1. The myth of Bomai is concerned with the origin of the two gods, Bomai and Malo. who were worshiped in the traditional religion of the Murray Islands, Torres Strait. It has been published twice as the story of Malo, but it is Bomai in the Miriam language version I recently recorded, and on which the following structural analysis is made. 2. The first section is the story of Bomai's navigation. Bomai follows his four brothers, who left their native home in the south-central coast of New Guinea for Prince of Wales Island. During this solitary journey through the Western Islands, Bomai exhibits power to' transform himself into a whale, a turtle, a dugong and a dolphin. Then he travels with his brothers through the Central Islands, each in his own canoe. His brothers leave the group' one by one. Finally, after being left alone, Bomai sets off further east to the Murray Islands, the southern-most of the Eastern Islands. There he visits several villages in Mer, Dauar, and Waier. This part of the story ends when Bomai, in the form of an octopus, approaches a woman fishing on the beach. In the first section, Bomai is the only active character of the drama, and he is also the only one who exhibits the super-natural power of transformation. A structural opposition is drawn between large animals and small ones ; Bomai turns himself into the former type only when he is alone. When he is with somebody close to him, he turns himself into a smaller animal when the need arises. 3. The second section begins with Bomai's violation of Kabur, the woman on the beach. She realizes what has happened, so she kills the octopus (Bomai) , claims it as a posession, and brings it back to her home. As she watches that night with her husband, Dog, the ghost of a man jumps out of the basket, hangs from the ceiling, and performs the ritual of casting a curse. For the next two days, Dog is restless and walks up and down the beach carrying his weapons, excited by the treasure which Kabur has claimed. His curious behaviour, however, invites the villagers' suspicion. So the villagers of Las, from where Kabur originally came, send Kabur's brother and "cousin brother" to visit Kabur, and they come to Dog's home bringing a gift of sardines. Kabur and Dog welcome them and they stay at Dog's house that night. The visitors find out what is in the basket and steal it the next morning. Dog is out walking on the beach when the theft occurs. He feels uneasy, so he returns to his home, to find that the basket has been stolen. He then chases the two men, who are dancing with excitement, halfway back to the Las village. He shoots three arrows, but he misses the men because Bomai's power repulses the shafts. He follows the two to their village, where other villagers offer him a bamboo pipe to placate him. Dog accepts it, saying that the pipe is for peace, and allows them to keep Bomai in Las. The villagers create a ritual dance for Bomai, imitating the movements of blind sharks and tiger sharks. This second section of the myth is twice as long as either the first or the third. It is detailed and well explained, lacking the typical characteristics of a myth : miraculousness, abruptness, and extensiveness. It is a story of comedic interactions among villagers and it assigns a less conspicuous roles for Bomai, but it includes the climax of the three-part myth of Bomai : Bomai's ultimate transformation from an unusual man to a god.

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The material contained in this report has been obtained from the research survey made by the late Prof. Dr. Teruji Ishizu and seven subordinate researchers including this reporter. This survey covers primarily the period from 1952 to 1954 and several years following. A total of 80 mikos (female shamans) were used as subjects in this research, who were investigated as to the following points ; their general health and physical condition, training and initiation requirements for becoming miho and their various practices as miko. Miho are generally advanced in age, about half of them older than fifty, although their ages ranged from nineteen to eighty at the time of the original reseach. The majority had eye troubles except for two mikos and the general belief that these women with eye problems were destined to become miko in the Tohoku districts. They were apprenticed at an early age in most cases, the youngest of them at eight years of age and about half of them before fifteen, to established miko who are engaged in shamanistic works in the neighborhood. They are disciplined for a long time, ten years being the longest period of apprenticeship with half of the noviciates experiencing a two to four year disciplinary period. During this training period they learn many Buddhist and Shinto scriptures, chants, and shamanistic practices. At the end of the training period they usually submit to some form of asceticism for seven or more days, then they have the initiation ceremony. In the ceremony, they are usually required to fall into a "possessed" state. As a rule they also have a ceremony of announcement for their relatives and colleagues following the initiation ceremony. After these ceremonies they become independent, full-fledged miko. Their main duties or practices are kuchiyose (speaking with the dead) and kamioroshi (divine messages), both of which practices are based on possession in principle. They also take part in other magico-religious practices, divinations, prayers, purifications and charms. I think that the most characteristic practice of the miko is kuchiyose. This is partly due to the fact that kamioroshi and other magico-religious practices are generally associated with gyoja (ascetics). An outline of the technique of kuchiyose is as follows : First of all the miko inquires of the person wishing to contact the dead the age and sex of the deceased. This person is usually a family member or other relative of the deceased. Then, while she is rubbing a string of beads or operating other shamanistic tools, she recites some scriptures and chants to purify, to pray, to gather deities and so on. Finally she calls up the dead spirit aimed at. When the miko is possessed by the dead, the dead person begins to speak through her mouth. The contents of the speech are as follows ; gladness of being called, recollections of the deceased's lifetime, situations of death and the life after death, lucky or evil events that will happen within a year to the family and other survivors, warnings and precautions against evil events which are likely to happen, requests for religious services to repose the deceased and such like. After these messages have been delivered the dead returns to its own world. There are not only many scriptures and chants but also many variations of shamanistic customs, particularly, how many days must pass after the death before the deceased's spirit may be summoned by kuchiyose whether the hearers are allowed to ask questions of the deceased while he or she is speaking, or what kind of tools are used in the practice. These details of the practices vary in different areas as well as according to the lineage of the miko.

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