Wife of the First Man to Die

Sagaru is the woman at the centre of the most important Kiwai legend, the cycle of Sido. At Iasa on Kiwai Island she became Sido's lover and wife, but she left him unsatisfied and fled, and Sido pursued her from place to place along the coast, a journey that Kiwai communities still use to account for the naming and occupation of the places in the story. The man Meuri desired Sagaru for his wife and fought Sido for her, killing him; in the versions recorded from the region Sagaru herself was later killed after running away from Meuri, and her spirit returned with Sido's to Kiwai Island.

Domains

• marriage

Relations

• consort of: First Man to DieSagaru became Sido's wife at Iasa on Kiwai Island; her dissatisfaction and flight from him, and the rivalry over her that followed, brought about the first death in the world.Landtman, Gunnar. The Folk-Tales of the Kiwai Papuans (Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae XLVII). Helsingfors, 1917. (secondary); Lawrence, David. Gunnar Landtman in Papua: 1910 to 1912. Canberra: ANU E Press, 2010. (secondary)

Sources

• Sagaru was the wife of Sido, the first man to die; she fled from him along the coast, and the fight over her between Sido and the strong man Meuri ended in Sido's death, the first in the world.: Landtman, Gunnar. The Folk-Tales of the Kiwai Papuans (Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae XLVII). Helsingfors: Printing Office of the Finnish Society of Literature, 1917. (secondary); Lawrence, David. Gunnar Landtman in Papua: 1910 to 1912. Canberra: ANU E Press, 2010. (secondary)