To Purgo

To Purgo is the name given to the foolish creator twin, the brother and foil of To Kabinana, in the traditions of the Duke of York Islands and the outer Gazelle Peninsula as recorded by the missionary George Brown. In these accounts To Purgo fills exactly the role that the coastal Tolai assign to To Karvuvu, the well-meaning but incompetent maker whose errors introduce mortality and misfortune into his brother's ordered creation. Scholars are divided: many treat To Purgo as a regional name for To Karvuvu, while some early collectors recorded the pair as though they were distinct brothers alongside To Kabinana. The name is independently attested in the early ethnographic record even where its bearer overlaps with To Karvuvu.

Domains

• mortality

Powers

• let death and misfortune into the world

Relations

• sibling: To KabinanaBrother and foil of To Kabinana; many scholars hold him to be the same being as To Karvuvu under a regional name.George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians (1910) (primary)

Sources

• To Purgo is the foolish creator twin and brother of To Kabinana in the Duke of York and outer-Gazelle traditions recorded by George Brown.: George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians: Their Life-Histories Described and Compared (1910) (primary)
• Scholarship is divided on whether To Purgo is a distinct brother or simply a regional name for To Karvuvu.: Roland B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (1916), pp. 110-114 (secondary)