Description
One cloudy night when there was scarcely moonlight, a few Kaigas men (shovel-nose ray totem) of Sipingur killed a crocodile by mistake while hunting for dugong. They took it to the people of Wagedagam who became angry and burst into tears because their totem was the crocodile (kodal). They mourned it for many days afterwards.
Disheartened and remorseful, the men of Sipingur went to Awailau Kasa, a creek on Badu Island, and harpooned a crocodile to study it very carefully. They returned to Mobiag and made a replica of it by sewing pieces of thin translucent turtle shell together over a stick and twine frame. They designed it to be slipped over a man’s head as a mask. When it was finished, the men of Sipingur took it to the men of Wagedagam and gave it to them. The people of Wagedagam were delighted and so dried their tears and danced it, and so started the Kadalau Sagul, a presenting and performing tradition performed by the Kadal people.
