Sea-Spirits of the Masks

Sea-spirit class behind the great Hevehe masked cycle; rendered as deity (spirit-class), with the collective nature flagged. Sex unspecified as the ma-hevehe are a category (a male sea-spirit and his many daughters). The hevehe masks and eravo house are the attested cult-objects. Williams' Drama of Orokolo (1940) is the definitive ethnography.

Domains

• sea
• male cult and initiation

Powers

• BRING the mask-daughters up from the sea

Epithets

• Ma-Hevehe

Relations

• companion: Things of Gladness

Sources

• Williams, F.E. (1940). Drama of Orokolo: The Social and Ceremonial Life of the Elema. Oxford University Press, Clarendon.
• Williams, F.E. (1923). The Vailala Madness and the Destruction of Native Ceremonies in the Gulf Division. Territory of Papua Anthropology Report 4.