Yalafath

The supreme being and creator god of Yap in the Caroline Islands. He is beneficent yet indolent, although he will overcome evil demons if invoked. Yalafath's home is Falraman, where the souls of the dead go to. His wife is Nemegai. The mui-bab, the albatross, is his messenger.

Also called Bota-Sunumi.

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References

Sources

  • Christian, F. W. (1899). Caroline Islands: Travel in the Sea of the Little Lands. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 306, 384.
  • Furness, William Henry. (1910). The Island of Stone Money: Yap of the Carolinas. Philadelphia: Lippincott, p. 147.
  • MacKenzie, Donald A. (1930). Myths from Melanesia and Indonesia. London: Gresham, p. 172.
  • Muller, Wilhelm. (1917). "Yap, Ethnographie: B. Mikronesien," bd. 2 (1-2). Hamburg: Friederichsen, p. 298.
  • Walleser, Sixtus. (1967). "Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Inhabitants of Yap." Buffalo: Jesuit Bureau, pp. 8, 24.