Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/199

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This is a star myth, and probably refers to the two Dorga constellations which are referred to in the second and third of this series of legends.

(1) I suspect that this is the jumping fish, Periophthalmus, which is found hopping about among the roots of mangroves.

I also obtained this legend from a Muralug man. Unfortunately, I did not copy it down accurately at the time, and so I cannot compare the two versions.

This is a sacred and important legend, as it was imparted to lads at Mer during initiation into manhood. Although neither particularly clear nor interesting in its present form, it evidently embodies the traditional history of the origin of a portion at least of the rite in question.

If we had fuller information we would probably find that these four brothers play an important part in the mythical history of the islanders. Malu, as this legend shows, is intimately connected with one of the most sacred institutions of the natives of Mer. Of Seo, no further information is to hand. Sigar is reported to have drifted to Yam. Now Yam is practically the "garden" of Tud, a smull, scrubby islet, about twelve miles off. When at Tud, I heard of a renowned warrior of old named Sigai or Singai, who was doubtless the same as Sigar. [It must be remembered that I heard the legend of Malu at Mer, where the language is quite different from that spoken at Tud.] The place where Sigai had buried his navel-cord (kupai) was pointed out to me in Tud [it was close by the Taiai Kwod, or sacred spot where initiation was practised], and here, before going to fight, the warriors were accustomed to dig their weapons in the ground, in order to give them more deadly effect, and when hard pressed in the fight, the men would call on the name of Sigai, in the hope that they might be endued with his courage. The umbilical cord had peculiar significance, at all events in some islands of the Straits. Sigai's burial of his navel-string was tantamount to his planting himself in a new locality. Kulka is the eponymic hero of the small islands in the central area of Torres Straits, as the inhabitants of these islands are known as the Kulkalaig or "Kulka-folk".

I have previously referred to the easterly migration of culture in Torres Straits. In this particular legend it is to me a matter for great