CH. xn SONGS AND ROMANCE IN OLD MINAHASSA 817 



manua and his son mounted on the rattan, which grew and grew 

 and grew until it reached the expanse of heaven, where, pushing 

 against a stone piUar and finding no support, it turned down 

 again and grew towards the east, where the sun rises. ' Wait 

 here,' said he to Mamanua, ' until the sun begins his upward 

 journey, and follow him ' to Kasendukan.' He had not long to 

 wait, for soon he met a man named Makarehak going before 

 the sun, who said to him, ' Why are you here ? ' 'I wish to 

 mount into the sky with the sun,' was the answer. ' Very well ; 

 but if you do not wish to be burnt with the sun's rays, you 

 must be provided with nine banana and nine arenga stalks.' 

 Having no time to do this, Mamanua let the sun pass without 

 using him, and waited for the moon instead. ' Why are you 

 here ? ' asked the moon. ' I wish by your help to go to 

 Kasendukan,' said he. 'Your wish shall be granted, but you 

 will suffer considerably during the voyage, for a stinking vapour 

 exhales from me as I move.' They thereupon commenced the 

 journey, and soon came to Kasendukan. Here Muntuuntu stood 

 in the way ; asking him, ' Why have you come here ? ' ' I am 

 searching for the mother of Walasendou,' said Mamanua. Then 

 Muntuuntu took some assa (a reed), and, sharpening it to a point, 

 thrust it at Mamanua ; but as he could not strike him even once 

 with it, he said, ' You evidently are a friend of ours. Go your 

 way in peace. In the middle of the country you will find a 

 great house which belongs to Marinojo, father of Lumalundung.' 

 Mamanua, however, saw on all sides fine houses and was per- 

 plexed, not being able to find with certainty the house he wanted. 

 A great fly settling on his head, he said to it, ' Show me the 

 house of Marinojo, and I will give you fine hnen and rice.' 

 'Give me only a name,' it said, ' and I will put you right.' 

 ' Your name shall be Lalerlumeno (bright or shining fly), and if 

 your dung be laid in wounds, in flesh, in pig's flesh, or in fish, 

 it shall breed maggots.' ' Follow me,' continued the fly, ' and 

 note well upon whose forehead of the nine sisters in the house of 

 Marinojo ^ I settle, for she is Lumalundung. Take Walasendou 

 to her that she may embrace him. So said, so done. Lumalun- 



' The sun is masculine and the moon feminine in the native languages 

 (91). . 



2 Marinojo seems to have been an agricultural deity. 



