Two Lovers and How the Turtle Cycle was Discovered

Two Lovers and How the Turtle Cycle was Discovered

(A Legend from Palau)

A young man from Peleliu fell in love with a maiden from Ngerkebesang. She also loved him. But they lived on islands far apart, and their families did not approve of their love for each other.

Aerial view of Peleliu (Wikimedia Commons)

The two young people agreed that one night each month during the safe darkness of a new moon they would sail their outriggers to the Ngemelis, a tiny island located midway between their homes.

In the darkness of the moonless night, they talked and touched until the first blush of dawn. Quickly the young woman gathered her mat and her paddle to sail back home, but no matter how carefully she searched, she could not find her grass skirt. She had left it on the sandy beach, but all she could find was a few strands next to the footprint of a turtle. Finally, she made a new skirt from coconut fronds and hurried to her canoe. As she waved farewell to her lover he cried out to her. “I cannot wait a whole month; let us meet again soon.”

“When the moon is full.”

“Yes,” he shouted back. “I shall return to this very place when the moon is shining round and silver like a tuna’s stomach.”

On the appointed day, both lovers impatiently waited for the night so they could secretly begin their long paddle before the rising of the moon. First, the young man arrived and then the young woman. No sooner had she stepped onto the beach than her lover held her in his arms. But their embrace was suddenly ended as they both heard the sound of something else coming onto shore. They laughed with relief as they realized the large, dark figure was a turtle crawling toward them. But what they saw next surprised them even more. On the turtle’s front fin was entangled the maiden’s grass skirt, the very same skirt she lost the night of the new moon. As the two young people quietly watched, the mother turtle scraped a deep hole and laid egg after egg, each one round and white like a full moon. Nearly fifty eggs filled the sandy nest before the mother turtle covered them with sand, rested, and then slowly crawled back through the bubbling surf into the dark sea.

Thus the people of Palau learned during which season of the year to watch for turtles to return to the very beaches where they once hatched. When the moon is new, a turtle lays the first half of her eggs and then returns two weeks later when the moon is full to lay the second half. Up to a hundred eggs are carefully buried in the sand, where they stay warm and hidden. During the next full moon, the baby turtles hatch out. They pull with their tiny fins and crawl to the sea, following the “moon path,” the ribbon of light made by the full moon shining on the sea.

Source:

Micronesian Legends

Nancy Bo Flood, Beret E. Strong, William Flood

2002

Pages: 48-49