510 
Gregory 
Forth 
hard, up to the present day. The elders thus speak the 
proverb: The bamboo has internodes and joints; the hu 
man being lives and dies. 
b) If the bird Girgemk had had his way, the night would 
be seven times longer than it is; and the day also would be 
seven times its present length. Day and night would have 
been one week long. But the kuau [Malay name given 
by Arndt for the friarbird] did not want this; he said: 
“The day one moment and the night one moment!” Thus 
it happened and so it has remained to the present. The 
Girgemk also wished that water and firewood should be 
fetched only once in a lifetime, and that people should 
till fields only once, eat only once, and bear just a single 
child. Also, no one should die. The kuau, however, op 
posed this; he said: “Continually fetch water, continually 
collect wood, forever work fields, eat again and again, 
continually bear children and then die!” And thus it hap 
pened and so it has remained. 
Endenese 
(Central Flores; excerpt from a Dutch translation by 
B.C. C. M. M. van Suchtelen [1921: 158f.] of a text 
recorded in North Tana Rea, in the western part of the 
Ende region. The full text, in English translation, is pub 
lished in Forth 1992.) 
Two children, the sole survivors of a primeval flood, 
heard a pigeon {rawa) cooing, and it said: “One seed 
is sufficient; one piece of wood is enough to cook with. 
The sister expects strange things; there you will be just 
two.” By this was meant that the two of them were a 
sufficient number of inhabitants for the world, and that 
they need not wish for any others. But the friarbird 
(koka), a wise creature, heard this perverse counsel and 
said to them: ‘There below the sea speaks wisely, there 
above the mountains speak the same; the wood says many 
can also cook; a large pan of rice fills up the pot; (if) 
the mango dies (it must) be rejuvenated.” In short, the 
friarbird wished to say: “multiply yourselves so that the 
race will not die out.” And the children followed the 
advice of the friarbird, and they became many, at least 
seventeen generations to the present day. 
Manggarai 
(Western Flores; from a Dutch translation published 
by J. A. J. Verheijen, 1950: 58f. The original, undated 
text, in the western Manggarai dialect of Kempo, was 
recorded by A. Burger.) 
In former times the world was continuously dark; there 
was absolutely no light. The moon, sun, and stars did 
not exist. Yet in this darkness there lived many birds. 
The pigeon, renggae (or regem in central Manggarai) was 
the most powerful. Every day he called; and his call was 
“regunammm, light will appear after seventeen years, an, 
only then will there be sun, moon, and stars in the sky- 
The owl, po, cried continually in the night; and his cry 
was “po, po, po, let it be night, let it be night.” 
When the other birds heard them calling thus, they 
become angry. They were unanimous in their desire t0 
kill the pigeon and the owl who had called so bad^ 
If they had cried “it will become light,” then the oth eI 
creatures would not have been infuriated. 
Thereupon the pigeon summoned all the other ere 3 
tures. Once they had assembled at his house, he ^ 
structed all of them to sit on the ground. After that, 
tlk 
be 
pigeon invited some of the creatures to let their cries 
heard. He first called upon the kiong (the Bare-throaty 
whistler), who was the singer among the birds. And t 
kiong sang thus: “day, night, day, night.” When the otn^ 
birds heard this “day and night” they were all delight® 
The pigeon then asked them what they wanted, whett 1 
they wished it always to be dark night or whether № 
wanted night and day. “Night and day, that is what we 
want” (all the other birds replied). At that the pigeon W e 
very 
So 
to visit God, and he said “Lord, all creatures will be 
happy if you give to us, your slaves, night and day- ^ 
be it,” God answered. And beginning on that day, h£ 
alternated with darkness, up to the present time. 
sun, and stars first shone on that day. 
Sika 
(Eastern Flores; from R Arndt’s German text 
Sikanese myth, 1932; 24, 70.) 
of* 6 
№ 
Once the earth was pitch-dark; two birds were theNj^y 
Oa and the Rawa. The Oa and Rawa disputed, and . 
quarreled with one another. The Oa said “aku ko a, t 
and night shall rapidly follow one upon another- . 
the Rawa said “bem bem, one year night and ° ne . 
day.” Thus the Oa and the Rawa became angry wh ^ 
another. Oa took indigo solution and threw it ° v 
Rawa, so his body became black. Rawa however t 
hot millet porridge and scolded the neck of Oa, s ° 
his neck became bare of feathers (p. 24). 
In the beginning, night lasted a whole year and ^ 
also a year. Since then, however, the wild pig eorl n to 
see Forth 1992] instructed the people of the horiz e $t 
scrape the bottom of the large water container an ^ to 
the scrapings, and to scrub the lid of the container 
drink this, so day and night have come to follow 9 gje 
upon one another. If the night had lasted a y ear ’, 0 j e pro 
gram of rice, when cooked, would have filled aW me 
So it was that the people of the horizon ea ^- c jjy» 
issued the command that the night should end m 
that it should quickly become day and night ^ of 
daylight should be close by. Also, that from a a 
rice people could cook only a potful (p. 70). 
Anthrop 08