Asmat Folklore, 3

F U M I R I P I T S

Along time ago, lived a man called Fumiripits in a jungle. He was a creator who lived alone in his big house. One day, he made a journey to Sirets River. There, he found so many beautiful girl. Fumiripits loved one of them, and so that the girl and the other. That girl who was falling in love the covered Fumiripits with banana leaves to keep him from her sisters. On the way home, the wave move quickly, so that Fumiripits fallen in to the river. Covered with banana leaves, he was fallen to the sea and shored near Momats River. Fumiripits was so sick then he died.

There were flock of bird that found him, and then they asked a shaman, the eagle to make him alive. That man found his life one more but he was separated from his lover. He built a house but he was still alone.

In his loneliness, he wanted to carve a statue from wooden. He cut a tree off and shaped the body head, the body, hand, feet, until it seemed like a human being. One of the statues ia a man and the other is a girl. Both of them are very delicate and beautiful. Fumiripits placed the statues aroun his living place. He was so happy with his creation, but those were still creatures which are disable to move or speak.

Then he made a tifa, he cut a tree off and made a hole in the center of that. He caught i lizard and then peeled it. He covered the hole with the lizard’s leather, he tied it with rattan that was full of his blood and white lemon, after that, he strike it. The beautiful sound of the tifa moved those statues and they danced in harmony with the saound of tifa. When Fumiripits made the rhythm getting faster, the statues moves were also faster.

Finally, the statues lived as human beings. They were the first craetures that would became Asmat’s ancestors.

Kaspar Manmak and Dewi Linggasari