Tagai is the great celestial being of the Torres Strait, imagined as a fisherman who stands upright in a canoe stretched across the southern sky. In the best-known narrative he sets out with a crew of twelve — six Usiam and six Seg, beings known as Zugubal who had taken human form — who, maddened by thirst, consume the food and water set aside for the voyage. Returning to find the stores gone, Tagai kills the crew and casts them into the heavens, placing the six Usiam among the Pleiades and the six Seg among the stars of Orion, on the far side of the sky from himself. His own body is traced through several constellations: his left hand grasping a fishing spear is the Southern Cross, his right hand holding a fruit is marked by stars in Corvus, and the hull of his canoe is formed from Scorpius. The turning of Tagai through the year regulates the calendar of the Islanders, signalling the seasons for gardening, sailing and the mating of turtle and dugong, while his killing of the disorderly crew is held up as a charter for restraint and for respecting what belongs to others.