CHAPTER I
MYTHS OF ORIGINS AND THE DELUGE
APPARENTLY one of the clearest characteristics of the mythology of the Melanesian area is the almost total lack of myths relating to the origin of the world. With one or two exceptions, the earth seems to be regarded as having always existed in very much the same form as today. In the Admiralty Islands[1] a portion of the population believed that once there was nothing but a wide-spread sea; and one myth states that in this sea swam a great serpent,[2] who, desiring a place on which he might rest, called out, "Let the reef rise!", and the reef rose out of the ocean and became dry land. Another version differs in that a man and a woman, after having floated upon the primeval sea, climbed upon a piece of driftwood and wondered whether the ocean would dry up or not. At last the waters wholly retired, and land appeared covered with hills, but barren and without life; whereupon the two beings planted trees and created foods of various sorts. In New Britain, among the coastal tribes of the Gazelle Peninsula,[3] we find the familiar story of the fishing of the land from the bottom of the sea, a task which was accomplished by the two culture hero brothers, To-Kabinana and To-Karvuvu, some of whose other deeds will be recounted later. The same story in slightly greater detail is found also in the southern New Hebrides.[4] This conception of a primeval sea is found widely in central Polynesia, Micronesia, and Indonesia, and it is perhaps significant that it apparently occurs in Melanesia only on its northern margin, where contact with non-Melanesian peoples would theoretically be expected. A much closer
