Kuratje is the tommy ruff man of the Kondoli fire narrative. With Kanmari the mullet man he was sent as a messenger to invite Kondoli the whale-man to the dance at which the fire was to be seized. In the general transformation that followed the spearing of Kondoli, Kuratje became the tommy ruff; because he was dressed in a mat of dry seaweed, his fish is the drier-fleshed of the two, in contrast to the oily mullet of his companion Kanmari.