The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Images of virgin birth abound in the popular tales as well as in myth. One example will suffice: a queer folktale from Tonga, belonging to a little cycle of stories told of the “handsome man,” Sinilau. This tale is of particular interest, not because of its extreme absurdity, but because it clearly announces, in unconscious burlesque, every one of the major motifs of the typical life of the hero: virgin birth, quest for the father, ordeal, atonement with the father, the assumption and coronation of the virgin mother, and finally, the heavenly triumph of the true sons while the pretenders are heated hot.

There was once a certain man and his wife, and the woman was pregnant. When her time came to be delivered of her child she called her husband to come and lift her, that she might give birth. But she bore a clam, and her husband threw her down in anger. She, however, bade him take the clam, and leave it in Sinilau’s bathing-pool. Now Sinilau came to bathe, and flung the coconut-husk that he had used to wash himself with on the water. The clam slid along and sucked the coconut-husk, and became pregnant.

One day the woman, the mother of the clam, saw the clam rolling along toward her. She angrily asked the clam why she had come, but the shellfish replied that it was no time for anger, and asked her to curtain off a place in which she could give birth. So a screen was placed, and the clam gave birth to a fine big baby boy. Then she rolled off back to her pool, and the woman cared for the child, who was named Fatai-going-underneath-sandalwood. Time went on, and lo, the clam was again with child, and once more came rolling along to the house that she might give birth there to her child. The performance was repeated and again the clam bore a fine boy, who was named Myrtle-twined-at-random-in-the-fatai. He, too, was left with the woman and her husband to be cared for.

When the two children had grown up to manhood the woman heard that Sinilau was going to hold a festival, and she determined that her two grandsons should be present. So she called the youths, and bade them prepare, adding that the man to whose festival they were going was their father. When they came to where the festival was being held they were gazed at by all the people. There was not a woman but had her eyes fixed on them. As they went along a group of women called to them to turn aside to them, but the two youths refused, and went on, until they came to where the kava was being drunk. There they served the kava.

But Sinilau, angry at their disturbing his festival, ordered two bowls to be brought. Then he bade his men seize one of the youths and cut him up. So the bamboo knife was sharpened to cut him, but when its point was placed on his body it just slipped over his skin, and he cried out:

The knife is placed and slips,

Do thou but sit and gaze at us

Whether we are like thee or not.

Then Sinilau asked what the youth had said, and they repeated the lines to him. So he ordered the two young men to be brought, and asked them who their father was. They replied that he himself was their father. After Sinilau had kissed his newfound sons he told them to go and bring their mother. So they went to the pool and got the clam, and took her to their grandmother, who broke it open, and there stood a lovely woman, named Hina-at-home-in-the-river.

Then they set out on their return to Sinilau. Each of the youths wore a fringed mat, of the sort called taufohua; but their mother had on one of the very fine mats called tuoua. The two sons went ahead, and Hina followed. When they came to Sinilau they found him sitting with his wives. The youths sat one at each thigh of Sinilau, and Hina sat at his side. Then Sinilau bade the people go and prepare an oven, and heat it hot; and they took the wives and their children, and killed and baked them; but Sinilau was wedded to Hina-at-home-in-the-river.^[10]

Footnotes

* That is, the tenth summer after the breaking of the eggs of the teal.

* This horn and oil play a conspicuous role in the folklore of South Rhodesia [the modern-day nation of Zimbabwe — Ed.]. The ngona horn is a wonder-working instrument, with the power to create fire and lightning, to impregnate the living, and to resurrect the dead.

* Zimbabwe means roughly “the royal court.” The enormous prehistoric ruins near Fort Victoria are called “The Great Zimbabwe”; other stone ruins throughout Southern Rhodesia are called “Little Zimbabwe.” [Note by Frobenius and Fox, African Genesis.]

Endnotes

[1] The version quoted here is from the translation by W.F. Kirby (Everyman’s Library, Nos. 259–60).

[2] Kalevala, Runo I, pp. 127–36.

[3] Ibid., pp. 263–80.

[4] Ibid., pp. 287–328.

[5] Ibid., pp. 329–44.

[6] Leo Frobenius and Douglas C. Fox, African Genesis (New York, 1937), pp. 215–20.

[7] The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Ch. ix.