Myth of Atu’a’ine, Aturamo’a and Sinatemubadiye’i.

“They were two brothers and a sister. They came first to the creek called Kadawaga in Siyawawa. The woman lost her comb. She spoke to her brethren: ‘My brothers, my comb fell down.’ They answered her: ‘Good, return, take your comb.’ She found it and took it, and next day she said: ‘Well, I shall remain here already, as Sinatemubadiye’i.’ ”

“The brothers went on. When they arrived at the shore of the main island, Atu’a’ine said: ‘Aturamo’a, how shall we go? Shall we look towards the sea?’ Said Aturamo’a; ‘O, no, let us look towards the jungle.’ Aturamo’a went ahead, deceiving his brother, for he was a cannibal. He wanted to look towards the jungle, so that he might eat men. Thus Aturamo’a went ahead, and his eyes turned towards the jungle. Atu’a’ine turned his eyes, looked over the sea, he spoke: ‘Why did you deceive me, Aturamo’a? Whilst I am looking towards the sea, you look towards the jungle.’ Aturamo’a later on returned and came towards the sea. He spoke, ‘Good, you Atu’a’ine, look towards the sea, I shall look to the jungle!’ This man, who sits near the jungle, is a cannibal, the one who sits near the sea is good.”

This short version of the myth I obtained in Sinaketa. The story shows us three people migrating for unknown reasons from the North-East to this district. The sister, after having lost her comb, decides to remain in Siyawawa, and turns into the rock Sinatemubadiye’i. The brothers go only a few miles further, to undergo the same transformation at the Northern end of Sarubwoyna beach. There is the characteristic distinction between the cannibal and the non-cannibal. As the story was told to me in Boyowa, that is, in the district where they were not man-eaters, the qualification of ‘good’ was given to the non-cannibal hero, who became the rock further out to sea. The same distinction is to be found in the previously quoted myth of the Kudayuri sisters who flew to Dobu, and it is to be found also in a myth, told about the origins of cannibalism, which I shall not quote here. The association between the jungle and cannibalism on the one hand, and between the sea and abstention from human flesh on the other, is the same as the one in the Kudayuri myth. In that myth, the rock which looks towards the South is cannibal, while the Northern one is not, and for the natives this is the reason why the Dobuans do eat human flesh and the Boyowans do not. The designation of one of these rocks as a man-eater (tokamlata’u) has no further meaning, more especially it is not associated with the belief that any special dangers surround the rock.

The importance of these two rocks, Atu’a’ine and Aturamo’a lies, however, not so much in the truncated myth as in the ritual surrounding them. Thus, all three stones receive an offering—pokala—consisting of a bit of coco-nut, a stale yam, a piece of sugar cane and banana. As the canoes go past, the offerings are placed on the stone, or thrown towards it, with the words:

“Old man (or in the case of Sinatemubadiye’i, ‘old woman’) here comes your coco-nut, your sugar cane, your bananas, bring me good luck so that I may go and make my Kula quickly in Tu’utauna.”

This offering is given by the Boyowan canoes on their way to Dobu, and by the Dobuans as they start on the Kula Northwards, to Boyowa. Besides the offerings, certain taboos and observances are kept at these rocks. Thus, any people passing close to the rock would have to bathe in the sea out of their canoes, and the children in the canoes would be sprinkled with sea-water. This is done to prevent disease. A man who would go for the first time to kula in Dobu would not be allowed to eat food in the vicinity of these rocks. A pig, or a green coco-nut would not be placed on the soil in this neighbourhood, but would have to be put on a mat. A novice in the Kula would have to make a point of going and bathing at the foot of Atu’a’ine and Aturamo’a.

The Dobuans pokala some other stones, to which the Boyowans do not give any offerings. The previously mentioned Gurewaya rock receives its share from the Dobuans, who believe that if they passed it close by without making a pokala, they would become covered with sores and die. Passing Gurewaya, they would not stand up in their canoes, nor would they eat any food when camping on a beach within sight of Gurewaya. If they did so, they would become seasick, fall asleep, and their canoe would drift away into the unknown. I do not know whether there is any myth in Dobu about the Gurewaya stone. There is a belief that a big snake is coiled on the top of this rock, which looks after the observance of the taboos, and in case of breach of any of them would send down sickness on them. Some of the taboos of Gurewaya are also kept by the Boyowans, but I do not exactly know which.

I obtained from a Dobuan informant a series of names of other, similar stones, lying to the East of Dobu, on the route between there and Tubetube. Thus, somewhere in the district of Du’a’u, there is a rock called Kokorakakedakeda. Besides this, near a place called Makaydokodoko there is a stone, Tabudaya. Further East, near Bunama, a small stone called Sinada enjoys some Kula prestige. In a spot Sina’ena, which I cannot place on the map, there is a stone called Taryadabwoyro, with eye, nose, legs and hind-quarters shaped like those of a pig. This stone is called ‘the mother of all the pigs,’ and the district of Sina’ena is renowned for the abundance of these animals there.

The only mythical fragment about any of these stones which I obtained is the one quoted above. Like the two Kula myths previously adduced, it is a story of a migration from North to South. There is no allusion to the Kula in the narrative, but as the stones are pokala’d in the Kula, there is evidently some association between it and them. To understand this association better, it must be realised that similar offerings are given in certain forms of magic to ancestral spirits and to spirits of Kultur-heroes, who have founded the institution in which the magic is practised. This suggests the conclusion that Atu’a’ine and Aturamo’a are heroes of the Kula like Tokosikuna and Kasabwaybwayreta; and that their story is another variant of the fundamental Kula myth.

1 See Chapter VI, Division VI. ↑

2 The reader will note that this is the same name, which another mythical dog bore, also of the Lukuba clan as all dogs are, the one namely from whom the kayga’u magic is traced. Cf. Chapter X, Division V. ↑

3 Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman, “The Melanesians,” Chapter LIV, “Burial and Mourning Ceremonies” (among the natives of the Trobriand Islands, of Woodlark and the Marshall Bennetts). ↑