How the Yam Came to Vanuatu

How the Yam Came to Vanuatu

(A Legend from Vanuatu)

Once there was a young man named Kaloris who lived on Vila Island. One evening he went out with his bow and arrows to shoot a flying fox, which is really a kind of bat and good to eat. He was proud of his bow, for it was the finest in the village, and none of the men could shoot an arrow so far or so straight as he. With the fox bat he had shot, he returned to his village at midnight. Strolling along the beach in the moonlight, he wondered suddenly what the land on the moon might be like. An idea came to him: it would be an adventure to go and see the moon for himself!

Vanuatu

He stopped in his tracks as he thought of a plan. Then, laying his bundle of arrows on the sand, he took one up and fitted it to his bow. Pointing it at the moon, he took careful aim, drew the string right back to his shoulder, and let it go. The arrow sped as swift as the wind, up and up, until it reached the moon and stuck there firmly.

Kaloris took a second arrow, and again he fitted it to his bow and took aim very carefully. This time the arrow pierced the shaft of the first, just as he had planned, and he was proud of his marksmanship. He shot a third and then another and another, until he had a long line of arrows, each one sticking into the one before it. They stretched from the moon right to the beach where he stood.

Then he put down his bow, and seizing the lowest arrow he climbed upward until at last he reached the moon itself. There was a large trap door on the underside of the moon, so he knocked on it.

“Come in,” said a voice. So he pushed open the door and went inside.

There he saw the Man of the Moon, eating his food.

“Good health to you," said Kaloris.

“Good health." said the Man of the Moon. “Where have you come from?"

“I have come from Vila, and I have climbed up here by a ladder of arrows," said Kaloris, and he explained how he had shot them into each other.

“Come and share my food-you must be hungry.” said the Man of the Moon.

Kaloris thanked him, and he sat down and joined the Man of the Moon at the meal. He enjoyed what he was eating, for it was new to him.

“What is this that we are eating, sir?" he asked.

“That is a yam.” said the Man of the Moon. “Surely you have some on your island“

Yam

Kaloris said that he had never heard of a yam. So the Man of the Moon pointed to a big pile of them lying in a corner and told him to take as many as he wanted.

Then, opening the trap door, they pushed out the yams one by one, and they fell down to earth and landed on the beach where Kaloris had stood with his bow and arrows.

When he had thanked the Man of the Moon he bade him farewell and climbed down his ladder of arrows and returned home. His friends, curious about the strange food, crowded around him, and taking the yams home they planted them in their gardens. Soon they had a fine harvest, and all of the people said it was the best food they had tasted; and that is how yams came to Vanuatu.

Source:

Tales from the South Pacific Islands

Anne Gittins

1977

Pages: 85-87