The Serpent of Lake Kutubu
Foi · numen · Foi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The creation of Lake Kutubu is told as a primordial flooding: water burst from the ground where a tree or plant had been pulled up, drowning the old land and forming the lake while a dog warned the people to flee to high ground. The waters and their resident power are imagined as a great serpentine being. Foi settlement of the lake shore and the surrounding Mubi valley is dated, in myth, from this event.
Domains
- lakes and water
- primordial creation
Powers
- looses the flood that forms the lake
Sources
- The creation of Lake Kutubu is told as a primordial flooding, the waters bursting from the ground where a tree or plant was uprooted; the lake and its waters are figured as a great serpentine being.: F. E. Williams, Natives of Lake Kutubu, Papua, Oceania Monographs No. 6 (1940-41). (primary); J. F. Weiner, The Empty Place (Indiana University Press, 1991). (secondary)