Thursday, February 28, 2013

Asmat Folklore, 5


THE FIRST SAGO TREE

Long time ago, at the upper course of Sirets River, lived a man named Biorpit. He had two wives and two dog. One day, the family suffered from famine, they decided to go jungle to find out some kind of food to be consumed every day. They walked along, from jungle to jungle, from one river river to others, as well as the dogs came around to find some food.
One day, they felt so tired and then the dog barked and seemed so happy. Biorit was wandering what happened. The dogs found sago tree. Biorpit was so happy, without realizing that there was a dangerous marsh. Then he was trapped there.
Since then, sago became main food for Asmat people every day. They had cut it, watering it, filtering it, nd placing it in a hole in a branch, so that the sago would be tasty. Biorpit and his family would not suffer famine anymore.
Biorpit thought that the entire sago tree they are his belongings, so that he were to cut it whenever he wanted. That statement made a snak that thought the same was angry to him. One day when Biorpit cut a sago tree, taht snake was very angry, so that it swallowed Biorpit’s body alive.
Teweraut, Biorpit’s daughter saw that incident, she cary aloud, called her neighbor to ask for helps to kill that snake. Then the snake could be killed by a man. Teweraut was not crying anymore. After that, the man married her.


Kaspar Manmak and Dewi Linggasari

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