Qasavara
Banks Islands · numen · Banks Islands traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Qasavara is the great cannibal ogre of the Banks Islands, the principal antagonist of Qat. Immensely strong and all but invulnerable, he seizes and devours human beings and lies in wait for Qat and his brothers. In the climactic episode Qat lures Qasavara, escapes his traps, and at last kills him, in some tellings by striking the token in which the ogre's life resides. After his death Qasavara was said to be turned to stone, and his petrified body served as a mana-charged object connected with strength and success in fighting. Sources differ on how far the origin of death is bound to Qasavara's overthrow, but he is uniformly the embodiment of murderous menace subdued by the culture-hero.
Domains
- cannibalism and menace
Powers
- seize and eat human beings
- withstand all wounds until his life-token is struck
Epithets
- Qasavara — the man-eaterR. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (1891), pp. 160-162. (primary)
Relations
- enemy: QatR. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (1891), ch. X, pp. 160-162. (primary)
Sources
- Qasavara is the cannibal ogre-spirit and chief antagonist of Qat, whom Qat destroys; a mana-stone commemorates him.: R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (1891), ch. X, pp. 160-162. (primary); R. B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (1916), pp. 131-132. (secondary)