Naga and other people who once lived on Tudo Island often went together to kill dugongs and built bridges over the reefs to do this. Some managed to kill two dugongs in one hunt, others three, and Naga even more. And then one day, when Naga was hunting, and his wife was sitting by the fire, she was seen by two unmarried young men passing by. They said to each other:
- This woman is very good! Let's stay with her in the village next time when everyone goes hunting.
When the people were again preparing to hunt dugongs, both young men pretended to be sick, each bandaged his thigh tightly, and they lay down near the fireplace. All the men except them left the village, but these two remained.
As soon as the boats with the hunters had sailed, the young men stood up and untied the ropes with which their thigh was tied. And when night came, they sneaked into Naga's house and grabbed his wife. They told her:
“We really liked you, that’s why we stayed in the village.”
And they spent the whole night with her.
Naga at this time called and called for dugongs on the reefs, but none came close. Naga's fellow villagers, standing on other bridges, all managed to kill some dugongs - some two, some three, and some four. When the tide began to ebb and the reefs became bare, Naga ordered the
They made piles from them, on which the bridges are attached, and after Nagi’s boat, the rest of the boats also sailed home to Tudo. They sailed, and Naga immediately went to his wife, but when he entered, she did not say a word, but remained sitting as she had been sitting before. Naga said:
“I always killed a lot of dugongs, but this time I didn’t kill a single one and didn’t even hear them snort, and the rest killed a lot of dugongs.” I left two young men here, they didn’t touch you?
- Oh, Naga, these two young men are bad - they deceived everyone and pretended to be sick, but in fact they didn’t go to the reefs because they liked me. They came and stayed with me all night and now I'm sick.
“Don’t tell anyone about this,” Naga told her, “let no one else know about it.”
While his fellow villagers were cutting up dugongs, Naga cut down a warakara tree, took it to the sanctuary and there he carved a crocodile out of the tree. Having made the crocodile, Naga took it to the water and climbed into it, but the wood of the warakara was too light, and the crocodile swam only on the top. Then Naga made a crocodile from havanura wood, but this crocodile was too light, so he had to throw it away too. The same thing happened with the caparo wood crocodile. Finally Naga made a crocodile from Wongai wood, and this crocodile, when Naga climbed into it and jumped into the water, dived into the depths. Naga tried to run in it along the bottom around the entire island - the crocodile ran very quickly, and from above this a large wave rolled behind him. Naga thought: “Yes, now my fellow villagers will have a bad time from this monster that I made!”
Returning to the shore, Naga placed the crocodile in the sanctuary and covered it with leaves. When people began to ask where he was, Naga said:
- I slept - when I was on the reef, I didn’t have to sleep, and now I was sleeping in the bushes.
And then he said to his fellow villagers:
- Get ready, tomorrow we will sail to Manata.
People began to get ready for the road. In the morning, when the boats were ready to sail, Naga said:
- You swim first, and I will follow you.
All the boats set sail, only Naga's boat did not leave the shore because it was waiting for him. But Naga said to those who were in it:
- Go ahead, don’t wait for me, I’ll catch up with you.
“How can you catch us without a boat?” they were surprised.
people.
“Don’t think about it,” Naga replied, “it’s all the same.”
I'll catch up with you.
His boat floated away, and then he climbed into the crocodile and dived into the sea. He began to run and swim underwater, cutting off piece by piece from the island until it became very small. That is why now around Tudo Island it is so shallow and there are so many islands, straits and channels around it. After this, Naga quickly caught up with the boats with fellow villagers, and then overtook them. Between the reefs of Kemusu and Kumadari there is a passage called Vapa, and there Naga stopped and waited for the boat. He stood on his hind legs in the water - his tail lowered down to the bottom, and he stuck his crocodile's mouth out and opened it wide. Naga made a whirlpool around himself, and the people in the front boat, which was already close, got scared and shouted:
- What’s wrong with the sea and what kind of monster is this? Look at his mouth!
Naga instantly swallowed the boat along with everyone who was in it, and began to swallow one by one the boats that floated behind it. And when the one in which there were his offenders swam up. wife, Naga appeared in the gaping crocodile area and shouted:
“These two are to blame for everything - when I was hunting, they committed violence against my wife!” Therefore, I, Naga, . I'll sink your boat now!
And he immediately swallowed it. Finally, a boat with Naga’s wife arrived, and Naga shouted from the crocodile’s mouth:
- Go back to Tudo! I am Naga, now I have become a crocodile, I will not return to Tudo again! I swallowed all the boats, and now I will eat all people, both men and women!
After that, the crocodile disappeared - went into the depths. The boat returned to Tudo, and those who were in it saw that their island was cut into small islands by narrow channels. Then they mourned Tudo, mourned Naga, mourned all the dead.
In the guise of a crocodile, Naga swam from the Kemusu reef straight to Daudai, crashed into the shore and crawled away from the sea, cutting a deep furrow in the ground. This is how the Binaturi River appeared with all its tributaries - before that there was no river there. When he reached Yomusa, he decided that he would stay there and crawled out of the furrow to rest. Suddenly he saw Side, a man from Masingarg - he was hunting
kangaroos and wild pigs. Naga got out of the crocodile and asked him:
-Are you a man or a spirit?
- I am a man, my name is Side, I live in Masingara. Naga said:
“My friend Wakea lives in Masingara. If your people want to fight, come to me first - I will live here.
Side went to the village and said to everyone:
“I met a good man, he will live not far from here, and with him is a monster.” Come on, I'll show them to you.
He led them to Naga, and when Side’s fellow villagers saw the crocodile, they were amazed and said:
“We haven’t seen such a monster, it’s long, long!” Naga told them:
“When you want to fight, cut bamboo for bows and strings here in Yomus—the local bamboo kills better than any other.”
Since then, when the people of Masingara make bows, they cut bamboo for them in Yomus - that’s why everyone is so afraid of their arrows.
And Naga also said to the people of Masingara:
- When you kill an enemy, do not cut off his head. This is why the people of Masingara and other forest dwellers do not
they cut off the heads of killed enemies - they do as Naga told them.
Then Naga climbed into the crocodile again and went wandering. He visited many places - he dug the Kura River, and from there he crawled further, to Mabudavan, and dug a river there. He thought: “I won’t sail the sea anymore, I’d rather make rivers and fight with people.” As soon as he sensed people, he immediately crawled towards them, making a river in the ground along the way. This is how the rivers Magai, Tamani, Pospos, Togituri, Vasi-kasa, Kudi-kasa and Kobuara-govo appeared. Naga made them and crawled back, climbing up each of these rivers, and wherever Naga saw people coming for water, he caught them and swallowed them. Finally he returned to Yomusa, vomited up the heads of those who had been swallowed, climbed out of the crocodile and laid out a large ring of the heads on the ground, and around it he laid out another ring of coconut leaves. That is why, since then, people have laid out the heads of enemies that they bring from war in this way. Before Naga and the famous warrior Quiamo, people did not fight at all. Those who live on the island of Saibai and its neighboring islands were taught to fight by Quiamo, and those who live far from the sea were taught by Naga. The village of Mavata lies between one and the other, and therefore both are trying to take possession of it. When the inhabitants of Mawata and the islands of Yam and Tudo come to Yomusa, they bring dugong bones and meat to the spirit of Naga and say to him:
“Naga, take this meat, it’s yours, because you help me every time I go to beat the dugongs.”
This is why there are such large piles of dugong bones in Yeomus. If people from other places do not give Naga meat, something bad might happen to them when they hunt dugongs. People also ask Naga for victory in the war. They tell him:
“Soon I’m going to war.” I will kill like you killed the people of Tudo.
The spirit of Naga still lives in Yomus, and when he wants to go somewhere, he takes the form of a crocodile. All other crocodiles are descended from him, and they eat people because Naga did so after taking the form of a crocodile.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru