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Hainuwele, 'The Coconut Girl', is a figure from the folklore of the island of Seram
Seram

Seram is an island in the Maluku Provinces of Indonesia of Indonesia. It is located north of Ambon Island. The chief port/town is Masohi....
 in the Maluku Islands
Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago in Indonesia, and part of the larger Malay Archipelago. They are located on the Australian Plate, lying east of Sulawesi , west of New Guinea, and north of Timor....
. While hunting one day on Seram
Seram

Seram is an island in the Maluku Provinces of Indonesia of Indonesia. It is located north of Ambon Island. The chief port/town is Masohi....
, a man named Ameta found a coconut
Coconut

The Coconut Palm is a member of the Family Arecaceae . It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaf 4-6 m long, pinnae 60-90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly leaving the trunk smooth....
, something never before seen on Seram. Ameta took it home. That night, a figure appeared in a dream and instructed him to plant the coconut. Ameta did so, and in just a few days the coconut grew into a tall tree and bloomed. Ameta climbed the tree to cut down the coconuts but in the process slashed his finger and the blood dropped onto a blossom.






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Hainuwele, 'The Coconut Girl', is a figure from the folklore of the island of Seram
Seram

Seram is an island in the Maluku Provinces of Indonesia of Indonesia. It is located north of Ambon Island. The chief port/town is Masohi....
 in the Maluku Islands
Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago in Indonesia, and part of the larger Malay Archipelago. They are located on the Australian Plate, lying east of Sulawesi , west of New Guinea, and north of Timor....
. While hunting one day on Seram
Seram

Seram is an island in the Maluku Provinces of Indonesia of Indonesia. It is located north of Ambon Island. The chief port/town is Masohi....
, a man named Ameta found a coconut
Coconut

The Coconut Palm is a member of the Family Arecaceae . It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaf 4-6 m long, pinnae 60-90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly leaving the trunk smooth....
, something never before seen on Seram. Ameta took it home. That night, a figure appeared in a dream and instructed him to plant the coconut. Ameta did so, and in just a few days the coconut grew into a tall tree and bloomed. Ameta climbed the tree to cut down the coconuts but in the process slashed his finger and the blood dropped onto a blossom. Several days later, Ameta found in the place of this blossom a girl whom he named Hainuwele, meaning Coconut Girl. Hainuwele had a remarkable, though rather unpleasant talent: when she "answered the call of nature", she excreted valuable items. Thanks to these, Ameta became very rich.

Hainuwele attended a dance in the village, at which it was traditional for girls to distribute nuts
Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
 to the men. Hainuwele did so, but when the men asked her, she gave them the valuable things which she could excrete. Each day she gave them something bigger and more valuable: gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
en earring
Earring

Earrings are jewellery attached to the ear through a body piercing in the earlobe or some other external part of the ear . Earrings are worn by both sexes....
s, coral
Coral

Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone?like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals....
, porcelain
Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and ....
 dishes, knives, copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
 boxes, and glorious gong
Gong

A gong is an East Asia and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.Gongs are broadly of three types....
s. The people gradually decided that what Hainuwele was doing was sinister, and they decided to kill her. They dug a pit in the center of the dance ground and pushed her in, covered her over, and danced the dirt firmly down.

Ameta, missing Hainuwele, went in search for her. When he found out what had happened, he exhumed her corpse and cut it into pieces which he then re-buried around the village. These pieces grew into the various tuberous plants, giving origin to the principle foods the people of Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
 have enjoyed ever since.

The myth of Hainuwele was introduced to a reading audience by A.E. Jensen, after the Frobenius Institute
Leo Frobenius

Leo Viktor Frobenius was an ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography. He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy....
's 1937–8 expedition to the Maluku Islands
Maluku Islands

The Maluku Islands are an archipelago in Indonesia, and part of the larger Malay Archipelago. They are located on the Australian Plate, lying east of Sulawesi , west of New Guinea, and north of Timor....
. Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell

Joseph John Campbell was an United States mythologist, writer, and lecturer best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion....
 first narrated it to an English-speaking audience in The Masks of God : Primitive Mythology.

Further reading

  • Campbell, Joseph
    Joseph Campbell

    Joseph John Campbell was an United States mythologist, writer, and lecturer best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion....
    , The Masks of God : Primitive Mythology 1959.
  • Eliade, Mircea
    Mircea Eliade

    Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day....
    , Myth and Reality 1963
  • Jensen, A.E. and Herman Niggemeyer, Hainuwele ; Völkserzählungen von der Molukken-Insel Ceram (Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expedition vol. I), Frankfurt-am-Main 1939


See also

  • Uke Mochi
    Uke Mochi

    Uke Mochi is a goddess of food in the Shinto religion of Japan. When Uke Mochi was visited by Tsukuyomi she prepared a feast by facing the ocean and spitting out a fish, then she faced the forest and bountiful game spewed out of her anus, finally turning to a rice paddy she coughed up a bowl of rice....
     (Japanese goddess)