On the island of Kiwai, in a place called Iasa, there once lived in a hut a young man and several girls. The young man had ulcers all over his body, it was difficult for him to walk, and he lay all the time. Every day some girls went to make sago (and others to catch fish or crabs. Only one of the girls, the youngest, felt sorry for the young man, and although she did not come close to him, for fear of getting infected, she often threw him a piece of sago or fish. The other girls did not feel sorry for him and did not give him anything. After dinner, they all went to bed.
One morning the girls got up and, as always, those of them who had fished the day before went to make sago, and those who had made sago went to fish. In the evening they returned, some brought sago, others fish, and the girl, who felt sorry for the young man, threw him a small fish, but did not come close, because she was afraid of getting infected. The girls who brought the sago from the forest again gave him nothing. During the day, the wind blew ash from the fireplace onto the girls’ beds, and they began to scold the young man:
“Why did you stain our beds with ash?” The young man replied:
- How could I get them dirty? After all, I’m covered in sores, it’s difficult for me to move any further.
The girl, who felt sorry for the young man, said to the others:
- Don't scold him, none of you feed him.
The next morning the girls who had been making sago the day before went to fish, and those who had been fishing went to make sago.
The young man stood up, looked to the right, to the left, and to the path that led into the forest, but saw no one. He went to the water, washed away the dirt and ashes that covered his body, and cleaned his sores, and then returned to the hut, again, so that it would not be visible that he had washed, sprinkled himself with ashes and lay down in his place by the hearth.
When the girls returned home, the one who felt sorry for the young man threw him a piece of sago and said:
- I didn’t catch fish today, I’ll go fishing tomorrow. The young man raised his head and said in a weak voice:
- Thank you.
And then he whispered:
“Don’t come close to me, but listen to what I tell you.” Cut down a palm tree, cut off a piece from the trunk, split it into small pieces, and bring these pieces to me - so that no one sees. Also, cut down a stem of bamboo, cut it in two and quietly bring half of it to me along with the pieces of paru.
The next day, when the girls began to make sago, the one who felt sorry for the young man did what he asked her to do. In the evening she quietly brought pieces of paru and bamboo home, gave them to the young man and said:
“I didn’t fish today, you’re wearing a piece of sago.”
The others, as always, gave the young man nothing.
In the morning the girls left again, and then the young man began to cut a bow out of bamboo with a shell, and an arrowhead from a piece of paru. Having made a bow and a tip, the young man hid them.
He went to the river and saw a white heron on the bank, and when he washed himself, he returned home and lay down in his place by the hearth.
The girls came - some from the shore, others from the forest, but not one, except the one who pitied him, gave him anything. She first threw him a fish, and then, when the other girls gave her sago, she broke off half and threw it to the young man.
He whispered to her so that the others would not hear:
“Tomorrow, when you go to make sago, cut and bring me another stalk of young bamboo.” If one of your friends asks you why you are carrying it, say: (To make tongs for the hearth). And also bring me some reeds.
In the morning the girls got up, as always, and some went to fish and others to make sago. In the evening they came home and shared fish and sago with each other, and the girl, feeling sorry for the young man, gave him fish and sago again and quietly gave him a reed and a stalk of young bamboo.
Everyone went to bed, and in the morning they got up, and again some of the girls went to fish, and others to make sago. When they left, the young man stood up and looked around: (Is there anyone?) He looked at the shore: (Nobody!) - and went to wash his sores.
Returning, he pulled a string of young bamboo onto the bow, and then put a tip with four points, which he had made from the paru palm, on a reed, and he made an arrow. With a bow and arrow, he hobbled again to the river bank, to where he had seen the white heron, sat down there and waited. Finally she appeared, and the young man drew his bow, shot and killed the heron. He went up to her, pulled out an arrow from it, broke it into small pieces and threw them into the water so that they would be carried away by the current, and he did the same with the bow and string. After that, he took the dead bird to the hut, pulled out the feathers from its tail and put it on his back, and put the others on his shoulders and arms, and his arms became wings. He took his eyes out of their sockets and inserted the eyes of a bird there, and instead of a nose he put its beak. The young man began to rub his body, and wherever he rubbed it became covered with feathers. Now he was no longer a man, but a bird. He tried to see if his wings were flapping well, and thought: (Well, now I’m a real white heron!) He began to walk around the hut, a man inside, a bird outside, and then he took off the skin with feathers, hid it and again became a young man, whose skin was covered with ulcers. He again sprinkled himself with ash and, when it was time for the girls to return, he lay down in his place and pretended to be asleep.
The girls came and started scolding him again:
“Will you stop dirtying our beds?” You keep covering them with ash all the time!
The young man replied:
- But I can’t even walk, I’m sick, covered in ulcers! It is the wind that brings ash onto your beds.
Tears flowed from his eyes - he cried every time the girls scolded him.
The girl who felt sorry for him said:
“You scold him all the time, but you never give him a piece of fish or sago.”
She thought: (What beautiful eyes he has! I like him, I don’t like only his skin. In my opinion, under this skin he has another, good one - he’s just fooling us).
In the morning all the girls got up as usual, and some went to make sago, while others
- catch crabs. When the young man saw that he was alone in the hut, he took off his bad skin, rolled it up and hid it near his bed, and then looked at his reflection in the water and saw that he was handsome, that his face, skin, and hair were beautiful. After that, he took out the skin with the feathers of a white heron, put it on himself, flapped his wings and flew to the cape, where the girls were catching crabs at that time. The girl who pitied him was there too. He saw that she was walking along the shore, where crabs hide in holes after low tide, and he began to follow her and watch what she was doing, and then he flapped his wings, caught a small fish and swallowed it. The girl noticed a white heron, stopped catching crabs and thought: (What a beautiful bird, I really like it!) The bird came close to her, and the girl thought: (Isn’t this the young man I am feeding?) She threw her basket and ran after the bird. The girls began to shout to her:
- Why are you chasing this bird? You won't catch her anyway, you'd be better off catching crabs!
Then they went back, and the girl, feeling sorry for the young man, stopped chasing the bird. The white heron flew high into the sky and flew home. There the young man immediately took off his skin with bird feathers, put on his own, covered with sores, and again sprinkled himself with ash. After this, he cooked on the hearth and ate the fish that he had swallowed when he was a bird, and then he lay down and pretended to be asleep.
The girls returned, looked at their beds and began to shout:
- Why do you always lie on our beds, why do you dirty them?
The young man replied:
“Every day you scold me, say that I get up and dirty your beds, but I don’t get up, I’m covered in sores.”
Because the girl, who felt sorry for the young man, was chasing the white bird, she did not catch anything this time. The girls who went with her to catch crabs gave her a small fish and reproached her:
- Why did you run after the bird all the time?
She gave half of the fish that she had been given to the young man and told him:
— I fished in a bad place, so I didn’t catch anything. The rest of the girls fished in a good place, that's why they caught a lot of fish and crabs.
The young man thought: (You are telling a lie - you were chasing me, not catching crabs, that’s why you didn’t catch anything). The girls who went to the forest and brought sago did not give anything to the young man, but the one who pitied him shared her share with him.
The oldest of the girls said:
“We have been making sago and fishing for a long time, and we have a lot of both.
Let's sharpen our axes tomorrow and make a boat.
In the morning the girls went into the forest and found a large tree from which they could make a boat. The eldest took off her skirt, took an ax, hit the trunk two or three times and threw the ax to the ground. The other one picked him up and hit him several times too, and so they began to chop down the tree, all in turn - one would get tired, the other would take the ax. The eldest didn’t chop anymore, she just showed others how to chop. The girls cut down a tree and sang: (We girls are making a boat).
When it was the girl’s turn to chop, who felt sorry for the sick young man, the white heron, which she had seen the day before, appeared again and came very close to her. The girl saw it and thought: (This is the same bird, it flew yesterday when I was catching crabs, and it flew again today).
The girls cut down the tree in one day, and then began to hollow out the trunk with stone adzes, and when they hollowed it out, they burned it inside so that it would become smooth.
After that, they decorated the boat and pushed it into the river that flowed nearby.
They went down the river to the sea and attached balance beams there.
The girl who felt sorry for the young man now watched the white heron every day.
One day, when the others were about to go out in a boat to catch crabs, she fell behind and hid in the bushes near the hut. She wanted to know the bird's secret, because when she looked into the bird's eyes, she thought: (He's beautiful inside, it's just his skin. He's probably deceiving us - he's not showing us what he really is like). The other girls didn't notice that she was gone and swam away.
When the young man saw that the girls had left, he stood up and threw off his sore skin. Meanwhile, the girl was already looking outside through the gap and thought: (Yes, he really is handsome! He will be my husband. How many women turned away from him, but I realized that he was handsome. Oh, he put on white feathers! Oh, he’s flying!) The white heron rose into the sky and flew to where the girls had sailed on the boat.
Then the girl who stayed behind entered the hut, moved her bed to the boy’s bed, lit a fire in the hearth, threw in the young man’s skin covered with sores, and sat down to wait. She was very glad that she managed to take this place before the others, and put down a digging stick so that she would have something to fight with if the other girls wanted to take the young man away from her.
At this time the girls missed her and began to ask each other:
-Where is our little sister? One of them said:
“She’s probably looking for the bird she’s been catching all the time.”
“Let’s go home and see what she’s doing,” said the other.
The white heron saw from afar that the girl was not on the boat and flew back.
She landed near the hut, and there the young man threw off the skin of the bird and entered the hut with her - he thought that there was no one there. As soon as he entered, the girl tore the skin and feathers from his hands and said:
- Why did you always hide in the diseased skin? It’s bad that we don’t have men in our house, but now we will have one - you will become my husband.
The young man thought: (Well, she found out what I really am! She burned my sore skin, there are remnants in the hearth, and she snatched the other one, made of bird feathers, from my hands - that’s what it is!) He sat down on the floor and buried his face in his knees, and the girl rolled his skin with feathers into a small mat and hid it under her skirt.
Finally the rest of the girls returned home. The eldest woman entered first and, seeing the young man, shouted:
- Look, our sister is sitting with a man, and how handsome he is! He will be my husband.
She also moved her bed to the young man’s bed and sat down next to him. Then the others ran in and, seeing the young man, also began to shout:
- Oh, how beautiful, I want it for myself!
They all rushed to him with their beds, trying to sit as close as possible, but he still sat and was silent, burying his face in his knees. The girl who fed him was glad that she was the first to take possession of him, but she, too, was silent and waited for what else the others would say. She thought: (Before you did not come close to him, you did not feed him, and now you are looking at his body. I did not look at his body, I looked at his eyes - such eyes do not exist in sick people, that’s why I fed him all the time, gave him sago and fish).
One of the girls said:
- Let the elder sister take this man, she is our main one.
But the younger one said:
- Well, no! You didn’t take care of him when he was covered in ulcers, none of you helped me feed him - then he was ugly to you.
She took out a skin with bird feathers from under her skirt, gave it to the young man, and he immediately put it on and became a bird. The girls began to quarrel, and then they fought and beat the youngest until she bled. The eldest grabbed the bird, rolled it into a mat and, hugging it to her, rushed to run with the others, and the younger one chased after them. They were spirit girls, it was from them that the Kivai people came later, that’s why they could walk on water. The eldest held the mat with the bird tightly, and so they ran along the seashore to Buja, and from there they crossed to the island of Boigu.
There was only one person on Boigu at that time - the residents sailed away, and he was left to guard. The girls asked him:
-Where are all the people? He replied:
- Everyone sailed to Muri Island - a beautiful girl lives there, her name is Ponypony.
All the inhabitants of Muri tried to please her, but not one could, and Ponyponi's father, Muriwanogere, said: (We will have dancing, let everyone who wants to dance come to us). He thinks that a handsome young man will come from somewhere, one that Ponypony will like.
The girls walked further along the water, to Davan, and saw that there was also only one person on this island. They asked him:
-Where are all the people?
“Everyone sailed to Muri,” he answered.
The girls ate a little, drank some water and went on to Mabuiag. There was also only one person on Mabuiaga, and the girls asked again:
-Where are the people?
“We sailed to Muri,” he answered, “Muriwanogere invited everyone to dance.”
The girls went further to Badu Island, and from there to Moa. On both islands they asked those whom the inhabitants left to guard the village:
-Where are all the people?
“Everyone has been on Muri for a long time,” they were told, “both men and women.”
On Moa they climbed a hill and from there, from afar, saw Muri. They went to the island of Mukaro, not far from Moa, and there were no people there either - all but one sailed to Muri. On the island of Yam, a cripple remained to guard the village, and his girls also asked:
-Where are all the people?
“They are on Muri, I’m here alone,” answered the cripple.
From Yama the girls moved to the island of Iribu, but from there all the inhabitants also sailed to Muri, leaving only one sick person at home. From Iribu they moved to the island of Yarubo, from where Muri was already clearly visible, and here they asked again:
-Where are all the people?
“On Muri,” the watchman answered them, “they want to see a beautiful girl there, everyone will dance in front of her.”
Finally the girls reached Muri and saw that a large place had been cleared for dancing and a lot of people had gathered. Muriwanogere said:
“There are too many people, they won’t all be able to dance at once, it will be crowded.” Let the people of one island dance first, then the other - from all the islands dance, and Ponypony will watch. And let the people of each island become separate.
The ponypony was indeed very beautiful. She sat on the mat, and the men looked at her, and everyone wanted Ponypony, when he danced, to smile at him and say: (I will go with you).
Finally Muriwanogere shouted:
- Start!
The first to start dancing were two crows, not real ones - inside they were people.
But while they were dancing, Ponypony didn’t say a word or smile even once, and when they saw this, they stopped dancing. After them, others began to dance, followed by others. The inhabitants of one island after another came out and danced in front of Ponypony, but no matter how hard they tried to please her, Ponypony remained silent and did not smile at anyone.
The girls from Iasa quietly pulled out the white heron and told her:
- Go beat the drum and dance.
But the young man was ashamed that he only knew the dances of his island and did not know others, and he said:
- I nod, I will dance only in leather with white heron feathers.
He began to dance, lifting and moving his legs the way white herons do. Seeing him dance, Ponypony smiled and said:
- If you were not a white bird, but a man, I would go with you, I would like you, but your nose is too long and your neck is too long, and your legs are like two thin sticks.
He didn’t need to hide his body - after all, others didn’t hide it.
Then a shark jumped out of the water off the shore, galloped to the place where they were dancing, and galloped back. Ponypony really liked how the shark jumped, ion
smiled and said:
- Here is my husband!
Then everyone stopped dancing and started arguing. Some said:
- Why didn’t she like us?
And others:
— Why did she like the shark?
Some were for the shark, others for the white heron, and they began to fight. The stingray and the komuhoru fish, who were on the shark’s side, also got involved. Everyone fought, and when the fight was over, those who were for the white heron became birds, and those who were for the shark went to live in the sea. They quarrel to this day - that's why birds catch and eat fish.
Many of those who fought were mutilated. Some were pulled by the nose - that's why some birds have long beaks; others found themselves under a pile of fighters, and someone pulled them out by the head or legs - that's why some birds have such long legs and necks.
The white heron, when they finished fighting, said: . - Now I will remain a bird forever. It’s my own fault - I dressed in bird skin, I was ashamed of my real body, now I can’t get it back. I will live near the water, and I will feed on fish.
Frigate said:
“I will fly all over the world, high, high, and I will see everything.”
Pelican said:
- I will also live near the water, I will walk along the shore and fish. In flocks, we pelicans will fly high, and individually we will fly low.
Bird of Paradise said:
“I’ll fly off to live in the dense forest.” Although Ponypony didn’t like me, my feathers are very beautiful, red, and my beak is red and black.
Raven said:
- I will live in tall trees, from there I will look at everything. I will see any boat very far away, even before people see it, and I will scream
then: (Ah-ah!)
Black Cockatoo said:
- I will sit on the neer tree and peck its fruits all the time.
Hawk said:
“As soon as the fish comes out of the water, I will grab it and eat it.”
The small, very fast cucuparia bird did not fight, but only jumped around the fighters and pretended that it was fighting too. To this day, when people fight, she jumps around and shouts: (Wa-oh, wa-oh!) But the cucuparia screams differently - when one of the sides wins, she screams differently than when the forces are equal.
Shark said:
- There are too many quarrels over this girl, I’d better go and live in the sea, it’s my home. And when the boat with people capsizes, I will always be there - I will grab you in the water and eat you right away.
Three of those who fought became komuhoru, pai and kur-sikamo fish.
During the fight, Stingray ended up at the very bottom, under a pile of bodies, and was flattened - his head and his entire body became completely flat. He said:
“I have a spear, and whoever swims close to me, I will stab with it - it will be my weapon.” I will swim shallowly, the tide will bring me to the shore, and the ebb will carry me away.
Together with the stingray, its relative, the pu-rukake fish, got into the fight, and it also ended up at the very bottom and was flattened. Gaigai fish said:
- I will make the breakers head into the sea.
A large white kusa fish similar to a gaigai said:
“And I will make breakers with my tail, I will hit the water with it at high tide.”
During a fight, someone stretched the mouth of the stone fish with his fingers, and she said:
“I’m ashamed to stay on the shore—now I have a big mouth.” I’ll go into the water, he won’t be visible there.
The one who fought with him grabbed the crayfish by the shoulders, and the crayfish, breaking free, began to back away and back away and went into the water - that’s why it swims backwards.
A Pequot fish was knocked down in a fight; a lot of grass and sand filled its mouth, so it went to live in the water; the grass and sand remained in its mouth.
The Pere and Touro fish retain the jewelry they put on for the dance, which is why these fish are so bright.
The porpoise fought too, and when someone grabbed it during the fight, it began to thrash and escape, and it still thrashes like that when it swims.
Ponyponi's fellow villagers and some of the guests only watched others fight, but did not fight themselves, and therefore they did not become birds or fish, but remained people. All people descended from them, and since then people, fish and birds have lived in the world.
And Ponypony said:
“You quarrel too much because of me.” Whoever I like, you don’t like, and he doesn’t like me either. I’d better go up to live in heaven.
So she did, and since then Ponypony has lived in heaven. Lightning is her smile, and thunder thunders after lightning because such a noise arose from her smile on the earth.
The guests all began to prepare for the return trip. The girls from Iasa began to ask Muriwanogere:
-Where can we get a boat? Muriwanogere asked them:
- What boat did you come on?
“We didn’t sail,” the girls answered, “we came along the reefs.”
Then Muriwanogere said:
- I will teach you how to make a boat.
He found a tree trunk on the shore, washed up by the sea, but did not gouge it, but simply attached balance beams to it.
“This boat is bad,” the girls said, “almost all of it is under water.” We have a real boat at home - if you sail with us, we will give it to you.
Muriwanogere decided to sail with them and, in order to pay for the boat, took with him many wide shell bracelets. He called the southeast wind, and they raised the sail from the mat and sailed. The girls said:
“When you return, we will also give you calm seas and good winds.”
Since then, residents of the outer islands have been buying their boats on Kiwai Island. In payment they give axes, shell bracelets, blown shells, and various other shells, and the Kiwai people give them boats and vegetables from their gardens.
The white heron remained to live on Muri Island. She walks along the shore and catches small fish, and during high tide she moves away from the water - towards the trees.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru