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The great God Dewata lived in Heaven with his queen. One day they decided to throw earth down in to the ocean far below. This earth became the island of Sulawesi , with its many bays and capes. Then they sent down their son and daughter, telling them : "Go and live on earth". But they had nothing to eat , so the God Dewata told his two children : " I am giving you your younger sister. Prepare your fields for cultivation , then take her and cut hair into many small pieces and scatter them over the fields." The first man and his wife obeyed God their father and cut their little sister into small pieces, scattering bones and flesh over their land. The blood of the Goddess became rice, her bones became sugar-cane and her flesh turned into cucumbers and pumpkins. In due time, Deawata sent down a son for the first man and his wife. There came a day however , when the boy dirtied himself, and the father was so disguested by the stench of the faeces that he went back to Heaven, leaving his wife and son behind. One day the mother said to the son : " I am going out to the fields . you see this cucumber ? Do not touch it .I am leaving it on the self. Later, we shall need the seeds to sow so that we can grow young cucumber ." She went out and , as soon as she had gone , the boy grasped the cucumber and ate half of eat . When his |    |
other came home and saw what he had down, she was so angry that she hit him on the head with a knife, making a big gash. The boy ran out of the house and did not come back.He roamed about for many years, during which the earth filled up with ever-multiplying people. One day he arrived in a village where there was a cockfight. By that time he had become a grown-up man and an expert at cockfights, like his father . He won the fight, and the people were so impressed that they made him their chief. They also found a wife for him, a widow who was still very lovely. One day when she was picking lice from his head she discovered a scar. She asked him what had caused it. He told her how his mother had hit him and she cried:" Iam your mother . I did not recognize you but I was the one who hit you and you ran away". Realizing that he was married to his mother, the young man called all the together and announced : " We have decided to change our shapes and our existence. Collect reeds plait a basket for us but do not open it afterwards." They plaited a round basket in which the man and his wife-mother were to sit together for evermore. After some time, cows and bulls came out of the basket , then pigs and finally many chickens. That is how the people acquired domestic animals. They still say that a cow is slaughtered to atone for a son marrying his mother, if that should ever happen.
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