Post #809500 by MadDogMike on Sat, Jun 17, 2023 9:47 AM

I can almost visualize a spider jumping out of this box! LOL

While researching Palau storyboards I came across a couple of interesting facts -

1. Storyboards are not a indigenous practice. After WW1, Japan held Palau as a territory. A carving master from Japan was sent to Palau to teach them how to carve the story boards based on a small number of Palau myths and/or historical events. These storyboards were sold in Japan, and later to the US and other countries.
2. The story of Mingidabrutkoel is one of the tales frequently depicted on storyboards. Mingidabrutkoel was a spider demigod who fell in love with a human woman. He changed himself into a human and married the young woman, she became pregnant. It is said that prior to this, all childbirths were done by Cesarean section with a bamboo knife (I cannot find if this is historical fact or fable). Understandably, many women died as a complication of these C-sections. Mingidabrutkoel didn't want his wife to suffer that fate so he "invented" natural childbirth.

Here is a Palau storyboard carved in the shape of an eel.