A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A young man gathering Malay apples at night meets the ghost of his maternal uncle. The uncle shelters him in a tree hollow from other approaching ghosts and provides fruit. After dawn he arranges the young man’s marriage to one of the visiting ghost women, who enters the household and later bears a child.

The wife brings forth tubers, leaves and firewood instantly upon reaching for them, leaving the garden apparently unharvested. Her husband treats this abundance as evidence of another giver, despite her demonstration. After repeated violence and demands that she return above the sky, she makes a fire of banyan leaves and ascends in its smoke. Her child remains below crying. The episode depicts her extraordinary provision and departure rather than a fish-tailed or winged anatomy.

Flies with a company of ghostsFood appears at her touchAscends through smoke
01

Origins & earliest records

R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter XIX, III.4, pp. 379–383. His introduction credits islanders’ written manuscripts for these translated tales; specific individual writers are not supplied here.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected tale read in the public primary transcription, with printed-page markers retained. Descriptive profile titles are identified where the being is unnamed. The original page images have not been visually collated in this pass.

In the literature

“She agrees”
R. H. Codrington; island manuscript writer unnamed · The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore
ChapterXIX III.4 The Ghost-Wife, Mota, pp379–383; p381; uncle reports consent · R. H. Codrington

The boy’s deceased maternal uncle shields him from visiting ghosts in an apple-tree and arranges a ghost woman as his wife. The woman agrees and joins him and his mother in the village. The text later introduces their child without stating a birth mechanism.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    The Melanesians, Chapter XIX, III.4, pp. 379–383

    R. H. Codrington (English translation and presentation of islanders’ manuscripts) · 1891

    Chapter introduction, p. 356, identifies the manuscript basis. Local story headings retained; collector judgments are not present community consensus.

  2. 02

    The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore

    R. H. Codrington; underlying island manuscript writer unnamed in this selected tale · 1891

    R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore, Oxford Clarendon Press1891, University of Toronto scan and OCR. Complete ChapterXIX III.1–4 selected bodies plus introductory provenance paragraph and Ghost-Wife editorial footnote independently read.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore

R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore, Oxford Clarendon Press1891, University of Toronto scan and OCR. Complete ChapterXIX III.1–4 selected bodies plus introductory provenance paragraph and Ghost-Wife editorial footnote independently read.

  1. The boy’s deceased maternal uncle shields him from visiting ghosts in an apple-tree and arranges a ghost woman as his wife. The woman agrees and joins him and his mother in the village. The text later introduces their child without stating a birth mechanism.

    ChapterXIX III.4 The Ghost-Wife, Mota, pp379–383; Dead maternal uncle and agreed ghost marriage

  2. The wife’s touch supplies food without visibly depleting the garden. Her husband accuses her, beats her despite demonstrated provision, and tells her to return above the sky. She ascends in smoke, leaving the child crying. The manuscript ends at this departure, not an independently narrated death.

    ChapterXIX III.4 The Ghost-Wife, Mota, pp379–383; Food-gathering gift and abusive rejection

  3. Codrington says all these stories except the first were translated from islanders’ manuscripts written for him; the first Florida tale was recorded by A. Penny. No specific individual writer is supplied for this selected tale, and the introduction’s wider judgments are the collector’s views.

    ChapterXIX introduction, p356

  4. Codrington explicitly marks the manuscript’s end, then supplies a continuation in which the spider marawa carries father and child to heaven, the wife agrees to return and all three are carried safely back. This reunion belongs to the separately signalled continuation, not the surviving manuscript body.

    ChapterXIX III.4 editorial footnote, p383

Island-specific tale retained. Unstated mechanisms, biological kinship and modern community consensus not invented. No song, prayer or ceremonial formula excerpts. Confirms declared transmission method, not an independently inspected original manuscript or specific oral narrator identity. Source of the appended continuation not independently identified or equated with the original manuscript writer.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textCodrington 1891, Chapter XIX: Stories, III.4, pp. 379–383Research access: 2026-10-05
  2. Primary provenance statementCodrington’s Chapter XIX collection and translation statementResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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