Qat

The Banks Islands were lit all the time. Light shone on the mother-stone called Quatgoro, and one day the stone broke open. Qat came out with eleven brothers. Each brother was named Tangaro and represented a characteristic or a plant. They grew up immediately, entering a world where the light did not stop.

Qat began the work of making people. He carved the first humans from different parts of a tree. The pieces did not remain loose. He fitted them together into puppet-like figures. When he had made six puppets, he lined them up and danced in front of them. The dance made the figures begin to come to life.

Qat then beat his sacred drum. The figures began to dance. The work had moved from wood, to joined bodies, to movement. Qat divided the six figures into six men and six women. They became mates, so the first human pairs came from the tree pieces he had carved and the dance that brought them to life.

The account keeps the stages in order. The mother-stone opens first. Qat and the eleven Tangaro brothers emerge. Qat chooses parts of a tree and makes puppets, then uses dance and the sacred drum to change them into living dancers. Only after that does he make the six men and six women into mates.

Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II calls Quat the sun god and gives him the task of discovering darkness elsewhere, but this first event stays in the bright Banks Islands. Qat's action is physical throughout. He carves, pieces together, lines up, dances, beats the drum and makes the pairs.