Apulini and Yakani are ‘brother’ tribes who claim a common tradition which traces their origins to a hawk who gave birth to Leo and Apole at Komaimanda rock shelter near Irelya (Wabag) long ago. Leo was the father of Yakani who later settled at Lenge and Apole the father of Apulini who settled in the Irelya area. Further details are not given in the myth. After their common origin, their histories diverge.
Apulini
Although the majority of Apulini elders interviewed accept the origin myth for Leo and Apole at Komaimanda rock, a few Apulini elders suggest that Apulini might have had its origins in the Yandapo. However, from the Komaimanda origin myth and other evidence, it seems likely that originally Apulini clans were based in the Irelya area living from taro gardening and hunting with land that stretched across the high country to the Yandapo area near Kepelama. From early on they were involved in the salt trade and closely tied to the Sambe tribe of the Papyuka area. During the span of historical traditions after the arrival of the sweet potato, they established more permanent residences in the higher reaches of their territory. The following is one version of a tradition describing an early permanent settlement of Apulini clans in the Yandapo:
Once there were three brothers who lived at Waeyamu, a small village not far from Lenge in the Lai Valley. Two of the brothers, Sikita and Talyulu got married and settled down to gardening, but the third, Kalyapo Lakena stayed single and spent his days hunting for cassowary and possum.
One day when he was out hunting, he decided to go as far as he could in the direction of the Lagaip. Because he did not plan to return, he took with him some seeds from a lake tree to plant along the way. He knew that his brothers would come looking for him, so the lake plant would let them know in which direction he had gone. He climbed over ridge after ridge until he reached the Lagaip bridge where Sambe lived. He slept in Sambe’s house at Papyuka (Laiagam). While he was there, Sambe asked him why he had come all the way from the Layapo to Papyuka. He answered that he had heard that there were plenty of cassowary and possum in this area, while they were scarce in his own place, so that he had come to live with them.
Sambe told him that he did not think that it was possible for him to stay near Papyuka but suggested that he go live with one of their brothers named Maingini who lived at Lakaiyoko. Kalyapo Lakena went off looking for Maingini, wondering whether he would find him and what kind of house he might be living in. After a long search, he finally found Maingini at his beautiful home in a rock shelter.
Even though Maingini lived in a rock shelter, he appeared to be skilled in setting cassowary traps and in cooking meat in an earth oven. Kalyapo found Maingini’s lifestyle to his liking and grew to like him. Maingini was glad to have a companion. Maingini asked Kalyapo why he had left his home in the Lai valley and had come to live with him, and Kalyapo explained once again that he had come looking for a place with plenty of cassowary to hunt. Maingini told Kalyapo that he too had left home because he did not want to live with Sambe but wanted his own land so he moved to Lakaiyoko. The two men remained living and hunting together and Maingini was glad to have somebody to help him.
As time passed, Maingini asked Kalyapo to take his place in setting cassowary traps and preparing the meat so that he could have more time to work in his gardens. He showed Kalyapo where he should set traps and taught him how to prepare cassowary meat. From then on, the two lived an easy life with one providing meat from hunting and the other garden foods. They had so much food that they could bring some to Sambe and still have plenty for themselves.
One day, Kalyapo heard that there was going to be a sing-sing at Pipitaka, so he prepared himself to dance. He roasted a cassowary, took out all the bones and put the meat into a net bag. Then he decorated himself with the many cassowary feathers he had collected since coming to Lakaiyoko, picked up his net bag of meat and made his way down to the sing-sing grounds. The people he met on the way stared at him whispering,
“Here comes a cannibal (keo).”
Kalyapo Lakena joined the dance line while chewing on a piece of his meat. When the dancers saw him, they were frightened and all ran away except for one girl who went over and danced next to him. Some people peering from behind exclaimed, “Doesn’t he look wild.”
When the sing-sing was over, he went over to a shade tree to sit, rest and eat his meat. The young girl followed him and sat down next to him. He gave her some meat and they sat together eating. The people just stared, amazed to see the man and the girl sitting there eating what they thought was human flesh.
“What is that wretched man doing with that girl. What nerve he has to do that,” said one of the spectators to his companion. They tried to get the girl to leave, but she did not appear to be frightened and gratefully took the meat from Kalyapo Lakena.
“What does she think that she is doing?” asked another person who was watching them, but the girl would not listen. After they had eaten the meat, Kalyapo took her by the arm and led her away across the sing-sing grounds. People were wondering where he was going to take the girl, whether to a grave, the bush or to a cannibal’s den. They were very worried. Kalyapo took her to his home in the rockshelter and a short while later married her. They lived at Lakaiyoko in the Yandapo and had many children.
(Walepa Sakaoto and Poto Kaimbya, Apulini Epoko clan, Poketasa, Pumasa)
The woman who Kalyapo Lakena married was a woman from the Sambe tribe, one of Sambe’s “daughters”. The tie created through Kalyapo Lakena’s marriage formed one of the most important links between the Lai and Lagaip valleys. Two to three generations after Kalyapo Lakena settled in the Yandapo, other Apulini groups joined them. The first groups to come were Talyulu’s grandsons Pilyoa and Liua. They had started a fight with Yakani and called their brothers Wataipa and Wakemane to their assistance. Later when the fight was over, Wataipa and Wakemane asked for compensation from the troublemakers. Rather than giving pigs, Pilyoa and Liua gave them some of their land and moved near Landelyama, near Kepelama in the Yandapo. Some of their brothers, Ipu and Tambu joined them. Many Apulini Talyulu today have land near Wabag and in the Yandapo and moving back and forth between their two residences.
Apulini Sikita groups also settled in the Yandapo. Of Sikita’s two sons, Saene and Netoli, the descendants of Saene kept residences both at Wabag and at Lindita and Kaiputesa in the Yandapo. One of Netoli’s sons, Kaima moved to Kaipetesa and Lindita in the Yandapo while his other son, Melya remained at Aiposa (Wabag).
Yakani
Yakani history differs from that of its ‘brother’ tribe Apulini. While much of Apulini history touches on settlement in its former hunting areas in the Yandapo and contact with Sambe clans, Yakani history is one of a people who appear to have been settled as agriculturalists in the Lai and expanded out of Lenge northeast into the fertile lower areas of the Ambum valley and eastward down the Lai valley.
Yakani had three sons, Tianga, Keowaipu and Tambukini. Tianga’s descendants have settled the land to the north and south of Lenge, their claimed place of origin. Keowaipu’s descendants moved eastward to the Rakamanda area. Tambukini’s descendants expanded into the lower Ambum valley. The growth and expansion of Yakani tribes is well described in an article by R. Lacey (1979).
While branches of Yakani Tianga and Keowaipu moved into sparsely populated land, Tambukini clans encountered clans of the Sene and Yokasa tribes as they moved into the lower Ambum valley. In the seventh generation, the Makamuni sub-clan of the Tambukini Laeta clan provoked a fight with Sene-Yokasa clans in the lower Ambum over a trivial matter – the stolen collar of a hunting dog. At the time the brother tribes of Sene-Yokasa, Pumane and Aiele, were involved in their own fight in the upper Ambum and so could not come to their rescue as allies. Sene-Yokasa clans were driven out of the lower Ambum in a series of extraordinarily vicious battles. Sene and Yokasa groups resettled in the Kompiam area where they spread widely and prospered. In the Kompiam area today, they are usually known as Kungu and Tiaka.
Once settled in their new homeland, Sene and Yokasa continued to challenge Yakani in great ceremonial wars; wars fought primarily for the large-scale exchanges that followed. Aiele clans at Wapai hosted Sene-Yokasa (Kungu and Tiaka) and the Aiele Tyakai clan at Saoanda hosted Yakani so that the battles could be fought near Saoanda in the Kompiam area. Through the Great Wars, Yakani established strong ties of exchange with groups to their northeast.
Both Apulini and Yakani formed important links between the Lai valley, the Ambum, the Lagaip, and later the Sau. They were also strongly linked to tribes in the Lagaip through ritual ties. There are a few oral traditions that tell of such ties. One from Apulini history was the import of a version of the Kepele ancestral cult in the sixth generation before presenting from the Lagaip to the Lai where it was renamed “Aeatee”, its praise name used in song. There are many versions of this tradition; one of the most fascinating was told by Kepai from the Apulini Talyulu clan to Roderic Lacey in 1972: (Lacey 1975:121).
Long ago, a mother and daughter were travelling from the Lagaip valley towards the Wabag region. They came from near Mulitaka and travelled into the Lai valley over the yuli kaita road. The daughter, being a faster traveller than her mother, had gone on to the Aiposa territory above Irelya. There she waited for her mother. She impatiently struck the rock where she waited with her staff (kendai) and left permanent marks on that rock.
She waited there for her mother until night was drawing near. Towards the evening, she came down to where the Imabusa dancing group (kamapi) is now. There she met Kapeali, a son of Talyulu.
When Kapeali saw this beautiful young woman, he asked her where she was going. She told him that she was tired after her long journey and would like to find a place to rest. Kapeali offered her his place in which to stay. They went together to his house near the Alyo river. He gathered many different kinds of food together and they shared that food.
After they had shared the food cooked by Kapeali and before they slept, the beautiful young woman agreed to have intercourse with Kapeali. Before they did this Kapeali asked the woman if she knew any spells (nemongo) which they could recite for their protection. The woman said to Kapeali that they should recite a nemongo which mentioned the names of all the food crops. Then this young woman and Kapeali had intercourse and slept together through the night in his house. Now all that remains of Kapeali’s house is a hole in the ground.
In the morning the young woman said that she would like to stay in this area with Kapeali. He suggested that he build her a house in the bush at Imabusa, but she did not like that place. So, they went to the head of the Talyulu kamapi at Irelya and there she said she would like to settle. Kapeali’s brother Ipu whose descendants now live in the Yandapo region in the upper Lagaip took an axe and cut down a tree to make a center post (pingina) in her house. This house became her dwelling place and later she became the sacred stones which live in that house. Their name is Aeatee and the house is called the aeatee anda.
In times when there is drought or food shortage or widespread disease, then the woman will be seen again in the region of her house. When she appears, then men know that it is time to build her house again to ensure that Apulini people will prosper.
(Lacey 1975:121)
There are several variants of this myth, but most go on to add that either the mother or daughter stayed at Irelya and established the Aeatee of the Yanaitini tribe. Some trace the origin of wandering women to the Kepele houses at Kasap from where a mother and daughter set out up the Lagaip to establish Kepele sites at Keokungusa and Kanake. Traditions from the Sambe tribe claim that the mother and daughter left their area and travelled to the Lai valley during a period of famine to establish the Apulini and Yanaitini Aeatee sites, indicating strong ritual links in the past between the Lagaip and the Lai valleys.
Yakani also adopted a similar version of the Kepele cult, the Pokalya, from the Lagaip around the fifth to sixth generation before present. The origin myth for this cult is well known in central Enga:
“A long time ago, there was a one-eyed man named Lengeane. He usually dressed up in fine apparel with black cassowary plumes on his wig and was known for his heroic acts in warfare and his many journeys to other parts of the province.
One day he heard that there was going to be a compensation payment in Laiagam with a big gathering of people and pig kill. Lengeane decided that this would be a good time to meet and court young women, so he gathered some friends from surrounding tribes of Depe and Lyipini and went to the compensation. At Laiagam, they saw many familiar faces from both the Lai and Lagaip valleys. When night fell, many visitors were looking for places to stay and others for courtship parties. Lengeane and his friends followed a group of young women into a house where there was to be a courtship party.
Amongst the young women gathered there were two particularly tall and beautiful ones. When the young men and women began to sing and court, most of the young men tried to sit next to these two women. Lengeane was the last to sit with the beautiful women and court them. They talked, joked, sang, and after some time Lengeane asked them if they would like to visit him at his home. They asked where he came from and whom he had come with and he explained that he had come with a group of young men from the Lai valley and that he was from Lenge. The two women, who were mother and daughter, were very interested and told him that one day they would come and visit him. They talked until dawn, and Lengeane told of his exploits and of his high standing in his community. In the morning, Lengeane and the other young men left for Lenge.
One day, the mother and daughter decided to go to Lenge to visit Lengeane. They climbed from the Lagaip valley into the high country separating the Lai and Lagaip. There they gathered bush leaves and flowers to adorn their hair and armbands. They had a good idea of what Lenge should look like from Lengeane’s description, but when they came to a crossroads with four paths going in different directions, they were not sure of which way to go. The mother decided that she should go to the east and that the daughter should go to the north. They agreed that they would place markers of leaves to indicate the direction in which they had gone so that they would be able to find one another later.
While they were discussing where to go, a man named Boale (from the Apulini tribe) had hidden himself in the bushes to spy on them. He listened to everything they said. After they left to search for Lenge, Boale collected some leaves and put them on the bush track to Lenge so that the daughter would think that the mother had gone in that direction. Then he made some footprints in the direction of Lenge in case the daughter had any doubts. The daughter followed Boale’s signs which led her to Lenge. There she met and married Lengeane. The mother continued to the east until she came to Wapomanda in the land of the Depe tribe and met and married a Depe man. The mother and daughter later both turned into ritual stones. The Pokalya ritual was started in their memory to assure fertility of the land and the welfare of the tribe.”
(Pote Amborane, Yakani Timale clan of Lenge)
In another version of this myth told by Lakaio Lai of the Timali clan, Lakaio adds that the mother continued on to Depe and married a man Lama Kaimbya of the Depe Koepa clan. All of these myths refer to interactions between different groups in the past.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Apulini
For both Apulini and Yakani it is often hard to draw the line between clans and sub-clans. The following are major clans and their locations.
| Clan | Location | Nearest school or aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Sikita | Aiposa | Wabag |
| Lindita/Kaipotesa | Kepelama | |
| Talyulu | Irelya | Irelya (Wabag) |
| Landelyama/Kepelama | Kepelama | |
| Kopale | Poketasa/Kailyama | Porgerasa/Kepelama |
| Yoelya | Poketasa/Kepelama | Porgerasa/Kepelama |
| Malowana | Kanamanda/Poketasa | Porgerasa/Kepelama |
Yakani
| Clan | Location | Nearest school or aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Langape | Yokomanda | Yokomanda |
| Timali | Lenge | Pipi |
| Kainambotepa | Tumbulama | Pipi/Yokomanda |
| Sikinowane | Takemanda | Yokomanda |
| Pyalyui | Ainamanda | Yokomanda |
| Anjini | Laamanda | Yokomanda |
| Palyiu | Tapokomanda | Pipi |
| Sane | Rakamanda | Rakamanda |
| Koowane | Wanomanda | Yokomanda |
| Kalia | Wakumale | Wakumale (Wabag) |
| Laeta | Yatulama | Par |
| Sambeyoko | Par | Par |
| Mulyao | Lakapusa | Par |
| Takikini | Yampu | Yampu |