Legend of the Ghost Dance

Legends and myths abound in Yap. They are passed through oral tradition from one generation to the next. This is one of the most well-known legends that many visitors to the island may hear, but, like all stories passed from one generation to the next via oral storytelling may change over time. This story enjoys several versions.

There was a time long ago when foreign sailors brought the terrible disease leprosy to the island of Wa’ab. A man in the village of Akaw, Weloy was inflicted with the disease, which they named “bliss.” In order to prevent its spread when all local medicines failed to cure it, his family built a shelter for him high up on a hill outside the village and took him food every day. More sores appeared each week on his body and he began to hallucinate. He saw people going to practice a dance in the village, remembering it as a dream. One night while he was sleeping, the people came again. One person asked if he would like to join the dance practice. Agreeing, he practiced with them every night until he learned the dance well. When his family came to bring food, he asked them to bring his traditional dancing clothes, as well. They were alarmed and concerned that he was losing his grasp of reality. But he insisted and finally one of the family members agreed to bring his thuw, hibiscus, lava lava and dancing leis. That night when the people arrived, he was dressed in his best traditional clothes somehow realizing that that night would be the ”hang up dance,” the final dance which traditionally puts the dance away. They danced through the night and when the sun came up the next morning the sick man noticed all the dancers had disappeared. He was alone, hanging on a branch in the largest banyan tree on the island. He began shouting for help. People from his village heard him and came running. They were shocked to find the sick man in his dance clothes hanging in the tree. They were even more surprised to see that the sick man’s sores were gone and he appeared to be well again. As they helped him down from the tree, he began telling them about the dancers in the night. Back in the village, he called all the people to the dance platform where he repeated his story and began to teach the dance before he forgot it. It is said this dance is still performed today.