96
FIG. 15 (right): Plate
illustrating different gable
sculptures.
From Coiffi er, 1982, p. 591.
associated with birds and paternal ancestors),
which is the opposite of the nyamenemba (people
of the mother associated with the crocodile
and other amphibian animals and with maternal
ancestors). The latter are represented by another
sculpture located at the base of the main vertical
post that supports the gable with the bird on it
(fi g. 7). Gregory Bateson (1932: 405) speaks of
this duality of nyawi and nyame in the context
of a myth that evokes the two jaws of an original
ancestral crocodile that produced this division
between heaven and earth when its mouth
opened.4 Another myth recorded by Jürg Wassmann
(1991: 192–195; Craig, 2010: 67–68) in
the Nyaura village of Kandingai is frequently
mentioned in connection with gable sculptures.
It describes two sisters who set out to fi nd an
area with an abundance of fi sh that they could
then catch. One of them encounters a crocodile,
which appears as a man. Soon thereafter, she
lays two eggs. A type of eagle (tarangao ngawi)
hatches from one of them, and a being that is
half-bird and half-human emerges from the other.
5 Palyambu Namba of the village of Palembai
(Coiffi er, 1994: 1102) sees the same differentiation
in this hybrid being, existing between nyawi
and nyame. Kumut Kavun related a similar
myth (Coiffi er, 1994: 1094): The two birds grow
up and one day their mother asks them: “My
children, I fi nd myself in the wind and the rain.
FIG. 13 (above): Gable
sculpture atop the Walimdimi
ceremonial house in the
Chambri village of Wombun.
© C. Coiffi er, 2018.
FIG. 14 (top left): Gable
sculpture atop the ceremonial
house in the Sawos village of
Torembi.
© C. Coiffi er, 1988.