The Flying Foxes of the Sawos
With thanks to Norbert Tapi, who collected traditional stories for
Dr John Tyman, with the agreement of Torembi’s village elders
A long time ago in the area around what we now call Torembi, there was one village which was different from all the rest.
The men who lived there were great hunters but they were also very greedy and they never brought meat home with them.
Instead, every time they killed an animal when hunting, they would eat all of the meat themselves, secretly in the bush.
They did not for one moment consider the needs of their wives and their children.
They were, as I say, very, very greedy.
But there was one exception, for one of these hunters was kind hearted and considerate: he gave thought to the welfare of his family, and somehow always managed to smuggle home some meat for them.
He didn’t tell the others: he did it in secret, so no one else knew — except, of course, his wife.
This situation went on for years and years.
The men grew fat and healthy because they were well fed, but their families had to eat sago, every day — they never had any meat.
The women knew something was wrong, but they did not know what.
So they met together one day, to discuss the situation, while the men were away hunting.
The woman who had called the meeting spoke first.
She said, “Something is wrong for sure. I don’t know what it is, but somehow we women must discover the truth about our husbands. What are they really doing when they disappear into the bush each day?”
It so happened that the one woman whose husband did give her meat to eat came to the meeting with the other women.
She was pleased to have such a loving husband, and she did not want to get him into trouble, but she was also angry at the way the other men treated their wives. So she told them everything she knew — namely that the other men were not unlucky (which is what they told their wives when they came home empty handed).
Instead they were always successful.
The problem was that, with one exception, they were selfish and greedy.
Well, when they heard this the women got angry, as you might expect: to think that their husbands had been cheating them for years!
They were fair-minded though (unlike the men) and they wanted to check the woman’s story first.
What she said made sense, but they were prepared to consider their husbands innocent until proven guilty.
So they went to an old woman who lived on the outskirts of the village, to ask for her advice and help.
Her husband had died long ago, so she had no direct interest in the matter which now concerned the other women.
However, she had magical powers, so she knew what to do.
She offered to change the women into flying foxes so they could fly to the hunting grounds and spy on their husbands.
The next day, after the men had left to go hunting, their wives hurried to the house of the old woman, where they were all turned into flying foxes — except for the woman whose husband always gave her meat.
After all, she knew what the men were doing.
With much squeaking and flapping of wings the women then took off and flew away in the direction of the hunting grounds to which the men were headed.
When they got close to them they took special care, to make sure none of the flying foxes was shot down by an arrow from the men below.
Instead they hid in the trees and watched: and they saw everything.
The men had killed a pig, a cassowary and a possum and they were stuffing the meat into their faces as fast as they could.
It was sickening!
And boy, were those women mad.
So they flew home and waited patiently for their husbands to return.
As usual they brought no meat with them and were full of excuses: only this time it didn’t work — for the women knew exactly what their husbands had been doing.
And boy, did they have a row.
The women told their husbands exactly what they thought of them.
In future the men had better make sure they always brought meat home: and, since women clearly needed to control the food supply, they would look after the men’s gardens while their husbands looked after the house and the children.
The men did not like this at all, but there was nothing they could do about it now that their greedy and selfish habits had been exposed.
They knew they could no longer hide in the forest feasting on meat.
They would need to keep moving, searching for food to keep their wives happy, and for wood to repair their houses.
And between times they would have to care for the children.
They’d have no chance now to sit still for long, so they called themselves Sawos - which means ‘nomads’ because they were always on the go.
This explains why the people who live around Torembi today are called Sawos.
It’s the name of our tribe.
It also explains why to this day men build the houses here and help care for children.
And it is also the reason why flying foxes sometimes feast on crops growing in the gardens which belong to the men — it is their wives in disguise, making sure they get a fair share of the food this time!