The Folk-Lore Journal/Volume 7/Notes on African Folklore &c.
NOTES ON AFRICAN FOLK-LORE, &c.
Legend of the Ké Islanders (in the Banda Sea, S.W. of New Guinea), as to the First Peopling of the Earth.
[Obtained by Capt. G. Langen, who lived three years in the Kè Islands; and communicated by H. W. Bates, Esq., F.R.S.]
THREE brothers named Hian, Tongül, and Parpara, and two sisters named Bikeel and Meslaang, once lived above the earth. One day Parpara went fishing in the clouds with his eldest brother's fish-hook, which he lost. Angry at this, Hian ordered him to find it and bring it back. Then Parpara took a boat and dived into the clouds in search after the hook.
After long and fruitless toil he met the fish Kiliboban, who asked him what he wanted. Parpara told him, and the fish promised to help him. Soon afterwards, Kiliboban met the fish Kerken, who was well-nigh choked with coughing. Kiloboban asked what ailed him; and when he suffered him to look down his throat, he saw the missing hook and drew it out. Then he gave it to Parpara, who returned it to his brother. Hian was surprised at this, and Parpara sought how to revenge himself upon him.
On a certain day, as Hian lay asleep in his house, Parpara hung a bamboo filled with the precious arrack, or palm wine in the heaven, over the bed in such a manner that it might be upset as soon as Hian awoke. And when this happened, Parpara ordered Hian to refill the bamboo; and he, ashamed of what he had done, set to work and dug a hole through the heaven, but did not find any palm wine. After standing in deep thought a long long time before the hole, one of the brothers said, "It would be to our gain to know what lies below us; so we will let down our dog by a rope." This being done, they pulled up the dog again, and saw that his feet were smeared with sand; which made them decide to go down and see for themselves. But no other dwellers in the heavens could be persuaded to follow them, until one day the woman Meslaang took courage, and was let down by the rope. As she neared the earth, her brothers, looking up saw her pudenda, the sight of which caused them disgust and shame; and they thereupon gave a signal to those in the heaven to pull up the rope, which was done.
The place where Hian, Tongül, Parpara, and Bikeel arrived on the earth in company with their four dogs, Kopul, Wakar, Singum, and Patâras, is named Wriat, a place on Trent Key; and it is still held sacred by the natives of the Kè Islands.
This is an inferior variant of the well-known family of Polynesian myths, which account for the bursting of the first settlers through the sky to reach the earth. "When white men made their appearance, it was thought that they and the vessel which brought them had in some way broken through the heavens; and, to this day, white men are called Papalangi, or Heaven-bursters." Turner's Samoa, p. 199.
Note on the Hare in African Folk-Lore.
In Mr. James's recently-issued account of his explorations in Somali-land, under the title of The Unknown Horn of Africa, the only incident of value to Folk-Lorists is the following:—
"Just before reaching Burao, we had an example of Somali superstition. A hare was started from its form and ran ahead of us. Being on the march, we were implored not to shoot it while it ran in the direction in which we were bound—it would bring bad luck to the whole expedition. If it doubled and headed towards us, then we might shoot without danger" (p. 63).
For works on cognate superstitions it may be convenient to refer to Mr. Black's useful paper on the Hare in Folk-Lore, F.L.J. I. 84-90; also, F.L.R. I. 56; II. 200; IV. 98; V. 48; F.L.J, II. 258; IV. 27; V. 263; Aubrey, pp. 26, 109; Elton's Origins of Eng. Hist. pp. 254, 297, 407 f.f.; Dennys' Folk-Lore of China, p. 64; Dyer's Eng. FolkLore, pp. 117, 198; Napier's Folk-Lore, p. 117; Lang's Myth, Ritual, &c., II. 350-355; Custom and Myth, p. 168; Bleek's Reynard the Fox, p. 69; Henderson, p. 204; Gregson, p. 129; Kelly's Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition, pp. 234-237. Etc., etc.
Friday Superstition.
A lodging-house keeper in Macclesfield had quite recently taken a girl from the workhouse as servant. She caught her cutting her finger-nails one Friday; and, snatching the scissors from her, shouted, "Is that what I had you from the workhouse for; to cut your nails on a Friday, and bring bad luck to this house?"
How the Lizards were once Little Men.
Mr. L. L. Frost, of Susanville, Lassen County, California, tells us how, when he requested an Indian to gather and bring in all the arrow-points he could find, the Indian declared them to be "no good," that they had been made by the lizards. Whereupon Mr. Frost drew from him the following lizard story:—
"There was a time when the lizards were little men, and the arrow-points which are now found were shot by them at the grizzly bears. The bears could talk then, and would eat the little men whenever they could catch them. The arrows of the little men were so small that they would not kill the bears when shot into them, and only served to enrage them. At last there was a smart little fellow who lived with his grandmother. One day he was making a bow and his grandmother asked him what he was going to do with it. He replied, that he was going to kill a bear. His grandmother told him the bear had killed all his family, and so she refused her consent for him to go hunting, and kept him prisoner in the campooda. But the boy knew of a valley near by to which the bears came every evening to feed. He had finished his bow and gathered up his arrows, and when one day his grandmother went for water he stole away to this valley, and, climbing a tree, waited for events. Pretty soon a number of bears came into the valley, and the little fellow whistled. At this the big boss bear which had killed so many of the little men, and of which all were afraid, came under the tree, and, sitting himself on his haunches, looked up and asked the little fellow what he was doing up there. To which the little fellow replied, that he was going to kill him, the big boss bear. This reply tickled the bear so that he began to laugh, and making a great guffaw, opened his mouth so wide that the little fellow could see far down his throat, when quick as lightning he drew his bow and shot one of his arrows with one of these little points on it down the open throat of the bear and into his vitals, whereupon his laugh turned into a roar as he fell down, rolled over, and died. All the rest of the bears took to their heels and scampered up the valley and over the mountains. The little fellow went home and related what he had done, but his grandmother refused to believe him. But the next day the whole settlement gathered to hear the story, and all hands going to the valley, found the dead bear. This made the little fellow a great hero. Ever since that time the bears have hid away in the brush, and are afraid of men. Thus they have lost their power of speech."
The Indian could not tell how the little men became transformed into lizards.—From the American Naturalist, May, 1888, p. 477.