Note 2 — Chapter VI · Bird and Serpent Myths
Reading edition
The Rev. George Brown, missionary and explorer, refers to similar dragon beliefs among the people of New Britain. He tells of a spring connected with the woman (goddess) who caused the deluge. The natives “say that an immense fish lives in it, which will come out when they call it”. The belief obtains among the Melanesians “that the creator of all things was a woman”. She “made all lands” and “the natives prayed” to her “when an eclipse of the sun or the moon took place”.2 The king of Samoan gods was a dragon. “This god”, Brown tells, “had the body of a man to the breast only, and the body of an eel (muræna) below. This eel’s body lies down in the ocean, and from the chest to the head lies down in the house. This is the god to whom all things are reported. The inferior gods are his attendants.”3