Note 23 — Chapter VI · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Let us now briefly examine the story of the origin of animals as recorded from the Akar-Bale tribe23. There are three variants of this story. The one recorded from an A-Pučikwar informant24 must really be regarded, I believe, as an imperfect reproduction of the Akar-Bale version. The version given by Mr Man25 is also of Akar-Bale origin, as is shown by the fact that the phrases in it are in the Akar-Bale language. A comparison of these variants shows that the main purpose of the story is to relate how a great storm or cyclone visited the islands in the times of the ancestors and turned many of them into animals. The storm was brought about by the action of one of the ancestors who in anger did some of the things that are known to anger Puluga and cause a storm.