Qat
Qat is described as the first to make humans, cutting wood out of the dracaena tree and forming it into six figures, three men and three women. After hiding them away for three days, he brought them to life and divided them into three married pairs. According to another version from the same area, while the first man was made of red clay by Qat, he created the first woman of rods and rings of twigs covered with the spathes of sago palms, which are used to make the tall hats used in sacred dances.
↻ synthesized from 3 sources
When
- Historical notes
- Living oral tradition of the Banks Islands, Vanuatu, still referenced in contemporary folklore.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Takaro, Ndengei, Hi-asa, To-Rabinana, To-Kabinana, To-Karvuvu
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“The origin of Qat himself is ascribed in the Banks group to a stone, which burst and gave birth to the deity.”
#18376 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“In the Mota version of the myth, Qat, the Great Spirit who made everything, and his twelve brothers were invited to spend the night in the house of a giant named Qasavara. The giant intended to kill them while they slept and eat them, but Qat opened a crack in one of the beams of the house and the brothers hid inside the beam.”
#32189 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“present various stories from the mythological cycle of Qat. Each reference features an audio recording, its transcription in the original language”
#32206 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5