Origin of marriage

The Country of Women / told by Sapabo, of Nikaura

Two women had their houses in one place. They saw the flying-foxes come and settle on the roofs of their houses, and come inside. They let them stay in their houses with them as their husbands.

Then the other women of the district all did this until one of these women tied a rope on her boar, and left him in the enclosure under the banana leaves.

She made a pudding and took it to the boar regularly, but there was a man in another country who had a sore on his leg, and wanted his sore healed but could not heal it. This man made a raft of banana stalks, put it in the sea, and went on to it. The sea took him out into the open ocean, and continued washing his sore until he was cast ashore in the country of these women.

He jumped ashore and walked along in ignorance, thinking it was perhaps a place of men. He was afraid and hid, and remained in the heart of the banana stalks close to the boar.

Now, when the women brought the pudding to the boar she set it down, and left it, and went home. Then the man drove the boar away from the pudding, and took it and ate it, and when he had eaten it he went and hid again in the banana leaves. He did this many days, and the women knew well that she had made puddings for the boar, but she saw that the boar was not fat. She talked it over with herself, saying :

"Often have I made pudding, and brought it to this boar and he has eaten it, but how is it that he is not fat?"

For formerly she had seen him grow fat, but in the latter days had not fattened at all. She went and made yet another pudding, and said to herself,

"Today I will take this pudding and set it before the boar."

Having done this she hid and watched if the boar world eat it or not. And when she still watched she saw the man emerge from the heart of the banana stalks, come and drive away the boar from the pudding, take it and eat it. When the women saw it, she ran and asked of him,

"Where did you come from?"

He told her,

"I made a banana stalk raft, and sat on it, and the sea carried me away and I came ashore in this place, and I was afraid and came and hid and remained here."

She said to him,

"I haven't got a husband, come we two will stay in my house."

They went together to the woman's house, and the man took the woman for his wife.

The other woman did not know, and he stayed with her for many days. In the night the flying-foxes came again and the man smote the flying-foxes, and the other woman heard when he smote them that the flying-foxes cried out, and they smelt the scent of the hair of the flying-foxes when the man cooked them.

In the morning they asked the woman,

"What made your husbands cry out in the night, it seems as if you have killed them, and cooked them?"

She denied and said

"No."

She did this until she became pregnant. The other women knew when she was pregnant, and asked her how she became pregnant, and she told them about the man. Now they all knew he was her husband, and the others also wanted to be his wives until they all became pregnant and bore children.

And so it was some were men and some were women; and at length people were plentiful in that country.