Note 5 — Chapter V · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: CEREMONIAL

There are still a number of points of the legend that have not been considered. It is not easy to account for the inclusion in this story of the discovery of the yam. It is possible that there is some ground of association between the yam and the cicada, but I do not certainly know of any such. There is a legend recorded by Mr Man from the Aka-Bea tribe, and given above5, in which an account is given of the lucky discovery of the first yam by the chance shooting of an arrow. It is therefore quite likely that the yam story first existed quite independently, and that it has become incorporated in the legend of the origin of night on account of the fact that the incident of the shooting of an arrow was found in both of them.