Marawa
Banks Islands · deity · Banks Islands traditional religion; continuing · deity
Marawa, whose name means 'spider', is a vui of the Banks Islands and the constant companion of Qat. He is at once Qat's rival and his rescuer: when Qat carves men from wood and brings them to life, Marawa makes images of his own, but buries them for seven days and finds them rotten, and in this way, some tellers say, death entered the world. Thereafter Marawa is Qat's protector, letting down his spider's thread to save the hero whenever the jealous brothers try to crush or drown him. Codrington records Marawa as one of the two great cooperating spirits of the Qat cycle, the shrewd counterpart to the maker Qat.
Domains
- craft and cunning
Powers
- let down a web to save the falling hero
Epithets
- Marawa
Relations
- companion: Qat