The Two-Headed Giant of Rotuma

The Two-Headed Giant of Rotuma

(A Legend from Rotuma)

Once upon a time there lived in Rotuma a couple with two children, a boy and a girl. Each day the parents went out to work, leaving the children by themselves, telling them to be good and not to open the back door while they were home alone.

Rotuma

One day after the parents had gone, the boy, who was a curious lad, said to his sister, "Let us open the back door and find out what it is that our mother and father wish to hide from us."

So they opened the door, and they found a beautiful garden full of ripe bananas and sugar cane.

“Oh, look at all those good things," said the boy, and he ran and picked a bunch of bananas and cut some sugar cane, and then they both sat down and started to eat.

Meanwhile the mother said to her husband. “Something is happening to the children, for my thumb keeps on itching. I must go and see what it is."

So she returned home and saw at once that the back door had been opened. Picking up her broom, she ran into the garden and found the children eating the fruit. She was very angry, and she started to beat them with the broom. But they ran away.

On and on they ran down a long path, through trees and bushes, till they came to a place where two paths met. They turned along one of them, and presently to their horror they came upon a giant who was sweeping up rubbish, making a clear space in the forest. Quickly they hid behind a tree, but since the giant seemed quite harmless the boy came forward after a time and offered him some of their fruit.

The giant took it and said, “I will give this to my friends. Come along with me."

Now there were ten giants living in that place. When the giants saw the children, nine of them were friendly and would have let them go, but the tenth, who was a two-headed monster, wished to keep them to eat. He took them both to his house and bade them sit down. Then he laid his two heads upon their laps, one head resting on the boy's knees and one head on the girl's, and he told them to comb his hair.

So the children combed the heads gently, and by and by the giant fell asleep. Then, getting up ever so quietly, the children found a rope, bound the giant's arms and legs, and fled down to the shore, where they found a canoe.

“Pick up four large pieces of pumice,” the boy said to his sister, while he brought two very heavy stones from the shore and put them in the boat. Then they pushed the canoe into the sea, climbed in. and paddled away with all possible speed.

After a time the little girl grew weary and she looked up at the sky. “I can see a tiny black speck no bigger than a fruit fly up there. Look toward the sun," she said. The boy looked, but neither of them guessed that this speck was the two-headed giant, who had freed himself from the rope that bound him and was flying after them.

It was not long before the giant reached the canoe and stepped into it. The little girl was filled with terror, but the boy said boldly, “Sit down and rest awhile, sir, and watch me."

He then picked up the pieces of pumice and, binding one of the light, spongy pieces to each arm and each leg, he stepped into the sea and began to dance on the surface of the water. This amused the giant so much that he roared with laughter and wished to do likewise.

“Give me your playthings and let me try," he ordered. So the boy got into the canoe and quickly hid the pumice. Then, telling the giant to stretch out his legs, he bound the heavy stones to them. When this was done the boy gave the giant a push. Over he went with a splash into the sea, and the heavy stones made him sink right down to the bottom.

The two children then paddled back to the shore, and they were given the giant's property and his land, where they lived in peace forever after.

Source:

Tales from the South Pacific Islands

Anne Gittins

1977

Pages: 47 - 49