ESCAPE FROM PRISON

Part I

Tatagu was a high chief in the Morovo lagoon around New Georgia in the Solomon Islands and Tatagu's wife was pregnant. Tatagu had counted the moons since her figure had first given an inkling of fullness and calculated that it was time for his child to be born. To ensure their chief's child would be a boy, Tatagu's people sought to appease the spirits. According to custom a new canoe was built and readied for dedication. At the proper time, ragoso, the leafy vine used by the people of the Morovo lagoon to placate demons, would be garnered and made available for use. Close to the baby's birth men holding a rope made of ragoso vines would form a long line and wading into the shallow waters of the lagoon would form a large circle around a school of fish. They would use the branches of the vines that trailed from the rope to chase fish into the shallow surf splashing the shore. Other villagers waiting at the water edge would spear, club or catch the fish in nets and haul it onto land. The fish would be used in the fiendish devil feast held after the birth of the baby.

 

"I am a high chief in the Morovo Lagoon," Tatagu mused. "I give orders and people obey. Why should I regard the spirits? Why should I, Tatagu, high chief, in the Morovo lagoon engage in the ridiculous practice of gathering ragoso to placate unseen demons?" Frowning, Tatagu rebelliously determined that he would never again engage in this senseless ceremonial use of "devil-strings". The name ragoso in the language of the people of the Morovo lagoon means devil-strings. Launching his canoe into the lagoon's placid water, Tatagu set out to follow his men to the fishing ground. Tatagu's canoe carried no ragoso. Having participated in the devil-ceremony, the other men's canoes were loaded with ragoso. Suddenly the placid water became turbulent, Tatagu's canoe rocked alarmingly. Although he paddled hard, his canoe did not appear to make any progress. Something rocking his canoe also seemed to restrain his canoe. Tatagu recognized that these "some things" were spirits. But the more his canoe rocked and the harder he had to paddle, the more determined Tatagu became not to yield them. The other canoes sailing over the placid waters of the lagoon rapidly outdistanced him. Finally with a mighty heave that almost upset the canoe, the spirits left him and Tatagu proceeded to the fishing ground.

 

The Christmas Story

When Tatagu caught up with the men, he found them fishing arduously but the fish eluded them. Using only an ordinary hand line, Tatagu began to fish. No sooner had he put his line into the water, and the fish began to bite. He soon had so many fish, his canoe was unsteady. Somehow he reached home safely; the other men went home empty handed.

"The spirits do not provide our fish," Tatagu mused as he paddled his top-heavy canoe toward the shore of his village and observed his men's empty canoes.

Before he could unload his canoe a villager waiting on the shore informed him his baby had been born. Tatagu had a son. "The spirits did nothing to supply fish, the spirits did not give me a son," Tatagu thought. Shouting, he said, "He shall be called Kata Ragosowithout devil strings.

Kata Ragoso was a tiny boy when Christian missionaries arrived to the area around New Georgia. They founded a school in New Georgia. He, a bright child, full of questions, learned rapidly. Times changed at a fast pace in the sleepy Solomon Islands. Kata Ragoso was born into a village of headhunting cannibals; he ended life a dedicated Christian. One whom God used mightily.

To be continued