Part two of Folk Tales of Vanuatu. Four more Vanuatu folk tales collected and translated by R. H. Codrington in The Melanesians (Clarendon Press, 1891), read as Codrington printed them, complete and in the order given here. In The Little Orphan, from Mota in the Banks Islands, a fatherless boy, scorned by the children of fathers and neglected by his uncle's household, is taken up by Ro Som, Money herself, who raises him through every rank of the suqe — his uncle's "I'll beat you" is spoken only, and the pigs killed along the way are the suqe feast slaughters, listed in passing. In Tagaro's Departure, from Aurora Island (Maewo), a thief's attempt on Tagaro's pig sends him away in his canoe with all the good things of the world — all but one fire-brand, thrown back. In How Tagaro Made the Sea, also from Aurora Island, two boys look behind the forbidden wall of Tagaro's pool, one stone is thrown down, and the sea runs out upon the world, while the old woman who lies in its path is said to have turned into a stone. And in Molgon and Molwor, from Vanua Lava in the Banks Islands, the elder brother forgets the younger in the sun and finds him dead, revives him with his tears, and in the end both brothers turn into stones in the stream — the death is by sun and neglect, lamented in the tale, not an enacted killing. The episode opens and closes with its theme, Urgent Rhythms, heard also briefly between the stories.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters
2:31 The Little Orphan
23:42 Tagaro's Departure
24:54 How Tagaro Made the Sea
27:03 Molgon and Molwor
Seventeen further Vanuatu tales of the same chapter are not read on this shelf, each excluded by name after a full reading: The Birds' Voyage · The Shark and the Snake · The Hen and Her Chickens · The Origin of Poisoned Arrows · How Tagaro the Little Found Fish · The Story of Dilingavuv · A Story About an Eel · The Ghost-Wife · The Little Owl · The Winged Wife · The Story of Taso · About Betawerai a Snake · The Story of Basi and Dovaowari · The Story of Deitari · Tarkeke · The Woman and the Ghost · About Merambuto and Tagaro. One more, A Story About Tagaro the Little, is held for the owner's ruling by name and is not read here. Part One read six tales of the chapter; the chapter's three Solomon Islands tales belong to another shelf. No claim of completeness for the book is made.
From The Melanesians by R. H. Codrington (1891), public domain — the Vanuatu stories of Chapter XIX. Narrated by Amos. Theme: Urgent Rhythms.
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