Mejenkwaad
Maybe after reading all of these highly informative and entertaining blogs about life on scenic Roi-Namur you’ve decided to start a challenging and rewarding career living and working on Roi-Namur. One day you meet a beautiful island girl who still has many of her teeth and the two of you fall in love despite the warnings I mentioned on the non-politically correct versions of my blogs that have never been published to the general public.
If you’ve ignored all my other warning DO NOT under any circumstance ignore this one…. If your wife becomes pregnant, do not leave her for any length of time greater than say 5 minutes. Why? Because it is a well documented fact that if you do she will turn into a mejenkwaad. But perhaps you’re scratching your head and asking the inevitable question “what the heck is a mejenkwaad?” Let me tell you my friend (jera). A mejenkwaad is a cross between a demon and a witch. They can change shapes and have a nasty habit of eating their families. There have been many documented cases where some poor guy in the Marshall Islands will go off fishing to get something good to eat for his pregnant wife and when he gets back his wife has turned into a mejenkwaad, eaten their new baby, maybe even eaten the whole village, and if he’s not careful and perhaps cunning, she’ll eat him too. Say you hang around and your wife has the baby without eating either of you and you are beginning to feel comfortable. Well, you’re still not off the hook. I read one story that told of a guy who was smarter than most. He kept close to his wife throughout the pregnancy and even after their handsome young son was born. Time went on and about a year after the birth they planned a party as is typical in the islands to celebrate their beloved baby reaching the ripe old age of 1. Against his better judgement, his pretty young wife convinced him to go to other islands to get the food to feed everyone. Well, the dude took his son with him to play it safe. When he got back the village was empty. This seems strange he thought. Sure enough, while he was gone his wife turned into a mejenkwaad and ate everyone. She appeared as her normal self when he got back (mejenkwaads can do that). I don’t recall all the details other than the baby looked nice and plump to her and just right for an appetizer before she got around to the main course, her husband. The husband deployed various clever tricks like making toys that would signal when she got close and noise makers to confuse her as to where he actually was. He escaped with the boy by boat but she chased after him by elongating her neck or something like that. I read about this on the internet so it must be true just as you can always rely on Roi Rat Journal for accurate information. I wasn’t able to read the conclusion but I think he managed to outsmart her. But why take the chance? For those of you who doubt this story I will attach an actual file photo I have of a real life mejenkwaad. She was poised to attack but I escaped.
Figure 1 A real life Mejenkwaad
My experience with mejenkwaads (from a distance as I’ve never been married to a Marshallese woman) has been that they attack the wallet end of the body first so your best chance of escape is to drop your wallet and run. She’ll go for the wallet first and you’ll have a chance to get away.
My readers who have an environmental bent will most likely attribute this phenomena to the nuclear testing at Bikini. I am afraid though that this behavior has been going on for hundreds of years, even longer than my mother is old. As near as I can tell the only way to prevent it is to heed my warning and keep close to your wife when she’s pregnant and for an indeterminent time afterwards.
All seriousness aside, I always wonder how legends get started. This one is kind of obvious to me. Some Kari (woman) in the past, did not want her husband to leave her at the time of her greatest need so she cooked up a story about turning into an mejenkwaad. Anyone who’s been around a woman during her monthly indisposition will find the turning into a demon part quite believable. Or, maybe some guy took off on his wife to go fishing with his buddies during the time of her delivery and she was so P O’d that she said @#$#this $@#* I’m going to eat this son of a #@%&^ and his son and that will teach him to leave me on my own with diapers to change and a screaming kid.
To learn more about Marshall Island legends I recommend a great book that I haven’t read yet called Marshall Island Legends and Stories collected by Daniel A Kelin II. I plan to buy it someday as it looks quite interesting. If you are Marshallese and you have more accurate information than what I presented here then please send it to me or let me know any inaccuracies I have made in this story. Komol tata
3 Responses to “Mejenkwaad”
 Comment by Heather September 6th, 2007 at 2:34 pm |
Glenn, |
 Comment by glennstu September 6th, 2007 at 3:32 pm |
Thanks Heather, My friend Junior Reimers was over at my house over the weekend and he told me that growing up in Majuro he’d only seen one mejenkwaad and it took 4 strong men to hold her down. She didn’t actually eat anyone. He was young at the time. I’m working on an article about the legendary island of Arno. |
 Comment by Matt Hatfield February 5th, 2008 at 12:41 pm |
Good to know he still sings at work. I have heard this legend and many others. I think some of them are true to include this one. However, do not let this deter you from visiting this place. It is unlike any place you can even imagine. I went there TDY in March 98 and I didn’t come home for 9 years…. Thanks for the great site Glenn. It has certainly been a good trip down memory lane. |
Heather