A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Tagaro’s narratives differ across the islands Codrington calls Aurora, Whitsuntide and Lepers’ Island, now Maewo, Pentecost and Ambae. On Maewo he produces replenishing coconuts and abundant food, but leaves after a stolen pig, taking valued things with him. The departure places his canoe and shell trumpet in a landscape of islands and rocks. On Araga he descends from heaven and forms flat ground by treading it; a child later reaches him along a reed that becomes a climbing line to the sky.
Ambae accounts contrast resourceful Tagaro-mbiti, the Little, with boastful Tagaro-lawua, the Big. One family narrative makes the Little the youngest of ten sons: while his brothers plant unsuitable portions of crops, he plants viable crowns, suckers and yam rind, securing the harvest. Other passages associate Tagaro with sacred stones, assistance and the acquisition of night in a shell. These local genealogies and roles remain attributed separately rather than imposed as one uniform biography.
Chapter XIX supplies two more Ambae episodes for Tagaro the Little. While sleeping in a fruit tree, he meets Mera-mbuto and his brothers. His unfamiliar conch trumpet prompts curiosity; its blast causes the brothers to fall, while Mera-mbuto’s excited jumping ends fatally against his cave roof. In a different telling, food exchanges become deceptive rivalry. Mera-mbuto imitates Tagaro’s false explanations disastrously, then burns his house. Tagaro survives beneath the floor in a prepared hole. The rival demands the same apparent marvel for himself, and dies when his own house burns. The latter story gives Tagaro a harsher trickster role than the benevolent design-making passages elsewhere.
Origins & earliest records
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter X, printed pp. 167–171. 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
“his cocoa-nuts increased as he ate them”
Chapter X, p.168; Maewo account · R. H. Codrington
Maewo Tagaro is described as wui, in contrast to Qatu’s status as a great man. He produces inexhaustible food and determines edible things by catching them when tossed up. After a pig theft he leaves eastward, overturns the island, removes the best things and returns a fire-stick. These are attributed local narratives, not a universal Tagaro biography.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Melanesians, Chapter X, pp. 167–171
Specific island variants and named narrative provenance retained. Colonial and missionary judgments are not adopted as present community consensus.
- 02
The Melanesians, Chapter XIX, III.16–17, pp. 409–411
Two complete separately headed Ambae tales; their deaths are alternatives, not a single continuous biography.
- 03
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; selected University of Toronto scan/OCR. Complete final Chapter X Maewo, Araga and Omba accounts plus complete Chapter XIX III.16–17 independently read; different island versions and separately headed deaths not combined into a continuous biography.
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; selected University of Toronto scan/OCR. Complete final Chapter X Maewo, Araga and Omba accounts plus complete Chapter XIX III.16–17 independently read; different island versions and separately headed deaths not combined into a continuous biography.
- Maewo Tagaro is described as wui, in contrast to Qatu’s status as a great man. He produces inexhaustible food and determines edible things by catching them when tossed up. After a pig theft he leaves eastward, overturns the island, removes the best things and returns a fire-stick. These are attributed local narratives, not a universal Tagaro biography.
- Here Tagaro descends from heaven, creates things, returns above, and has a human son whose mother helps him climb to meet his father. Tagaro apparently agrees to descend, then cuts the connection so mother and son reach Atambulu while he stays above. The text’s no wife or children of his own kind qualification is kept alongside earthly fatherhood, not converted into a denial of all offspring.
- The Omba account distinguishes incapable Tagaro-lawua, the Big, from resourceful Tagaro-mbiti, the Little, while identifying ordinary mentions of Tagaro with the latter. A further account calls Tagaro father of ten sons, the youngest Tagaro-mbiti planting successfully while his brothers fail. These different configurations are not assumed to describe the same generation or family in every island.
- In this complete tree episode Mera-mbuto asks to hear Tagaro’s conch from his cave. The blast makes Mera-mbuto’s brothers fall from the tree and die; his own delighted jumping drives his head against the cave rock, killing him. Tagaro returns home. His opponent’s death is not transferred to other separately headed versions.
Chapter XIX III.16 A Story about Tagaro the Little, Lepers’ Island, pp.409–410
- Here Tagaro’s misleading food explanations lead Mera-mbuto to cook his own mother. Mera-mbuto burns Tagaro’s bound house, but Tagaro survives in a hole. When the opponent requests the same experiment, Tagaro burns him in his house. This is an alternative death to the preceding cave/tree tale, not a subsequent resurrection.
Chapter XIX III.17 About Mera-mbuto and Tagaro, Lepers’ Island, p.411
- Codrington describes the island stories other than the first as translations of manuscripts supplied to him. This does not identify the individual writer of either separately headed Lepers’ Island tale.
Island-specific accounts and variant deaths distinguished; generic Chapter X Qat-cycle attribution to Edward Wogale not extended to unidentified Tagaro contributors. No prayers or ceremonial formulas excerpted; facsimile not visually checked in this batch. No original manuscript independently inspected.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCodrington 1891, Chapter X: SpiritsResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Primary textTagaro the Little and Mera-mbuto, pp. 409–411Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.