Debolar, The First Coconut

 Debolar, The First Coconut

(A Legend from Marshall Islands)

Most things of great value in the world have come from ordinary beginnings, and so it was with the coconut tree.

An old Marshallese legend tells that long ago, no one had ever seen a tree. There never yet had been any in all the world. When the first one grew, it was thought to be a wonderful thing. It was a coconut tree, and that great blessing was born from a woman. It grew from a living baby.

Some people don't believe this, but isn't there on the top end of each coconut a little face with nose, mouth, and two eyes?

Likileo is a place on the ocean side of Woja Island, in the beautiful Ailinglaplap Atoll. In Likileo, there once lived a good woman named Limokare, who had several children. She had no idea that one of them would become famous.

Her first child, a son named Lokam, looked much like other boys. But when her second child was born, all the people of the village came to see, for it was a very strange baby indeed. It was a coconut. Small and green, and with a clever little face that had eyes, nose, and mouth, but still-a coconut!

The mother was pleased with her baby. She named him Debolar. No one had ever seen a coconut before, and the people of the village admired the odd little baby. All, that is, except his elder brother, Lokam, who didn't like him at all.

"Why do you keep that queer-looking thing?" he said to his mother, again and again."Kill it, and throw it away."

"No!" cried his mother."Debolar is my baby, I love him."

She gave him her milk, and he drank until his little belly grew full and round. If there is a person who doesn't believe that Debolar could drink milk, let him look inside a coconut. It is filled with milk, even as Debolar was, that day long ago. The milk is rich and sweet and is good food. Like Debolar, many babies in the Pacific islands today have no other food but coconut milk. It makes them fat and happy.

The mother gave Debolar the best of care. She wove him a little basket. She used koba, or bamboo, which was of great value in those days. It didn't grow in Woja Island but sometimes came drifting in on the tide. Limokare put the baby in the basket and hung it up. She rocked him and sang him to sleep.

Lokam, the elder brother, thought that was very silly.“I won't be a brother to such a thing," he said."I don't care to be in the same house with it."

After a while, Lokam went away and found another home. All the same, he came once in a while, just to look at the baby.

Debolar grew larger and larger. Soon, he learned to talk and to understand what people said. In that way, he found out that Lokam was asking their mother to get rid of her baby.

"Don't listen to that brother of mine," said Debolar to his mother."He'll never be of much use to you. I'm small, andI  look odd, it's true. But I'll be valuable some day. I'll make you comfortable and happy. Just wait and see."

"Don't worry, my son," said Limokare,"I'm not going to throw you away. You came into this world for a good reason."

"And so I did," replied Debolar."I came into this world to be eaten and worn and used."

"Eaten, my poor child!" exclaimed his mother."And worn! And used!"

"Yes, Mother," said Debolar."That's what I'm here for."

One day, he said to his mother,"The time has come for you to bury me under your window."

The window was made of thatch. It swung out, a little way from the ground, making a shelter.

His mother was surprised."Bury you alive, my poor little baby?" she cried.

"Yes, alive," replied Debolar."I'm not going to die. I will live. I'll come back to you and stay with you always."

"How can you come back, and how shall I know you, my child?" asked Limokare.

"I'll be a tree," said Debolar.

"And what's that, my son?"

"Wait and see," he said."I'll be very small at first, and I'll need your care. But I'll grow, and I'll have many parts. Every one of them will be useful. And I'll have dozens of children and hundreds of grandchildren."

He and his mother had a long talk. He told what the parts of his body would be, and how they could be used. It was a strange story, but his mother believed it.

The mother buried the coconut baby under her window, as he had told her to do. She looked there many times a day.

The people of the village didn't believe that she would see Debolar again."He's gone forever," they said.

"And so much the better," said the elder son, Lokam."You did right to put him into the ground. Just let him stay there."

One day, the mother saw a small, green sprout."Debolar is coming," she said. It was a leaf, folded around itself. She opened it carefully.

"How beautiful!" she said."It looks like the wing of the flying fish."

She gave the little coconut sprout a name, drirjojo. The word drir meant "sprout" and jojo meant "flying fish." As the leaf grew and spread open, and other leaves came, she gave the tree new names. The coconut tree has them to this day.

People came from far and near to see the first tree in all the world. They called it ni, which became the Marshallese word for “coconut."

The little tree became tall and beautiful and strong. It grew away from the window, high in the air. At its top grew waving leaves that made cool shade for Limokare. She often sat beneath them and wove mats from them.

Limokare told the people the things that Debolar had told her. She told them how the parts of the tree could be used-the leaves, the wood, the bark, the roots, the nuts, the husks, and the juices. The tree was a great blessing to her. It gave her many useful things.

The elder brother, Lokam, no longer wanted Debolar to be killed. He also liked the gifts of the Coconut tree. He boasted about his brother.

"We kept him, and we cared for him, and we planted him," he said."Now the rest of you may have his coconut children and grandchildren. They will be your food, your drink, your oil, your clothes, your wood, and your houses."

He would look around, then, to see if all the people were listening. Then he would say,"Don't forget, I'm his brother."

Source

Legends of the Micronesia (Book One) 

Eve Grey

1951

Pages: 82-85

Tiki the First Man

 Tiki the First Man 

(A Legend from Mangareva/Tuamotu/Marquesas)

Tiki was the first man.

It was said among our people that when Tiki was born Atea himself set Tiki apart to bring forth all the children of men in this world below.

When Tiki was young his parents said to him, 'You, Tiki, go outside and play,' and they remained together inside the house.

One day when he was playing by himself Tiki grew tired of the games he knew. He returned to the house and saw his parents at their own enjoyment. Tiki desired this. He therefore went away from the house and he heaped up earth in the form of a woman. He gave it a body and a head, with arms and legs, and breasts and ears and all that was required to make a woman. Having done this he acted in the manner of his father, and he there became a man.

Tiki took that woman for his wife, and her name was Hina one, that is Earth Maid.

The child that was born to Hina one was a human being, and they named her Tiaki te keukeu. She grew handsome. One day Hina one asked her husband to go to the world below to fetch some fire for them, for all the fires in that village had gone out. But Tiki was lazy and he refused, and so his wife said, 'Then indeed I shall go myself to get us fire.'

'No, no,' said Tiki, 'let us stay here quietly,' and they argued thus; but Hina was strong in her will. She said to her husband, 'You stay here. You have your daughter. I will go to the world beneath, as the moon goes.'

And Hina went below. And she was swollen with child, like the moon. In the world below she gave birth to her twin sons Kuri and Kuro, who knew not their father.

***

Tiki remained in Havaiki with his daughter; yet it was not seemly that he should have her openly. He therefore built an inland house in a valley of that land, and he said to his daughter: 'You live up there, and I shall live down here by the sea. Up there you will find the house that I have built and a man there who resembles me in every way. You will think it is Tiki, but you will be mistaken.' So Tiaki te keukeu did as her father had told her; she went up the valley to that other house.

Now Tiki ran swiftly by another path, and he reached the house before her. When Tiaki arrived he greeted her saying, 'Welcome, respected one! Enter this house of mine! Be seated on this mat!' That girl did so, she went into the house, and Tiki desired her. He took her with his hands. She cried out, 'No, I do not wish to. You are my father.' And Tiki pressed her, saying,'It is true that your father and I are as like as two drops of water, but he is down there by the sea. I am of the upland.'

Soon that girl consented to live with Tiki in that house, and children were born to them. But after a time she became disgusted with her father, and she left him to seek her mother in the world below.

Her mother was disgusted also when her daughter told her, and they two made a plot to kill Tiki. They lit an oven in which to cook him, and sent the god Tuako up to fetch him. But Kuri and Kuro, the twin sons of Tiki, who knew not their father, made objection, and they prevented it. When Tuako went to the world above he brought back a man named Katinga. It was Katinga whom they cooked and ate instead of Tiki.

***

While Tiki and his daughter were living together he told her one day that he was going out to catch fish. He asked her to follow him later with a basket for the fish. 'You will come to the beach,' he said, 'and go to a place where you will see a flock of birds hovering about something which is sticking out of the sand. That will be the place.'

And so Tiaki did as he had told her, she went to the beach with her fish basket. She saw the flock of birds and also something standing up above the sand. Thinking that it was their pointed stick for stringing fish, she took hold of it and pulled. And Tiki, who had covered his body with sand, jumped up crying, 'Who's this, pulling on my ure?' And he laughed at her shame.

When she saw that it was her father and that what she had in her hand was his, Tiaki reproached him: 'O Tiki, this is a dreadful thing that you have done, a most horrible act of yours!' And he laughed at her again; and she called him : ‘Tiki the slimy’, and ‘Tiki the rigid', and 'Tiki the trickster'. That is how Tiki earned those names of his.

After these events were known, the women of that land did not like Tiki. They called him ‘Tiki the god of kaikaia’, meaning a person who eats human flesh or who sleeps with his relations.

***

It was said of Tiki that he was two men, a handsome Tiki and an ugly Tiki; and the people saw his ugly and his handsome side at different times.

One day Tiki asked his womenfolk to make him a maro to wear around his waist. To tease him they gave him a maro full of slits and holes. He therefore made one for himself, and he wore it back-to-front so that the tail hung down before him. Then with his eyes and nose all streaming with the mess that comes from there, and uttering noises from his bottom, he made his way up the valley, taunting them.

'Kill him! Kill him!' cried the people when they saw this. But when they tried to catch him Tiki disappeared, and suddenly he returned to them in his handsome form. It was said that Tiki kept all his ugly features in the hole in his bottom and took them out when he wished to wear them.

One day when Tiki appeared in that valley in his evil form the people caught him. They tried to pull his eyes out but they could not. They pulled out his tongue and tied it in a knot, but he untied it. They tried to knock his teeth out but they would not loosen. They cut his ears off, but he picked them up and stuck them on again. They cut off his ure, but he picked that up and put it back. They cut off his feet, but he put them on again, and the same when they cut off his arms. At length those people cut open Tiki's belly and they unravelled everything in there. At that he burst into tears and he ran away from all those people to the beach, and he remained there for a long time, sleeping in the sand.

They caught him again. They tried to rub off his skin with pieces of coral, but it would not leave his body. They lit an oven to roast him, but they could not drag him into it. Suddenly while the people were doing all these things the ugliness of Tiki left him, and he was handsome again before their eyes. Immediately all the women desired Tiki, and there was a great commotion. The women cried out to the men, 'Now leave him alone! Leave him alone!' So the men gave Tiki to the women, and at once he was ugly again; therefore they seized him and tore him to pieces. Yet every time they did this, Tiki was restored.

When they had torn him apart three times Tiki escaped from those women, and he slept once more in the sand by the sea, all covered up except his eyes. As he lay there a great sea-eel came, and it seized him by the foot.

Tiki cried out to his wife, Hina one, 'Bring me my knife, my cutting-shell!' Hina one was wearied of Tiki's tricks, and she answered, 'I am tired of sleeping with a demon.' But she took his head and pulled, and the eel pulled also, and there was a tugging match between them. Suddenly while the eel and the woman were pulling. Tiki disappeared.

This story of Tiki is concluded.

Tiki - Marquesas Islands, circa 1800

Source:

Legends of the South Seas

Antony Alpers

1970

Pages: 68-72

How the Women Saved Guam

 How the Women Saved Guam 

(A Legend from Guam)

Nothing was left to eat.

Children cried from hunger. Their empty stomachs hurt, hurt, hurt as they chewed on scraps of coconut and fish bones.

The taro stopped growing. Even the banana tree hid its red flower, sad because its petals held no fingers of tasty new banana.

The clouds would not drop rain. Wet winds teased, blowing through palm fronds, rattling the withered branches. But the winds only laughed and left swirls of dust, shedding no rain on the thirsty island.

"The spirits are angry," the old woman, the maga'haga, warned. "The people no longer show respect. They take from the earth, take from the sea and give nothing in return. Nothing! No respect for the earth. No respect for the sea, the water or each other. The spirits are angry. Our punishment will come from our selfishness."

The old woman predicted correctly. The people had not taken care of the earth. Now the soil was barren and grew nothing. Water had been wasted. Wells had been emptied and now remained dry.

Suddenly a new danger, a new punishment, woke the people. A rumbling deep within the earth split the night's silence. Harder and harder the ground shook.

"What is happening? What is happening?" The people around Agana Bay ran outside screaming. A hideous crunching sound grew closer. Something was eating the earth right beneath them! Rocks from the high cliffs tumbled down and crashed into the sea.

"Forgive us, Ancient Ones. Forgive us!" the people prayed.

"We will not be forgiven easily. We will not be forgiven until we show we will change our selfish ways," said the older women. They knew they must appease their ancestral spirits, their ante, the spirit people who could stop the drought, the famine, and this island-eating monster.

The men grabbed their spears. "Run to the Men's House. Run for your lives!" they cried. Already a loud "WHOOOO" could be heard. Someone was blowing the Great Triton Shell. "Run to the Men's House. The chief is blowing the Great Shell. Everyone gather!"

The men shoved and squeezed under the tall steep roof. Some stood by the side pillars. Little boys stood on their big brothers' backs and peered in. All the mouths were shouting, "Kill whatever is eating our land!" But no one was listening. Words were thrown like stones at each other. Spears were thrust at the darkness. Feet began stamping.

Outside, women young and old waited, shaking their heads. They listened as the men argued about what to do.

At dawn, once again the earth shuddered. This time the sound was unmistakable. Monstrous teeth were crunching the limestone beneath their feet, biting and chewing, over and over until finally, they stopped. Silence. No one spoke. And then a child screamed. "EEEEE, I see it! A monster! A giant bird fish, huge like a whale. EEEE, it swims toward us."

The men rushed to the shore, pushing past the women. "Yes, there it is!" Everyone could see it, a giant parrot fish, an atuhong, a monster covered with scales blue as the sky, green as fat mangoes and glowing gold like a ghostly sunset.

Slowly the parrot fish swam out toward the reef. It opened its monstrous mouth. The people gasped. They saw how its teeth gleamed white, each tooth bigger than a man's head. Snap! The parrot fish bit off a piece of reef. Then with one flick of its tail, it swam into the sea cave under the island.

The men walked back to the village, their heads bowed in fear. "How can we capture such a giant fish? One snap and we lose our heads."

At the Weaving Pavilion, the women gathered. They waited until all were present, from the youngest maiden with bright eyes that had first seen the monster to the oldest auntie with clouded eyes hidden in deep wrinkles. As the women waited, they wove long strips of pandanus, in and out, in and out. As they wove they began chanting, praying, and thinking.

The women watched and waited, all the time

weaving, weaving.

Their fingers wove ribbons of leaves. 

Their voices chanted prayers of hope while 

Their thoughts wove possibilities.

A monstrous parrot fish was eating their island. It was another punishment sent by the old ones. Their angry spirits had sent the drought and the famine. How could they appease the spirits? What sacrifice was required?

WHOOO! The Great Triton was blown again. Back to the shore raced the men, their bodies glistening with coconut oil. Spears clattered against war clubs. Down to the water they scrambled and leapt into their outriggers. Like a school of flying fish, away they sailed, skimming through the waves and over the reef, following the path of the monster.

The women watched and waited, all the time 

weaving, weaving.

Their fingers wove ribbons of leaves while their 

thoughts wove possibilities.

They sat in a circle, their backs straight, their heads bowed. Their long black hair spilled over their shoulders, flowing together like a net.

They wove through the night. As the sun lifted above the straight-line horizon, they watched for signs of husbands and sons returning from the hunt. They did not see tiny triangles of sails grow larger and larger, bringing their clansmen home. But what they saw they remembered.

From one of the undersea tunnels between Agana and Pago bays, the giant atuhong swam out into the lagoon. It began eating the island. All day the earth shook. All day the monster ate and ate. The monster was destroying the reef and the land just as the people had been because of selfish thoughtlessness. Soon there would be no land left between Agana and Pago, and then-no island, nothing!

"Hurry home," the women chanted. "Hurry home and kill the monster before it devours our island."

Finally, sails appeared on the horizon. Soon the men were climbing out of their canoes. The women told what they had seen and then asked, "Let us help you hunt the monster. Quickly, now before it swims to the tunnel's safety."

The men laughed. "Women cannot hunt. Women only chant and weave. What good is that?"

The men stomped back into the bay with nets and weapons. They surrounded the monster, threw their nets and began to pull.

With one slap of its tail, the giant fish sent bodies crashing into the reef and onto the shore. With its mighty teeth it ripped apart the nets and then darted into the tunnel.

The women watched.

Their fingers threaded pandanus while their thoughts wove ideas. And their hearts prayed. What sacrifice did the spirits want? Like a child searching the sand for a seashell, their thoughts searched for an answer.

The men trudged back to the village dragging their torn nets. The women called, "Let us help you mend the nets and prepare for a new hunt."

The men laughed. "Women, what can you do? Even our maga'lahi chief's great strength is not enough."

The wisest woman, the maga'haga, shook her head. She waited for the men to leave and then spoke. "Stop, rest your hands. Come with me to Agana Spring. We will wash our faces and refresh our hearts. With clear thoughts we will ask for help from our maranan uchan, the skulls of our ancestors."

But when the women arrived at Agana Spring, they found lemon peels floating in the water. The maga'haga knew that only the women of Pago used lemons to scent their hair. This meant that already an opening had been made between Agana and Pago. If the monster kept eating, Guam would soon be gone.

                                        Sunrise - Pago Bay, Guam (Wikipedia Commons, author: amanderson2)

"Hurry, come here to the spring. Encircle the water. I know what our sacrifice must be. Our beauty, our hair. If you are willing to help, bow your head and I shall chop off your hair."

One by one the women walked to the spring, knelt by the cool water, and touched their foreheads to the black rock. The old maga'haga took out her shell knife, gave thanks, and asked for courage. Quickly she held each woman's long hair with one hand and cut with the other.

"Now we will begin a new weaving."

Again the women wove through the night, their fingers flying faster than the fluttering wings of fairy terns. They encouraged each other with songs and stories. Their heads felt strangely light. No long tresses hung down their backs. But to everyone's surprise, their hearts also felt light and full of hope as if a heavy burden had been cut away.

As the starlight began to fade with the morning light, the weaving was finished. "Come, quickly come." The maga'haga gathered up the black net and instructed the women to wait with her at the spring. "Here we will wait. When the atuhong, the slippery one, comes out of the tunnel, we will throw our net over its head and then everyone pull. Pull with all your strength."

The young ones looked up at their mothers, who nodded. "Yes, we can do this. We have woven our courage into one net. The strength of many has become one."

The monster fish swam out of the tunnel. It circled around the women. Faster and faster, closer and closer it swam. With its great jaws wide open, it rushed right at the women!

Snap! Teeth bit into empty air. With one great throw, the women tossed the net over the monster's mouth. "Pull!" yelled the maga'haga. The women pulled as one. Giant teeth tore at the net, but the net held as if filled with magic.

"Pull! Pull up!" urged the old one. The monster's scaly body thrashed the water and its might tail slapped at the women. But the women held on. The spring became muddy with sand, murky with foam. The women began chanting, "Be brave, be strong. Pull!"

The men heard their voices, grabbed spears and clubs, and rushed to the spring. Quickly the monster was dead. Together men, women, and children pulled the giant fish onto land. They gave thanks to their ancestors and then began a chant, a new song about how the women of Agana wove their beauty into a net of courage and saved Guam. As the people sang, they heaped coconut husks around the fish, cooked it, and ate.

At last every stomach was full. As the rain began to fall, the people knew that both the drought and the famine were over. They lifted their faces to the heavens and then nodded at each other. What happened that day, how their island was saved, would be told to their children and their children's children. Remember, show respect. Take care of this island and each other. Only then will this sea and this land be yours and your children's.

Source 

Marianas Island Legends: Myth and Magic 

Nancy Bo Flood 

2001

Pages: 5-11

The Ocean Race

 The Ocean Race 

(A story from Kiribati)

Tabuariki, Auriaria, Taburimai and Nareau met for a contest one day and decided to hold an ocean race. Each of them was to select the fastest craft he could think of. Tabuariki chose a porpoise, Auriaria a shark and Taburimai a swordfish - all of them deep-sea fish, fast and powerful. Nareau had different ideas about speed and chose a crab - a hermit crab that crawls along the ground. When the others heard of Nareau's choice, they laughed at him for the hermit-crab was among the slowest creatures on earth and the penalty for losing the race was to be a feast for the others.

On the morning appointed for the race, they met together on the lagoon side - possibly the Tarawa lagoon since Nareau was living at Temaiku and Auriaria at Eita, both of them Tarawan villages. The rules provided for four referees to be chosen, one for each craft, and Nareau gave careful instructions to his referee. When he felt the crab nip his toe, he was to press it into the sand under his foot and, when the race was truly under way, to pick it up and show it to the other referees as proof it had come in first.

At the start of the race, each of the contestants took hold of his craft - Tabuariki of the porpoise, Auriaria of the shark, Taburimai of the swordfish and Nareau of his hermit-crab. Meanwhile Nareau's referee had trodden a crab under his foot waiting for the contestants to let go their hold and for the race to start. Off, all the fish swam and, almost immediately, Nareau's referee picked up the buried crab and shouted out to his companions in triumph: “Look, here's the crab!” The other referees inspected it and confirmed it was indeed Nareau's chosen craft. When the four contestants went up to the referees to hear the result of the race, they were told: “The hermit-crab came in first by a long way. Nareau's referee showed it to us.”

Then Tabuariki and his companions, Auriaria and Taburimai, called for another race. They each let their craft go and the crab again beat the porpoise, the shark and the swordfish. The same thing happened a third time - the crab won again, beating the big, fast deep-sea fish. There is no doubt that Nareau was smart in planning victories.

Some clever people say the race was won in the following way. Nareau started off with three crabs. He let two of them go, one after the other, and each of them in turn reached the referee standing up in front. Nareau held the third crab in his hand until the first race started. Before each race was under way, one crab had crept up to the referee's feet so, when the fish set off, a hermit crab was already there.

Source

Traditional Stories from the Northern Gilberts 

Ten Tiroba

1990

Pages: 28-29