Abelam

(map)

A masalai is a sort of magical ogre. They appear frequently in New Guinea folklore.

Long, long ago, the people of a village in the Wosera area planned a festival and prepared for it by hunting lizards. (They used the lizard skins for hand drums.) One of the lizards they killed was the child of a masalai woman named Ramingihan. When she discovered that her child was missing, Ramingihan turned herself into a dog and went to the village, where she found the hand drum made from her child's skin. She cried and headed back to her home in the forest.

Along the way, she came across two orphan brothers breaking apart sago, gathering grubs to eat. Ramingihan was still a dog, and they gave some of the grubs to her. She followed them to their home in the village, where they cooked and ate their food, giving more to her. Then she turned back into a ghost woman with long fingers and hair.

The two boys were terrified, but she reassured them, saying, "You have given me food and been kind to me, so I cannot harm you. The people of the village, though, killed my child, and I will destroy them. You must make a house for yourselves at the top of a tall coconut palm tree. Climb into it tomorrow night while they are all singing and dancing." Then she disappeared.

The brothers did as she said. On the following night, the people began their festival. The brothers did not say anything to anyone else because the people of the village had not treated them well. They climbed the palm tree.

The masalai woman went to the base of the palm tree and began to sing and dance to raise a flood. Water shot up and began covering everyone. Ramingihan jumped back and forth removing the water that would have swallowed the tree. Everyone else was drowned. The two brothers came down the following morning and built a new village.

Slone, 2001, 2: 740-741.

Urahi, a man from Yakwal Village, was sharpening his stone axe at the river when it fell into the water. Cutting a long piece of bamboo to breathe with, he went in to retrieve it. When he found it, he realized that he was in a special place where the snakes lived. They were all asleep at the time, and there were hand drums lying around, which Urahi coveted. He got his axe and also took one of the hand drums as he left.

That night, Urahi tried the hand drum, and its sound was sweet and loud. The men in distant villages heard it, but so did the snakes, and they gathered and started towards Yakwal Village. The water rose as they came, and Urahi ran up a tall coconut tree, but the water followed. He dropped the hand drum, and the water retreated to its usual level.

Slone, 2001, 2: 559-560.