Note 8 — Chapter VI · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: MYTHS AND LEGENDS

In the A-Pučikwar version of the same legend8 it was Pe̱tie, the monitor lizard, who crushed the cicada and brought darkness. This is to be explained not on the basis of any particular characteristic of the lizard, but as being due to the position that this animal occupies in the A-Pučikwar mythology in general as the first ancestor of the Andamanese. As the first progenitor he is made responsible for the origin of all sorts of things. The story of the origin of night must have a chief actor, and in the absence of any important ground for selecting any other of the ancestors the A-Pučikwar story-teller falls back on the monitor lizard.