Papuan Fairy Tales

by Annie Ker

PAPUAN FAIRY TALES

MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO

PAPUAN

FAIRY TALES

BY

ANNIE KER

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1910

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

CONTENTS

	PAGE
Introduction	ix
The Two Lizards	1
How the Turtle got his Shell	3
The Man who left Heaven	7
Dabedabe the Good	13
The Dancing Dame	19
The Jungle Boy	21
How the Flying Fish lived first in a Tree	25
The King of the Snakes	30
The Talking Bananas	31
Kakukaku and Taureboga	36
How Wakeke defeated Arebo	41
The Wise Wagtail	45
Why the Men of Gavi will not eat Fish	52
Manubada's Bride	57
How the Twins killed Manubada	61
The Crane	64
Toroa, the Song of the Dead	68
The King of the Fairies	73
The Cockerel	77
How a Man found his Wife in the Land of the Dead	81
Dakodako, the Man Eater	84
The Magic Almonds	86
The Cassowary	90
Where the Coconut came from	92
Kapikoa, the Black Cockatoo	97
The Mouse and the Butterfly	100
The Man who could not be Killed	103
The Brush Turkeys	107
The Enchanted Pillow	109
The Unlucky Man	112
The Snake Child	116
The Ant and the Pheasant	118
The Boar Slayer	121
The Man with the Open Throat	127
Borevui and her Three Brothers	131
The Mud People	135
Why Wamirans are Few	138
The Man without Hands and Feet	141
Gelaruru	144
The Three Sisters	147

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Talking Bananas	Frontispiece
The Jungle Boy	21
Kakukaku and Taureboga	36
How Wakeke defeated Arebo	41
The Wise Wagtail	45
Why the Men of Gavi will not eat Fish	52
Manubada's Bride	57
How the Twins killed Manubada	61
The Crane	64
Toroa, the Song of the Dead	68
Dakodako, the Man Eater	84
The Magic Almonds	86
The Three Sisters	147

INTRODUCTION.

The following fairy tales were collected chiefly from the natives of a small village on the N.E. coast of Papua. I have known these people for nine years, and for part of that time lived alone amongst them in a little mission bungalow.

Sometimes when seated on the verandah, with a group of children around me, I would entice an old woman to narrate for our amusement some such story as the adventures of the Turtle and the Wallaby, or the cruel fate which befell the child left to the care of the Talking Bananas.

Nothing loth, the old crone would patter out the tale which she had heard from her grandmother, who in turn had learnt it at some greybeard's knee. There was generally a little incantation or magic verse in each story, and this was invariably chanted to an air which one might call the fairy tale motif, for it appeared with great regularity, linked however to very diverse words.

In the village at night, when the "moon was dead," young married couples sitting in the dark would tell these stories turn and turn about to each other; some village dogara (elder) would have a group listening intently to his tale told over a smoking fire lit in the open; and in the men's club-house reclining forms would woo sleep to the sound of still another of these folk-tales recounted by a more wakeful one of their number.

But, as amongst the primitive tribes of Papua no written record whatever exists of these ancient stories, it was thought well to preserve in a more lasting form some at least of the vanishing store, for the older generation is fast dying out, and the young folk, now in touch with the white man, cannot be expected to treasure the old lore as did their fathers.

So natives who heard there was a white woman who would give tobacco for "Virarautua" (folk-lore) came in companies, and seated on the ground before me told at length and with much repetition the tales which follow. If their memory failed them on any point, or I wished for further elucidation, the narrator referred the disputed matter to some patriarch, who settled it dogmatically for us.

The tales exhibit to a marvellous degree the Papuan outlook upon life. What could be more characteristic of the native temperament than the action taken by Kakukaku and Taureboga when their sister Rekota's slighting remarks were repeated to them? No self-respecting Papuan would think it worth while to survive the insult. Hence their self-immolation.

Sorcerers and witches, who play so great a part in the stories, are a very real feature in Papuan life to-day. I have met many in different villages, and claim several as my friends. No doubt some years ago they would have been dealt with summarily by infuriated villagers, but now the law is feared, the witch is propitiated by gifts of food. All deaths, however, save those due to accident, are laid to her charge, and quite an ordinary remark on hearing of a death is "Who killed him?" meaning which witch?

Cannibalism, too, is another important feature. This practice is still indulged in by tribes out of reach of the Government, and there are many of the coastal tribes who, having had to relinquish the habit, still sigh for the good old days "when there was plenty to eat." It is not therefore surprising that many of the stories deal with cannibal practices.