The tall pillar

Traditional tall huts were symbols of the Melanesian clan. They were held by a huge central wooden pillar cut from a big tree. The old tall huts were very tall indeed and required tall trees. They were erected on a mound also symbolic of the clan.

This tale comes from the Paimboas tribe, up North. The village his located in the upper beautiful Diahot valley surrounded by the highest mountains of New Caledonia. Near the Chief house is a very large earth mound. It used to be the base of a hut which must have been very large and tall. As we were intrigued by the size of this mound, the Chief proposed to tell us the tale relating to it, a tale still conveyed over generations among members of the tribe. Kanak are often great story tellers. They know how to use images and to take the time required for proper effect. The Chief told this tale using a stick symbolic of the tall hut pillar.

This was a long time ago. While the tall hut had been abandoned and had rotten away, its very tall pillar was still standing up in the middle of the large mound. This was an unusually tall pillar which would had required a huge tree to make it

Nobody was allowed to get near it, or touch it, it was "tabou" (tapu) .

One day, four men of this tribe were sitting on the grass, not far away from the mound. They were telling each other jokes, sometimes not very respectful of the clan's ancestors.

Weather was fine with no wind. A branch of a nearby tree, a "jamelonnier", suddenly fell on the ground with a loud crack. This was a branch with green leaves. Among the Kanak tribes it is a bad omen when such a green branch detachs from a tree. The men immediately became silent. They were looking anxiously towards the tree. No branch was moving as the air was still. They waited a long time, silently, before daring resume their talk and jokes, at soft voice initially, then a bit louder as nothing was happening any more.

Another green branch fell down!

Now this was very serious. This was a very bad omen, death perhaps! Scared stiff, the four men were looking around them. One suddenly shouted "look!" with popping up eyes staring at the tall pillar top.

It had moved!.

And it was still moving. Very slowly, its displacement was hardly noticeable. It was slightly tilting now. Then tilting slightly more and more again, but extremely slowly, as if retained by an invisible hand. Its top was leaning towards the ground. It was reaching for it rather than falling.

The pillar fall lasted a very long time, it took hours probably, without ever accelerating, nor slowing down. It eventually reached the ground with a very soft thud that one could hardly hear. The men had followed this endless fall in an awesome silence.

Now laying down on the ground the pillar was like a huge body, a symbol of the corpse of the ancestor who had shown his anger to the disrespectful men.

Epilogue : Never people from this tribe dared again to get close to the fallen pillar. It stayed there for many and many years until he completely rotted away. The story is still told to the clan members and, even today, its people still don't walk on the mound and they look at it with some fear.