A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Kahausibware is a female Hi’ona or Figona whose outward form is a snake in Codrington’s Bauro account. She makes people, pigs, food plants and fruit trees in an early world where nourishment grows without cultivation and death has not appeared. A human woman, described as her offspring in an unspecified manner, leaves a crying infant in her care. The serpent coils around and kills the child. When its mother attacks with an axe, the severed parts repeatedly reunite.
Finally Kahausibware departs. Her passage downhill becomes a watercourse, and she swims successively to Ugi, Ulawa and Malanta, abandoning each because Bauro’s mountain remains visible. She settles at Marau on Guadalcanar, where intervening hills hide her old home. The narrative associates her withdrawal with the deterioration of San Cristoval’s former abundance. Codrington distinguishes the supernatural ancestor from ordinary snakes on Bauro regarded as her descendants or representatives.
Origins & earliest records
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter X, printed pp. 150–151. The selected historical account dates this collected witness; it does not establish the beginning of the tradition.
Records & interpretation
The complete relevant primary narrative was read in the public transcription, with printed-page markers checked. The original page images have not been visually collated in this pass. Local account and collector interpretation remain distinct.
In the literature
“the parts came together again”
Chapter X, p.150; repeated rejoining · R. H. Codrington
The mother attacks with an axe, but severed pieces repeatedly rejoin. Kahausibware finally leaves; her route becomes a watercourse. She keeps swimming between islands until the Bauro mountain is no longer visible from Marau. This departure follows grief and attack, not a successfully completed killing of the snake.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Melanesians, Chapter X, pp. 150–151
Specific island variants and named narrative provenance retained. Colonial and missionary judgments are not adopted as present community consensus.
- 02
The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891; University of Toronto historical scan/OCR. Complete Chapter X opening accounts and Qat cycle through its departure independently read. The Qat cycle is explicitly translated from Edward Wogale’s Mota account with additions from other sources; no original manuscript independently inspected.
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 Press, 1891; University of Toronto historical scan/OCR. Complete Chapter X opening accounts and Qat cycle through its departure independently read. The Qat cycle is explicitly translated from Edward Wogale’s Mota account with additions from other sources; no original manuscript independently inspected.
- Kahausibware is described as a snake-shaped Hi’ona of Bauro, maker of human beings, animals and foods. A human woman is called her offspring in an unspecified way. The woman leaves her infant in the snake’s care; disturbed by its crying, Kahausibware strangles it. The source does not explain a biological mechanism for the human woman’s origin.
- The mother attacks with an axe, but severed pieces repeatedly rejoin. Kahausibware finally leaves; her route becomes a watercourse. She keeps swimming between islands until the Bauro mountain is no longer visible from Marau. This departure follows grief and attack, not a successfully completed killing of the snake.
- Codrington reports Bauro snakes being venerated as progeny or representatives, while distinguishing ordinary snakes from Kahausibware as Hi’ona/Figona. His suggested equivalence with Florida Koevasi is a collector comparison rather than independently demonstrated identity.
Historical collector account, not present consensus or independently observed supernatural fact. No sacred songs, formulas or ceremonial procedures excerpted. Facsimile not visually checked in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCodrington 1891, Chapter X: SpiritsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.