Lyaini and Sakalini are considered to be ‘brother’ tribes because throughout most of their oral history they have lived side by side as friends and neighbors. However, their oral histories give them completely different origins. Let us begin with the history of Lyaini.
Lyaini has no origin tradition other than that Lyaini and his brother Tia were born from a snake at Lonepindusa in the upper Ambum valley approximately eighth to ninth generations. The myth of being born from a snake is a common one in Enga for groups that settled in high altitude areas and depended heavily on hunting and gathering (see Bipi-Kuu history). Lyaini and Tia ventured from Lonepindusa up onto the Sirunki plateau while hunting possum and cassowary. There they hunted, built small shelters throughout the area, and thereby claimed the land. Tia preferred the Laiagama side and eventually moved there.
Due to the large amount of land they had claimed, Lyaini and Tia drew in other groups as friends and allies with whom they shared some of their land. Amongst these was Waitini from the Lagaip who was adopted by Tia and became the founder of the Waitini tribe (see Waitini history), Pape from the Ambum valley and Sakalini from the southern Kandep area. Let us start with the story of the adoption of Pape:
Once during the dry season when the weather was fine, Tia and Lyaini heard that there was a sing-sing at Sari. They put on their finest dress and left Waneposa for Sari early in the morning. They arrived at Sari in the afternoon and felt awkward as nobody there knew them or greeted them. While they were walking around, they noticed a pregnant woman who was standing there and staring at them. Tia asked her,
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“My husband Timu Yulini and I had a big argument, and he threw me out of the house and told me to leave,” she replied. Tia whispered to her that she could follow them home and that they would take care of her. The woman agreed and so the three left secretly for home. Late that afternoon they reached Poioa and a heavy rain began to fall. They found a garden hut and decided to spend the night there.
At dawn the woman gave birth to a son, so they named him Pape. The sun rose and the weather was promising, so they continued their journey to Londol (where they had land). They lived there until Pape was old enough to walk by himself and then left for Waneposa where they planned to build new houses and settle.
Some months later when Lyaini and Tia were working in the hot sun at Waneposa, they asked Pape to go and fetch water for them in the Kulikuli creek. Eagerly, he grabbed two water gourds and ran to the creek. There he heard birds singing and was very surprised when somebody threw a bunch of dead parrots down at his feet from a Matakangi tree. He asked him who he was and what he was doing. The man who was busy hunting parrots told him that his name was Wapane and that Pape should put the birds into his bag so that they could take them to Wapane’s house and roast them.
Pape forgot all about fetching water and went about gathering the parrots. Wapane and Pape brought them to Wapane’s house, cooked them and ate them. They made two bundles of the left-over ones, one for Lyaini and one for Tia. Pape was worried because he had stayed a long time at Wapane’s house rather than fetching water as he was told. Wapane told him that if Lyaini and Tia hit him for not fetching water, to cry out at the top of his voice and run to his house. There they could live together.
Pape went home with the gourds of water and bundles of roasted parrots. When he arrived home late in the afternoon, Lyaini and Tia angrily picked up stones and threw them at him. When the stones struck him, he cried out, left the water gourds and bundles of roasted parrots there on the spot and ran back to Wapane’s house. Papa and Wapane shared the land on one side of the Kulikuli river and Lyaini and Sakalini the land on the other side. When Pape grew up, it was he who started the Waneposa Kepele ritual.
(Makia Kupin, Tia Yolo clan of Waneposa, Laiagama)
Wapane is today a clan of Lyaini, as is Pape. It is not certain if Wapane was adopted by Lyaini or if he was a descendant of Lyaini. The willingness of Lyaini and Tia to adopt others indicates that there was ample land in the high country of the Sirunki plateau and suggests that Lyaini and Tia may have been wanting to recruit new members, either to extend trade ties or to build up manpower forces for the upcoming war with Pumane and Aiele tribes, from which Lyaini acquired land in the Ambum. The fact that Lyaini and Tia were trying to recruit new members is also shown in the number of clans and sub-clans founded by daughters whose husbands moved to their places to found sub-clans.
Sometime early in their oral history, Sakalini moved into the Sirunki area, was befriended by both Potealini and Lyaini and became Lyaini’s neighbor group and ally. The origin tradition of Sakalini is a fascinating one:
‘Long ago in the Mandi area, there lived two men who were cassowary trappers. It is not told exactly where they lived, but probably in the southern part of Kandep. One of the brothers was slightly deaf. One day they went out to set cassowary traps near a hut used for bachelors’ ceremonies. On the way, they found a cassowary caught in one of their traps, removed it from the trap and carried it to the initiation hut. There they carefully took out the intestines and put the carcass on the thatched roof to take home later. They cleaned the intestines and put them in an earth oven to roast. While waiting for the intestines to cook, they went to the bush to collect material out of which to make ropes.
After making two rolls of rope out of tatali vines, they returned to the hut. On the way, the brother who could hear well passed the deaf one and went ahead. Soon he arrived back at the hut, set aside the rolls of rope and began to unearth the intestines and put the intestines and the rest of the ferns in the house. While he was waiting, he thought to himself that it would be fun to play a trick on his brother by telling him that he had eaten all of the meat by himself. The slightly deaf brother arrived at the house, went in and sat down. The brother who had hidden the meat said to him,
“The intestines were burned by the hot rocks, so I ate up the few good pieces and am not just eating the fern leaves. Let’s carry the cassowary home.” The deaf brother thought that he might be joking and still expected to get some meat. However, the other brother thought that he would keep up the joke until they got home. After a while, the deaf brother began to think that the other had indeed eaten up all of the intestines, so angrily he got up, left the house and headed for the opening in the fence. His brother followed after him and called out,
“Come back and eat the intestines, I was only joking,” but the other man could not hear him and kept going. His brother followed him but could not catch up. Evening fell and the deaf man spent the night under the shelter of a large rock. His brother, who had followed him, slept on the other side of the same rock, neither realizing that the other was nearby. Early in the morning when the first birds began to sing, the deaf man resumed his journey. His brother got up later, walked around the rock, and arrived at the place where his brother had slept. He saw the warm coals from his fire and realized that he had left only a short while earlier. He thought that he could catch up with him sooner or later but could not and realized for the first time that his brother was really determined to leave him. He cut off one of his fingers in sorrow and kept going still hoping to catch up. The deaf man spent the night under a tree and continued his journey the next morning. His brother arrived at the place where he had slept to find out that once again his brother had just gone. He stood there for a few minutes in disbelief, cut off an ear in desperation, and then continued. Eventually though, he realized that his brother just would not stop, but was determined to keep going forever, so he stopped, turned around and went home crying.
The other brother went on and on. His feet ached from walking, so he cut a pole from a mandi tree to use as a walking stick. With this, he hobbled along. He kept going and going, spending many nights along the way. He followed the Yango route and spent the night at Yango rock. From there he went down to Papyuka where Sambe was. At Papyuka he stopped and talked to Sambe but did not sleep there. He continued on his way and went up the Yakopa ridge and arrived at a place where there was a small pool.
He arrived at the lake during a dry spell. He took out some of the food he had brought with him and roasted it in the fire he had made from the dry wood lying around the pool. He watched some birds flying back and forth over the pool, swooping down to drink. Curious as to why they were doing this, he tasted some of the ashes from the wood that had been soaked in the water. The ashes had a delicious salty taste, so he collected them, wrapped them in leaves, and took them with him on his journey. After a while he arrived at Lakolama and looked down at Kubalisa. He continued on to Kubalisa where he met a man named Potealini.
“Brother, where did you come from?” asked Potealini when he saw the stranger.
“I have been wandering around up there in the bush, lost my way and ended up here,” he answered.
“It is good that you have come. We’ll live together,” said Potealini. Upon hearing this the slightly deaf man took his walking stick and planted it in the fence of the men’s house. Because he was a newcomer, Potealini said to him one day,
“Why don’t you go out, and hunt possums, birds and cassowary and I will stay here and do the gardening.” The newcomer agreed and from then on that is how they divided the work. They called the newcomer Mandi as he had come from the area of Mandi speakers.
One day Mandi went out hunting and climbed the ridge between the Lai and Ambum valleys until he reached Paimandaka. From there he looked down into the Ambum valley. In the valley bottom, he saw gardens and in the middle of one of them was something that looked like the bud of a lona tree. Curious, he went down to take a closer look, passing through Malyanda. As he came closer, he noticed that the light-colored object was moving and then he realized that it was a person making a new garden. When he got very close, he saw that it was a woman with very light skin and blond hair. It was her hair that he had mistaken for the bud of a lona tree.
When Mandi approached the woman, she was astonished and sat down for a rest from her work.
“Where on earth did you come from,” she asked. “I have been wandering around on the ridge top hunting and decided to come down into the valley,” he answered. The woman took him to the house where her family lived. She was an Aiele woman, and the land was Aiele land. Her relatives asked her,
“Do you know where he came from?” The woman replied that he was a stranger who had come to the valley by chance. They welcomed him by slaughtering and roasting pigs; he stayed with them for seven days.
Meanwhile, while they were feasting, Potealini, who had welcomed Mandi into his home as a brother, was very worried about Mandi and wondered why he had not returned. On the eighth day, Potealini gave up waiting and assumed that Mandi had been killed by a falling tree or had been murdered by somebody. He chopped off a finger in sorrow and began to mourn.
Mandi was also concerned that Potealini would worry about him, so he decided to go back. He told his new friends,
“The others may be worried about me, so I must go. Let’s hurry!” the Aiele woman accompanied him as far as Paimandaka.
When they reached the ridge top, Mandi saw smoke rising from the front courtyard of Potealini’s house. Thinking that he might be roasting a pig, he hurried down to Binisa near Kubalisa. He arrived at the Lakedisa spring where people usually fetched their water and there, he saw some little boys and girls who were dancing, their bodies smeared with clay. They ran away as he approached and he followed them and as he approached the house, he heard the children shouting,
“This man we have been mourning for is coming.”
“Yes, here I am,” said Mandi as he entered the courtyard.
“What happened to you and why did you take so long? Brother, I have chopped off a finger in sorrow thinking that you were dead,” said Potealini getting up to greet Mandi.
“A woman took me so long,” Mandi explained. Potealini understood immediately what had happened and some days later he fetched the Aiele woman for Mandi and paid the bride wealth so that he could marry her. They had a son name Sakalini.”
(Markosa Aikale, Sakalini Kalopoe clan, Mulisosa)
Because Lyaini and Sakalini today are considered to be brother tribes, many say that Mandi gave birth to Lyaini and Sakalini, but more careful interviewing shows that this is not the case. Lyaini welcomed Mandi’s son Sakalini to share the land with him and so they became ‘brother’ tribes. The legend of Sakalini coming from the south is not only mentioned in Sakalini history but in Potealini and Sambe history as well. Sambe history tells of Sakalini passing through dressed in the style of men from southern Kandep with a bark belt and necklace woven of grass. He is said to have come with two walking sticks cut from Mandi trees and to have planted part of one at Kanake near Laiagam, the other part near the salt quarries at Yokanda and the second stick at Kubalisa as he did in the above legend.
The division of labor between Potealini and Mandi mentioned in this legend was a common one in the past when people were more dependent on hunting. Some brothers in the family would concentrate on clearing garden land and on planting while others would specialize in hunting to provide meat for the family. Those who concentrated on gardening would inherit rights to the best garden land and those who spent much time hunting would inherit large areas of bush. For this reason, Sakalini obtained large areas of bush in Sirunki.
Sakalini, the son of Mandi, had four sons, Kalopoe, Titi, Kapupuni and Waematae. It is said that Sakalini distributed his wealth and skills among his sons, giving Kalopoe sugarcane, Titi a pig rope, Kapupuni spears, and Waematae arrows. Sugarcane is given to guests and eaten in public gatherings and probably represents the skill of bringing people together to solve problems. The pig rope represents the skill at raising pigs for exchange and compensation after fights. Spears and arrows represent skill in warfare.
The Lyaini-Sakalini/Pumane-Aiele War
When the sweet potato arrived in Enga some 400 years ago, many previous hunting groups were moving down into the valleys as agriculture became more productive. Lyaini and Sakalini occupied the high-altitude area of Sirunki but they had little access to fertile garden land at lower altitudes. To the south they obtained some lower land in the Lagaip, but since this area was already well-populated, they had little space to expand. To the northwest of Sirunki was the Ambum valley, the upper part of which was occupied by the tribes of Pumane and Aiele and the lower by Sene and Yokasa (or Kungu and Tiaka). Pumane and Aiele and Sene Yokasa were said to be related tribes. When a fight broke out between Lyaini and Pumane tribesmen over sugarcane, Lyaini and Sakalini took the opportunity to escalate the quarrel into a full-scale war and drive Pumane and Aiele out of the Ambum to Kompiam (For details of the fight see Pumane and Aiele history). Pumane and Aiele swore to gather forces and return later to retake their land. Around the same time, Yakane and Yanaitini drove Sene and Yokasa out of the lower Ambum during a fight over a dog collar (see Sene-Yokasa history).
After Pumane and Aiele fled to Kompiama, Lyaini and Sakalini took over the fertile land in the Ambum. Since they did not have enough people to occupy all of the land acquired, they invited Kunalini, who had been driven out of Laiagama by Sambe, to share the land with them. They also recruited new members by encouraging husbands of women born into the Lyaini and Sakalini tribes to settle in their wives’ areas. Pumane and Aiele found good land in Kompiam, settled there and did not try to return. Lyaini, Sakalini and Tia tribes thus kept their old lands in Sirunki and their new land in the Ambum. Many families moved seasonally from one area to the other.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Tia
Note: most clans from Lyaini, Tia and Sakalini have segments spread out in the Lagaipa, Sirunki and Ambum. This is due to the fact that those living at high altitudes also keep lower lands in the valleys. Locations indicated here are only those where most clan members are settled.
| Clan | Location | Nearest school or aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Keowaipi | Kaindane | Kaindane |
| Yulu | Yomondi | Tukisanda |
| Yolo | Maianda and | Londol and |
| Waneposa | Waneposa | |
| Okenge | Sama | Londol |
| Lakaipa | Kusia | Waneposa/Strunki |
| Lipinyo | Pumkandaka | Taluma/Sirunki |
Note: Lakaipa, Okenge and Lipinyo are said to be daughters of Tia whose husbands moved to their land, but this is not agreed upon by all.
Lyaini
| Clan | Location | Nearest school or aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Buii | Lakui | Lakui |
| Malye | Lakui | Lakui |
| Muone | Lakui, Tsikiro and | Lakui, Anditale and |
| Sirunki | Sirunki | |
| Sangu | Palope | Anditale |
| Lakowe | Nangutes/Lake | Sirunki |
| Pape | Kaipale/Laiagama | Sirunki and Laiagama |
| Wapane | Laiagama | Laiagama |
| Mano | Sopasa | Sopasa |
Note: because many Lyaini clans have land in high and lower altitude areas and move back and forth, it was very difficult to obtain a list of Lyaini clans. The ones listed above were agreed on by most informants. Several others were also mentioned but it is not clear if these are clans or sub-clans such as Kumbu at Nangutes, Kowane at Aimaleposa and Lakowe near Londol. In addition, some smaller segments of Lyaini and Tia moved to Maramuni with marriage, including parts of Keowaipa, Yolo, Okenge and others.
Sakalini
| Clan | Location | Nearest school or aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Kalopoe | Malyanda | Anditale |
| Tukusanda | Tukusanda | |
| Aepanda/Mulisosa | Aepanda/Mulisosa | |
| Kapupuni | Monokama | Monokama |
| Kupini (Naepilyama) | Kupini | |
| Waematae | Londol/Kondomanda | Londol |
| Titi | Monokama | Monokama |
| Aikilyama/Tumbilyama | Aepanda | |
| Lakolama | Lakolama |
Note: Sakalini clans are very large, particularly Titi and Kalopie and Lyaini clans, are widely spread out. The above list only gives some major locations for Sakalini clans.