The first to weave was a girl named Hambrumai. She had learned the art from God Matai. She would sit by the river and learn her designs from the nature that surrounded her – by watching the waves and ripples that appeared in the river, and by copying the branches of trees, plants and flowers. But one day, Hairum, the porcupine, saw her cloth. Tempted by a richness he’d never seen before, he came to steal it from her cave. The entrance was too small for him and as he tried to push his way in, Hambrumai got crushed with giant sized rocks. Her loom broke into pieces and the river carried them to the plains, where people found it and learnt to weave. The designs turned into butterflies and the patterns she made can still be seen on their wings.
