myths from the gilbert islands, ii

Myths from the Gilbert Islands, IIAuthor(s): Arthur GrimbleSource: Folklore, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1923), pp. 370-374Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1256559 .

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370 The Provenience of certain Negro Folktales.

Little dawg, he was right behin' him, say, 'Me neither.' Eve'y time de man say, 'I never heard a mule talk,' little dawg say, 'Me neither.' "...

In an inland Carolinian variant of this tale, a man and then his boss say to the mule, " Git up, Jack," and the mule says he isn't going to do it. Both men start to run. They lie down behind a log. An' de lawg say, " I couldn' hide yer. I roll over on yer." An' dey went an' seed de overcoat hangin' up 'longside de tree. De overcoat say, ' I couldn' hide bof of yer.' ... They meet a man ploughing with two mules, and start to tell him the story. "An' de mules say, ' Also me ! '" All three run.2

This tale of the Things that Talk may be recognized as a European tale, although hitherto, except for a Cape Verde Islands tale, I have failed to find parallels.

The fusion that has taken place, in some measure at least, between the Things that Talk and The House-keepers is a pretty instance, I take it, of tale building, including the processes of disintegration and integration.

ELSIE CLENS PARSONS.

1 Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. xxx. p. 224. f Jour. A mer. Folk-Lore, vol. xxxiv. p, 12.

3 Cf. vol. xxxiii. pp. 91-112.

MYTHS FROM THE GILBERT ISLANDS, II.3

I. The Myth of Nakaa and the Forbidden Tree (Nei Tearia of Banaba).

IN the beginning were born Tabakea and his sister Tituabine from the rubbing together of heaven and earth. And as yet it was all a black darkness, for heaven and earth were not yet separated. From the overside of heaven, as it lay upon earth, sprang Banaba; it was the Navel of Te-bongi-so, which is to say, the multitude of islands that were in the Darkness of heaven and earth.

Then Tabakea lay with his sister Tituabine on Banaba, and she bore him children. Firstborn was a son, whose name was



Myths from the Gilbert Islands. 371

Nakaa the Old One. After him were born many others, both men and women; they all lived on Banaba, and Nakaa was chief of them all, for he was the firstborn.

But in those days the people were innocent; the men knew not the women. So the brothers of Nakaa lived with him on the north-west side of Banaba, in the place called B6uru; and the women, their sisters, lived apart from the men, on the south- east side of Banaba.

In B6uru, the place of the men, there was a Fish-Trap by the shore, where the fish might never be exhausted; and yet there was but a single fish in the trap at a time, but when it was taken another straightway came in its place. In B6uru also grew the coconut-tree whose fruit was inexhaustible; yet there grew but a single nut on the tree at a time; but when it was plucked another grew straightway on the same stalk. The name of that Tree was Tara-Kai-maiu, the Tree of Life.'

In the place of the women on the south-east side of Banaba stood also a Tree, whose name was Kariki-bdi; that Tree was a woman, and all the brothers of Nakaa were forbidden to approach her.

On a day, Nakaa said to his brothers, " I go on a journey. See that ye pluck not the flowers of the Woman Kariki-bdi." So he left them, and for a while they remembered his judgment. But the wind bore them the scent of the Woman's flowers, and their hearts were full of desire; they said one to another, " Let us go and see for ourselves; perchance some good thing may happen that Nakaa begrudges us." So they went and plucked the flowers of the Woman and disported themselves with her.

When Nakaa returned from his journey he looked upon the faces of his brothers and knew that they were no longer as children; he was aware of a sweet smell in the air, and knew that it was the smell of the Woman's flowers in their hair; he seized hold of them one by one and searched the hairs of their heads. Behold, their hair was beginning to turn grey. And he went to the women of the Tree in the East, and it was the same with them.

1 Tara-Kai-maiu is literally Behold-Tree-Life.



372 Myths from the Gilbert islands.

So Nakaa was full of anger and said, " Fools, that could not abide my word i Old age and death are come among you I "

And he knew that their eyes were blinded, and their hearts darkened with unwisdom. So he led them to the Tree of Life, and he led them again to the Tree of the Woman, saying, " Choose, ye fools, between the two Trees, and I will take away with me the Tree that ye choose not." This he did to try them. And lo, they chose the Tree of the Woman, that is also called Tara-Kai-mate, the Tree of Death. And Nakaa arose to leave them, taking with him the Tree of Life. But before he left them he flung at them a handful of small insects that he had made, wrapped in the leaves of the pandanus tree. And the insects settled on the backs of their heads, and never again left them, nor their children, nor their children's children, until to-day. And they began to bore at the base of their skulls, until the life was eaten out. And so men came by their death. And because of the pandanus leaves in which the death-insects were wrapped, we enshroud our dead in a winding-sheet of pandanus leaf matting even to this day.

As for Nakaa, he took away with him the Tree of Life and the Fish-Trap that is never empty. He departed to the Western horizon, and there he sits in the heavens awaiting the souls of dead mortals. He faces North, forever weaving nets. And when a soul comes to him he catches it in the flying strand and laughs with scorn, saying, " Child of the Woman, thou art come back to me, for my word was a hard word in B6uru." Then with jibing words he gazes upon the soul, and if it is of a comely appearance his heart is softened, and he says, "Pass on to the Tree of Life." But if the soul is of an unpleasing shape, he throws it into the midst of a struggling heap of souls that are condemned to writhe in everlasting entanglement. The name of that heap is Te Rekerua.

II. Beruan version of the Fire-myth. IN the beginning there were two lords. Tabakea was lord of Tarawa, the land; he lived on the land. And Bakoa was lord of Marawa, the sea; he lived in the sea.



Myths from the Gilbert Islands, 373

Then Bakoa begot a child, whose name was Te-Ika. When Te-Ika grew tip he was forever lying on the surface of the sea watching the sunrise. When the sun's first beams shot up over the horizon, it was his daily endeavour to catch a beam in his mouth and bite it off. So for many days he tried to do that thing, and at last he was successful; he caught a sunbeam in his mouth, and swam away with it to his father Bakoa. When he came to his father's house he went in and sat down with the sunbeam beside him; but, behold, when Bakoa came in he was amazed at the heat of the place, and said to his son, " Get hence, thou art burning hot and the house smokes where thou sittest." So Te-Ika left his father's house, and took his sunbeam to another place; but, behold, wherever he sat it was the same; the house began to smoke and everything that was near him shrivelled up with the heat.

At last Bakoa was afraid that everything he had would be dried up and destroyed by his son, so he drove Te-Ika forth from that place, saying, " Get hence, for thou wilt be the death of us all." So Te-Ika fled before his father's face and went eastward to Tarawa, where Tabakea dwelt. When he came to Tabakea's land he went ashore with his sunbeam, but behold, wherever he went the trees and the houses were shrivelled up in his presence, for the sunbeam was burning hot and its heat had entered into the body of Te-Ika also.

Then Tabakea arose against Te-Ika to drive him forth, but he could not. So he took for his weapons every tree and branch that he could lay his hands upon; therewith he belaboured the body of Te-Ika. He beat him with wood of the uri-tree (Guettarda speciosa), he beat him with wood of the ren-tree (Tournefortia argentea), he beat him with the bark of the Kanawa- tree (Cordia subcordata), and with dry rubbish fallen from the coconut-tree. So mightily he belaboured Te-Ika that at last he battered both him and his sunbeam into little fragments, that scattered over the whole land.

But when Te-Ika had left his father Bakoa and had been gone awhile, his father began to grieve after him, for he loved him dearly. At last he arose and began to search all the seas for his son, but he found him not. So he began to search the



374 Myths from the Gilbert islands.

land; and at last he went eastward to Tabakea's land. There he said to Tabakea, " Hast thou seen my son ? He has a burning body and carries a sunbeam with him." Tabakea said, " I have seen him. He came hither, and I would have beaten him hence, for I feared him, but I could not. Then I belaboured him and his sunbeam so mightily that they were both broken in fragments and scattered over my land." When Bakoa heard that he grieved bitterly, for he loved his son, so Tabakea said, "Stay, for I will bring thy son to life again." So he took a stick of the uri-tree, wherewith he had belaboured Te-Ika, and rubbed it upon a stick of the ren-tree. Lo, it was a great magic, for it began to smoke, and Bakoa said, " It smokes as the trees smoked when my son was near them." Then Tabakea made a heap of dry bark of the trees wherewith he had belaboured Te-Ika and, blowing upon his rubbing sticks where they had been rubbed together, he made a flame, and lighted a fire. Bakoa was amazed at that great magic. He said, " Behold, it is my son that thou hast brought to life again." Then he would have taken the fire and carried it back with him to westward, for he said it was indeed his son ; but behold, when he entered the sea to take it home, it was put out in the water, and he could never carry his son away with him. So it is to this day; the body and the sunbeam of Te-Ika, which were broken in pieces by Tabakea, remain forever in the heart of the sticks and rubbish with which they were belaboured by Tabakea on Tarawa, and they can never again go back to the sea.

ARTHUR GRIMBLE.

STONE ERECTIONS IN INDIA.

BANNERGATTE is a small village about twelve miles from Bangalore. One fine afternoon in April, 1920, we motored down to the village, which lies at the foot of a hill. Just before the village temple were the "'' gallows " used for the hook- swinging ceremony. In former days devotees used to be actually " hooked " in the back, but now the Mysore Govern. ment does not allow it, and the devotee has to content himself



myths from the gilbert islands, ii

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