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

624 ' MALEKULA ~
the two is reasonably similar to make it extreinely probable)
The following table shows examples of such phonetic tran,5_l
iormations :— - i -r
' Mote. ‘ Seniang. ' English. ' 5 i "
gum Mbus to press‘ down, to crush
> D16
Mbw1'm' ,- to dream -
Qzm Mban - 1 darkness ‘ . .
Q02 Mbuas V pig _
Qern (Nu)mbur '(thc)mi1shroorh ‘ '
Qahu (Nï¬Åmbatu (my) head’ ‘ »~
Qat (A)mbal ~ - , ,;
As we have said, there is not in any of the myths’ recorded
Deacon any direct evidence or suggestion that the Ambat‘
brothers were in any sense the ancestors of modem nien or even
creators of any greet importance, since Tommzm Isiand seeing
to have been the only work of their hands. He has,‘ howe've_r,:
preserved other‘,legends ooncerning beings Ambrlt, who
have beyond theifname litfleiapjaareht connection with
ï¬Åve brothers, and one of theselegends does deal with the origin
of the modern Malekuléms. There are two versions of the story!
one of which is apparently econtinuation of that which tells how
Ambat planted a coconut on Tomman Island end went to live
there with his brothers. Itiis said that he ifl§{Tl'i8d‘LiIld3ndQ
and hadifour sons by her. These were sent to what are now
the sites ofthen four‘ yillgiges vi/iinbangk, Dineur} Liiwiang, and
Vanha, while' he remained at'Iumoran. 'These"b0ys hadinter-l
course with their mother, and in their turnhad children hy he‘if._
It then told that by this time a certain tree oi the kind called
naavi bore fruit, and An-ihat commended hb children not to
eat it‘. ‘But eiman, Atari, caine and told them thatithey shonl'd_
eat it, whereiipon ï¬Årst two of them andthuen theother two"
ate, and by doing so their bodies bocjameiblack. After this Ambat
took off their hats and clothes and gavethem a 1eai,'(nqrnvu)_o'i'
which to rhalce penis sheaths‘ and a. inberea to the
the closiné injunction, “You two fellow take‘ out’ clothes, take
noroi/u.â€ù' H V‘ i "iv ' ' ‘
1 The phrase, Q5 given in pidgin English, is “twb eat, two eat which
presumably means that lour,»the four Sï¬Ånsicf Ambat, ate alt'ogethe:'.—C. 1-1. w.
= It is never easy in the note-books chi» sure when min stziterneut or mi,-.
stops and n new one begins, hiic in this ease the elibernal evidence [ioints to this
chin nz thedisobcdient children being a continuation of Lhat which teui of Arnbat
and the G060-nut. whiz a mbum is we do not know.—C. H. w. ' i
.4‘ 1; -1,.