The child Nebiaur and the spirits

Description:

Traditional story This is a story told by Daniel Pakanatangala at Raputput village, Makada on 1 November 2022. The speaker recounts a traditional story. The story explains the origin of a creek near Narakoi village on Makada Island. The creek is usually dry, but when it rains hard enough, the water flows down the creek and into the ocean. Nebiaur, the child– Father and mother left their child here. The two went, they entrusted her to someone [and] they went. The two went on and on [until] the sun was sitting like this [The speaker points up to the midday sun.] So it was sitting up [in the middle of the sky]—the sun; it was afternoon. The two went around here; yes, they came here to a plantation. Some spirits revealed themselves to that little child. Like this one. [The speaker points to a nearby girl to indicate the approximate age of the child in the story: younger than five years old.] Like the girl here. The girl here: the child Nebiaur was like that. Then the spirits stood [and] they revealed themselves to her like this. They stood, revealed themselves to her, [and] she saw them. [Sometime after the spirits have revealed themselves to Nebiaur and have left the house, the parents return from their daily activities.] Then, much later, in the afternoon, when the sun was sitting down like this, [the child] started crying to drink [something]. [She] cried and cried and cried, [so] they [= the parents] gave water to her, [but] she did not want [any]. [She] just cried. [She] cried and cried and cried and cried. They implored her to drink; her mother implored her to drink. She implored her to drink breastmilk, but she did not want [any]. [She] just cried [and] cried [because] the spirits had ruined [her]. [She] continued [crying] until it was afternoon, it was night. They slept, [but] the little child Nebiaur just cried. Cried [and] cried [while] they slept. They slept here. As for them, they [came] down from Toro, the little spirits [came] down from Toro. [Toro is a region of Makada, uphill from Narakoi village.] And [they went] down to the village, and then [back] uphill. They ran all the way down [and] they carried her off. They carried her, they went way up there, [and] they climbed up along the trunk of an ironwood tree. They ordered her to drink: “Drink water!”. Like this, way up the trunk of an ironwood tree, there was a pool of water. [She] drank and drank [and] said that [she] was already full. She told the spirits, said that [she] was already full. [But] the spirits said, “Drink!”. [They] said, “You wanted water, [so] drink!”. [She] drank and drank the water [until] it ran out from her nose. From her mouth, from her ear, from her two ears, [and] she died. She died, and then they stood up, way up high on that trunk, the trunk of the ironwood tree. They shouted for Togirarau—yes, her father. And Netakak. [The little girl Nebiaur’s father was Togirarau, and her mother was Netakak.] [They] said, “Togirarau and Netakak!”. They shouted and called to everyone, [and] they heard [it]. [They] said, “Hey, hey, hey, your child has died!”. They threw [the child] down. She went flying, tumbling, stumbling down to the village, here at Narakoi. In the village, her belly broke [and] water flowed down. She died. [Translation adapted from Barlow (2024:46–51)] Barlow, Russell. 2024. The Makada dialect of Kuanua. Te Reo 67(1): 1–71. Interpretive summary by a Kuanua speaker from Gazelle Peninsula with understanding of the dialect. One day, a father and mother left their child, Nebiaur, and they went off into the bush. (An example of the child’s age is given by comparison to a contemporary girl in the village.) While the parents were spending the whole day away, into the afternoon, the child was exposed to some spirits of the land. The spirits, through their supernatural powers, possessed the child, and she started crying. She resisted breastfeeding from her mother, who was trying to calm her and feed her, thinking she must be hungry. They went home, and she was still crying because she was possessed by the spirits. The spirits returned and took the child away from the parents and brought her up to the nearby bushes, up into the treetops. She was fed with some bitter water and forced to continue drinking despite her refusal, until water was filling up her nose, ears, and mouth, until she died. Sooner after, the spirits ran out shouting and calling to the child’s father, ToGirarau, and mother, IaTaka, to get their attention. The people eventually heard the shouting, and they all went with the parents to the place, only to be told that the child had died. The spirits threw the dead child down from high up in the treetops to the ground in front of them, and her body was crushed, the stomach split open and intestines coming out. (Steven Gagau, April 2024) (revised, Russell Barlow, May 2024). Language as given: Makada dialect of Kuanua. You can access this item at the PARADISEC website. You will need to sign up or sign in first.

Format:

Sound

Collections:

PARADISEC Catalog

Contributors:

Russell Barlow

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PARADISEC

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