Kaia, Limbini, Tekepaini and Tupini

A long time ago there was an old woman who lived in Anyolema. One day she went to the bush to cut pandanus leaves to make a rain cape. As she approached the banks of the Lagaip, she saw a pandanus tree with suitable leaves. She got two logs, leaned them against the tree trunk and climbed up to cut the leaves. In the tree she found a bird’s egg and put it in her mouth because she needed to keep her hands free.   After cutting the leaves, she started to climb down but slipped and fell to the ground. When she landed, the egg broke in her mouth and she swallowed it. She took little notice of what had happened and went home. That night her body ached all over and she knew that she was pregnant. Sometime later she gave birth to a lizard (kanopato galane) which she kept in the rain cape she had made. She watched it grow and to her surprise the lizard became pregnant and gave birth to a human child which she named Anyo Lemeane. Anyo Lemeane married a Kaiya woman, and they had three sons, Muuta, Tambuta, and Anyo Limbini.   Her sons grew up as normal children except that they had one strange habit. They went out early each day and did not return until late at night, never missing a single day. Their mother became very curious about what they were doing and wanted to discover their secret. One day she followed them without their knowing. As she approached their secret place, she found that they had built a large house and were dancing around it, one going in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. When they met in front of the door, they beat their kundu drums. Then they entered the house and came out a few moments later. Each time they emerged from the house, they had grown a little bit older.   Their dance went on and on, and by the end they had grown into very old men with white hair. Finally, when they came out of the house as old men, beautifully dressed, their mother called out to them asking them what they were doing. Upon hearing their mother’s call, they became frightened, ran down a steep bank, and disappeared.   The next day their bewildered mother came back to find out what had become of them and found that they had turned into two stones standing above a pool of water in the Lagaip. These two stones called Muuta and Tambuta can still be seen on the banks of the Lagaip today. Limbini tribesmen used to feed pork fat to the pool in memory of their ancestors during the Kaima ritual.

(Wasa Wango, Limbini Welya clan of Mulitaka)

Waneame, Limbini’s only daughter, went to a sing-sing at Pipitaka near the Keta River. A man from the Bipi-Kuu tribes in northern Kandep named Lipu Molo came to the sing-sing magnificently dressed. He was a very handsome man and drew the admiration of many girls who had come to watch. Waneame was no exception. When she saw this handsome young man, she fell in love with him. She made her way through the crowd and went to dance at the man’s side. She was also a very beautiful woman, and they made a perfect match, leaving the spectators speechless.   Later in the afternoon when the sun went down, the dance ended. Molo and Waneame stood together in the crowd. He spoke to her for the first time asking,   “Where do you come from?”   “I come from a place beyond where the clouds and horizon meet,” she replied and then asked where he came from.   “I come from Lende, the land of the Bipi tribe,” he told her. “Let’s go there.” They went back to Lende, cleared land, and lived happily. They had two sons, Waia and Wasia, and two daughters, Lungutame and Langutame. (In some versions they are called Tangulame and Tungulame).   When Waneame’s children grew up and became young adults, there was a period of frost and drought in Kandep. Their relatives in Limbini clans invited them to come to Anyolama for a visit and they decided to go. They set off on the bush path that crosses the high grassy land between Kandep and the Lagaip. When they arrived at the Katakata grasslands, they decided to stop and sleep the night there. Lungutame and Wasia went to a nearby grove to collect pandanus leaves with which to build a small hut for the night. Langutama and Waia went to collect the other bush materials for the hut. They returned with the materials and began to build the hut frame and walls.   Soon they were ready to put on the roof, but the other two did not arrive with the pandanus leaves. Langutame and Waia sat there in the hut and made a fire to warm themselves. They were tired, hungry, and felt annoyed that they had to do all the work alone. Late in the evening, Lungutame and Wasia appeared. When they entered the hut, Langutame and Waia said scornfully,   “No wonder you have been gone all this time, you were having sexual intercourse, weren’t you?”   “While we were gone, you were doing the same, weren’t you?” Langutame and Wasia answered. All four of them slept the night in the hut, but their anger did not subside.   In the morning, Lungutame and Waia left and took the bush track to Tipinini in Porgera. They took a tato stick as a walking stick and from that time on many tato trees grew along the track. They did not turn back but went on and on until they reached Tipinini in the land of Ipi, where they settled. There they founded the Tipinini Tekepaini tribe.   Wasia and Langutame took the track to Mulitaka. When they arrived at Sangurap it was evening and they called over to Limbini telling him that they had arrived. Limbini called back telling them to sleep where they were on the north side of the Lagaip, so they slept across the river from Limbini’s land. They stayed at Sangurapa and planted the pai trees that can be seen at Sangurap today. They got married and had many descendants who formed the Tekepaini tribe. The Kepele ritual was held at Sangurapa where they settled and built their first house. Limbini joined in the Tekepaini Kepele.

(Pakena Yawelya, Tekepaini tribe of Sangurapa)

A long time ago Kaeya came here to the Maramuni area instead of staying at Mulitaka. The reason for our migration was this. The Nete and Penale people from the Maramuni area used to come to Mulitaka to trade. They brought such things as tree oil, itatu nuts, flying foxes, red pandanus (P. conoideus or marita in Pidgin), fibers for making string bags and many other things. In exchange, they received salt and other items. Before conflicts broke out between the Mulitaka Enga and the Nete and Penale, our forefathers used to go to the Maramuni area frequently to trade with them. We would stay there for days collecting itatu fruits. The Nete and Penale people near Maramuni were not strangers to us, and we welcomed them and they welcomed us.   At this time, a Limbini Kaeya man fell in love with a girl named Kawandi from the Pupakini (Wawini) clan in Pasalakusa. (Wawini and Yangi are the only two Enga tribes who claim to have originated in the Maramuni area). They got married and he was accepted into her clan and settled there. Some of his relatives later joined him. They had many descendants and they make up the large Kaeya clan today. As I said before, the reason we originally went to Maramuni was for trade. The most important trade items which we got were foods. One could say that we went to Maramuni looking for food. The original inhabitants of Maramuni jokingly say to us, “You, the food seekers.”

( Kaipasa Wangia, Kaeya Limbini clan, Pasalakusa)

Kaiya

Kaiya’s founding father Kambeaka (Kaiya) is said to have originated from the sambai grasses near the north bank of the Lagaip at Anyolema across from Mulitaka just west of Limbini’s place of origin. Kaiya married a Limbini woman and they had a son Tomba. Tomba married and had two sons, Yoma and Aeyepa, and two daughters Potame and Yokonema. Potame married a man from the Monaini Kipula clan and Yokonema married a Mulapini man. Tomba also married a second wife, and had a son Apai, and a daughter Ipatonge, who married a Maitanaka man.   Kaiya groups expanded outwardly from Anyolema, with some segments settling at Yambuli on the south side of the Lagaip and up the slopes of Mt. Neapausa on the north side of the river. Gradually some branches of Kaiya Apai expanded into the Lyalama area, and others migrated north to the Lyeim and Mulitaka areas. Some of these migrations followed tribal warfare, while others were the product of families and sub-clans seeking good land.

Tupini

To the east of Limbini and Tekepaini is the tribe of Tupini. Tupini historical traditions begin when the founding father Ipiti was born from the river Lagaip at Aiamane on the north bank of the Lagaip between Mulitaka and Kasapa. Ipiti had two sons: Waa Tupini and Perondi. In the founding generations of Tupini some seven generations ago, Waa Tupini and Perondi fought over a boar and the Perondi clan dispersed too widely, resettling at Pasalakusa in Maramuni, Palo near Telyatesa in Kandep, and Kaindane in the Upper Ambum valley, obtaining new land from in-laws.   Waa Tupini groups remained at Aiamane. Tupini is closely associated with Tekepaini. Some Tekepaini claim that Tupini is Langutame’s son. Tupini, however, deny this and say that the close tie between the two groups comes from the fact that when Tekepaini first arrived in the Mulitaka area, they hunted and gathered with Tupini and from later intermarriage between the two tribes. Tupini does not hold its own Kepele ancestral cult, but its members attend either the Monaini Kepele ritual at Kasap or the Tekepaini Kepele at Sangurap.

CLANS AND LOCATIONS

Limbini