This creation myth comes from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia and tells the story of Hainuwele, the coconut-girl.

A long time ago a man named Ameta, out hunting, came on a wild boar. Trying to escape, the boar was drowned in a lake. On its tusk Ameta found a coconut. That night he dreamed of the coconut and was commanded to plant it, which he did the next morning.

In three days a coconut palm sprang up, and three days later it flowered. Ameta climbed it to cut some flowers and make a drink from them. But he cut his finger and the blood dropped on a flower. Nine days later he found a girl-child on the flower. Ameta took her and wrapped her in coconut fronds. In three days the child became a marriageable girl, and he named her Hainuwele ('coconut branch').

Hainuwele had a strange gift – she could excrete valuable objects – jewels and precious metals. During the great Maro festival Hainuwele stood in the middle of the dancing place and for nine nights she distributed gifts to the dancers. But on the ninth day the men decided that her talent meant she was a witch. They dug a grave in the middle of the dancing place and threw Hainuwele into it during the dance. The grave was filled in and men danced on it.

The next morning, seeing that Hainuwele did not come home, Ameta divined that she had been murdered. He found the body, disinterred it, and cut it into pieces, which he buried in various places, except the arms.

The buried pieces gave birth to plants previously unknown, especially to tubers, which since then are the chief food of human beings.