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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
4. In the Aka-Bea legends it was the universal ungodliness of the people that produced the catastrophe.
[JULY, 1924
5. The saving of the fire through the woman and her cooking pot is characteristic of the Northern and Middle tribes, whilst in the South there is no mention of the cooking pot.
In one of the Middle and two of the Southern tribes there is a myth which tells how the killing of the Cicada and a species of caterpillar brought about the first darkness of night. In the A-Puchikwar and Aka-Bale tribes it is the first man who discovered the yams and the resin, and found a Cicada which he crushed in his hand, and at whose cry night came;-through the song of the ant the day came back, and since then day and night come alternately. Whilst here the people could evidently help themselves again, and there is no mention at all of Bilik-Puluga, yet Puluga decidedly reappears in the Aka-Bea myth. Here it is two women who get so enraged by the summer heat that one of them kills a caterpillar and the other destroys the utura plant. This displeased Puluga and as a punishment he sent the night." Thereupon the Chief Kolwot invented dances and songs in order to make Puluga believe that the people did not mind. So Puluga created the alternate periods of day and night and later on created the moon to make the night yet lighter.
Taking together all the facts established into these four important points by our researches, it will be clear beyond doubt that in the Southern tribes, especially among the Akar-Bale and the Aka-Bea, there is quite a specifically different religion from that of the Northern tribes. In the South there are not two beings, but only one great being, who stands above all other beings and there is no reason to doubt that it is always masculine. This Supreme Being is not ill disposed towards humanity, but is essentially benevolent, so that the wind of the bright beautiful season is called after him. Puluga is the creator of all things and also of humanity, on whom he has bestowed benefits and to whom he has taught all that is necessary for them. He also gave them fire of his own free will and taught them how to use it. But Puluga was enraged by acts which caused a devastation and waste of things created by him, and then, besides storms, he sent as punishments thunder and cyclones. Once he destroyed the whole world in this way.
In contradistinction to this, the Northern tribes have a religion in which there are two figures personifying the two monsoons. Of these the feminine North-east monsoon is the higher, as here generally the feminine comes to the fore. Here Bilik is no creator and is inimical to humanity, and the fire has to be stolen from her. She shows no moral features.
In the Middle tribes there is a wavering between the two views, but also a clear remembrance of Puluga's former preponderance, until a sharp falling off from him arose, evoked perhaps by even more progressive influences from the North.
(To be continued.)
