5. The Divine Trickster

(A Retold Myth from Waropen, Papua)

He Craftily Took Advantages of People’s Ignorance, Gullibility, and Lack of Self-Control.

By CELLY AKWAN and BECKY SIMSON

He was a notorious god. He was an impostor, a swindler, a braggart, a pitiless, and intemperate trickster who victimized swayed people and enjoyed the fruits of his guile. He always traveled alone from one place to another and looked for people he could fool and destroy. He easily duped people many times and the people wanted to kill him any time. But he always escaped from them and left his victims behind. His name was Uri.

He was the incarnation of an evil god. Unfortunately, the people he hoodwinked were never aware of his disguise as a human being. And when they were killed, it was too late for them to recognize him.

Killing Raiders

One day, Uri was walking alone. Soon, he met a raak. This group of armed men was traveling by somandu, a big canoe for a long voyage, on a raid to another tribal village for looting, headhunting, or slave hunting. He overheard the grumbles and arguments of the armed men about their failure to capture slaves in the last raid. This time, they were planning another raid they hoped would compensate for their past and demeaning failure.

“Aha,” Uri said to himself. “Wait. I’m going to gratify your desire.”

He stopped under the coconut trees on the beach and waited until the raiders were not arguing noisily. Then, he shouted to them, “Hey raak! Are you going to carry out a raid?”

The surprised raiders turned their eyes to the beach and saw the man. He looked stout, medium-sized, good-looking, and showed self-confidence that demanded a response.

But the rude and hardened raiders were not used to responding easily to strangers. For one reason, strangers like him could betray their plot to attack another tribal village and in such a way could bring about another failure. For another reason, they did not like his insolence and arrogance. So, why should they respond to him? Instead, they should capture him, chop off his head, and put it near the main pillar of one of the killers’ house. This was their usual practice when capturing the first slave in a raid.

But sera, the clan head and organizer of the raiders, had a different idea. That stranger, alone on the coast, could be captured as a slave and sold at a high price in a far-away land. None of his fellow-villagers would know anything about his capture. So, it might be a good idea to respond and encourage him to meet them directly. As soon as they met, he could be trapped and captured. It was a splendid idea and the other raiders quickly backed it up.

“Yes,” the leader answered. “We’re going to carry out a raid.”

“Have you already captured any slaves?”

“No.”

“Come on land and catch me if you can.”

The raiders could hardly believe their ears. He himself invited them to capture him. It was an invitation that fit into their scheme. The stranger must have been a foolish person, they thought.

“Very good,” shouted their leader. And to his raiders, he said, “Let’s land and capture him.”

They rowed to the shore and began the chase. They rowed the canoe along a small river and paddled upstream. Uri who was hiding in a mangrove forest suddenly stepped out, stood in front of them, and was grabbed.

They returned to the canoe with a profitable catch. To prevent him from escaping, they tied his arms and feet and put him in the canoe. They were rowing downstream faster and faster because they wanted to sell him for a good ransom to a foreign slave trader in their village. Uri heard them talk quietly about their plan to do away with him.

Meanwhile, Uri was figuring out a cunning way to escape. He knew they had a tradition of announcing a successful raid in capturing people from other villages to their fellow-villagers in a slave party. It was a party in which they would show those they had captured as slaves. So, he would remind them of this tradition.

“You shouldn’t go back to the coast,” he said. “You should first hold a slave party.”

The raiders got embarrassed for having been reminded in that way. Yet, they agreed with him and headed for land.

All of them jumped into the water and waded through it to the bank of the river. Nobody thought Uri could escape without being noticed. So sure were they of this impossibility that he was left alone in the canoe. Nobody even bothered to look back at the canoe.

Meanwhile, Uri began eating up their sago cakes they kept in the canoe. The cakes were an important part of the provisions they had prepared for their long voyage.

Uri waited until the raiders were already on land and then untied him. Suddenly, he got an urge to empty his bowels; so, he did in the canoe. After some time, he noticed the raiders were ready to come back to the canoe. He had to escape before they saw him.

Before they appeared from behind some dense mangrove trees, Uri jumped up as quietly as a squirrel, seized the top of a kambono tree, and hung there by his hands. The raiders got into the canoe and rowed under him and away from that place. So sure were of their capture that they even did not check whether or not he was still in the canoe.

He kept hanging in the tree until they had rowed downstream for about ten long paces of an adult man and then jumped down. He was walking behind them along the bank when they became aware of his escape. They blamed each other for their recklessness. They argued about where he might have escaped and how they could capture him again.

Uri was listening to their noisy conversations. While they were quarreling about him, he bragged loudly, “There aren’t many Uri’s, are there? I’m Uri here.”

The raiders turned their heads towards the place where that voice came from and saw the man they had been arguing about. There he was – posing like a braggart and smirking at them. At the same time, one of the raiders smelled a bad odor from the bottom of the canoe and noticed the feces in it. He also found out that the sago cakes had disappeared.

“Heeey,” he shouted, “Uri has played a trick on us. He has eaten up our sago cakes and his feces are lying here.”

The indignant raiders grumbled about Uri and the leader shouted angrily, “Wait! We’ll land and kill you.”

“Come here! Stand in one line here and kill me.”

They were surprised because he had already provided them with a clever plot to kill him. They did not reconsider Uri’s scheme because they were more occupied by the burning desire to kill him quickly.

So, they rowed back, jumped onto the bank of the river and carried out Uri’s suggestion. One half went one way and stood in line. They were armed with bows and arrows. The other half went the other way and stood in line. They were armed with lances. The two parties were facing each other and Uri, the target of their anger, was between them.

“Now you on this side should shoot your arrows at the same time,” Uri commanded, “and you on that side should fling your lances at the same time.”

One party shot their arrows and the other party hurled their lances – all to Uri, but he jumped quickly up and hung by his hands in a tree. Down there, he saw the shot arrows and flung lances kill all the raiders. After all the victims lay dead, he jumped down and said derisively, “Yes, kill Uri now if you can.”

He left his victims behind and started looking for new ones. He walked to the sea.

Killing Anglers

Soon, he met some anglers near the coast. It was a frustrating day for them. Usually, they could catch fish easily in the sea; but at this time, no one could catch just a single fish. In the meantime, their folks at home were waiting impatiently for a good catch for their meals that day.

What had caused this bad luck? Some anglers thought that the kinds of bait they were using were the cause of the problem. Their bait consisted of small but dead fish, worms, shellfish, and hermit crabs. They could not remember how many seasons they had been using these kinds of bait. They knew the bait had been used without change by the generations above them.

Uri would be their safety god. While the anglers were standing and fishing near the shore, he appeared.

“What are you keeping watch on?” he asked.

“Oh, these fishing-lines,” they replied. “We’re keeping an eye on them. We want to catch fish.”

They knew Uri was a clever man. He always had shrewd answers for solving problems other people could not solve. They liked shrewd and helpful people like Uri. They were curious to know what solution he would suggest. But they were not aware that he was an evil god in the disguise of a human being.

“What kind of bait are you catching fish with?” Uri asked.

“Shellfish.”

“Look. If you stand and keep watch with such bait, no fish can be pulled to the shore. Find a little ham, bring it here, and use it as bait.”

Amazing! The anglers had never before thought that ham could serve well as bait. If man and fish could eat ham, then they had the same taste. Did the fish in the sea really have that taste? Their sobriety was not strong enough to overcome their desire for an abundant catch of fish by trying ham as the new bait. And the desire too had tempted them to listen to the advice of the clever Uri, and did what he had suggested.

They rushed off to their homes and returned with ham. But they did not know how to use the bait.

“Should we cut it into little pieces?” they asked Uri.

“Heeey, don’t cut it. Use the whole bait and cast it into the sea again.”

The anglers looked at one another for a while. They did not understand why whole ham could be bait. But, soon they did what he had told them to do.

After all cast the fishing lines with ham as bait, Uri said, “Leave them alone. Take them in after I’ve returned to the beach.”

Without being aware of the trick he was going to play on them, the anglers obeyed his instructions. Uri quickly disappeared behind trees and, without being noticed by the fishermen, circled around the place where they were standing.

Then, he waded through the sea until it reached his neck. He saw them leave the fishing-lines tied to wooden poles near the shore and drink coconut milk while eating coconut meat. Uri made use of their negligence in keeping an eye on the fishing-lines and dove toward the ham. He then took the bait off the hooks.

He dove again and waded back to shore. Then he strutted onto the beach toward the anglers, and pretended as if nothing had happened to their bait.

Have you already pulled in the fishing lines?” he asked.

The anglers stopped drinking and eating, because of Uri’s unexpected presence.

“No,” one of them replied. “You said the fishing-lines should remain there.”

“Good. Pull them in.”

They dispersed and hurried to their fishing-lines. They thought Uri already knew that a lot of fish had been caught; so, it was a good idea to pull the lines in.

But what did they see? Not a single fish had been caught. Not only that. Gone was also the pig’s meat they had used as bait.

“Fish didn’t eat the ham,” said a critical angler after he examined his hook. The other fishermen nodded their heads.

Somebody, not fish, must have eaten the pig’s meat, they thought. It must have been Uri.

They glowered at him.

“Uri, you’ve played a trick,” said the critical angler. “We’re sure you’ve taken off the ham and eaten it.”

“Ah, good. Just stop giving me a piece of your mind. Come here with the bows, and kill me if you can.”

Uri’s last words made the anglers, already flushed with anger, confused about whether they were standing on their heads or their heels. How could such a clever man they had respected invite them to kill him so easily? Was he joking? Was he actually a fool? Or was he trying to play another trick on them? Should they kill him now or reexamine the hidden meanings of his generous invitation to kill him? For some time, these questions confused them. But their strong desire to kill him soon pushed aside their uncertainty. They quickly agreed to Uri’s instruction to get rid of him because it was the right way to vent their anger.

“Good,” one of them said. “Let’s get the bows and arrows.”

Soon, they returned with the bows and arrows while grumbling, yelling, jumping, and dancing wildly. They could not wait any longer to pierce his body with their arrows, and put an end to his craftiness. They did not even think of how they were going to kill him.

Uri knew exactly how to pit them against one another for his own benefit.

“Come in calmly,” he yelled above the noisy men running nearer to him, “and stand in line!”

The boisterous fishermen were so possessed with their passion to kill him that they did not see the trick hidden in Uri’s invitation. Instead, they obeyed him.

Half of them stood in one line with their bows and arrows, and so did the other half. The moment they released the arrows, Uri jumped up and hung from the branch of a tree. He saw both parties exchange flying arrows that pierced their bodies, killing them all. He saw dead bodies lying on the beach. He jumped down and bragged, “Kill Uri now if you can.”

Uri left his victims behind and went roving through the land.

Killing Canoe Makers

Before long, he met some canoe makers. He was surprised to notice the way they were chopping off the trunk of a tree to make a canoe. It was wrong. Their ignorance of the right way was at the same time a weakness he could make use of.

“Look at that!” Uri said. “What are you making?”

“A canoe for us.”

“If you make a canoe like that, you shouldn’t sweep out the chips. Let them just lie in the canoe and begin with chopping it off. After that, throw out all the chips at once.”

“Your suggestion sounds good,” the oldest man of the canoe makers said. “We’ve made up our mind to follow it.”

Turning to his fellow men, he said, “Let’s leave the chips in the canoe.”

The canoe makers knew from hearsay that Uri was clever. He had a lot of imaginative ways to solve problems other people could not solve. As a matter of fact, they did not know how to make a canoe. But they were too proud to admit their ignorance. Neither did they know that a divination ceremony and offers to forefathers were needed before the right tree for making a canoe was chosen. So, they were curious to know better ways for making a canoe from Uri. After all, he came from an area whose people were famous for their highly artistic skills in making canoes.

Uri who knew their thoughts continued his scheme. Before the oldest man started to chop off the chips from the crude canoe, Uri said, “Give me that axe. I’ll make a canoe for you.”

The old man and his fellow men were impressed by Uri’s kindness and trusted his dexterity in making a canoe for them. So, the oldest man handed him the axe and waved his hand to his company to sit nearby and watch him work.

Uri took the axe, chopped the whole canoe and left a lot of holes in it. The watching men could not see the holes at all because their visions were blocked at a distance by the rims of the hollow trunk.

“Ready,” he said. “I’ve already chopped out your canoe beautifully. Let me leave first. After I’ve gone away, throw out the chips.”

The novices in canoe making thanked him. He grinned and left them. They soon threw away the chips and were shocked and furious by their discovery.

The oldest man, the leader of the company, said, “We’ve lost the canoe. Look! Uri has chopped holes in it. Let’s chase him and capture him and kill him.”

The furious canoe makers seized their bows and arrows, searched for him on land and found him.

“Uri!” the oldest man shouted. “You’ve played an ugly trick on us. You’ve chopped holes in our canoe and we can’t use it.”

“Don’t just stand there and blame me. Come here and kill me if you can,” he exclaimed.

The canoe makers were surprised that Uri was going to let them vent their anger very easily on him. Yes, he was right. He had to be killed for his craftiness. They drew their bows and approached him.

“Come here and stand in line and kill me if you can.”

Another surprise. Before they had thought about the way they should kill him, he came up with a splendid one. So, they heartily agreed to his instruction.

Soon the canoe makers grouped themselves into two equal lines. Both parties stood in line and faced each other while Uri stood between them. “Shoot!” the leader yelled and arrows flew simultaneously from each side. Before they hit him, Uri jumped up and hung by his hands from the branch of a tree. He saw one half of the men shoot the other half dead. The victims lay scattered on the ground.

Uri jumped down and bragged to them, “Mmm, now kill Uri if you can.”

He went roaming the land again. He went through the mangrove forests and along the beaches.

Killing House Builders

Soon he discovered a house where its inhabitants kept watch over a dead man. They did not know who the stranger was.

Uri noticed that the roof of their house was covered with dry sago leaves woven into a certain length and pattern. But the leaves were very dry and ruptured easily. They made the roof leaky during rainfall. The inhabitants had been dissatisfied with their roof, but they did not know how to improve it. He also knew that they had never traveled far away from their village. So, they did not know about better ways for making roofs from advanced villages. To make use of their ignorance, Uri would play the role of a skillful house builder.

“If you want to live in your house,” he said, “you shouldn’t cover its roof with dry sago leaves.”

The head of the household said, “We all find it comfortable to live in this house with such a covering.”

His words actually hid his defense of the pride and honor of the big family. But Uri ignored his defense.

“Heeey, but I don’t cover my house with a thatched roof. I cover it up with clods of earth.”

Clods of earth! The inhabitants of the house had never thought of using earth as roof covering. It was true that their thatched roof could not be used for a long period of time; besides, it could break easily and leave holes through which rain fell into their house. Unfortunately, they had not been able yet to invent a better roof covering. Unexpectedly, the stranger in front of them offered them clods of earth. Could they serve well as a roof covering? They were curious to know more about the new way.

“We’d like to try your new way,” said the head of the household. “We do need a better roof covering.”

The inhabitants began to get interested in the stranger.

“Who are you?” asked the head of the family. “And where are you from?”

“Don’t you know there’s only one Uri in this area? There’s only one Uri – and he’s here.”

They understood that Uri came from the area where people had better ways for building houses. So, they were eager to learn from him.

They brought him clods of earth and covered their house, its back part and its hall with them. Uri supervised their work. Finally, they got a large roof covered with the clods.

Then, Uri said, “I wish that the wind blow up from the land behind me.”

The house builders stood with breathless anticipation. Was Uri a powerful magician who could evoke wind and storm from nowhere? A god?

Yes, he was! As soon as he finished his last word, the sky looked gray with thick clouds. The weather change started with a rustling wind that quickly turned into a hissing, roaring, howling, wailing wind. It tossed the leaves of the trees, shrubs, and grass, and bent their trunks and stems. Heavy rain, accompanied by thunderbolts at irregular intervals, poured down.

It rained heavily from morning until noon. The roof made from clods of earth could, surprisingly, bear up to the rain for most of the day. But in the evening, it caved in. The earth was washed away and caused a disaster. The clods turned into muddy water and the muddy water blinded a great many of the house builders. Others were washed away. The muddy water also flooded into the house and drove its inhabitants out to find shelter under trees and on dry ground. Each survivor made sure he or she was not pulled away by the rushing water, and at the same time tried to look after his or her blinded folks. What a piece of work the heavy rainfall brought them!

Where was Uri? He had escaped before the rain poured down. The survivors got really mad at him, but they did not know how and where he was and so could not teach him a lesson at this time. They had to swallow their anger and wait until the rain stopped the next day.

When the rain stopped the next day, the head of the house builders said to other survivors, “Uri has played an ugly trick on us. He has brought a disaster on our house; it’s been destroyed and a lot of us are blinded or killed. Let’s capture and kill him.”

The angry survivors could not agree more. They made a vow not to take a rest, eat or drink before they killed Uri. Soon, they left their house, armed with bows and arrows, and ran away in search of him.

Finally, they found him. With his voice trembling with anger, the leader of the company said, “Uri, you’ve played an ugly trick on us. You’ve deceived us and made us cover our house with earth. The rain has washed away the clods and the clods have blinded or killed many of us. You must pay for your misdeeds.”

“Ah, don’t just stand and blame me. Come here, stand in line, and kill me if you can.”

Their passion for killing him outweighed their sobriety. It left no room for them to re-examine Uri’s generous offer. No, he had to be killed immediately.

So, they obeyed his instruction. They hurriedly grouped themselves into two equal parties, stood in line while facing one another, drew their arrows, with Uri standing between them. They released the arrows, but Uri jumped up and hung from a tree. Both parties shot themselves dead and their dead bodies lay on the ground.

Uri jumped down.

“You know there aren’t many Uri’s. Kill Uri now if you can,” he bragged to the dead bodies.

And he went away, roaming the land, through mangrove forests and along the beaches, again. He was looking for new victims.

Copyright ©2008. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the authors.