[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

THE AMBAT, KABAT, AND HAMBAT 621
Island. One important addition is the origin of Ambat's wife.
One day he found in a pool a ï¬Åsh (nisimn). Next day on going
to the pool again he could not see it, but only the cast skin which
was lying at the bottom. Looking around he saw a girl whom he
accused of having stolen the ï¬Åsh. This she denied strenuously,
but ï¬Ånally confessed that she herself was the ï¬Åsh~'which had
sloughed its skin. Then Arnbat was glad, took her hometo‘ be
his wife, i1nd,.by'keeping'her inra hut which he forbade his
brothers to enter, prevented them from knowing of her existence.
This theme concerning the change of the girl 1 from a ï¬Åsh to a
woman is signiï¬Åcant, for it bears a close resemblance to the
Mewun story of the origin of the wife of the Kabat. -
The tale continues that one day Ambat departed, apparently
to the mainland, to take part in a Nalmg dance. Awirara tdok
this opportunity of disobeying his brother's orders and going
into the hut. There he found the girl and violated her. She, in
distress called out for Arnbat, who heard her and returned forth-
with to Tomman. Seeing‘ what had happened to his wife he
killed her and then took arms against his brothers so that in the
end he and they were all killed, ‘
This version is interesting, because not only does it imply
that through their fratricidal ï¬Åghting the Ambat brothers became
extinct, but also that other human beings existed at the time
besides the Ambat brothers, for how else could a Nelang dance
be held. on the mainland. The Nelmg is danced by men with
well-deformed heads; there is thus a discrepancy iirwe are to
believe that the1Ambat ‘introduced the deformation of heads. Y
It is not certain whether we ca-n regarrlithe-latter part of this
story as a myth of thelorigin/oi‘ death, for-the Ambat brothers,‘
with their white skins and otheripeculiar characteristics, were it
seems regarded as quite different from the other inhabitants of
the island. On the whole it is perhaps more probable that the
legend which tells how Arnbat made the ï¬Årst'rambamm;i> effigy,
because Awirara objected to his brother's resurrection from
death, would more closely approximate to the general iorrn of
Melanesian death myths‘
The accounts of the Ambat brothers collected by, Layard
1 In this version she is given no name but isreierrod to as “ me girl
The theme is very similar to that oi many totemic mynis in other jiarts of tho
New Hebrides.»-C. 1-1. w. '