Kahausibware
Kahausibware OceaniaA serpentine female spirit revered in the Solomon Islands. Long ago, when the fruits of the earth grew without labour, Kahausibware made men, pigs, other animals, and trees. But she also introduced death into the world. When the first woman left the first baby with the snake spirit, and went off to work in her garden, the infant screamed ceaselessly. Unable to tolerate the din, a weakness incidentally shared by the ancient Mesopotamian gods, Kahausibware coiled herself round the baby and strangled it. The mother returned while the snake's body was still partly wound round her child, and seizing an axe she started to hack the snake to pieces. Though Kahausibware had the power to rejoin the severed parts, she disliked this treatment and made off to a distant island. As she swam away, she flung out this taunt: ‘Who will help you now?’ Since that day things were never the same.
A culture myth of the Admiralty Islands also revolves...
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