156 Primitive Theories of the Origin of Man 



in them are sneaks, and men who have cock's blood in them are 

 brave 1 . According to a Melanesian legend, told in Mota, one of the 

 Banks Islands, the hero Qat moulded men of clay, the red clay from 

 the marshy river-side at Vanua Lava. At first he made men and pigs 

 just alike, but his brothers remonstrated with him, so he beat down 

 the pigs to go on all fours and made men walk upright. Qat fashioned 

 the first woman out of supple twigs, and when she smiled he knew she 

 was a living woman 2 . A somewhat different version of the Melanesian 

 story is told at Lakona, in Santa Maria. There they say that Qat and 

 another spirit (vui) called Marawa both made men. Qat made them 

 out of the wood of dracaena-trees. Six days he worked at them, 

 carving their limbs and fitting them together. Then he allowed them 

 six days to come to life. Three days he hid them away, and three 

 days more he worked to make them live. He set them up and 

 danced to them and beat his drum, and little by little they stirred, till 

 at last they could stand all by themselves. Then Qat divided them 

 into pairs and called each pair husband and wife. Marawa also made 

 men out of a tree, but it was a different tree, the tavisoviso. He 

 likewise worked at them six days, beat his drum, and made them live, 

 just as Qat did. But when he saw them move, he dug a pit and buried 

 them in it for six days, and then, when he scraped away the earth to 

 see what they were doing, he found them all rotten and stinking. 

 That was the origin of death 3 . 



The inhabitants of Noo-hoo-roa, in the Kei Islands say that their 

 ancestors were fashioned out of clay by the supreme god, Dooad- 

 lera, who breathed life into the clay figures 4 . The aborigines of 

 Minahassa, in the north of Celebes, say that two beings called 

 Wailan Wangko and Wangi were alone on an island, on which grew 

 a cocoa-nut tree. Said Wailan Wangko to Wangi, "Remain on 

 earth while I climb up the tree." Said Wangi to Wailan Wangko, 

 "Good." But then a thought occurred to Wangi and he climbed up 

 the tree to ask Wailan Wangko why he, Wangi, should remain down 

 there all alone. Said Wailan Wangko to Wangi, "Return and take 

 earth and make two images, a man and a woman." Wangi did so, and 

 both images were men who could move but could not speak. So Wangi 

 climbed up the tree to ask Wailan Wangko, " How now ? The two 

 images are made, but they cannot speak." Said Wailan Wangko to 

 Wangi, " Take this ginger and go and blow it on the skulls and the 

 ears of these two images, that they may be able to speak ; call the man 



1 J. Kubary, "Die Eeligion der Pelauer," in A. Bastian's Allerlei aus Volks- und 

 Menschenkunde (Berlin, 1888), i. 3, 56. 



2 R. H. Codrington, The Melanesia,™ (Oxford, 1891), p. 158. 



3 R. H. Codrington, op. cit., pp. 157 sq. 



4 C. M. Pleyte, "Ethnographische Beschrijving der Kei-Eilanden," Tijdschrift van het 

 Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede Serie, x. (1893), p. 564. 



