A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Taso kills Qatu’s pregnant sister but leaves her body uneaten. Her surviving twins grow strong outside the village before their uncle discovers and raises them. They learn that Taso is responsible and undertake revenge, leaving a banana bunch whose direction of ripening will signal their outcome.
The man-eater sharpens his teeth on the beach. Returning at his mother’s call, he turns his head and strikes down trees with crashing force. In his club-house the twins attack from opposite ends until he can no longer resist, then kill him and his mother. The source calls him a man who eats people and describes exceptional force; it gives no separate ogre species or giant measurements.
Origins & earliest records
R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-lore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), Chapter XIX, III.10, pp. 398–402. His introduction credits islanders’ written manuscripts for these translated tales; specific individual writers are not supplied here.
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
“they clubbed them both to death”
Chapter XIX III.10, p.402; Taso and his mother · R. H. Codrington
The twins prepare heated stones at opposite ends of Taso’s club-house. His mother calls him from the beach; he returns striking down trees. Alternating throws weaken him, and the twins club him to death, then kill his mother and burn the houses. They return and tell Qatu. The complete narrative gives a definite death, not simply escape or temporary incapacitation.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Melanesians, Chapter XIX, III.10, pp. 398–402
Chapter introduction, p. 356, identifies the manuscript basis. Local story headings retained; collector judgments are not 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; selected University of Toronto scan/OCR. Complete Chapter XIX III.5 Ganviviris, III.6 The Little Orphan, and III.10 Taso independently read. Interleaved Ghost-Wife continuation excluded from Ganviviris; later separate manuscript summaries are not part of the Little Orphan body.
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 Chapter XIX III.5 Ganviviris, III.6 The Little Orphan, and III.10 Taso independently read. Interleaved Ghost-Wife continuation excluded from Ganviviris; later separate manuscript summaries are not part of the Little Orphan body.
- Taso, introduced as a man-eater, kills Qatu’s pregnant sister but does not eat her. Her twin infants survive as her body decays, find water and eventually take food intended for Qatu’s sow. Qatu discovers them and explicitly recognises his sister’s children, then raises them with Ro Motari. They are unnamed in this account.
Chapter XIX III.10 The Story of Taso, Aurora, pp.398–402; Murdered mother and surviving twins
- Ro Motari asks whether the boys are her children, brothers or grandchildren, and Qatu replies grandchildren. A footnote preserves another telling in which she asks children or husbands and Qatu calls them husbands while identifying his sister’s children. These different source wordings are retained rather than converted into a new biological genealogy.
Chapter XIX III.10 The Story of Taso, Aurora, pp.398–402; Household terminology and reported variant
- The twins prepare heated stones at opposite ends of Taso’s club-house. His mother calls him from the beach; he returns striking down trees. Alternating throws weaken him, and the twins club him to death, then kill his mother and burn the houses. They return and tell Qatu. The complete narrative gives a definite death, not simply escape or temporary incapacitation.
Chapter XIX III.10 The Story of Taso, Aurora, pp.398–402; Revenge ends in two deaths
- The collector says stories other than the first were translated from manuscripts written for him by islanders. No selected individual writer is named here; Ganviviris’s generational framing is not expanded into an invented informant identity.
Separate tale endings and source kinship terms retained. No sacred song, rank-taking instructions or ritual formulas excerpted. Facsimile not visually checked in this batch. Underlying original manuscripts not independently inspected.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCodrington 1891, Chapter XIX: Stories, III.10, pp. 398–402Research access: 2026-10-05
- 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.