Kewa

(map)

This same myth exists among the neighboring Foe people, with minor variations.

Once there were many women living together. They had no husbands but had their own gardens and had many dogs which hunted marsupials. But they lacked water.

One woman noticed that one bitch would creep out of the house at night and return with its mouth wet. She cooked meat for the dog until it was sated, and that night she followed it when it went out. They came to a huge tree, and the dog climbed up. The woman looked up and saw lots of animals on its branches, all drinking. She filled a bamboo with water and took it back to show her sisters, who were amazed. When it was dark again, they began to sharpen their axes. They chopped at the tree for two or three years until it broke. Water gushed down, drowning the women and their dogs, creating lake Kutubu.

They brought powerful dog medicine there. A dog who is given some finds lots of game.

Josephides, L., "Myths of containment, myths of extension: Creating relations across boundaries," in: Fluid Ontologies: Myth, Ritual and Philosophy in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, eds. L. R. Goldman and C. Ballard, Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey, 1998, p. 133. Foe version: Slone, 2001, 2: 622.