The Old Woman and the Origin of the Sea
Among the Baining people of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, a myth explains how the sea was created. In the beginning, the sea was only a tiny waterhole from which an old woman extracted saltwater to flavor her food, keeping it hidden under a cover of tapa cloth. One day, her sons became curious and tore open the cover. The farther they tore, the larger the waterhole grew. Terrified by the expanding water, they fled, each carrying a corner of the cloth, which caused the water to spread until it became the vast ocean. In desperation, the old woman hastily planted twigs along the edge of the shor