Custom Stories from Epi, Vanuatu

Origin of the coconut and the banana / told by Supabo, Nikaura, Epi, New Hebrides)

 

A man and his wife lay together in one place, and afterwards a snake went and lay on the spot.  Things remained as they were until the wife of the man was pregnant, and the snake was also pregnant.  Afterwards the woman bore a child, and the snake also bore a child.  Each bore a female child, and they remained until they had grown to be strong children.  And one day when the woman's child was out walking, her father was at the kumali (men's common house) and he took his food and called her.  But when she was still coming the child of the snake came first.  The man thought it was child and gave the food to her.  Afterwards his own child went and asked of him,

"What is it, my father?"

But he said,

"Oh, but you came and took your food already,"

but he said,

"No, I didn't."

She returned home, and another day he called her again, when she was still coming, the snake's child again came first, took her food from him, and ate it.  She went away and his own child came and questioned again from him, and he answered again,

 "Oh, but you came and took your food already."

She said again,

"No, I didn't."

Another day the father called again, and the snake's child came first again.  While she was still there the woman's child also came, and her father saw them both.  Their face was one (they were alike).  He asked the snake's child,

"Whose child are you?"

She said to him,

"My mother is under the verandah,"

and the man came and looked under the verandah and saw that a snake, whose many coils formed a heap, was under the verandah.  He spoke to his wife, and they fled from the house and went to another.  The snake knew that the man wanted to burn up the house over its head, so it called its child and said,

"If when the tide is out, you see a fire make a column of smoke go up, they will have burned up.  You come and watch the ashes.  If you see something shoot up in it put a hedge of sticks round it." 

When the tide was out the snake's child went to the sea.  She went out to the reef, and saw a column of fire rise and knew that they had burned up her mother.  She came and continued searching in the ashes as her mother had bidden her until she saw two things spring up.  One was a coconut, one was a banana.  She made a fence round them.  The two grew together until the coconut said to the banana,

"I am pregnant now,"

and it bore fruit.  She (the snake's child) watched them until they were young drinking nuts.  Then she took them and planted them so that there were many.

The banana is tall, nears once and dies again.  They take the shoots and plant them out year after year.  This is the origin of the coconut and of the banana.  So now they say,

"The coconut came by way of the snake with the banana."

When one of two small children is called for food, and the other comes, the mother will say,

"Oh, who is this? Are you the snake's child?"