Dokonikani

Goodenough (Kalauna) · numen · Goodenough (Kalauna) traditional religion; continuing · numen

Dokonikani is the man-eating ogre of Massim folktale, a giant who devours human beings and whose defeat by a cunning hero is a favourite theme of the region's story-tellers. Tales of him circulate through the Massim and the D'Entrecasteaux, and cognate ogre-narratives were recorded on Goodenough Island by Jenness and Ballantyne. He personifies the wild, anti-social appetite that Massim narrative repeatedly opposes to the ordered sharing of food, and in most versions he is outwitted and slain, his hoarded victims released.

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