A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Webubu and Nagari are lizards with different voices. Nagari stretches his long neck to whistle a single sweet note, attracting women who listen motionlessly. Webubu speaks plainly but cannot call loudly. Wanting companions, he cuts hollow bamboo and pierces finger holes: Ker’s narrator identifies this as the first duraio, or flute.
Webubu plays from a platform in a beachside tioba tree. The women abandon Nagari one by one, despite promising to return. They climb toward the flute music while Webubu warns them to stay below. The overcrowded platform collapses, carrying the lizard, instrument and listeners through the branches. The narrator connects this fall with the trees’ continuing earthward lean and offers to show the listener the local trees.
Origins & earliest records
Annie Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales (London: Macmillan, 1910), The Two Lizards, pp. 1–2. Individual narrator unnamed.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected narrative directly read in digitized transcription.
In the literature
“Thus was the first duraio or flute born.”
The Two Lizards, bamboo-instrument invention paragraph
Webubu’s pierced bamboo supplies an alternative to Nagari’s voice.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Papuan Fairy Tales: The Two Lizards, pp. 1–2
Complete selected narrative inspected.
- 02
Papuan Fairy Tales — The Two Lizards
Annie Ker, London:Macmillan1910, title/contents/introduction already independently read. Missionary English collection chiefly from an unnamed northeast-coast village; named individual narrator not supplied for selected chapter. Chapter text currently inspected through public reader after direct localHTTP403; no bypass or new printed-page-pixel claim.
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.
Papuan Fairy Tales: The Two Lizards, pp. 1–2
Annie Ker, London:Macmillan1910, title/contents/introduction already independently read. Missionary English collection chiefly from an unnamed northeast-coast village; named individual narrator not supplied for selected chapter. Chapter text currently inspected through public reader after direct localHTTP403; no bypass or new printed-page-pixel claim.
- Nagari stretches his long neck to produce a single sweet whistled note and attracts women, while Webubu speaks plainly and cannot cry aloud. Wanting companions, Webubu cuts hollow bamboo and pierces holes, which the narrator identifies as the first duraio flute. He plays on a platform in a beachside tioba tree.
- The women leave Nagari successively despite promises to return and approach Webubu’s music. He warns them to stay below because the platform is frail, but they climb onto it. Webubu, flute and listeners fall through the branches when it collapses. The narrator explains the continuing earthward lean of tioba trees through this fall.
The Two Lizards, listeners’ transfer, overcrowded platform and tree-origin ending
Ordinary lizard species not inferred from names, voice or neck length. No song or vocal formula reproduced. The ending does not state that all listeners die. Tree lean and instrument origin are etiological claims, not scientific demonstrations.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected textKer 1910: The Two LizardsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.