A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Nopitu names both a spirit and the person through whom it acts in Codrington’s Mota account; Motlav supplies the related form Dembit. Reported wonders include exceptional dancing and unstrung shell money falling from a person’s fingers or appearing in a coconut. Codrington identifies Vetpepewu and Tursal as people describing witnessed manifestations, preserving a distinction between their testimony and the collector’s own observation.
A second kind of encounter centres on an unseen visitor with a tiny, clear singing voice. It joins an evening company, receives food and sings ordinary Mota songs while people accompany it. A woman may feel it on her knee or carry it like an infant. Other accounts describe a spirit entering a woman and later being born as an ordinary child. The profile follows the source’s overlapping possession, companionship and birth narratives without turning their participants into a separate human species.
Origins & earliest records
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter X, printed pp. 153–154. 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 name Nopitu is given both to the spirit”
Chapter X, p.153; ambiguity explicitly noted · R. H. Codrington
Codrington warns that Nopitu denotes both a spirit and a possessed human who performs wonders in its name. Singular, dual and plural self-reference are explained through these relations. His naming comparison with Motlav Dembit is retained as an attributed collector account, not a universal taxonomy of beings.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Melanesians, Chapter X, pp. 153–154
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.
- Codrington warns that Nopitu denotes both a spirit and a possessed human who performs wonders in its name. Singular, dual and plural self-reference are explained through these relations. His naming comparison with Motlav Dembit is retained as an attributed collector account, not a universal taxonomy of beings.
- Vetpepewu is specifically credited with having told Codrington of money falling from a Nopitu; Tursal is credited as a witness to a Mota woman producing money. Other money-producing displays are reported alongside them. These names are witness attributions for selected claims, not proof that they wrote the whole account.
- Another manifestation is a small clear voice heard at an evening gathering, and a woman may carry an unseen spirit like a child. A spirit’s entry is said to result in an ordinary child; Rongoloa of Motlav is named as such a person still living near the collector’s time. No biological explanation or individual testimony from Rongoloa is invented, and no invocation instructions are reproduced.
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.