The Book of Luelen

Bernart, Luelen (1977). The Book of Luelen. 8. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii. ISBN 9780708106485.

Abstract: The material includes editorial information noting that, for economic reasons, the editors placed full annotations in a separate supplement, with only essential excerpts retained as footnotes to the main volume, as stated in the Foreword, Paragraph 25 of The New Guinea Memoirs of Jean Baptiste Octave Mouton, edited by Peter Biskup (1974). A Note on the Song Texts, Paragraph 49, explains that song texts present disconnected sequences of selected images from myths and may contradict important features of those myths; when contradictions are recognized, singers and experts in traditional lore may reinterpret passages or remove entire stanzas to eliminate inconsistencies. A narrative section titled Jutakono [Mast of the Waves?] and Lieulele [Woman of Clear Weather] under Earth includes Paragraph 94 describing a woman and her children persisting in their work while lacking sufficient and high-quality food, with early foods such as Morinda fruit and dry land taro sprouting from the earth and being among the first foods appearing in the land, and it references The second voyage. Another narrative describes a figure who, as he travels, stops at points of a mangrove swamp and leaves behind his defects such as white hair, swollen legs, swollen testicles, and sagging eyelids, as given in Paragraph 250; it also recounts a woman with very long and shining hair carried by an attendant, Luk’s desire for her, his act of hiding her in the house of his sister Laiminpei and visiting her daily, and an occasion when Katinlan comes to visit that woman. A passage records that a girl buried the bones of a fish head, which sprouted into the mainue variety of breadfruit tree, and clarifies that the short banana identified as Yap banana is not entirely correct, specifying the utmuaj banana as the proper one; the same set of notes states that a list of titles is presented not for comparison with Chapters 26 and 27 but to show feudal lords who hated the Jauteleurs during the time of Jauteleur Jakonmuei and his successors and who were to take part in their downfall, identifies Nanjapue as both the Thunder God’s name and the usual word for thunder with the incident continued in Chapter 48.1–2, cites Trust Territory 1954 The Lord of Teleur who Consumed People, and signals a section concerning their clothing and food.