“Aimbatepa and Kotepa were brothers. They lived on their land in the fertile Kaumbi valley near Kaupu. Aimbatepa was a gardener and also collected firewood. Kototepa was a hunter of possums.”
So begins Aimbatepa and Kototepa historical traditions, although some added that Aimbatepa and Kototepa were born from a flying fox and others that Kototepa was born from a dog. In early historical traditions, Kaupa was a most favorable place for agriculture, being located some 200-300 meters in altitude below the Kandep basin. The frost-free Kaupa valley at that time was well-known for the fine sugarcane, taro and bananas that could be grown there. The division of labor between the brothers mentioned above represents the mixed agricultural-hunting lifestyle of Kaupa residents at the onset of their historical traditions.
To the south of Aimbatepa in the Kaupa valley was another related group, Kambitipa and north of the valley, Maulu. On the west side of the river were Katinja tribes who were regarded with suspicion and mistrust by Atone tribes.
Fragmented legends suggest that the time around the beginning of oral history was a troublesome one. They point to a severe flood or frost that left much of the Kandep area devastated with only trees surviving. Around the same time, Katinja groups to the west became involved in a conflict that nearly wiped out the Timitopa tribe. This event was followed by a serious war between Katinja people to the west and Atone peoples to the east, with Aimbatepa and Yamape being the ‘owners of the conflict’:
A long time ago in the generation of Aimbatepa and Yamape, there was a quarrel between two young men over a bow. Each wanted the bow, and neither would give in, so they began to wrestle. The fight escalated and soon they had wrestled each other to the ground. Somebody came by, noticed that the fight was serious and split the bow and string down the middle, giving one half to each of the young men.
This did not end the fight, and soon others joined in, and the quarrel escalated into a full-fledged tribal fight between the Atone and Katinja people. Maulu, who lived in the higher country north of Kaupu, supported Aimbatepa against Yamape and Yalipuni, and the fight took place on Maulu’s land at Maulu Pau. In the end, Yamape retreated and Aimbatepa moved to where they are settled now near Lakalapa. Aimbatepa gave his original land to Maulu, who had helped in the fight and whose land had been devastated during the war.
Aimbatepa did not actually plan to give away his land, but it happened like this. After the fight, Maulu came to Aimbatepa and gave him a pig, a piece of sugarcane and a banana leaf. He did this several times, and Aimbatepa was puzzled and tried to figure out the meaning of these gifts. Later he realized that this was an indication that Maulu wanted to settle on Aimbatepa’s land, where he could grow all of the things Maulu had given him and take possession of Aimbatepa’s pigs, bananas, and sugarcane. Aimbatepa gave up his land and moved eastward to his hunting country near Lakalapa, where he is today.
(Tumbili Meane of the Aimbatepa tribe, Lakalapa)
Because the Atone – Katinja fight took place in the earliest historical traditions, informants could not place the fight in the exact generation of one of their forefathers. Others added that Aimbatepa’s move out of the Kaupa valley to settle in what was their previous hunting land was gradual. It took place at a time when other tribes from the Kaumbi valley, including the related tribe of Kambitipa, were beginning to expand into the area south of Kandep station. This more permanent settlement of previous hunting territories probably was made possible by the arrival of the sweet potato, as is suggested in the name of a ritual for garden fertility held by Kambitipa and Aimbatepa after they settled in their previous hunting territories: ‘Ainayoko wapuingi saa ingi waitake pingi’ or ‘the feast to create the sweet potato leaf and to forget about eating the innards of possums’.
After the Atone versus Katinja fight, when Maulu moved into the Kaumbe valley, Kototepa moved into the Imali area directly south and southwest of the Kandep station. The descendants of one of Aimbatepa’s sons, Pumbuti, moved into the Lakalapa area, and those of his other son, Kone, further to the east along the northern side of the Marient valley. The entire Aimbatepa tribe came together periodically to conduct rituals for the ancestors.
Moving into higher altitude lands with thick rainforest would have been no easy job for tribes from the Kaumbi valley; intensive labor would be needed to clear the bush for gardens. For assistance in forest clearance, Aimbatepa recruited labor from groups in the Kandep area who appear to have subsisted largely on hunting and gathering, as described in the following legend:
Once in the land of Kaupa lived a man called Aimbatepa. Aimbatepa gave his land away to the Maulu tribe and moved to settle near Kondo Mountain on land which was his previous hunting grounds. The trees at the foot of Kondo Mountain were very tall, too tall for Aimbatepa to climb and trim the branches to make new gardens, so he left Kondo for Bipi Kana to try to recruit some men from the Bipi tribe to help him.
In the land of Bipi, there was a fine men’s house. On his arrival, Aimbatepa found that the house was occupied by many strong and handsome young men. When the father saw Aimbatepa coming, he asked him why he had traveled such a long distance to come to his place. Aimbatepa explained the purpose of his journey.
Upon hearing what Aimbatepa wanted, the father was very reluctant to send any of his sons to help Aimbatepa trim the trees, but Aimbatepa kept insisting. The father finally gave in and sent his most capable son to go with Aimbatepa. However, when he did so, he warned Aimbatepa that the young man was his favorite son and that Aimbatepa should take every precaution to ensure that the young man was always safe.
Aimbatepa and the young Bipi man left for Kondo, and when they arrived, the young man went straight to work trimming the branches of the tall trees. While he was busy working, Aimbatepa roasted the best vegetables and sweet potato that he could harvest from his old gardens. When the food was roasting in the oven, he returned to the new garden to gather the branches that the Bipi man had cut. While Aimbatepa was busy clearing away the branches, the young Bipi man disappeared. He wanted to find him to tell him that it was time to go home and eat, but the young man was nowhere in sight. Thinking that the young man must have gone back to the house to rest, Aimbatepa went home.
Sure enough, the young Bipi man had gone back to the house to sleep. He lay down, and when he was fast asleep, he turned into a large molopai python. Aimbatepa was very surprised to come home and find a large snake lying there. Thinking that it would make a good meal for his guest, Aimbatepa went back to his old garden, collected greens, killed the snake and roasted it with the greens. While the snake was being roasted in the oven, Aimbatepa went out searching for the young Bipi man. He called and called and searched everywhere, but he could not find him anywhere. Finally, he returned home, and at the site where he roasted the molopai, he found the remains of a net bag, a bark belt and a stone axe. He was shocked to find that the snake had escaped from the oven, and he followed the trail and patches of blood left by the python.
After a long journey, he arrived in the land of Bipi where he met the father of the young man face-to-face. He told the father about the disappearance of the young man and of the roasting of the snake. The father was furious and demanded that Aimbatepa compensate him for the killing of his son. Aimbatepa returned to Kondo, collected several pigs and gave them to the father in compensation for the murder of his son.
(Tumbili Menane, Aimbatepa tribe of Lakalapa)
Similar legends can be found in other neighboring tribes such as in Maulu, Timitopa and Yalipuni. Although the details differ, all state that an agriculturalist sought help from hunter-gatherers of the Bipi tribe for forest clearance and that the agriculturalist accidentally killed his helper, not realizing that he turned into a snake. In the Bipi version, the killing is more intentional. All versions emphasize with admiration the strength and capability of the Bipi men, and most mention their strength, skill in hunting and cooperation with one another. All versions imply that there were differences between the two people, the resulting misunderstanding and attempted murder. In view of the labor-intensive demands of forest clearance with expansion of tribes into higher altitude areas, the implications of this legend, that agriculturalists recruited labor from those relying primarily on hunting and gathering, is a very plausible one and may well have been a common practice in the Kandep area after the introduction of the sweet potato.
Most legends telling of the killing of Bipi Molopai python claim that this event was the origin point for the Kepele fertility ritual throughout Kandep. Bipi appears to have been a ritual center, with Bipi fertility rituals spreading throughout the Kandep area and into some parts of the Lagaip and Porgera. Aimbatepa has its own myth for the origin of its Kepele ritual, but nonetheless it has striking similarities to the Bipi myth:
Once there lived a brother and sister at Kondo. They built their house on the site which is now the Aimbatepa ceremonial ground. Every morning the girl washed herself, dressed herself in full traditional dress and left home, returning later in the afternoon. Her brother became very curious about where she went each day and one day decided to secretly follow her. He told her that he was going to take a long trip to a faraway place, dressed for the trip, and pretended to leave. He did not go far, however, but hid near the house.
The girl followed her usual routine and washed, dressed, and decorated herself. Then she crossed the swamp and went to the foot of Kondo Mountain. She went over to the foot of a large sprawling tree where there was a small pool of water. (The tree and the pool are still there today). The boy followed her and watched as she took her bridal digging stick and splashed it on the surface of the pool. To the boy’s surprise, a large snake came up out of the pool and had sexual intercourse with the girl. The brother did not come home until late in the afternoon, at which time he pretended that he was returning from his long journey.
The next morning when his sister went to the garden, the brother got a stump of a fern tree and dressed it up to look like his sister. He carried it to the pool, planted it by the waterside, and splashed a stick on the surface of the pool. The snake, thinking that the fern stump was the girl, came out and wrapped itself around the fern trunk. While it was doing that, the brother got an axe and chopped the snake into pieces. He then threw the pieces into the lake and went home.
The next day the sister dressed herself as she usually did and went to the lake. She splashed the water as she usually did, but the snake did not come. While she was wondering what had happened to it, the pieces of the snake, which had joined back together, came out of the lake. She asked what had happened, and the snake replied,
“Your brother took an axe and chopped me to pieces.” Upon hearing that, the sister went home and said to her brother,
“The time has come for me to go look for a husband.”
“It is up to you to take care of yourself and find a home for yourself,” he replied.
The next day she tied the end of a string to a banana tree that grew beside the house and said to her brother,
“When the banana tree bears fruit, if it leans towards the house, then it means that I will be well settled in a house with my husband, but if it leans away from the house, then it will indicate that I have not found a proper house and husband. If the tree leans towards the house, then follow the string and come and visit me. If it leans away from the house, do not come and try to find me.”
The brother waited for months and years for the banana tree to bear fruit. By that time, he had grown into a man and had married two wives, a dark-skinned one called enda pumbuti and a light-skinned one called enda kone. He trusted the dark-skinned one more than the light-skinned one.
After several years, the banana tree bore fruit and leaned in the direction of the house. The brother decided that it was time to follow his sister’s instructions and visit her. The string had decayed over the years, but he was able to find enough bits and pieces of it to follow it. He traveled a very long way following the string until he arrived at a place where many people were sitting around. He asked the people where his sister’s house was, and they pointed out the clay track that led through her gardens to her house. He shouted to her from the distance to announce his arrival. When he approached his sister, he was astounded to see that she had many breasts like those of a pig. For a moment, he wondered if she was indeed his sister, but then he recognized her unmistakably by her face. He greeted her and told her that he had come to visit as she had asked him to.
His sister told him that it was good of him to come but that she did not live in a real house, but that he could sleep with her and leave the next day. She cut sugar cane, dug sweet potato and they went to the house together. The brother was amazed to see only a fireplace and a cleared area with no roof or walls. His sister cooked the food, and they ate. While they were sitting there, he heard a rustling noise, and to his surprise a big snake came out of the bush and coiled itself in such a way as to form a house post. Another followed and created a second post. Still others came and formed the frame of the house while others formed the roof. The last to come was a light-coloured snake who crawled into the house. The brother was frightened, but his sister told him not to worry because the snake was his nephew and he understood that and would not hurt him. The snake licked the legs of his uncle as a sign of welcome.
On the next day, the sister told her brother that the light-coloured snake would like to accompany him and that he should not refuse. She told him that he would be given the bride-wealth which had not been given prior to the marriage according to Enga custom. She also told him that the snake would accompany him to Kondo to help him get the bride-wealth home by chasing the pigs down the path to Kondo.
On the next day the snakes brought the bridewealth and, to the brother’s surprise, it consisted of many pigs, cassowaries, shells, native oil and other goods. He was wondering how he would take everything home, but his sister said not to worry, but to pack up his things to leave the next day. In the morning he left, and when he looked back, he saw that all the pigs were following him without wandering off. When he reached Kondo, his nephew, the light-skinned snake, told him that he would not live near the house any longer, but that he wanted his uncle to make a special place for him. The brother got a thick hollow bamboo like stick and laid it beside the house for his nephew to live in. His nephew crawled inside, and the brother fed him daily without the knowledge of his two wives.
As time passed, the dark-skinned wife found out that her husband was looking after a snake and sometimes fed it herself. She did not say anything about it to the light-skinned wife, who she felt was not trustworthy. The nephew helped the household by hunting pigs and possums, and the dark-skinned wife cooked and ate them.
However, after some time the light-skinned lady suspected that something was up. One day when the brother went on a trip, she collected greens and ferns pretending that she was going to roast a pig. She got the stick containing the food and held it at the opening. When the snake stuck out its head to get the food, she hit it with her digging stick and killed it. Then she heated some stones and roasted it right on top of the greens. She waited for some time, but when she uncovered the pit, she saw that the snake was not inside and the vegetables were not cooked. She immediately realized that the snake had escaped. Then she heard somebody singing a song.
“HA! HA! Light-skinned woman, have you eaten the molopai snake cooked or raw?” Then she realized that it was not a real snake that she had been trying to roast but a human being. The dark-skinned woman heard the song, saw the splotches of blood around the house and went to look for the snake. She could not find the snake in its usual place and realized what her co-wife had done.
When their husband returned, the dark-skinned wife reported the whole matter to him. He became enraged, chopped the light-skinned woman into pieces and buried her. His nephew came to him and told him that the light-skinned wife had tried to kill him and that he had escaped using all of his strength and power, but that now he wanted to go away. The uncle told his snake nephew that he would not let him go away, so then the nephew asked that the uncle make him a place to live further away from the house where he would not be attacked again by a visitor or an enemy. He also asked if his uncle would continue to feed him. The uncle wondered where he might find a suitable and safe place for his nephew to live but promised him that he would find him one and continue to take care of him.
The uncle took his nephew to the place where the snake, who was his father, used to live near the pool of water at the foot of Kondo Mountain. He lit a fire and touched the end of the snake’s tail with the flame. The snake scrambled into the pool, and then the uncle slaughtered the pigs and threw them into the pool, telling his nephew to stay there. He did and still lives in the lake to this day.
It is believed that the father snake and the nephew still live in the pool today, except that the father turned into a possum. The possum father and snake son join tails in the moonlight. When the possum leads the way, it is quiet, and when the snake leads the way, one can usually hear the sounds the possum makes as he tries to follow the snake. When the possum cries on a moonlit night, the Kondo people suspect that it might come and take the life of one of them, and they shiver with fear.
Prior to the introduction of Christianity, Aimbatepa and Maulu clans fed the snake and possum living in the pool in the Kondo Teke ritual, which was Aimbatepa’s Aiamane or Kepele ritual. Aimbatepa brought pigs, possums and many other kinds of food and Maulu brought bananas and human blood, ears and other things for the ritual. The pigs were slaughtered and along with other foods were taken to two places, one where the snake’s head was and where it was believed to eat, and the other to where it was thought to excrete. The snake and the possum are believed to be the source of wealth, prestige and good fortune for the Aimbatepa tribe. However, if anybody secretly tries to see the snake and possum, they become insane or deformed.
Sometimes the ritual for the snake and possum was held during tribal fights, and an arrow was added to the bundle of foods to assure that Aimbatepa would kill a man from the enemy side. The ritual unites Aimbatepa tribes during times of tribal fighting, and we say that we are tied together like the possum and the snake. During the rituals, the ritual experts tie men’s heads together with a particular kind of string (amapi kende) as a sign of Aimbatepa internal unity.
(Sakiasa Tamao of the Aimbatepa tribe, Lakalapa)
This legend is an adaptation of the well-known Bipi origin myth to explain the origin of Aimbatepa’s rituals for the ancestors. It borrows many details from the Bipi myth, such as the roasting and escape of the snake, the song sung by the snake, and the cooperation of the snakes to build the house. The house building is an important central metaphor used in the Kepele and Aiamane rituals for expressing tribal unity. In the major fertility rituals, each clan or sub-clan of a tribe was expected to provide certain posts, rafters or other materials for building the ritual houses. It was only through the joint effort of all clans in a tribe that the house could be completed.
From this myth, it is evident that the Konda Teke or Kepele ritual held by Aimbatepa was acquired from the Bipi tribe through intermarriage. A woman of the Aimbatepa tribe is seduced by and marries a man from a hunting and gathering group, probably Bipi, and her son brings the ritual for wealth, fertility and success in warfare to his mother’s tribe. The image of the snake-man or hunter-gatherer is as in other myths, one of an honest, helpful, capable young man who is misunderstood and mistreated but nonetheless brings the ritual for assuring fertility and wealth. We asked Aimbatepa elders if they knew of any particular marriage through which the Kondo Teke ritual was introduced to Aimbatepa, but they did not. Presumably it was adopted after years of intermarriage and interaction.
Aimbatepa Dispersal
After Aimbatepa clans settled at Kondo, there was a split between the descendants of the two sons of Aimbatepa, Kone and Pumbuti. This is said to have occurred after a quarrel between the two during preparations for a small ritual. After the quarrel, the two groups cooled down, feasted together and decided to separate, but to come together during their major rituals and to support each other during times of tribal fighting. From that time on, during ceremonial occasions, men from Aimbatepa Kone would paint their faces with white clay, adorn themselves in white ornaments while those from Aimbatepa Pumbuti would paint their faces black and choose black ornaments.
Like many other tribes in southern Kandep, once settled in higher land, Aimbatepa families left for other areas in times of frost, depending on strong ties with the Lai valley to the east, the Mendi and Tari areas. These connections also resulted in smaller groups of Aimbatepa migrating to other areas and groups from other areas joining Aimbatepa. The overall impression given by Aimbatepa history is that out-migration was roughly balanced by in-migration. Here we will give three of the most detailed Aimbatepa migration legends which all provide interesting information on relations in the past. The first is a fight between Aimbatepa Pumbuti’s two sons, Mae and Kipi, and Kipi’s move to the Tari area. It took place approximately seven to eight generations ago and gives an indication of the wide movements of people for trade and marriage at that time:
Pumbuti, the son of Aimbatepa, had two sons, Kipi and Mae. At Tatali near Kupatesa where the old men’s house stands, was the location of Aimbatepa’s house. It was here during the time of Mae and Kipi that there was a famine (presumably following frost). Mae left for the Lai valley, taking his sons with him. Kipi stayed home but gave Mae a container of native oil and asked him to exchange it for a stone axe. Then Kipi and his children went off to the east in search of food. When the famine had subsided, Mae returned with his sons. He told them to wait along the way and went ahead to the house. When he arrived at the house, Kipi was roasting pandanus nuts and his body was dripping with sweat. Kipi heard a noise outside the house and asked,
“Who is there?”
Mae told him that it was he, and Kipi asked,
“Did you bring my stone axe?”
“No. I will go back and get the axe,” Mae replied, “I just came home to see if the crops were growing well in the gardens and will go back to get my possessions,” Mae answered.
“I told you to bring my axe!” said Kipi in an angry voice. He had not even finished saying this when he picked up his bow and arrows and shot his brother Mae. Mae fell to the ground with the arrow in his body and died.
Pumbuti, the father of Mae and Kipi, had another wife with whom he had two daughters. One had married a man from the Tari side and the other an Itokone man from the Lai valley. Mae’s children left Kandep and went to live with their sister on the Tari side, where their descendants are today. Kipi remained in Kandep, where his descendants in the Aimbatepa Pumbuti clans are today.
The second migration legend tells of how the “daughter” of Aimbatepa Kone married a Sikini man and returned to her place to begin the Aimbatepa Siki clan. The legend takes place approximately 7-8 generations ago and suggests that at this time the land in the Lai valley was becoming crowded and that there was a shortage of forests for hunting and gathering pandanus near to the settlements.
From Pina in the Lai valley, a Sikini man came to Kandep. His name was Kipane, and he came along the Yopo bush track between the Lai and Kandep. His trip had been planned, and a group of Aimbatepa men and women were expecting him. He arrived at Mateanda where the Catholic mission is today and was welcomed warmly by the people living there. They gave him a young woman to take back to Pina as his wife, which he did.
One day, Kipane’s brother-in-law decided that he wanted to visit them at Pina. He hunted for possums, gathered beetles (nuts?) and pandanus and put them in his net bag along with all kinds of other foods and set off for Pina on the Yopo bush track.
When he arrived, Kipane welcomed him and invited him to stay in his house. The brother-in-law gave Kipane the net bag with all the food and Kipane was pleasantly surprised,
“Where did you get all this food?” Kipane asked his brother-in-law.
“It all grows in Kandep,” he answered.
“Where in Kandep?” asked Kipane.
“In Mateanda, Kondo and Ipulu,” the brother-in-law answered.
Impressed with the sight of all the food, Kipane asked his brother-in-law if he could go back to Kandep with him and see the places where the food grew. The Aimbatepa man agreed and the next morning they set out.
After a long journey, they arrived at Mateanda. The Aimbatepa man took the Sikini man around to all the places where the different food plants grew. He took him to Kondo and Sangurapa and said,
“All of this is my land. You may stay here if you like.”
“Would you show me the place where you got the possums and beetles?” Kipane asked.
“The place of the possums and beetles is far from here, but we can go there if you like,” said the brother-in-law.
They spent the night at Mateanda and left for the place of the possums the next morning. When they arrived there the brother-in-law showed Kipane the land along the Wete River. Kipane liked what he saw.
“I would like to settle here,” he said. “This is a good place. There are lots of pandanus, plenty of trees, and it is a good place for hunting. The soil looks like it would be good for gardening. In some ways, this place is like my own place, Pina. Give me this land and let it be mine.” The brother-in-law gave him all the forest land, and Kipane settled there with his wife, and now his descendants live there as the Siki clan.
The third legend is one of the marriage between a man from the Lyomoi Kupa clan north of the Mendi Township and a woman from Aimbatepa Kone, which took place five generations ago. It is told more in the style of the history of the northern Mendi people (Mawe) than of Enga in that it is the tale of an adventurer and hero. Such tales are uncommon in Enga history but reveal many details of the past:
A long time ago a conflict broke out between the Lyomoi Kupa and Yakumba clans settled north of Mendi. This conflict was well-known in the region (see Lyomoi history). Gulu from the Kupa clan was a wanted man in this conflict, and men from the enemy Yakumba tribe strove to murder him because he was a wealthy leader in the Kupa clan. The enemy went deep into the Mendi region to seek sorcerers to try to poison him.
One day Gulu decided to go and make salt at Laiagama. He prepared himself for the trip, putting his stone axe in his belt, and taking along some other valuables. When he was ready, he set out on the Tikeletakole bush track in the evening. It was a bright, moonlit night, and he traveled quickly to Laiagama. There he made salt and returned home on the Koea bush track. Gulu was worn out by the long trip and spent the night at Tupatesa on the way home. Wherever he went, he had to be alert and on the lookout for enemies.
The next morning, he set out early and went to Kalima. He often changed course and took small paths to avoid enemy ambush. For this reason, he approached the ceremonial grounds at Dikitesa cautiously on a minor path. Before entering the ceremonial grounds, Gulu surveyed the area from a distance. There he saw a figure covered with clay and decorated with clay as if going to a ceremonial pig exchange. The figure appeared to be that of a woman, so he quietly made his way to the ceremonial grounds, took the heavy load from his shoulders and lay down to rest.
The woman saw him. She stopped dancing and went over to where he was lying. She stood beside him and looked at him curiously. There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other because they spoke different languages and could not understand each other. They could only communicate by sign language.
The woman broke the silence by saying some words that Gulu could not understand. In her own language she asked him why he was lying there. Gulu gestured with his hand that he was thirsty and hungry and showed her bags of salt to explain that he had gone to Laiagam to make salt. She asked him where he came from, and he pointed to his headdress to indicate that he was from Mendi. Then she asked him through sign language where he intended to spend the night. He signaled back that he would just have to spend the night out in the open in the grass.
Even though Gulu was a stranger to her, the woman felt sorry for him, so she picked up his bags of salt and other gear, put them in her net bag and beckoned for him to follow her. She was a woman from the Aimbatepa tribe. She took him to her house, entered the house, and laid the bag down in a corner. Then she busily prepared a bed and food for the stranger including sugarcane, sweet potato and other foods. Gulu, who had been very weary, felt better and regained his strength. He looked around the house. The fire was burning brightly, and the room was hot. Gulu and the woman sat there quietly, each very aware of the other’s presence. The woman studied Gulu very carefully.
After some time, the woman signaled to Gulu that she would like to go with him. Gulu nodded in agreement, and they left for the man’s house where her father was. She told her father about the stranger and that he wanted her to go with him to his home.
“Will you be safe if you go with him?” Her father asked.
“Yes, we can make it there safely,” she answered.
Gulu gave her father a stone axe and pearl shell as a token of friendship, and the next morning they set off for his place.
The woman was quite tall and well-built and had no trouble carrying the heavy bag of salt. When they arrived near Mendi, they rested at Gulu’s house for a few days. Then they heard that there was to be a pig killing festival (mena yae) to the east of Gulu’s place and set off together for the feast. When they arrived, the people there looked at them suspiciously. The gossip spread that Gulu had brought a Kandep woman with him, and the others were jealous. Gulu could feel from the atmosphere that his enemies were practicing sorcery against him, so he told his wife not to eat any of the food offered to them by people in the crowd. She felt uneasy and said,
“If this place is infested with sorcery and black magic, then why did you bring me here?”
Gulu did his best to comfort her, and then they decided to return home. On the way home, they visited his sister who was married to a man from another clan. There Gulu’s brother-in-law let him pick out twenty-four kina shells to take along and one stone axe. They also adorned themselves with fine ornaments. When they were about to leave, the brother-in-law said,
“You may give away the pearl shells, but not the stone axe. Keep it hidden deeply in your net bag.”
Sensing that danger was lurking behind them, the couple hurried on their way. They arrived at a ceremonial ground where a large crowd was assembled. The people in the crowd turned around and watched as they approached. From the crowd, both applause and sneers came. Many said that he was coming with a girl he had kidnapped. The people in the crowd closed in to take a closer look. Just then the Kandep woman took the bag of shells from her back and spread it out on the ground. The eyes of the spectators were dazzled by the bright reflections of sunlight on the shells. Some people in the crowd remarked that Gulu must be on his way to an exchange ceremony (tee). He won the admiration of the crowd. Later they slaughtered a pig for him and offered him the vertebrae and chest, which he gave to the Kandep woman to carry in the net bag. They also gave Gulu more shells and some gourds of oil. Then Gulu and his wife set off on the Tapu route for Mendi.
In Mendi, Gulu gave away the shells and containers of oil, but despite his generosity, there were still some men who wanted to murder him. Some close friends told him of a plot and advised him to leave, so he and his wife went back to her place at Dikitesa near Kandep. It was pandanus season when they arrived. All the land around Kalima was uninhabited, and the nearby grassy land was filled with possums. Gulu and his wife, who was named Ajipu, went to the forest at Kalima and built a small house in which to live and roast pandanus. They collected many nuts and made small gardens around the house. The crops in the gardens did very well, particularly the spinach.
Gulu took the axe which he had gotten from his brother-in-law in the east and used it to build a house, cut pandanus and make fences for his gardens. The axe was of great use to him. The land was so fertile that Gulu settled permanently there and had many descendants, and I am one of them. Because our forefather Gulu came from the Mendi area, we will have ties there and often go to Mendi to visit.
(Apa Pimbia of Aimbatepa Pao clan, Kandep)
Aimbatepa stands out among the tribes of southern Kandep for its long and detailed legends of tribal history which give us some picture of life in the past. Kototepa, Aimbatepa’s brother tribe, has in contrast a much sparser oral history, as do most other tribes that originated in the Kaupa valley and spread eastward, containing only a brief origin myth and an outline of tribal dispersal. Note however, that Kototepa was known in the area as the tribe from which ritual healers or medicine men originated, possessing amongst other things medicine to heal leprosy, and has several myths and legends on this subject. Both Aimbatepa and Kototepa held the sangai or sandalu male initiation, acquiring the sacred objects from the Lai valley.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Aimbatepa
Kone
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Pao | Dikitesa | Kandep |
| Apaia | Yutipaka | Tinjipaka |
| Kikili | Pindaka | Kandep |
| Siki | Ipulu | Tinjipaka |
| Laubane | Mumundu | Tinjipaka |
Pumbuti
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Wapename | Taumbuli | Kandep |
| Taonde | Konda | Lakalapa |
| Pipilya | Kombotosa | Kandep |
| Tambola | Konda | Lakalapa |
| Matusa | Maulo | Kandep |
1. Siki was founded by a daughter of Aimbatepa Kone who married a Sikini man from Pina in the Lai valley and returned with him to settle in Kandep.
2. Laubane married a Sambe man and returned to her place with her husband to found the Laubane clan.
Kototepa
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Kumatoto | Imali | Kandep |
| Pumbukini | Kaiama | Kandep |
| Mandipa | Kupae | Kandep |
| Awaitini | Kolao | Kandep |
| Kamale | Kamale | Kandep |
| Epone | Imali | Toalya (?) |