside

these divinities of the great divisions of Nature, who might be called the great gods, exists a host

of secondary divinities, attached to a limited area, an island, a part of the soil, a mountain, a

volcano, a valley, a ravine, a watercourse, or a spring. Sometimes every tree and every stone has

its particular divinity, which might equally well be called a spirit.

But whether their domain is large or small, some of these divinities play only a theoretical part,

they serve merely to explain the existence and the properties of such and such a part of Nature, or

such and such a known fact of actual experience. We shall come upon them again when dealing

with mythology properly so called. Others have an incomparably more important interest for

human beings since their influence is not exerted solely over Nature, but whether through its

intermediary or directly on the destiny of mankind may be either profitable or harmful to them.

They subdivide themselves according to the extent of the human group in whose life they play a

part, or, with whom, so to speak, they are concerned. Some are interested only in one person,

others in a family, or a tribe, others again in a situation, an occupation, or a profession. Thus there

are special divinities for war (Tu throughout the whole of Polynesia) and peace, for the fertility of

the soil or the success of the plantations, for different industries or crafts (the building of houses

and especially of roofs or of canoes, the weaving of nets, fishing, sailing), for healing, for

household chores, for women and women's work (Hina the Moon, in Polynesia), for the

physiology special to their sex (thus, in Hawaii Kapo was the divinity and at the same time the

instrument of fertility and abortion), for marriage, for the arts (singing, dancing, dramatic art,

tattooning), for games (among others, cock-fighting and surf riding). There were even divinities

for thieves and for the different vices, even to love affairs of inverts. This division of labour among

the divinities, if one may so put it, reached its maximum in Tahiti. For the sea alone there were

thirteen divinities, each with special functions, and the pantheon included three hundred and

sixty divinities with well-defined spheres.

Origin of divinities

From the point of view of their origin the divinities may be divided into two great categories,

those who were never human beings, although they may have their form, and who make up the

gods properly so called, and those who lived in a more or less distant past not only in the form but

in the condition of men, whom we call spirits of the dead. The gods in their turn are eternal or,

more precisely, original beings, causa sui as the metaphysicians say, who have always existed, and

have no parents; or they may be the descendants of such. The earliest human beings were either

begotten or created, fashioned by a god of one kind or the other. Among the ancestral spirits we

may distinguish between those of ordinary dead persons who have no divine function except

among their own descendants whose sole ancestors they are, and those of the dead who are

especially famous for the deeds they did in their lifetime or for the benefits which humanity owes

them; and these are the heroes, the type of whom may be found in the Polynesian Maui. Among

his great deeds the most famous are that he brought up certain islands from the depths of the sea

by fishing for them, that he compelled the sun to move more slowly, that he brought down fire to

earth, and then, according to a tradition known only in New Zealand, that he attempted -

unsuccessfully and at the cost of his own life - to make men immortal by penetrating the body of

the great lady of darkness, Hine-nui-te-po.

Spirits of the dead

The spirits or ghosts correspond only partly with our current ideas about the souls of the dead.

During life the body is linked with a different substance, which is a sort of double which is distinct

in substance and is sometimes (New Caledonia), identified with its reflection. The soul detaches

itself from the body momentarily during sleep, but completely at death, except in exceptional

cases of resurrection. This separation of soul and body which results in the death of the body, does

not cause the death of the soul, which continues to exist for all men, or according to the belief of

some populations, exists only as a privilege for people of high rank. Moreover this survival is not

necessarily permanent, and after a more or less lengthy series of partial deaths which, so to speak,

are provisional survivals, may terminate in total annihilation (New Zealand). However this may

be, the soul parted from the corpse retains an independent existence, imagined on the lines of that

of the living and linked with a different but analogous body.

This survival of the soul may remain in the neighborhood of its earthly dwelling and especially its

burial-place, or in another world, sometimes alternately (New Caledonia), but generally and in a

manner which is hard for us to conceive, simultaneously.

Souls reach the next world only after a long journey, which is made up of two parts, one on the

earth, and the other from the earth to the next world. During this journey the soul retains the

possibility of recovering earthly life. Without knowing it, the soul had a choice between two lines

of conduct generally at the end of the journey on earth, for instance to stand on one or other of two

neighbouring rocks, on one or other of the branches or roots of a tree; but sometimes on arriving in

the next world, for example by eating or not eating the food placed before it. One of these lines of

conduct made return to life impossible. From the time of leaving the body up till the time when it

not only reached but was received into the next world, the soul was exposed to all sorts of dangers

- evil powers, which are divinities properly so called, demons, or souls of other dead persons,

tried in various ways to capture, kill or eat it.

The ideas about the position of the next world are very varied. Most often it is placed in the west,

but sometimes it is situated on earth, sometimes under the earth or the sea (hell in the

etymological sense), and sometimes above it, that is in the sky. To some extent it is not impossible

to bring these different views into unity. The west is the point where the sun passes from the sky

under the earth

or under the sea, and thus is in a way the place of intersection of the heavenly and earthly worlds.

Moreover, in islands of small area the horizon, which is identified with the utmost limit of the

earth, is on the sea. The general idea seems to be simply that the soul leaves the precincts of the

living for another world, whose difference from the earthly world is specified in a loose way. The

tribes of New Caledonia who situate the infernal world in the north-east, consider that point as the

utmost limit of the earth. Other reasons contributed to fixing the direction in which souls dwell.

Thus, in Polynesia generally, by going west the souls were moving towards the land where the

ancestors had lived, which seems to correspond to a historical reality.

The ideas about the number of resting places of souls are as different as those about their situation.

Although the belief was not general, where it existed, for instance in the north of New Guinea,

people admitted that every being or object had a soul just like men, and that these different souls

went to an afterworld, either one common to all, or one reserved for special types of beings. For

instance, in Tahiti there was an afterworld of pigs, in Rewa (Fiji islands) there was an afterworld of

coconuts governed by a special

divinity to which they departed from all parts of the archipelago as soon as they had been eaten.

Human souls had sometimes one, sometimes a number of afterworlds. Thus, not to mention the

various heavenly worlds open to certain privileged souls, there were four infernal worlds in the

Marquesas and ten in New Zealand.

Each of these afterworlds was ruled by a divinity who sometimes had no other function, while his

name sometimes expressed both the afterworld he governed and the state of the souls in it, and

sometimes had other occupations besides that of ruler of the dead. For instance, the divinity

usually considered throughout Polynesia as the head of the afterworld was Miru, but in Hawaii

she shared that function with Hakea; in the Fiji islands it was either Lothia (Lakemba), who turns

up at Lifu (Loyalty islands) under the name of Locha, or it was Rati-mbati-ndua, the Lord with

one tooth, or else the supreme god Ngendei. In New Zealand it was either Ngahue or Tawhaki

who was also the thunder god, or it was the Great Lady of the shadows, Hine-nui-te-po, who

sometimes ruled all the other worlds, sometimes only the four upper levels where the state of the

souls was less agreeable, while the next three levels were ruled by Rohe, and the last three by the

goddess Miru. At Tahiti the head of the afterworld reserved for the Areoi was Urutaetae; Hiro was

at one and the same time head of the Areoi afterworld and of the afterworld of those who did not

belong to the fraternity; in addition the god Oro presided over both afterworlds, and the divine

bird Lota over that reserved for common people.

The different residences allotted to souls usually differed only in their conditions and, broadly, in

the happiness of all those dwelling there; while according to other beliefs these variations were

combined in a single residence; thus, at Raratonga there was a difference between the residence of

the happy souls and that of the unhappy. This difference in conditions, which often amounted

solely to a difference of food supply, had nothing in common with our idea of retribution after

death; as a rule moral considerations had nothing to do with the matter. The state of each

individual after his death depended on what he had possessed in his lifetime, on his power, his

wealth, and the rites or sacrifices carried out for him by those who survived him - in a word, in

one form or another, on his mana. For some tribes of New Caledonia his condition depended

solely on his seniority as a soul arriving in the land of the dead.

The posthumous life of souls was in general merely a repetition of life on earth in another world.

Generally speaking, it did not include any tortures or special privations; and sometimes it even

seems as if in the next world all the souls without distinction enjoy the conditions reserved on

earth for the privileged, with abundance and every kind of pleasure. In spite of the wide diversity

of beliefs, they seem in agreement in recognising that whatever pleasures life after death may have

in itself, so to speak, still it is not worth life on this earth, and dying is a great misfortune.

As a rule those souls which have reached the next world are not visible to ordinary mortals, but

only to men gifted with a special clairvoyance. Those souls which for one reason or another have

not reached the land of the dead, or who return from it, may be perceived by anybody, usually at

night but sometimes by day. Sometimes they retain the physical appearance of the living in the

form of a ghost, and sometimes they appear in the form of sparks or different animals.

As the souls of the dead should normally go to the other world, those who remained on earth

were either miserable or vindictive; and if they managed to acquire superior powers they became

evil spirits, greatly dreaded demons. Besides, even those souls which , reached the other world

regretted their life on earth. Even if the survivors had carried out all the funeral rites due and

necessary to them, they still envied the living. The dead then were terrifying even to those whom

they had loved in their lifetime. And yet it is unquestionably the fact that at the same time the

ancestral spirits were looked on as tutelary powers, protecting spirits, from whom might be

expected advice, help, protection, and favours of all kinds, quite as many, if not more, than might

be expected from the more or less indifferent divinities, properly so called.

It is very hard to discover any rational explanation of this contradiction, which must be the result

of sentimental considerations, or, as they say, of affective logic. However, it is a plausible

hypothesis that the ancestral spirits could not be looked on as endlessly hostile powers, since their

actions had not prevented the family and tribal

life from continuing and even prospering, and so eventually they must have got rid of the

malevolent feelings natural to them at the time when they had just been deprived of life. Perhaps

as they became used to their life after death, they began to lose their memory and regret for their

former state on earth and their envy of the survivors, and came to think only of their common

stock. And as a matter of fact the protectors were not as a rule those recently dead, but the more or

less far-off ancestors.

Confusion of the pantheon of Oceania

If the classification here presented of divinities or supernatural powers satisfies the tendencies of

the logical mind, we must hasten to add that the beliefs of Oceania, like those of most primitive or

savage peoples, show hardly any regard for accuracy and precision. The Graeco-Roman pantheon

is scarcely known to us except through literary works and works of art, which present them in a

finished form which these works themselves helped them to assume from times of antiquity, but

the pantheon of Oceania comes to us as folklore, in the turmoil of life. In every community of the

South Seas the original traditions have been supplanted or combined with or continue to exist side

by side with beliefs which have either been brought in from abroad or invented by individual

natives. Consequently the different gods who have names of their own have borrowed from one

another some of their outstanding features as well as a part or the whole of their legendary

history, and in addition at different times and places they have been placed in different categories,

and the categories themselves have been more or less mixed up.

From a host of examples we may take, in the Marianas, Pountan, the night breeze, looked upon as

a man of great inventiveness who for a long time lived in empty space before the existence of

heaven

and earth - so at one and the same time he is a god and a hero. The two principal divinities of the

New Hebrides, Tangaroa and Quat, are alternately or sometimes simultaneously looked upon as

gods, demi-gods, heroes or mere spirits. In Ruk island and in New Britain, Nabaeo was at one

time looked upon as a good spirit, but later became mainly evil. Pura, who began as a god,

probably of the sky, came down to the rank of a simple hero; and the Marsaba of Ruk island who

seems to have been originally god of the underworld is now only an evil spirit or vulgar demon.

In New Zealand Tangaroa is not the supreme god, but one among other great gods, who shared in

the creation but was not the sole creator. In Polynesia many of the great gods, and according to

some Tahiti legends even Tangaroa, have been looked on as merely defied men.

In Tahiti, the oramatua, whose name means the ancestors, are no longer distinguished from other

spirits. While in Tahiti and different parts of Polynesia, the atua, the gods, were distinguished by

their name from the varua, the spirits, in Tanna (New Hebrides) spirits and gods are known by the

same name, aremha, for the gods have dropped out of use or are thought of only as spirits. It is the

same in New Guinea and in Balade (New Caledonia) though, on the other hand, in Ndeni (Santa

Cruz islands) the ancestors have been raised to the rank of gods.

Throughout Polynesia the word tiki means both the protecting spirits and their idols, especially

the little figures in green stone which the Maoris of New Zealand wore round their necks. But the

function of protecting spirits is sometimes attributed to the gods properly so called, sometimes to

Tangaroa or one of his children, or again to such and such a god to whom humanity owes the

things most necessary to existence, such as light and food (vegetables and fish), or again to the

souls of the ancestors, or to the first man who at one and the same time was a man and the

descendant or creation of a god, or finally to some especially notable hero such as Maui, associated

with the sun owing to certain details in his story.

Similarly the many sacred statues of Melanesia, especially the korwar of western New Guinea are

not properly speaking idols, since the worship offered these images is actually not addressed to

them but to the supernatural powers dwelling in them, and according to the definite statements of

the natives they represent protecting spirits which are essentially the souls of ancestors. In many

cases these spirits have been raised to the rank of deities, or on the contrary they are old gods who

have fallen in rank, as may be seen from the animal form of their representations, or, when they

are anthropomorphic, from their large mouths or long teeth for eating souls. In Micronesia,

particularly the Marianas, the cult of ancestors has replaced that of the gods.

THE GREAT MYTHS OF OCEANIA

An examination of the pantheon, in our opinion, does not, properly speaking, constitute

mythology, which according to etymology is the study of myths. A myth is not just any sort of

legend, not even a legend in which superhuman personages take part, but an explanatory legend,

meant to give the cause or origin of such and such a fact of actual experience. While legends are

the primitive form of novels and history, mychs are the original and living form of philosophy.

While studying the mythology of Oceania we shall not enquire whether the myths to be found in

such and such an area, island or archipelago are native creations or importations. We shall limit

ourselves to demonstrating, with reference to each of the main categories of empirical realities, the

main types of mythical explanation invented in Oceania, quoting only the clearest examples. We

shall have more than once to disentangle the various themes combined in a complex legend, and,

which is more regrettable; shall be forced to pass over many a picturesque detail in silence. We

resign ourselves to this, desirous above all to work scientifically and not in a literary way, less

concerned with local colour than with the universal and constant aspiration of humanity to

achieve the illusion of understanding.

What we must point out among the various peoples of Oceania is not the mere absence of myths

concerning such and such a reality, which might be due to lack of information in us, but the

deliberate refusal to give it a mythical explanation, because this thing has always existed, never

had a beginning.

Thus among the mountain tribes in the north of Luzon, in

Minahassa, in the Palau islands and Western Carolines, all over Melanesia, in certain tales of New

Zealand and the Chatham islands, the upper or heavenly world and the terrestrial world are

thought to have existed for ever. It is the same in Australia, where the native populations of the

north and east seem in addition to have believed generally that there have always been men, and

that from the very beginning the animals always had their present characteristics. Similarly, in

many legends we shall turn up, the earth is supposed to come out of the sea or to have been

formed from materials brought from the sky to the sea, but the sea is thought of as having always

existed.

Cosmogony myths

If in so many cases the mythical explanation takes for granted heaven and earth and sea as

originally existing, beyond which it is not necessary to go, in others the myth sets out to explain

their existence. These myths of the origin of the universe as a whole, or cosmonogy myths in the

strict sense, may be divided into two main types. The first is creationist, and familiar to us from

the mythology of the Judaeo-Christian religions. It was thought to exist among the tribes of southeast

Australia, but the assertion of the earliest observers (most of them missionaries) that these

peoples believed everything had been created in the beginning by a deity, seems to be a false

generalisation; and it is probable that the natives used this explanation only to account for certain

peculiarities of the land, such as mountains, rocks and rivers. In the central Carolines, there was in

the beginning a goddess, Lukelong, who created the heavens and then the earth. In the Gilbert

Islands heaven and earth were made by Naruau and his daughter Kobine. According to a legend

of the Society Islands the heavenly god Taatoa embraced a rock, foundation of all things, and so

produced the earth and the sea. A very detailed myth comes from the island of Nauru. In the

beginning there was nothing but the sea, and above soared the Old-Spider. One day the Old-

Spider found a giant clam, took it up, and tried to find if this object had any opening, but could

find none. She tapped on it, and as it sounded hollow, she decided it was empty. By repeating a

charm, she opened the two shells and slipped inside. She could see nothing, because the sun and

moon did not then exist; and then, she could not stand up because there was not enough room in

the shellfish. Constantly hunting about she at last found a snail. To endow it with power she

placed it under her arm, lay down and slept for three days. Then she let it free, and still hunting

about she found another snail bigger than the first one, and treated it in the same way. Then she

said to the first snail: 'Can you open this room a little, so that we can sit down?' The snail said it

could, and opened the shell a little. Old-Spider then took the snail, placed it in the west of the

shell, and made it into the moon. Then there was a little light, which allowed Old-Spider to see a

big worm. At her request he opened the shell a little wider, and from the body of the worm flowed

a salted sweat which collected in the lower half-shell and became the sea. Then he raised the

upper half-shell very high, and it became the sky. Rigi, the worm, exhausted by this great effort,

then died. Old-Spider then made the sun from the second snail, and placed it beside the lower

half-shell, which became the earth.

Belief in a creator god is to be met with in the Society Islands and in the doctrines of the New

Zealand priests. In north-west Borneo two birds flew above the primeval sea, dived into it, and

brought up two kinds of egg, from which they made heaven and earth.

In the second category of these cosmogony myths the gods are far from being the creators of the

universe, and are only one of its elements with the same origin as all the others, that is to say a sort

of Nothing which is the germ of all things. The rudimentary form of this conception occurs in

Nias. In the beginning there was a thick fog, which condensed and became a being without speech

or movement or head or arms or legs. This being in turn gave birth to another, which died, but a

tree sprouted from its heart. Gods and men emerged from its buds. Similarly in the Society Islands

- during the primeval darkness Ta'aroa existed in an egg, from which he afterwards emerged. The

same theme, more fully developed, is found in various parts of Polynesia. In the beginning was

Po, a void without light, heat, sound, form and movement. From this sort of chaos, or more

precisely from this undifferentiated substance imperceptible by the senses, there gradually

evolved movement

and sound, a waxing light, heat and damp, matter and form, and finally father Heaven and

mother Earth, parents of the gods, men, and Nature. This conception is at one and the same time

evolutionist, since it looks on the universe as the result of progressive development, and

genealogical, inasmuch as each phase of the development is personified in a being descended

from the one before. Let us take a comparatively simple example from the Ngaitahu of the

southern island of New Zealand. Po begat Light, who begat Day-light, who begat enduring Light,

who begat Without-possession, who begat Unpleasant, who begat Wobbly, who begat No-parents,

who begat Damp, who married Huge Light and begat Raki (the sky). Similarly in the Marquesas

Islands, the primeval void started a swelling, a whirling, a vague growth, a boiling, a swallowing;

there came out an infinite number of supports or posts, the big and the little, the long and the

short, the hooked and the curved, and above all there emerged the solid Foundation, space and

light and innumerable rocks.

The cosmogony of Hawaii has a variation of the evolutionary theme, according to which the

shadowy void from which all things emerged was simply the wreck of a preceding world. A

similar idea is found in Samoa. The origin of the universe was a genealogical series of rocks, first

of all the rocks on high and the land rocks (meaning, in short, heaven and earth) from which there

emerged an octopus whose children were fire and water. A violent struggle occurred between

their descendants in which victory went to water - the world was destroyed by flood, and later recreated

by Tangaloa.

Perhaps it is not altogether useless to point out plainly that in concrete reality these various

cosmogony myths are not so sharply opposed as they are in the abstract types in which we have

classified them. They are sometimes combinations of those types, whose boundaries moreover

cannot have been as clear in the minds of the natives as they are in ours.

For instance, according to a legend of the Marquesas, Atea (Light), derived by evolution and not

by creation from Ta'aroa (Darkness), created heaven and earth, and moreover gave birth to a host

of deities as children of marriage with Atanua (Dawn). Owing to the lack of additional definitions

it is often impossible to discover whether the production of some constituent of the universe by its

creator, who is usually more or less anthropomorphic, is an emanation, a creation by means of

inert matter, or a procreation through union with a divinity of the opposite sex.

The Sea

The sea is an element of their environment which is especially important to islanders. For this

reason perhaps in many parts of Indonesia, in Micronesia, on the northern borders of Melanesia,

in western and central Polynesia, the existence of the sea is accepted as a primeval fact for which

no explanation is sought. In the beginning there was a vast sea over which sailed a god (Society

Islands, Marquesas), or a god soared above it (Samoa) or it was covered by skies inhabited by one

or several deities (Society Islands, Tonga).

Still, there are in existence myths which attempt to explain the origin of the sea. One type makes it

derive from a divine origin it was the result of Ta'aroa's sweat in his efforts at creation (Nauru,

western and central Polynesia), it came from the breakage of the ink sac in the primeval octopus

(Samoa), it came from the amniotic fluid of a miscarriage of Atanua, daughter of the heavenly god,

Atea (Marquesas).

According to another version, the sea came later than the earth, and at first it was only a little bit

of salt water which somebody kept shut up and hidden. Others tried to get it from him, but when

they lifted the lid the water flowed out and caused a flood (Baining in New Britain, Samoa). This is

one of the forms of the flood legend, but we need not trouble with the others, which are not

strictly speaking myths, but simply accounts of more or less historical events.

The Sky

The existence of the sky is usually taken as a primordial fact, just as with the sea. But in the Ralik

group of the Marshall islands we find the following legend. When the deity Loa had created the

world, the plants and the animals, a sea-gull flew up and formed the dome of the sky as a spider

weaves its web.

If myths about the origin of the sky are very rare, there exists on the contrary a host of them

to.explain one of its most obvious

physical properties, namely, its distance from the earth, or in other words the fact that it stays in

the air without support. According to these beliefs, the sky was originally close to the earth

(central Celebes, east Indonesia), so close that it stood on the leaves of certain plants, which owed

their flattened shape to its weight (various archipelagoes in Polynesia), and only later was it lifted

to its present position. In the legends of the Philippines, of various parts of Indonesia and

Micronesia, of Efate (New Hebrides), the sky withdrew. In various archipelagoes of central

Polynesia, in Samoa, in Hawaii, the lifting up of the sky is attributed to the hero Maui, who

offered to carry out this feat if a woman gave him a drink of water from her gourd. Legends of

central Polynesia, and especially of Samoa, show a transition towards another idea, according to

which the separation of heaven and earth is a cosmic event, the act of such and such a god or

several gods. This belief, far more widespread than the former, occurs over a large area. The

personification of sky and earth, which is to be found

throughout eastern Indonesia, is particularly developed in New Zealand, where it gives the myth

a most poetical form. Rangi, the Sky, in love with Papa, the Earth, who was beneath him, came

down to her in the time of primeval darkness and immobility. Their close embrace crushed the

host of gods to whom they had given birth, and all the beings placed between them; nothing could

ripen or bear fruit. To escape this awkward situation, the gods determined to separate the Sky

from the Earth. In one version the Sky himself urges his children to break their union. Once the

separation was achieved, light spread over the terrestrial world.

Sun and Moon

Among various groups of Indonesia, and in the Society Islands and Hawaii, we find the mere

assertion, with no details, that the Sun and Moon were created. Elsewhere they are looked upon as

the children of a deity or of the first men or as formed from some of their parts. Thus, according to

the Kavan of central Borneo, the Moon at least is one of the descendants of the armless

and legless being who came from the sword handle and spindle which fell from heaven. In the

Gilbert Islands, the Sun and Moon, like the sea, are the children of the first man and the first

woman, created by Na Reau. Although when he left them he had forbidden them to have children,

they had three. Informed of their disobedience by his great messenger, the eel, Na Reau picked

up-his great club and went to the island where he had left them. In terror they threw themselves at

his feet, begging him not to kill them. 'Our children', they said, 'are very useful to us. The Sun

enables us to see clearly, and, when he is resting, the Moon takes his place; and the sea feeds us

with its fish.' Convinced by this plea Na Reau departed without harming them. In Minahassa

(Celebes) Sun, Moon and stars were formed from the body of a heavenly girl. In Nias, Sun and

Moon were formed from the eyes of the armless and legless being, from whose heart sprang the

tree with the buds which were the origin of men and gods. In Mangaia (Cook Islands) they are

Vatea's eyes. In the Society Islands, in Samoa, and in New Zealand they are usually thought of as

the children of Heaven who were later placed in the sky as eyes. In Queensland, the Sun (a

woman) was made by the Moon, with two legs like men, but with a great number of arms which

may be seen stretching out like rays when the Sun rises or sets.

Other myths doubtless inspired by the rising of the Sun and Moon looked upon them as beings

who had passed from the earth to the sky. They may be classified into two types, according to

whether these beings are things or men. In the Palau Islands the two primitive deities made the

Sun and Moon by cutting two stones with an adze and then throwing them into the sky. In the

Admiralty Islands, the two first inhabitants of the earth, after planting trees and creating edible

plants, made two mushrooms and threw them into the sky - the one thrown by the man became

the Moon, and the other thrown by the woman became the Sun. In Woodlark Island the only

person at first to possess fire was an old woman. In vain her son scolded her for not wanting to

share it. So he stole it from her, and gave it to .the remainder of mankind. In her rage the old

woman took the fire she had left, divided it into two parts and threw them into the sky - the larger

became the Sun, the smaller the Moon. According to certain tribes in south-east Australia the Sun

came from an emu's egg thrown into the sky. For instance, among the Euahlayi, at a time when

there was no Sun but only the Moon and the stars, a man quarrelled with his friend the emu, ran

to its nest, took one of its large eggs and threw it in the sky as hard as he could, and there it broke

against a pile of wood kindling which at once caught fire. This greatly astonished the inhabitants

of the earth, accustomed to semi-darkness, and almost blinded them. Such is the origin of the Sun.

According to the Arunta of central Australia the Moon in the mythical period was the property~of

a man of the Opossum totem. Another man stole it. The man was unable to catch the thief and

shouted to the Moon to get into the sky, which it did.

At Aneityum (New Hebrides) the Sun and Moon are considered as husband and wife. They first

lived on the earth, somewhere in the east, but later the Sun climbed into the sky, telling the Moon

to follow him, and she obeyed him. According to the Arunta and the tribes related to them, the

Sun is a woman who emerged from the ground, like many of the primitive ancestral totems, and

later went up into the sky carrying a torch. According to the Warramunga of northern Australia

the Moon emerged from the ground in the form of a man (male). One day he met a woman, called

to her, and they sat down to talk. A fire caused by the carelessness of two hawks surrounded

them, and the woman was seriously burned. The Moon then cut one of his veins and poured

blood on the woman, who was thus restored to life. They then both went up into the sky.

According to shore-dwellers in Princess Charlotte's Bay (Queensland), two brothers were one day

looking for honey, and one of them having put his arm into a hole in a tree, found he could not get

it out. His brother came to his aid, but everyone else he asked, except the Moon, refused. The

Moon (who was a man) climbed the tree, put his head rnto the hollow and sneezed violently, so

that the sudden pressure of air enabled the prisoner to withdraw his arm. To avenge himself on

those who had refused to help him, the man set light to the bush to burn them; but first of all he

looked after the Moon's safety by moving him to different places, and at last into the sky, so that

he could escape the fire.

Myths dealing with the alternation of day and night may be attached to Sun myths. They are

divided into two classes, according

to whether the myth explains the origin of the night, day having existed since the beginning, or,

inversely, if it explains the origin of day, night having alone existed at first. The first type is

characteristic of Melanesia, and may be found alongside the other in Australia.

In the Banks Islands, after Qat had formed men, pigs, trees and rocks, the daylight was endless.

His brothers told him it was very disagreeable. So Qat took a pig, and went to buy the night-time

from Night, who lived in another country. Night blackened his eyebrows, taught him how to sleep

and how to make the dawn. Qat returned to his brothers, bringing with him a rooster and other

birds to announce the dawn. He told his brothers to make beds of coconut leaves. Then for the first

time they saw the Sun descending in the west, and they shouted to Qat that the Sun was going

out. 'It will soon have gone entirely,' he said, and if you see a change on the face of the world, that

will be the night.' Then he brought up night, and they said: 'What's this coming from the sea and

covering the sky?" 'It's night,' he replied. 'Sit down on either side of your house, and when you feel

something in your eyes, lie down and stay quiet.' It was quite dark, and their eyes began to blink.

'Qat, Qat! What is it? Are we dying ?' 'Shut your eyes,' he said, 'that's right. Now sleep.' When

night had lasted long enough, the rooster began to crow and the birds to twitter. Qat picked up a

piece of red obsidian and cut the night, and the light which had been covered by darkness shone

out again, and Qat's brothers woke up. According to the Sulka of New Britain, a man named

Emakong brought night as well as fire back from his journey in the underworld of the snake-men.

They gave him a parcel containing the night, the crickets which announce night, and the birds

which announce the dawn. A simpler legend of certain tribes in Victoria states that in the

beginning the Sun never set, but as human beings were weary of perpetual day (that is of not

being able to sleep) the creating deity at last ordered the Sun to set.

Alongside these myths of the origin of night, Australia also furnishes the opposite myths of the

origin of day. According to the tribes of the south-east, when the emu's egg thrown into the sky

had given birth to the Sun by setting fire to a pile of kindling wood the heavenly deity, seeing the

advantages of this fire for the world, decided to make it burn every day, and thus it has always

been ever since. Every night he and his servants get together a pile of wood to make the daylight

next morning. According to the Aruntas and their kindred in central Australia, the woman who

climbed into the sky and became the Sun, comes down to earth every morning, and climbs back

into the sky at night. In some areas they say that there are several suns which take turns to go up

into the sky. According to the Narrinyeri of South Australia, the Sun is a woman who goes every

night to visit the land of the dead. When she returns to earth, men ask her to remain with them,

but she can stay only a moment, since she must be ready for her journey next day. In return for the

favours she granted to such and such a man, she received as a gift a red kangaroo skin, and that is

why when she arrives in the morning she is dressed in red. In this last myth we may detect the

regret that the day is not long enough for all the daily tasks. The same feeling is expressed in the

legends of New Zealand and Hawaii about the deeds of the hero Maui, who succeeded in

delaying the Sun's motion

Some myths while explaining the origin of the Moon also account for the fact that its light is paler

than the Sun's. According to a legend from Papua, a man digging a deep hole one day came on a

small bright object. He picked it up, but the object began to grow bigger, and then slipping out of

his hands rose up in the sky and became the Moon. The light of the Moon would have been

brighter if it had stayed in the ground until it was born naturally, but as it was taken up

prematurely, the light it gives is weak. In the Cook Islands, Vatea and Tonga-iti (or in one version,

Tangaroa) were arguing about the origin of Papa's first child, each of them claiming to be the

father. To pacify them, the child was cut into two pieces, and each received one of them. Vatea

took the upper half which was his, and threw it into the sky, where it became the Sun. Tonga-ili at

first kept on earth the lower part which had been allotted to him; but later, in imitation of Vatea he

threw it also into the sky, arid it became the Moon. But as it had lost its blood and had begun to

decay, it shone with a paler light. In the Marquesas, the fact that the Moon is not so bright as the

Sun is explained in different places by two opposite adjectives: black (dark) and white (pale). In

the first case the blackness was caused because the deity who created the

Moon could not restrain his longing to eat porpoise, the skin of which is black. In the second case,

the whiteness came from the fact that its mother Hanua when pregnant longed to eat coconut, the

pulp of which is white.

The spots on the moon have also given rise to mythical explanations. In the Trust Territory of New

Guinea the Moon at first was hidden by an old woman in a pitcher. Some boys noticed it and

creeping up stealthily opened the pitcher. The Moon came out and rose into the sky, and the spots

are the marks of the boys' hands as they tried to hold it back. In the Cook Islands the Moon (there

thought of as male) fell in love with a pretty daughter of the blind Kui, came down to earth and

eloped with her. To this day in the Moon you can see the girl with her heaps of leaves for the oven

and her tongs to settle the embers. She is always at work making tapa (bark cloth) which may be

seen in the Moon, as well as the stones to hold down the tapa when she spreads it out to bleach.

According to a New Zealand story, Rona one night went out by moonlight to get water from a

stream, but when she got there the Moon disappeared behind a cloud so that Rona stumbled over

stones and roots. In her annoyance she insulted the Moon which was so annoyed that it came

down to earth, seized Rona and carried her off with her water gourd, her basket and the tree to

which she clung. You can see them all in the Moon to this day.

The phases of the Moon are explained in another Maori myth. Rona, who in this case is male, went

to the Moon (also male) in pursuit of his wife. He and the Moon spend their lives eating each

other, and that is why the Moori diminishes. Then they both regain strength and vigour by

bathing in the live waters of Tane - after which they begin their struggle again. According to an

Arunta myth, in the beginning a man of the Opossum totem died and was buried, but some time

later came back to earth in the form of a child. On reaching adult age he died a second time and

went up to heaven, where he became the Moon; since then the Moon dies and is reborn

periodically. According to the Wongibon of New South Wales, the Moon is an old man who before

going up to heaven hurt his back by falling otfa rock, so that he walks bowed down. That is why

the Moon has a bowed back each month when it appears.

I Stars. In the Maori account of the separation of Heaven and Earth, Tane, after separating his

parents, busied himself with clothing and

: adorning them. Seeing that his father, Heaven, was naked, Tane

! began by painting him red. But that was not enough, so he took the j stars from the Mat of terror

and from the Mat of sacred support. ' He set these stars in the sky during the daytime and they did

not make much of a show, but at night the sky became splendid. In the Marquesas, large stars are

the children of the Sun and Moon, and have multiplied among themselves like ants. According to

the Mandayas of Mindanao the Sun and the Moon were married, had several children, and lived

together happily for a long time. But at length they quarrelled, and the Moon deserted her

husband. After the separation of their parents, the children died. The Moon gathered up their

bodies, cut them into little pieces, and threw them into space. Those she threw into the air stayed

in the sky and became stars. In Torres Straits the constellation of the Eagle is an ogress, and the

constellation of the Dolphin a man who killed her.

In the districts of the north-west of Victoria, alpha and beta of the Centaur are two heroes, the

Brambrambult brothers, who went to jf heaven after achieving various deeds. Their mother Dok

became alpha of the Cross. According to the Narrinyeri of Encounter Bay (South Australia),

Nepelle's two wives deserted him for Wyungare. To escape the vengeance of the indignant

husband, they all three went up to heaven and became stars which may be seen to-day. The

Euahlay of New South Wales have a similar legend. In Easter Island a husband tried to prevent his

wife from bathing with another man, and she fled to heaven where she became a star. Her

husband followed her, holding one of their children in each hand, and the three became Orion's

Belt. But the wife would not accept them,

. and stayed in another part of the sky.

Atmospherk phenomena. In New Zealand various atmospheric phenomena are looked upon as

manifestations of the grief felt by 4J Heaven and Earth at their separation. In one version this

explanation is presented in the form of the farewells uttered by the pair at the moment of leaving

one another. Raki (Heaven) says to Papa (Earth): 'Papa, stay here. This is what will be a sign of my

love for

you. In the eighth month I shall shed tears on you.' And these tears of Heaven weeping on the

earth are the dew. Raki also said: 'Dear wife, stay where you are. In the winter time I shall sigh for

you.' and that is the origin of ice. Then Papa spoke these farewell words to Raki: 'Go, dear

husband, and in summer I shall lament for you, and the sighs of her loving heart rising up to

heaven are the mists. In the Cook Islands, thunder is attributed to the daughter of Kui carried off

by the Moon. In her new home she is always engaged in making tapa, which she holds down with

stones when she spreads it out to bleach. From time to time she takes off the stones, and throws

them away; the resulting noise is thunder.


http://bonnierobson.com/mythology_of_the_two_americas.htm
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Цитата:
The Earth. Most of the legends dealing with the origin of the earth make it come out of the sea, but

they have variants which contradict one another. Generally speaking the production of the earth

includes two succeeding moments - first the production of the solid earth and then of the

vegetable world; but since these two productions have the same creator we may consider them

together. Sometimes the earth simply came out of the sea (New Zealand), or from a rock which

existed in the sea (Minahassa); or, again, a deity, sometimes a snake (Admiralty Islands) floating

on the sea creates the earth there (Ralik group of the Marshall Islands). According to a legend of

Nauru, the earth was separated from the sea by a butterfly, Rigi. Sometimes the earth is formed

from matter thrown down or sent down from heaven by a deity: a rock (Kayan of Borneo, Samoa),

the chips of the heavenly Carpenter (Tonga), sand either scattered on the sea (Yap in the Carolines,

Dairi and Karo Battak of Sumatra) or on the head of a snake swimming in the sea (Toba Batak,

south-east Borneo). Owing to constant identification of gods dwelling in heaven with birds, the

god who throws a rock into the sea is sometimes replaced by a bird who drops an egg (Hawaii).

The Kayan of Borneo have special stories about the origin of the vegetable world. According to

one of them, the surface of the rock thrown on to the original sea eventually collected mud which

bred worms. Digging down into the rock they made sand which eventually covered the world of

rock. According to another story, a lichen fell from heaven and stayed on the rock. Then came a

worm whose excrements formed the first earth.

A very widespread myth considers that the islands in which it is accepted, and sometimes the

neighbouring islands, were fished out of the sea. As a rule the fishing up is attributed to a deity

(Gilbert Islands, New Hebrides, Futuna, Union Islands, some Polynesian archipelagoes).

According to a legend of Samoa, Tangaloa caused this archipelago to be fished up by two of his

servants as a refuge for two men who were the only survivors of the flood. The coastal tribes of the

Gazelle peninsula (New Britain) attribute this feat to two brothers, who are at one and the same

time the first men and civilising heroes. A similar legend may be found in the southern New

Hebrides. In Hawaii, in Tonga, in New Zealand, the fishing up of the earth is one of the

achievements of the hero Maui. The archipelagoes are explained either because the different

islands were pulled up at different times (Aniwa, New Hebrides; Marquesas), or because an earth

fished up whole broke into several pieces at the moment when it emerged (Hawaii).

Certain peculiarities of the land also were explained by myths, especially the unevenness of the

ground. According to the Kayan of Borneo the valleys were hollowed out by a crab which fell

from heaven and tore up the earth with its pincers. In the north-west of Borneo, when the two

birds made heaven and earth from the two eggs they took out of the sea, the dimensions of the

earth were larger than those of the sky. To adjust this, they crushed in the earth, and this caused

the foldings which made mountains and valleys. In New Zealand, when the isle had been drawn

up like a fish by Maui with the help of his brothers, they contrary to Maui's instructions began to

cut up the fish. The valleys are the cuts made by their knives.

In Hawaii a certain fountain is the swimming pool which the son of a former chief made for his

sister in the cave where they took refuge to escape from the persecutions of their step-mother.

There are tribes in Victoria who explain their lakes in the same way as we have found the sea

explained - the water which its owner kept shut up burst out as soon as there was an attempt to

steal it.

In various Battak tribes of Sumatra, earthquakes are linked with cosmogony myths. Under various

forms, all more or less

determined, the idea is that the creation of the world was a disadvantage for a being already in

existence, who reacted with a violent agitation which destroyed the earth. The creator took the

necessary steps to prevent another destruction, but the agitation | continues, and that is the

cause of earthquakes.

Living beings. The mythical explanations of the origin of living beings seem to be rarer in the case

of animals than of plants. In New Zealand plants and trees are looked upon as ornaments placed

on the Earth either by her husband the Sky or by her son Tane, after the separation of the couple.

According to some accounts, Tane first planted the trees with their roots in the air, but he found

that this did not look well, and therefore planted the roots in the ground in the way they have

always grown since. This curious detail must be compared with a theme which is to be found in

Borneo and Yap (Carolines), for instance, of a big tree which hangs from the sky with its branches

downward, and so provides men with a means of communication between earth and heaven.

In general, plant life is more or less explicitly credited with the utilitarian task of making the world

habitable by giving shade or fruits. Sometimes the earliest dwellers on earth, who are usually of

divine origin, are the creators of vegetation (Admiralty Islands, west Carolines) or go to another

land to find their seeds (Minahassa), sometimes a deity creates them (Ralik group of the Marshall

Islands, Marquesas), or sends or brings from heaven either the full-grown plants (central

Carolines, Samoa), or their seeds (southeast Borneo, Tonga). According to the Kayan of central

Borneo, there fell from the Sun the wooden handle of a sword, which took root and became a tall

tree, and from the Moon a vine which grew up the tree. In the Marquesas a considerable number

of trees were originally in the underworld. For instance the mei, the breadfruit tree. Pukuha Kaha

went down into hell and returned to heaven after he had fastened a hook in the mei, and by

gradually pulling he succeeded in bringing it up. The first mei was planted by Opimea in Atikota

Bay. Another god, Tamaa, was the guardian of the coconut tree in hell. Mataia gave his daughter

to Tamaa who came to live in Taihoe Bay and there planted the tree.

As to animals - in New Zealand we find the story of an old man and an old woman, who came

from an egg which a bird dropped on the primeval sea, and got into a canoe with a boy who

brought a dog and a girl who brought a pig, and so came to New Zealand. According to notion

widely spread in Indonesia (Borneo, Philippines), the different species of animals are derived from

the pieces of a being who varies and is cut up for different reasons in different areas. The Kayan of

Borneo thought they were derived from the leaves and branches of a miraculous tree which in the

beginning fell from heaven to earth. Some myths attribute to animals an origin like that of

vegetation. For instance in the Ralik group of the Marshall Islands the deity Loa with the magic of

the word created first the solid earth, then the world of vegetation, then the plants and then the

birds. In Hawaii by gradual evolution all living forms, of vegetation as well as of animals, came

from a shadowy chaos. First came the zoophytes and the corals, followed by worms and molluscs,

parallel with the algae followed by reeds. When the mud caused by the decomposition of earlier

living things raised the earth above the sea, there appeared plants with leaves, insects and birds.

Then the sea produced the highest types, such as jellyfish, and whales, which monstrous creatures

crawled on earth. Later appeared the food plants; in the fifth period, the pig; and in the sixth, mice

on earth and porpoises in the sea. Then after a seventh period which saw the development of a

series of abstract psychological qualities which were later embodied in mankind, there appeared

women, men, and some of the great gods. Samoa also shows a conception of an evolutionary

succession of vegetative life, but it is less clear.

The object of other myths is to explain, not the origin of living things as a whole, but the special

characteristics of such and such a species. They are rather rare in the case of vegetation. Here is

one about yams from Omba (New Hebrides). A wild yam insulted a kite, which seized it, flew up

with it, and then let it drop. Another kite picked it up and dropped it again. The yam broke into

two pieces which the kites shared. That is why some yams are good and some bad.

Myths concerning animals are uncommon in Indonesia and Polynesia, more usual in Melanesia,

and are abundant in Australia,

particularly in the east and south. Here are some instances. According to a tribe in Victoria, black

swans are men who took refuge on a mountain during a flood, and turned into black swans at the

moment when the water reached their feet. According to another tribe on the east coast of

Australia, the pelican which was then entirely black, wanted to fight some men against whom he

had vowed vengeance. To put himself on a war footing he began by painting himself white with

pipe-clay. When he was half painted another pelican came along and, not recognising this particoloured

creature, killed it. Since that time pelicans are half-black and half-white. In a legend of

Papua the turtle was caught eating the bananas and sugar-canes belonging to Binama, the

rhinoceros-bird, was brought to the bird's house and tied to a stake, ready to be killed and eaten.

The birds went off hunting to complete the preparations for the feast, and the turtle was left alone

with Binama's children, whom he persuaded to untie him so that they could all play together. He

decked himself with Binama's jewellery and put a large wooden bowl on his back, which amused

the children: When the turtle heard the others coming back, he fled and hid in the sea. They ran

after him, throwing stones which smashed the jewels, but did the turtle no harm and did not break

the bowl. Ever since then the turtle carries Binama's bowl on its back. According to a tribe in South

Australia, the turtle originally had venomous fangs which were not essential for its safety since it

could take refuge in water; but the snake had no fangs, and so no means of defence. The turtle

gave its fangs to the snake, and received a snake's head in exchange. The red markings on the

plumage of birds are attributed to fire. The red on top of the water-rail's head is due to the fact

that Maui rubbed its head with a burning brand to punish it for having deceived him as to the

way fire is produced (Hawaii). The red feathers in a wren's tail are because when he found fire in

heaven he wanted to keep it to himself and hid it under his tail (Queensland). The Wongi-bons of

New South Wales have a legend of the same kind about the black cockatoo and the sparrow hawk.

The calls of certain birds have also been given mythical explanations. According to some tribes in

south-east Australia when the heavenly deity had arranged for the daily return of light, he

decided first of all that the evening star should be the announcer of the imminent sunrise. But he

saw this would not be enough, for people who were asleep would not see the star, and therefore

he gave orders to a bird at every dawn when the evening star grew faint, to give a call like a laugh

(the gourgourgahgah or kukuburra) which would awaken the world and announce that the sun

was about to shine. An Australian legend explains the call and the thin red feet of the curlew. The

curlew was originally a hawk. He was sent by the women of his tribe to hunt emus, but finding

none he brought back as pretended results of his hunting pieces of meat cut from his own feet. His

deception was discovered, and he became a curlew. Ever since then the curlew has had thin red

feet and spends the night calling: 'Bou-you-gwai-gwai', which means 'O my poor red feet!'

A frequent type of myth explains at one and the same time the characteristics of two animals,

those of the first being the result of a trick played on it by the second, and those of the second

coming from the vengeance of the first. Such are the stories of the dog and the wallaby in the

Gazelle peninsula (New Britain), of the kangaroo and the wombat (Victoria) the rat and the rail

(Banks Islands), the emu and the bustard (New South Wales). Here, for instance, is a legend of the

Euahlayis of New South Wales. Once upon a time the crow was white. One day the crane caught a

lot of fish, and the crow asked for some, but the crane kept saying: 'Wait until they're cooked.'

While the crane's back was turned he tried to steal some, but the crane saw him and threw a fish

into his eyes. Blinded by this the crow fell on to the burnt grass rolling over in agony, and when he

got up his eyes were'white and his whole body black, as they are now. The crow waited his time to

be avenged. One day the crane was asleep with its mouth open, and the crow stuck a fish-bone in

the root of its tongue. When it woke up the crane tried to spit out the fish-bone but failed, and ever

since then it can say nothing but 'gah-rah-gah'.

Other stories of the same kind deal not with the appearance of animals but with their habits - for

instance, this one from Queensland. Once upon a time the fish-hawk poisoned a stretch of water

with roots, and then went to sleep while waiting for the poisoned fish to come to the surface.

Meanwhile a pheasant came along and seeing the fish killed them with spears. In return the hawk

hid the

pheasant's spears at the very top of a lofty tree. Eventually the pheasant discovered them, but

being too lazy to climb so far up, he caused a flood which swept the fish-hawk out to sea. Ever

since then the fish-hawk lives on coasts, and the pheasant keeps looking for his spears on the tops

of the highest trees.

Mankind. Although the myths concerning the origins of mankind are extremely varied in their

details, they can be reduced to a limited number of essential themes. The problem is to explain the

presence on earth of living beings of human form and different sexes, who beget children in the

normal way. Generally speaking, the myths only attempt to explain the origin of the groups in

which they circulate, either ignoring or taking no interest in the rest of mankind. However, the

Igorots of the Philippines, the natives of the Gilbert Islands, some tribes of the Northern Territory

in Australia have an explanation of the origin of other human beings beside themselves. In some

exceptional cases, mankind is thought to have derived from several couples (Baining of New

Britain, Banks Islands), but the vast majority of legends derive them from a single original couple.

Sometimes the myth merely explains the origin of one of the two individuals of the couple, either

the male or the female, merely adding in some cases that one met the other (Battak of Sumatra,

Minahassa, western Carolines, New Hebrides, Marquesas, Cook Islands, various tribes of

Northern Australia), but usually it explains, and in the same way, the origin of both individuals, of

the couple.

The first of these explanations is that of creation or manufacture from pre-existing matter by a

deity. Sometimes they are satisfied by saying that the first men were created (Palau Islands, southeast

Australia), but more often they give precise details of the method of creation and first of all of

the matter employed.

The first men were made from grass according to the Ata of Mindanao, with two rushes according

to the Igorot of Luzon, with the dirt on skin elsewhere in the Philippines, with excrement in

Borneo, and also among the tribes at the northern and southern extremities of Australia. They

were carved from stones (Toradjas of Celebes) or from the trunk of a tree (Admiralty and Banks

Islands). According to different tribes of Borneo the creating gods made several successive

attempts with different materials. But by far the most frequent explanation is that men were

modelled from clay (Dairi Battak of Sumatra, Halmahera, Minahassa, Bagobos of Mindanao, New

Hebrides, New Zealand, Society Islands, Marquesas, and Australian tribes near Melbourne).

After forming human beings, the god gives them life in various ways. Sometimes it is by

incantation (Dairi Battak of Sumatra, Admiralty Islands), sometimes the god breathes in the vital

principle, considered to be either his own breath (New Hebrides, Hawaii, New Zealand,

Australian tribes in the neighbourhood of Melbourne) or the wind (Nias), or a fluid or liquid the

god goes to heaven to find (south-east Borneo, Halmahera). In Minahassa when the god wanted to

give life to his creatures he blew powdered ginger into their ears and over their heads; according

to the Bogobo of Mindanao he spat on them; at Sumba and according to the Bilan of Mindanao he

whipped them. These explanations were doubtless suggested by human methods of trying to

revive a person who has fainted. Another method, which might be called psychological revulsion,

is laughter. According to the Narrinyeri of Encounter Bay (South Australia) the creator of the first

men formed them from excrement and then tickled them to make them laugh and to give them

life. In the Banks Islands, the god danced and played on a drum before his still inanimate

creations. Although in other cases, for instance among the Australia tribes in the neighbourhood

of Melbourne, the god's dance is only an expression of his satisfaction with his work, it may here

have the object of causing laughter, unless indeed it is a magical process, like incantation.

A curious variant on the creation theme is that where a male deity creates only a woman, and by

his union with her becomes the ancestor of mankind (Admiralty Islands, Bougainville in the

Solomons, Society Islands, New Zealand).

Legends of this kind form the transition to another type, where the first men came from a

heavenly couple (Indonesia, Marquesas, Hawaii, Tahiti), and in some of these myths it is

expressly stated that the ancestors of mankind were gods who came down to earth from heaven

(Toba Battak, Kei Islands, Simbang in New Guinea, Hawaii, Kaitish, Northern Australia).

I

In some cases a goddess who comes down to earth becomes pregnant in some unusual way

(Nomoi and elsewhere in the central Carolines, Mortlock), or children come out of her eyes and

one ofher arms (Nomoi). This birth of the first men by a sort of budding makes one of the

transitions to the type of myth in which they are derived from trees, particularly widespread in

Indonesia, and which may be also found in New Britain, in the Solomon Islands, at Niue, and in

an Australian tribe of Victoria. According to the Kayan of Borneo, the first men were born from

the union of a tree which came from heaven and a vine which embraced it.

Various legends derive the first men from birds' eggs (Mandaya in Mindanao, Admiralty Islands,

Torres Straits, Fiji, Easter Island) or from turtles (Admiralty Island). The myths of the Admiralty

Islands furnish a curious anticipation of the modern theory of mutations - a turtle or a dove laid at

the same time several eggs, some of which produced animals of the same species, and the others

produced men. Elsewhere the first men were produced not from eggs, properly so called, laid by

living things, but from objects shaped like eggs, in earth (South-east Borneo) or from foam shaped

like an egg by the waves which broke against a rock (Minahassa). In Formosa they came from a

rock.

The first men were derived from a clot of blood, according to a belief especially widespread in

Melanesia, and also to be found in Mindanao, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, and the Chatham

Islands. The first men are believed to have come out of the ground, in the Watubela and the Kei

Islands of eastern Indonesia, and among the Elema of Papua. According to various Australian

tribes, the ancestral totems of the different clans emerged from the ground sometimes in animal

and sometimes in human form. In Samoa and Tonga, the first men came from a decaying worm,

whose origin is itself variously explained. Elsewhere we find the belief that men did not originally

have human form. According to a legend of the Society Islands, at first they were like balls on

which arms and legs developed later. Similarly, according to various Australian tribes, the Arunta

for example, and in Tasmania, the first men were 'inapertwa', beings of a rounded shape with only

the rudiments of limbs, lacking mouths, eyes and ears, afterwards formed into normal men by

deities or supernatural beings.

Various myths explain the difference of the sexes by a different origin for men and women. In the

creationist myths they were formed by different deities or from different material. Thus, in the

Palau Islands, the first man was created by the god, and the first woman by the goddess who

formed the primeval couple. According to a legend of the Banks Islands, the first man was

moulded in clay, and the first woman woven in basket-work; and among some of the Queensland

tribes man was made from stone and woman from box-wood. A tribe in Victoria believe that the

two first men were made out of clay by the god Pundgel, and the two first women were

subsequently discovered at the bottom of a lake by his brother (or son) Pillyan.

In some of the Melanesian legends which deal with the origin of mankind, not as a creation but as

a begetting or a metamorphosis, men and women were derived from different sources. For

instance, among the Elemas of Papua the first man was born of the soil, and the first woman from

a tree. According to the Baining of New Britain, the sun and the moon were at first the only beings

in existence, and their children were stones and birds. The stones became men, and the birds

became women, who inter-married and begat the first Baining. According to a legend of the

Gazelle peninsula, the deity created the first two men, one of whom in his turn made I the first

two women from two coconuts.

I There is also a mythical explanation of certain anthropological I peculiarities. For instance, the

Bilan of Mindanao explain in their I way the depression of the nose just above the nostrils. The

first -; deity who manufactured men made the nose with the nostrils . turning upwards, and

insisted on keeping it that way, although I another god pointed out that in this way the race of

men would be I suffocated by the rain beating into their noses. So, when the first ; deity had his

back turned, the other grasped the nose and turned it I round into its present position - the

hollows to be seen on either j side are the marks of his fingers.

J Other legends attempt to account for differences of race. In New

� Britain the difference between the dark-skinned Papuans and the

lighter-skinned Melanesians is explained by the difference in colour

of the coconuts which became the two first women. Among the

,

Australian tribes in the neighbourhood of Melbourne the differences between the race with

straight hair and the race with curly hair goes back to the first two men, to each of whom the

creator gave one of these two kinds of hair.

Death. According to a belief spread through several areas of Oceania, mankind in the beginning

was not mortal, or at least was not destined to be so, and only became mortal later. Man in his

primitive condition is likened either to objects which do not die, such as stones

(Baining of New Britain, Palau Islands), or trees and plants which spring up again after they are

cut down (south-east Borneo, Palau Islands), or to beings whose death is only temporary and is

followed by resurrection, like the moon which is reborn with each new moon (western Carolines,

Arunta), crabs, and especially snakes which are reborn after changing their skins (Baining, Banks

Islands, New Hebrides). As resurrection consists in the dead man rising from the grave, purely

temporary death is compared to the property of the husk which rises to the surface when thrown

into the water, while

stones stay at the bottom (Australian tribes in New South Wales). To explain the origin of death,

they say in the New Hebrides that in the beginning men changed their skins like snakes. They

became mortal either because they failed to change their skins, or because when they had thrown

off the old skin it was injured or destroyed by children at play. In Tana 'the old woman' became

mortal because she washed herself, not in the river, but in the sea. In one type of fairly widespread

legend, two divine or at any rate supernatural beings argue as to whether men should be mortal or

not, and the second opinion is accepted (Carolines, Ambrym, New Zealand, Tahiti). In a variant

from the western Carolines the sentence of an evil spirit which makes death inevitable happens

only after a period during which men went to sleep and awoke with the moon. According to

another version, the deity who created men went or sent somebody to find the vital principle,

breath or liquid which would ensure men immortality as well as life; but in the meantime human

beings were brought to life by another god or power, and so received only a precarious life (southeast

Borneo, Toradja of Celebes). In the Banks Islands one deity created the first men, and then

another tried to create some, but failed, and that is why men are mortal. In other myths the reason

for death is failure, either by stupidity or negligence, to observe a precaution which would have

resulted in the resurrection (western Carolines, New Britain, Banks Islands). Among the Dusun of

North Borneo and the Baining of New Britain, men are mortal because they would not listen to the

deity who showed the way to be immortal. According to the Arunta, death occurs because the

people who were present when a dead man returned to life fled in terror, although he urged them

not to do so. In the Admiralty Islands and in New South Wales, death is the punishment for a lack

of graciousness, or of ingratitude. A legend of New Zealand makes the hero Maui try to bring

mankind immortality by going down into the underworld, personified by some as 'the great Lady

of night'; but he failed and lost his own life in the attempt.

Fire. The myths of various regions, and especially of New Guinea and Australia, allude

specifically to a primitive state of mankind when fire was unknown, and when food was simply

warmed in the sun's rays. The simplest if not the most practical way of getting fire is to obtain it

from someone who already has it. In some myths the owner of fire from whom it is borrowed by

mankind, produces it or contains it in his body (Nauru, New Guinea, Torres Straits). It is a deity in

New Zealand, the Chatham Islands and Marquesas; a snake in the Admiralty Islands and in

Queensland; a euro, a sort of kangaroo, among the Arunta.

The possessor of fire, the area in which he lives, and the person who obtains it, all vary greatly. A

tribe in Victoria believe it was brought down from heaven by a man, a Queensland story says by a

wren. It came from the lower world (New Britain, New Guinea, various archipelagoes in

Polynesia), and was brought up by Maui (New Zealand). Among the Sulka of New Britain a man

called Emakong brought it from the land of the snake-men who lived at the bottom of a river, into

which the man had dived to look for a precious stone he had dropped. Elsewhere fire was brought

from another part of the world, usually by an animal after various unsuccessful attempts (Igorot of

the Philippines, Admiralty Islands, New Guinea, Torres Strait). In other myths the possessor of

fire was a neighbour who kept it jealously; it was an old woman (Woodlark Island, Massim

district, Papua), two women named Kangaroo-Rat and Bronze-winged Pigeon (New South

Wales), the Bandicoot (Australian tribes, probably in Victoria). Sometimes the fire is stolen from its

possessor by a trick, sometimes by force, sometimes by both together, as it was stolen by Maui

from the water-rails in the Hawaii legend. Sometimes it is frankly given by its owner - a snake in

the Admiralty Islands, snake-men in New Britain. In a New Zealand story the infernal deity of fire

several times gives it to Maui in a friendly way, and only gets angry at repeated demands.

Borrowed fire must be most carefully preserved. In various legends people who had obtained it in

that way allowed it to go out (central Celebes, Queensland, tribe in the neighourhood of

Melbourne.

Social facts. There are some myths which relate to social customs or institutions, first of all to the

Melanesian institution of dividing a tribe into two exogamous classes. At Omba (New Hebrides),

each of the two classes originated with one of two daughters of the first woman who quarrelled -

and here we meet descent traced through the female, which is one of the characteristics of this

ethnological type. A legend of the Gazelle peninsula attributes this social division to a difference

of race. One of the two first men asked the other to give him two light-coloured coconuts to make

into two women. He gave one light and one dark, and each became a woman of corresponding

colour. Then the first brother said to the other: 'If all mankind had had a light skin, it would have

been immortal; but owing to your folly one group will descend from the light woman, and

another group from the dark woman. Men with light skin must marry dark women, and men with

dark skin light women.'

In Vao (New Hebrides) the custom of having separate fires for the men and the women is

explained as follows. The first man and the first woman came out of a fruit which split in two

when it fell from a tree on to a raised root. A bamboo rubbed by the wind against a dry branch

produced fire, which the man kept going with brushwood. The woman, noticing the fire, looked

over the root and asked what it was. The man said it was fire, and gave her some. Since then men

and women have always had separate fires.

In Polynesia the practice of tattooing, which in all probability was anciently a magical charm, was

revealed to men by the gods who invented it. The contrasts of light and shadow to be seen in the

sky, the clouds, and the moon, must have been interpreted as tattooings of the corresponding

deities. In New Zealand, the modern spiral tattooing which replaced the old tattooing imitated

from basket-work, was brought back by Mata-ora after his journey to the underworld to look for

his wife, Niwa-Reka.

In Australia many of the myths about the ancestors of mankind are especially concerned to

explain how they came to teach certain customs and ceremonies to the peoples they met on their

travels. A legend of Victoria gives the explanation of a taboo. The totemic 'bear' became an orphan

while he was still young. The people in whose keeping he had been left took no care of him and

often when they went hunting left him in the camp without even water to drink. One day they

forgot to hang their water bottles out of his reach, and for once he was able to drink his fill. To

avenge himself for previous ill treatment, he took all the water bottles and hung them on a tree.

Then collecting the water of the streams he put it into other bottles which he hung on a tree, then

climbed to its top, and made it grow until it was very tall. When the others returned, tired out, and

thirsty from the hunt all day, they looked for their water bottles and could not find them. When

they went to the river, it had run dry. Finally they noticed the little bear with all the water-bottles

on top of the tree, and asked him if he had any water. 'Oh yes', he said, 'but you shan't have any,

because you left me thirsty so often.' Several times they tried to climb the tree to take the water by

force, but when they got a little way up the bear dropped water on them, which made them lose

hold, so that they fell and were killed. In the end two sons of Pundjel came to their help. Unlike

those who went before they climbed up in a spiral, so that when the bear threw down water it

missed them. At last they succeeded in reaching the top, and the bear seeing that he was going to

be captured, began to shout. Paying no attention to him, they beat him until all his bones were

broken, and then threw him down. But instead of dying he changed into a real bear, and climbed

up another tree. Then Pundjel's two sons came down and cut down the tree where the water

bottles had been placed, and all the water in them went back to the rivers, which ever since have

always contained water for people to use. Then Pundjel's two sons told everybody that henceforth

they should never break a bear's bones when they killed one, and never flay him before they

cooked him. So that is why unto this day the bear still lives in trees and still calls out when a man

climbs a tree where he is. And he stays near water so that he can take it out of the streams if ever

the order about not breaking his bones is transgressed.

CONCLUSION

This summary of the chief myths of Oceania shows that the problem of the origins of various

types of beings or facts is stated in the same way as in the philosophies of which civilised societies

are so proud. On the one hand as on the other, the hope is to understand origins by imagining

them on the lines of this or that phenomenon observed in ordinary experience.


http://bonnierobson.com/mythology_of_the_two_americas.htm
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