Note 33 — Chapter VI · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: MYTHS AND LEGENDS

That the most important attribute of Biliku is her connection with the cyclones is evident when we consider the legends in which she is mentioned. In most of the legends in which her name occurs33 she is spoken of as being angry with the ancestors, and we know that a cyclone and the anger of Biliku are, for the Andaman Islander, one and the same thing. In some of the stories mention is made of a great storm that Biliku sent which nearly destroyed the world. All through the legends we find her pictured as a being whose anger is to be feared, who has the power to destroy human life and human property. Tarai is never mentioned in this way, for the rains of the south-west monsoon themselves have no such power.