{"id":338,"date":"2025-03-09T16:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T20:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.don-mitchell.com\/?p=338"},"modified":"2025-03-12T18:32:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T22:32:59","slug":"deconstructing-a-myth-in-the-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.don-mitchell.com\/?p=338","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing a myth in the bush"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My story collection’s<\/a> title (A Red Woman Was Crying<\/em>) comes from a myth told by the Nagovisi people of Bougainville Island. The first chapter in the collection is the myth<\/a>. In the myth and the deconstruction, reference is made to “slit gongs,” or “tui.<\/a>” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A RED WOMAN WAS CRYING<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Told by Tupuua, 1969<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A red woman was crying. Her name was Koso and she was hungry. On the ground she thought she saw flying fox bones, but they were leaf spines. The people with Koso also saw the spines and were crying because they too had nothing to eat. Some men came and said to Koso, \u201cYou had better go to Sekentu\u2019s house. If a pig\u2019s been killed there, you can eat it.\u201d Koso did not know who Sekentu was. Her father took her to Sekentu\u2019s, and left her there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makunai, the demon ancestress of the Eagles, was Sekentu\u2019s mother. Makunai sat Koso down on a bed made of black-palm planks and told her she was now married to Sekentu. Makunai said, \u201cStay on the bed until your husband returns from hunting pigs. When you see the bushes shaking, you\u2019ll know he\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure enough, Koso looked up and saw the bushes shaking. When she saw her husband, he was a snake, not a man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koso said, \u201cWhat kind of husband is this?\u201d She began to cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The snake Sekentu coiled up on a basketry platter under the bed and went to sleep without noticing Koso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koso\u2019s tears fell on Sekentu, waking him up. He said, \u201cWhat\u2019s up there? Why am I getting wet?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makunai said, \u201cThat\u2019s your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sekentu coiled around Koso. He put his tail in her vagina and ejaculated in her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sekentu saw that Koso was very thin. Her bones were showing and he felt sorry for her. He went out to hunt pigs for her. He caught pigs, he killed them, he brought them back, and the two of them smoked them over a fire. Later, Makunai said, \u201cYou two had better go and see Koso\u2019s people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they arrived at Koso\u2019s village, Koso went to the cookhouse and Sekentu slithered to the feasting house. The people at the cookhouse asked Koso, \u201cDid you come alone?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said, \u201cI came with my husband, who is in the feasting house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her brothers went to the feasting house to see what their brother-in-law looked like. They didn\u2019t see anybody, so they came back and said, \u201cThere\u2019s nobody there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koso said, \u201cAh, you think he\u2019s a man, do you? Did you look inside the slit gongs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So they went back, looked inside one of the slit gongs, and saw a snake. They said to each other, \u201cWhat kind of thing has married our sister?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sekentu, nestled in the slit gong, said nothing. They went back to the cookhouse and said to Koso, \u201cWhen are you two going back to your mother-in-law\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTomorrow,\u201d Koso said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koso set a date for coming back to her brother\u2019s place. When Koso and Sekentu were ready to return to Sekentu\u2019s house, Koso\u2019s brothers hid in the bush along the trail to watch them. They measured the snake as he slithered by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Koso and Sekentu returned to Makunai\u2019s house, Sekentu resumed hunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makunai said, \u201cWhen you are in the forest, gather lengths of the kabe vine and bring them to me.\u201d Sekentu did, and Makunai took them and joined them and rolled them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sekentu brought back pigs and they smoked them. Every day he went out and brought back more kabe and more pigs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day for returning to Koso\u2019s place neared, and finally came. Sekentu and Koso left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koso\u2019s brothers were waiting. They had put tree trunks across the trail. When Sekentu\u2019s snake body was draped over all the logs, the brothers jumped from the forest and each chopped Sekentu, cutting him into pieces. In this way he was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makunai had tied a kabe vine to Sekentu\u2019s tail, and when she pulled back the last piece of his tail she knew he was dead. She put his tail in the thatching above the food in her cookhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she cooked food, she said, \u201cCome to life! Spill!\u201d and salt water came down. When she had enough, she would say \u201cStay!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she gave the food to her grandchildren, they asked, \u201cWhat have you seasoned this with?\u201d Makunai answered, \u201cSalt from your father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day, the children played around the cookhouse, and each day they ate the seasoned food. Each day they asked the same question and each day she gave them the same answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, a child hid in the cookhouse. When Makunai said, \u201cCome to life! Spill!\u201d he ran and told his brothers and sisters, \u201cOur grandmother has something that she talks to, and it makes salt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another day Makunai went to her garden, and the children stayed at the cookhouse. They built up the fire and cooked their own food, and when it was ready, they cried out, \u201cCome to life! Spill!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sekentu\u2019s tail did as they commanded, and the pot was soon filled up. The children didn\u2019t know how to stop it. They went and got coconut shells, and filled them up too. Sekentu\u2019s tail kept spilling out salt water, and flooded the forest and everything all around. Everything in the bush and even the villages were floating in Sekentu\u2019s salt water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At her garden, Makunai saw what was happening and said, \u201cMy grandchildren have done this.\u201d She ran and tried to warn people, \u201cLook out! Run away!\u201d but it was too late. Sekentu\u2019s salt water killed Koso\u2019s brothers, but some of the people who ran away didn\u2019t die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All their languages became different, and this island Bougainville was the only place left in the middle of the sea, the sea that Sekentu\u2019s tail made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE DECONSTRUCTION<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the story “Confluences,” told by the young man Tagilali (half-Nagovisi; raised elsewhere), he and Elliot have been walking through the big bush making penis jokes. They stop to rest and chew betel and start talking about the Red Woman myth. They have a lot of fun with it. The story has been lightly edited.<\/em> Tagilali is the narrator:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Woman is an important kobonala<\/em> [myth]. I was there when Tupuua spoke it into Elliot\u2019s tape recorder. I was watching Elliot\u2019s face as Tupuua spoke and it had a look on it that I\u2019ve rarely seen. Tupuua can\u2019t speak pidgin, so when he was telling the story Elliot was on his own. I could tell that he was trying hard to keep up, even though he knew he was getting it on tape and could take his time listening to it later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned around, walking backwards. \u201cElliot,\u201d I said, \u201cif I say \u2018Red Woman\u2019 and \u2018penis\u2019 then what will you reply?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHa ha!\u201d he said, \u201cI thought we were done with penises, but all right. Red Woman is my favorite kobonala. Every part of it is strong and filled with meaning. Including penises.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo ahead, then. Tell me Red Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He walked a few steps, clearing his throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA red woman was crying,\u201d he said, and then he stopped. \u201cWhen Tupuua spoke those words, just those first words, I knew, I don\u2019t know how I knew, but I did, that I was about to hear something very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause I never heard a story that started like that. And he was speaking slowly, I don\u2019t know it that was for me or the way he tells the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the first time I heard it too. I don\u2019t think it was for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me it was immediately a mystery, a red woman, what could a red woman be? And why was she crying, and why all this at the beginning? It was like being suddenly pushed into a deep pool, Tagilali, that\u2019s what I felt. Even now sometimes I speak those words to myself because they are so beautiful and mysterious.” He paused. “I see a keeled tree ahead, let\u2019s sit there and lean against them and chew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was settled he began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know we\u2019re having fun with this penis talk, but it\u2019s hard for me to take this serious story and make it into a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not asking you to make a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood. I\u2019ll be serious about the penises. A red woman was crying.\u201d He paused and shook his head. \u201cHer name was Koso and she was hungry. She thought she could eat some things she saw on the ground, but they were leaf spines, not flying fox bones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stopped. \u201cThis is why I love the story so much. We never learn why she was red, and although the thing about flying fox bones sounds good, she couldn\u2019t eat flying fox bones. Nobody eats flying fox bones! So this part isn\u2019t really about looking for food, it\u2019s about seeing something that stands for something else, and being wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cMaybe. But what if she thought people were walking along eating flying fox, and they might feed her? But continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will,\u201d he said. \u201cSome men came and said to Koso, \u2018You had better go to Sekentu\u2019s house. Perhaps a pig\u2019s been killed there, and you can eat it.\u2019 Koso didn\u2019t know who Sekentu was. Koso\u2019s father took her to Sekentu\u2019s, and left her there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cWho were \u2018some men?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTruly,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s like that all the way through, isn\u2019t it? Indeed who were these men? Where did they come from? And why did they tell her to go to Sekentu\u2019s house? And then her father, yes her father just appears and takes her there. And we never see him again, the father. It\u2019s very strange. No mother? Sekentu\u2019s mother was Makunai, the demon ancestress of the Eagles. Makunai sat Koso down on a bed made of black palm planks and told her she was now married to Sekentu. In this way, Makunai became her mother-in-law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He laughed and shook his head, and spit. \u201cKoso still doesn\u2019t know who Sekentu is, but she doesn\u2019t ask. She didn\u2019t say, \u2018What husband? Who?\u2019 Makunai tells her to stay on the bed until Sekentu comes back from hunting pigs, and she talks about how the bushes will shake. If you\u2019re hearing this for the first time, you say what? What? Shaking the bushes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat did you think, Elliot?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think anything, because I knew it was a kobonala and its world wasn\u2019t our world. Also I was struggling to keep up and didn\u2019t have time to think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cI like the part about the snake making the bushes shake, because what snake ever did that? It\u2019s another way for the story to tell us Sekentu was not like the snakes we know.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot continued. “Sure enough, Koso looked up and saw the bushes shaking. When she saw her husband, he had a pig tied to his tail,\u201d and I punched his arm and said, \u201cHow does a snake tie anything to his tail?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cOr to the pig! Or did he wrap his tail around the pig? I\u2019ll continue. Koso saw he was a snake, not a man. And what I like is that she doesn\u2019t scream and try to run away. She only says, \u2018What kind of husband is this?\u2019 It\u2019s like she was disappointed, not terrified. Then she begins to cry, who wouldn\u2019t, but Sekentu goes to sleep and doesn\u2019t see her. And he goes to sleep under the bed. Why does a snake have a bed and if he does, why does he sleep underneath it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cHe sleeps on the ground like a snake! But no, he curled up on a basketry platter. Why? The only reason I can think of is that the platter is made by coiling a thick vine, so maybe the vine is like a coiled snake, like his mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo here we have the snake coiled up on the platter with his new wife that he doesn\u2019t know about just above him, crying. Don\u2019t snakes have ears?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a kobonala!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrue, true. Sekentu wakes up because he\u2019s getting wet from a few tears. It\u2019s not like rain, but it\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s all right. Maybe a teardrop hit him in the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s sleeping! His eyes would have been closed!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right, so we don\u2019t understand that part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cAnd it gets worse. Here\u2019s the giant talking snake under the bed and instead of looking to see what\u2019s above him, he asks his mother. Makunai tells him that Koso\u2019s his wife, and he doesn\u2019t say anything like \u2018why can\u2019t I have a snake wife?\u2019 instead he coils around her, puts his tail in her vagina, and ejaculates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, laughing, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I have a snake wife<\/em>, truly. Remember the platter Sekentu was sleeping on? Where the coiling begins, there\u2019s a hole. Some people call that the platter\u2019s asshole. Hah, I think vagina, not asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd we return to penises,\u201d Elliot said, \u201cIndeed. Snake tail penis. Or, as if I had to tell you, Sekentu himself is a giant penis, but no balls, so where did the semen come from?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps that\u2019s why many women fear snakes,\u201d I said, and Elliot laughed and shook his head, \u201cDo women fear penises? Not many, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd we know who they are!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t, but I\u2019m sure you do. Some men fear snakes,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat for a moment without talking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right. I\u2019ll continue,\u201d Elliot said, \u201cI was thinking about Sekentu and how he never talks except to ask his mother why he\u2019s getting wet. The whole story is about Sekentu and that\u2019s all he ever says. I can\u2019t think why that is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t either, except later on the only people he could talk to are her brothers, and you know a husband has to be careful around his wife\u2019s brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrue, yes, maybe,\u201d Elliot said, \u201cand now I\u2019ll jump to the part where they went to Koso\u2019s village so that Sekentu could meet her brothers. The part about how Sekentu went hunting and caught pigs for Koso because she was thin, and they smoked them\u2026I don\u2019t see much to talk about there, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, but we\u2019re probably missing something. We should ask Lalaga. As for going to the brothers, it was Makunai who sent them, so maybe Koso was happy and didn\u2019t want to go back to her people. And in the story she has no sisters, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. Eating smoked pig every day instead of only when there were feasts, maybe she liked that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoes that make up for having a snake husband?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot laughed and waved his hands. \u201cI don\u2019t know, so I\u2019ll continue. I like this part because it\u2019s so very strange, that her brothers did not know what happened to their sister.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true,\u201d I said, \u201cwhy didn\u2019t her father tell them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cMaybe he was ashamed of what he did,\u201d and I said, \u201cMaybe, but also where is Koso\u2019s mother in this story? Nowhere! If you think about it, there are no women except Koso and the demon woman Makunai.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, that\u2019s true, so maybe this is a story made up by men to tell other men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know we don\u2019t have men secrets and women secrets, so maybe it\u2019s a story made up by women, to show what happens if men control everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHah, could be.\u201d Elliot continued, \u201cAt Koso\u2019s village, Sekentu went to the feasting house and Koso went to a cookhouse, where people asked whether her husband had come, and Koso said yes, that he was at the feasting house. Her brothers went to the feasting house, filled with slit gongs, but they didn\u2019t see anybody there. They went back and said, \u2018Nobody\u2019s there,\u2019 and Koso said, \u2018Ah, you think he\u2019s a man, do you? Did you look inside the slit gongs? You killed me by sending me to Sekentu.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cAnd who was you<\/em>? It was her father, not her brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cSo they went back, looked inside one of the slit gongs, and saw a snake. They said to each other, \u2018What kind of thing has married our sister?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spit a loud kuioto<\/em> spit. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t they say \u2018what the bloody fucking hell is a giant snake doing inside our slit gong?\u2019 but no. They only looked at him. I would have run away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot shook his head. \u201cTrue! I think this is when Sekentu becomes a penis-snake or maybe a snake-penis. Slit gongs! What is more like fucking than pounding on a slit-gong? And the sticks to beat them with. Ah, it doesn\u2019t matter. Sticks are like penises and then the giant snake penis has already fucked the slit-gong . . . the whole thing is like fucking, maybe that\u2019s why only men beat slit gongs\u2026except Sekentu was all the way inside, so maybe the slit gong vagina captured him\u2026there are stories in the world about vaginas that have teeth and eat penises, or the penis can\u2019t get out, but no teeth in this kobonala so maybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he laughed. And so did I. We spit red. Vaginas with teeth? I never heard of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cAnd the brothers, \u2018what kind of thing has married our sister?\u2019 and why didn\u2019t they know that, considering it was their father who sent Koso to Makunai\u2019s house to marry a snake? In this story everybody talks like idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou see that in European stories, too. Idiots, I mean. And Koso says \u2018You killed me,\u2019 except that she\u2019s still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cYou can skip over the next part if you like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will. The brothers hid in the bush as Sekentu and Koso passed by, and they measured how long Sekentu was. Koso and Sekentu said they would return and when the brothers knew they were coming, they put logs across the trail so that Sekentu\u2019s body would be draped on the logs\u201d\u2014he made motions with his hand\u2014\u201cand then jumped out with axes and chopped him to bits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again he shook his head and laughed. \u201cIt\u2019s the only part of the kobonala that makes sense in our world. If you want to cut a big snake on a trail, it\u2019s soft ground so your ax won\u2019t go through on the first strike, but if you\u2019re chopping against a log, it will. Right? I\u2019ve tried and tried to think of a meaning for waiting until Sekentu drapes himself over the logs, and I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, that\u2019s true,\u201d I said, \u201ccutting up the penis . . . into what, more penises? Short ones? And the logs are like penises themselves, so a giant snake penis is being cut up on top of wooden penises.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cI have an idea about the brothers and how they killed Sekentu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuppose that the meaning comes from how brothers aren\u2019t supposed to hear anything sexual about their sisters, and if Sekentu is a penis, then every time the brothers see him, they have to think about their sister and her husband\u2019s penis, and this shames and enrages them because Sekentu is doing and showing them what must not be done, so they have to kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe,\u201d I said, \u201cor Sekentu makes them think about sex in the presence of their sister, which they must not do, so they kill him to keep themselves from thinking bad thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth our ideas could be true. What do you think the brothers did with the pieces, then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t think of anything. They disappear. Like the brothers. No, wait. The salt water kills the brothers. Now for the end of Red Woman, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right,\u201d Elliot said, \u201cThe last part. Makunai had tied a vine to Sekentu\u2019s tail, and she pulled the last bit of him home after he was chopped up, and now we get to the part where Sekentu isn\u2019t even a snake anymore, but something that makes salt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wonder whether the piece Makunai pulled back included the snake\u2019s asshole?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAsshole!\u201d He paused. \u201cI\u2019ll give you an English word, which is cloaca, and that\u2019s what you\u2019re calling the snake\u2019s asshole, but it\u2019s not like a human asshole. Everything comes out of that one hole: piss, shit, and semen. There\u2019s a penis in there somewhere but I don\u2019t think it comes out. Maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cCloaca, cloaca. Good word. And about what it is, I didn\u2019t know that. I never saw snakes fucking. I\u2019m glad people aren\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cIndeed. Especially that our women aren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shouted, \u201cShut up! We\u2019re talking about penises\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we are, but listen to this. Long ago, a European man wrote, \u2018we are born between piss and shit,\u2019 but at least women have three holes, and not a cloaca.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hit him on the arm. \u201cI don\u2019t want to think about that. We\u2019re not talking about women, you and I, neither of us has a woman, so why talk about them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about Koso, though.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not a real woman. Kobonala.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrue.\u201d He sighed. \u201cEven so, talking about real women makes me sad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd me,\u201d I said, \u201cas you know. When the crocodile has you in his jaws you\u2019ll be thinking, \u2018I\u2019m being killed and I never screwed a Nagovisi woman.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTagilali! Stop!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right. Continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re back at Makunai\u2019s house. She put the tail into the thatching above her fire and when she wanted to season the food she was cooking for Koso and Sekentu\u2019s children she would command it to come alive and spill out salt water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cSo now it\u2019s a cut penis and it ejaculates salt water, not semen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, but only when a woman tells it to. How can \u2018come to life\u2019 not mean \u2018get hard?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat mother tells her son\u2019s penis to get hard and ejaculate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA demon woman, I suppose. I wish the Sekentu penis was still tied to a vine, so Makunai would just have to pull on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cLike turning on an electric light in town. On, off, on, off. Also she has complete control over the penis, like it\u2019s her child. Ah, Sekentu is<\/em> her child. Maybe this is about how women control their young sons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s the lesson, then? It\u2019s not like \u2018mother knows best,\u2019 because it was Makunai who sent him off to be cut into pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf she was human, but she\u2019s a demon so we\u2019re meant to believe she had some plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot said, \u201cAnd now we come to the end, which is like a famous story from Europe and probably everywhere in the world, where the children start something but cannot stop it. They command Sekentu\u2019s tail to make salt water and it makes so much that it covers the land and kills Koso\u2019s brothers and becomes the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cDid you ever notice that Koso is the only named woman in the story? Except for Makunai, and she\u2019s a spirit. There\u2019s only Koso and her brothers and her father. Everybody else is just people so we don\u2019t know what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrue. I did notice it but I didn\u2019t think carefully about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, \u201cAnd about red. I think maybe Koso is a red woman because of blood, that she menstruates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never thought of that. You must be right. But that would mean at the beginning, that would mean that Sekentu screwed her when she was menstruating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a snake. What do you expect?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We laughed. Snakes don\u2019t care about anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat for a moment, thinking about the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother thing,\u201d Elliot said, \u201cKoso disappears from the story when Sekentu is chopped up. Where did she go? She got pregnant by Sekentu before they killed him, but there\u2019s more than one child, so who was the father? And we never heard about any children until then. By the donkey\u2019s long penis, I love this story. It\u2019s perfect, because it\u2019s not a story of our time. But we don\u2019t care. All the things that don\u2019t make sense are what please me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My story collection’s title (A Red Woman Was Crying) comes from a myth told by the Nagovisi people of Bougainville Island. The first chapter in the collection is the myth. In the myth and the deconstruction, reference is made to “slit gongs,” or “tui.” A RED WOMAN WAS CRYING Told by Tupuua, 1969 A red… <\/p>\n

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