IN THE
BEGINNING: THE PREDECESSORS OF MEN
Melanesian's
cosmological beliefs tend to be vague and unformulated but most Melanesians do conceive of
a time in the "beginning" when mythical beings dwelt on earth. In some places,
these primal beings came from the sky, in other places they emerged from underground or
merely came from somewhere else. The world was seen as apparently already in existence and
they did play a part in shaping it. Sometimes, this included raising the sky. Almost
always it included making or releasing the sea. The Iatmul of the Sepik River area say
that the dry land was created when a spirit put his foot upon mud.
Belief about
man's origins were many and varied. Some myths say he came into the world fully grown
either from the sky or from underground or was released from a tree. Other myths say he
was created from clay or sand or that he was carved from wood. These mythical beings who
acted as creators were not the sole creators, for each clan or sub-clan within the group
had its own view. For example, some Kiwaians believed that their "father" was
the crocodile and a modern account of the story had been written by Mea Idei from Boze
near the Binaturi River. He tells how a being called Ipila carved a human figure out of
wood and brought it to life by painting the face with sago milk. First the eyes open, then
the nostrils quivered and the "man" made a noise like a crocodile. His name was
Nugu but he was not satisfied until Ipila made three more men as companions for him. These
men refused to learn the things Ipila wanted to teach them and turned their backs on him.
After a while, two of them became tired of only eating sago and started to kill animals
for food. Almost at once, they turned into half-crocodiles. Neither the animals nor Nugu
and the other man wanted any more to do with them so they tried to make some of their own
kind. But they found that they could only make men because Ipala sequently altered their
work. From these new men are descended the people who claim the crocodile as their father.
Ipala was so angry with his first creation, Nugu, that he condemned him to hold the earth
on his shoulders for ever. The narrator concludes that these events explain why his people
only know what they know - not why they are alive, nor what is happening beyond their part
of the world.
The Keraki
Papuans of the southwest coast often say that there is a sky world from which the first
beings came - these were called Gainjin. All agree that they went back into the sky when
their time on earth was finished. The exception was the two Gainjin animals, Bugal the
snake and Warger the crocodile, who still haunt the bush. An excess of rain is regarded by
the villagers as a sign that the sky beings are displeased. They fear that the great
rattan cane which supports this aerial world will one day break, so during heavy storms
they stand ready to defend themselves in case any of the sky beings should tumble down.
There are many
stories about how man was released from a tree. There are two Keraki mythologies, each
associated with its own sacred site, and in one of the Kuramangu stories a sky being,
Kambel, was curious about the unintelligible sound which issued from a palm tree and he
cut it down, releasing the people. In the evening, a shiny white object rose from the palm
and slipped from his grasp into the sky. It was his son, the moon. (Both father and son
are associated with the moon).
There are also
many stories about how man emerged from underground. The northern Massim area is a
relatively homogenous cultural grouping and there it is believed that the life which
existed below ground was exactly like the one above, so that the people who emerged
brought with them the rules governing conduct as well as the knowledge of special skills
and magic lore. Among the Trobiand Islanders, for example, each small sub-clan had an
ancestress who emerged with her brother from a particular spot sighted in a grove grotto
lump of coral or rock. With each of these hole of emergence were associated certain
territories including garden land and seashore so that each particular myth determined
land usage and inheritance. One particular site on the peninsula of Kirawina was
especially renowned because from it came the first creatures to emerge on earth. They were
the iguana, the dog, the pig and the snake - the animal ancestors of the four principal
clans.
The central
characters in a number of Melanesian myths are two brothers, who, although they have
different names from place to place tend to be associated with the same mythological
theme. They often share the laurels in Ogre-killing stories but sometimes victory is
achieved because of one's brother's superior strength and astuteness. In other stories it
is this very difference between the brothers' abilities which determines the outcome of
events.
In a tale from
Mekeo in New Guinea, one brother only has fruit to eat while the other eats meat. The
former spies on the latter, and sees him enter a hill which opens at his command and then
closes it behind you. A little later he emerges with a wallaby and two scrub hens. When
the foolish brother tries to do the same thing, he was too slow and all the animals
escape. The two brothers begin to fight but their wives separate them and send them off to
fight an ogre instead.
One of the great
heroes of the Kiwai Papuans was Marunogere. Before he taught them how to build their great
communal houses - some exceed 300 feet in length - they lived in miserable holes in the
ground. As soon as the first ceremonial house was built, he inaugurated it with a moguru
or life-giving ceremony, which also aims at making men great fighters. The ritual with a
dead pig did make the men great warriors and it was re-enacted yearly in the moguru when
young boys crawl over the corpse of a wild boar decked out in the finery of a fighter.
Marunogere also bored a hole in each woman to give her sexual organs and in the evening he
was content to die after he felt the gentle rocking of the great house as the men and
women were locked in the first sexual embrace. This part of the myth provided the sanction
for the ritual initiation, during the moguru of the young boys and girls into adult sexual
life.
For the
Melanesians, the bush and sea around him is made dangerous by a great variety of
supernatural emanation. There are special ghosts like those of beheaded men whose wounds
glow in the dark. There are also the spirits doubles of living men. The mountain Kukukukus
of New Guinea tell how a boy was approached by a spirit with the face of his mother's
brother, who pierced his nose septum and inserted a bush fowl's bone. His real uncle found
him and took him home. It was noticed soon after that he became a great fighter, so
henceforth initiation included the nose piercing ceremony.
