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The men filled the house, leaving a free place only near the victim, and the women and children crowded close around in the yard. After addressing the spirits, Lamot ta Mangayo, MElu, and Dwata, I placed my spear to the man's side, and then all the male relatives took hold of the shaft and at my signal forced the weapon through the body.
MElu seeing what was happening came to them and changed their noses, and then told them that they should save all the hair which came from their heads, and all the scurf which came from their bodies to the end that when he came again he might make more people.
Taking the remnants of the material left after making the earth he fashioned two men but just as they were all finished except their noses, Tau Tana from below the earth appeared and wanted to help him. Melu did not wish any assistance, and a great argument ensued. Tau Tana finally won his point and made the noses which he placed on the people upside down.
Finally Melu decided to make the earth; so he worked very hard in putting the dead skin into shape, and when it was finished he was so pleased with it that he determined to make two beings like himself, though smaller, to live on it.
The companion, who was working on that part, put them on upside down. Melu told him that the people would drown if he left them that way, but he refused to change them. When his back was turned, however, Melu seized the noses, one by one, and turned them as they now are.
So they took some wax and worked long, fashioning it into forms, but when they brought them to the fire the wax melted, and they saw that men could not be made in that way. Next they decided to try to use dirt in making people, and Melu and one of his companions began working on that. All went well till they were ready to make the noses.
From these tales and later questioning we learn the MElu, or MElE, is the most powerful of all the natural spirits and that his help is sought in times of calamity and at very important occasions. She is sometimes identified with a female spirit called Kalalokan. Fiuweigh and SEweigh are now powerful spirits; but there is some dispute as to whether they have always been so, or once were human.
When MElu came again soon, knowing what had taken place, he was very angry and he went away abandoning them, and a great drought came, when for two seasons no rain fell and everything withered up and died. At last the people went away, two by two, one man and one woman together, and MElu never again came to visit his people on earth." Recorded by Mr. H. S. Wilson.
His name was Melu, and when he sat on the clouds, which were his home, he occupied all the space above. His teeth were pure gold, and because he was very cleanly and continually rubbed himself with his hands, his skin became pure white.
When all was finished, Melu and Tau Tana whipped the forms until they moved. Then Melu went to his home above the clouds, and Tau Tana returned to his place below the earth. All went well until one day a great rain came, and the people on the earth nearly drowned from the water which ran off their heads into their noses.
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