Wife of Qat
In the Mota stories of the Banks Islands, 'Qat had a wife, a female vui, Iro Lei by name,' though he had no children. His eleven brothers envied him the possession of the beautiful Iro Lei and of his fine canoe, and repeatedly tried to destroy him so that they might take both. In the best-known episode they induced Qat to crawl into the burrow of a land-crab beneath a stone which they had undermined, and toppled the stone upon him; thinking him crushed, they ran off to seize Ro Lei and the canoe, but Qat called on his friend, the spider-spirit Marawa, crying 'Marawa! take me round about to Ro Lei,' and when the brothers reached the village Qat was sitting at his wife's side. Iro Lei, the spirit-wife, is distinct from Iro Vilgale, the first woman of the Banks Islands creation account, whom Qat fashioned of rods and rings of supple twigs covered with the spathes of sago-palms.
Domains
- beauty
Relations
- consort of: Island-ShaperIro Lei was the wife of Qat; his brothers, who had no wives of their own, envied him the beautiful Iro Lei as well as his excellent canoe and were always conspiring to get both into their own hands.R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-Lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), pp. 158-160 (secondary); R. B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (The Mythology of All Races, vol. IX; Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1916), Part II, 'Melanesia' (secondary)
Sources
- Iro Lei is the beautiful female spirit (vui) who was Qat's wife, whom Qat's jealous brothers repeatedly plotted to seize together with his canoe, their schemes being foiled with the help of the spider-spirit Marawa.: R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-Lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), pp. 158-160 (secondary); R. B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (The Mythology of All Races, vol. IX; Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1916), Part II, 'Melanesia' (secondary)