PNG kaikai- two mumuts

   OK, this is Matt again. I guess that I am going to do another installment of PNG kaikai. So this is the story of two mumuts (not really translatable, see pictures). The first mumut was a cute little thing (pictured below) that was given to Mae as a pet. It was really a calm little thing, the ideal pet in a lot of ways. They played with it during the day and it slept in a box in their room at night.

   But the real story is how we got it. A couple of days before I went to the garden with a friend named Koondok. While we were there we set some traps. They were like you see in the cartoons with the bent over tree and the loop laying on the ground. For all of you who always wondered if they actually work I am happy to say that they do. So I wasn't too surprised when Koon (short for Koondok) showed up at our house a couple of days later with this baby mumut and he gave it to Mae. Tiffany however was not around when we set the traps so it was a little more surprising for her. But he was a cute little guy and totally tame so she was happy to take it.

   However there is more to the story. I was also not surprised that there was another larger one. I looked at the bilum (bag they wear) around his neck and knew there was something big in it. Tiffany was busy looking at the little mumut and had not noticed his bilum until all at once he pulled a massive dead mumut out of it ( the size of a large house cat) and presented it to her about 4 inches away from her nose. Surprise!!!!! Meat is one of the most valuable gifts that you can give someone in the village so this was something that was very special and Tiffany hardly blinked an eye accepting it very graciously not quite knowing what to do with it.

   Luckily a little girl from next door swooped in quickly and proceeded to make a little fire where she burnt all the hair off of it (pictured above). Next our waspapa showed up and he started cutting it up ( pictured below).

   Sometime between the time when he started cutting it up and when it was finished cooking everybody but me and Silas snuck off to bed. Their loss right! We had a feast with waspapa and wasmama. Yes, it was very good. Silas couldn't get enough, he even ate the liver. More on the other mumut tomorrow.