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

Why People Have to Die

Why People Have to Die

(A Legend from Vanuatu)

Once there was a young boy who loved his grandmother very much. He was so small she often held his hand as they walked. Every day they walked under the leafy forest canopy to the bathing pool. There, the river was wide and slow. On the day that changed human lives forever, the birds were singing. "treee-kik, treee-kik.” It was spring, and purple trumpet-flowers lifted their open faces to the sun. No one knew that death was coming.

Vanuatu

The grandmother spread her best woven mat on the ground. She sat the child on it. “Stay here while I bathe," she said. “The river is cool, clear, and deep. Don‘t go in the water. Just wait for me."

Then she did a shocking thing. She crawled out from inside her old skin. It was full of wrinkles and hung limply around her knees and elbows. Even her cheeks sagged, like overripe fruit. The grandmother dropped her old skin on the ground as if she were throwing away the empty husk of a coconut. “I'll be back soon," she said to her little grandson. Then she slipped into the cool, fresh water.

Sunlight sparkled on the lazy water. Her grandson watched her splash. Soon she was clean, and she came back to him. “You see.” she said. “I wasn’t gone long, was I?"

He didn’t answer. He stared at her with terrified eyes.

Let’s go. I'll take you home to your brothers now." The boy stared and stared. His lip began to tremble. He had never seen his grandmother without her skin. He didn't recognize this young woman. Her skin was young and tight, like his own. Her face was rosy and smooth. She was pretty, but he didn’t want to go with her. Not this stranger. When she reached out her hand for his, he shrank down against the ground.

“What?" she said. “Are you afraid of me, my little one? I'm your grandmother. Do you think you don’t know me? Remember how we picked berries in the woods? How you found the ants inside that rotting log? How we sang the starling's song?"

The little boy was too scared to speak. He wanted only one thing: for his own grandmother to come back. He didn’t like this strange woman at all.

His grandmother sat down next to him. Her head hung down in sorrow. How much she wanted to be young and beautiful again! But she knew now that it couldn't be. She sighed a long, deep sigh. Gently, she picked up her old, wrinkled skin and dusted it off. Slowly, she put it on again. Her face sagged. Her brow was lined with age and worry. Her young, quick feet became flat and still to walk on. Even her belly swelled out in front of her.

The old woman sighed. “For love of the children, so it must be."

Source:

Pacific Island Legends: Tales from Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia.

Nancy Bo Flood, Beret E. Strong, William Flood

1991

Pages: 125-126