Oa Rove

Oa Rove Oceania
A Papuan deity of unlimited life and strength. The Roro-speaking tribes of the south regard him as a changer god, the rove, ‘sacred one’, who could transform his appearance at will. Once he persuaded all the women in a village to get into a great canoe, which he sailed to the top of a mountain. It was a punishment because the men had taken his game and fish. When the injured husbands climbed up to get back their wives, they found Oa Rove sitting on an inaccessible rock from which he tossed a spear, a bow and arrow, and a club. Then he threw down a stone as well as a corpse. All these weapons were given to them that they might be able to kill each other easily.