Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/306

 266 The Religion of the Andaman Islanders.

not in my opinion an essential part of the myth, but is an accretion.

In endeavouring to interpret the myth we must keep in mind what are the essential elements. The first is that Biliku is identified with the north-east monsoon, and is paired ofT with Tarai, the south-west monsoon. Each of these winds blows for nearly half the year. At the change of the monsoon south-easterly winds occur, but such winds are exceptional. Now the Andaman Islander tends to personify natural phenomena. Thus he regards the sun and moon as persons, and sometimes even lightning and thunder. Again, when he wishes to think of two persons as a pair, he thinks of them as husband and wife. Thus the sun is the wife of the moon. So, I would suggest, he originally personified the N.E. and the S.W. monsoon, called them Biliku and Tarai, and made them wife and husband.

On this view Biliku was originally everywhere female, and those groups which represent Puluga as male have changed their belief. There is a good deal of evidence for this. Thus, at the two extremities of the islands, Biliku and Oluga are female. Also, in the Puchikwar, Kol, and Juwoi groups we seem to get an intermediate stage. An argument on the subject was given me by a native. " If Biliku were a man he would take up his bow and arrows, and not throw firebrands or pearl shells at people. Those are women's things."

The next point is the association of the two monsoons with the weather. Biliku and Tarai become the producers of rain, storms, thunder, and lightning. Recall that the Andamanese explain lightning as firebrands thrown by Biliku, and recall also the frequency with which Biliku is represented in the tales as throwing a firebrand. Instead of a brand it is often a pearl shell which she throws. And I would suggest that there was originally an alternative explanation of lightning as a bright mother-of-pearl shell