Tradition: Papua New Guinea Mythology
Alternative Names: –
Category: Crocodile
The Myth
Wabodame was a famous old crocodile of enormous size who lived in the Binaturi River. The young crocodiles that lived there were said to bring parts of the people they caught to the old monster.
Wabodame was not merely a dangerous crocodile, however, but a powerful spirit associated with secret knowledge. When people wished to learn about hidden or secret matters, they would send a young boy who had not yet learned to be afraid to sleep in a place where Wabodame had previously slept, marked by the impression left by the crocodile’s body in the ground. During the boy’s sleep, the spirit of the crocodile would appear to him in a dream and give him the information that was required. When the boy awoke, he would tell the man who had sent him everything he had learned.
Eventually, Wabodame was shot and killed by a man from Dirimo who wanted to take revenge upon the whole people because of an injury he had suffered. After the crocodile had been killed, a boy was again sent to sleep in the place where it had rested. There, Wabodame’s spirit appeared to him and warned him that a great sickness was going to spread across the country.
The warning proved true. Men, women, and children began to die, and two people were sometimes buried in each grave. The people were forced to flee from their villages, and several tribes were entirely wiped out by the sickness.
Wabodame was also associated with sorcery and the supernatural killing of enemies. Sorcerers were said to appeal to the old crocodile when they wished to cause someone’s death. One method involved placing a croton twig in a creek and speaking a spell, causing the twig to transform into a crocodile that would seize the person whose name had been spoken.
Another method used the edible root called auhi to create a fictitious crocodile. A crocodile’s tooth was inserted into a suitable part of the root to represent its mouth, and medicine was spat onto it. The sorcerer then invoked Wabodame, saying, “Wabodame, you send devil belong you go catch that man,” and naming the intended victim.
The auhi was then placed in the river, where it transformed into a real crocodile. The crocodile went to the person named by the sorcerer, killed him, and brought his body back to the place. Afterwards, it returned to the form of an auhi.
When the sorcerer came back, he removed the crocodile tooth from the auhi and kept it, while the root itself was replanted in the garden. In some cases, the root would begin to grow again. Whenever this method was used, the auhi was taken from the same garden.
Sources
Landtman, Gunnar. The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea: A Nature-Born Instance of Rousseau’s Ideal Community. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1970. https://archive.org/details/kiwaipapuansofbr0000land