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Overview
Codrington’s principal Qat cycle is translated from the Mota account of Deacon Edward Wogale, with additions from other sources. Qat emerges from a stone mother, Qatgoro or Iro Ul, grows and speaks immediately, and names himself. He creates beings and reshapes their conditions, but local tellings differ: the Lakona account animates carved wooden people by dance and drumming, whereas the Mota account uses clay and a constructed first woman. Night is acquired from I Qong; Qat teaches sleep and cuts darkness with red obsidian to restore daylight.
His adventures emphasise ingenuity and changes of size. He conceals himself beneath a wood chip and later travels inside a coconut-shell bottle to recover his abducted wife, Iro Lei. Marawa repeatedly rescues him from his brothers’ traps. Against Qasavara he opens wooden house members into sleeping refuges and commands a casuarina to lengthen and bend. A Gaua departure tale places his household and animals inside a canoe carried away by floodwater, linking his absence to lost abundance.
Origins & earliest records
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter X, printed pp. 154–166. 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
“he gave himself the name of Qat”
Chapter X, p.156; self-naming · R. H. Codrington
In the introduced Qat cycle, Qatgoro, also called Iro Ul, is a stone mother which bursts to give birth. Qat has no father, grows and speaks immediately, and names himself. Eleven brothers are listed, including Wise Tangaro Gilagilala and Foolish Tangaro Loloqong. The collector’s proposed equivalence with other island names is not adopted as a single universal genealogy.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Melanesians, Chapter X, pp. 154–166
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.
- In the introduced Qat cycle, Qatgoro, also called Iro Ul, is a stone mother which bursts to give birth. Qat has no father, grows and speaks immediately, and names himself. Eleven brothers are listed, including Wise Tangaro Gilagilala and Foolish Tangaro Loloqong. The collector’s proposed equivalence with other island names is not adopted as a single universal genealogy.
- Qat buys night from Night at Vava in one telling; another places the transaction at the sky’s foot. He introduces sleep and separates darkness for dawn. Lakona figures are made from wood and animated, whereas the Mota account describes clay humans, pigs made to move on four feet and Iro Vilgale assembled from plant materials. These are explicit different tellings, not one material recipe.
Chapter X, pp.156–158; night and different creation accounts
- The named wife Iro Lei is coveted by Qat’s brothers with his canoe; this account says he has no children. After repeated attacks rescued by Marawa, the brothers abduct her while Qat is trapped in an enlarged tree. He escapes, travels in a coconut bottle and destroys their canoe, then reconciles with them. His wife is not silently identified with the different Maewo winged-wife account.
- Qat encloses wife, brothers and island creatures in a large covered canoe before flooding carries it to sea. People expect his return and interpret early ships in that way. Codrington asserts the tale predates local knowledge of Noah and suggests a future eight-person retelling; those are collector chronology/speculation, not independently established transmission dates.
Chapter X, pp.166–167; canoe departure and colonial interpretation
- The collector explicitly identifies the late Deacon Edward Wogale’s Mota account, with additions from other sources, as the basis of the following Qat cycle. It is not a single unmodified transcript or an attribution automatically extended to every Chapter X island account.
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. Original Mota account not independently inspected; contributors of additions not identified.
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.