Are Guadalcanal Mumus (Giants) still around? July 2009 Some people say they do. Some say they don’t. During the ethnic period between 1998 and 2000, a lot of rumours went around about mumus still living. Today, no one is talking about them. But overseas writers and those interested in such creatures are very keen to hear more of these tales. And get some proof. For example, in the mid to late 90s, one overseas writer put up a long article about the ‘Giants of Guadalcanal’ on a website called Nexus and also featured on Tavuli.com which claimed that local people still see these creatures. But no one has seen them to date. In July this year the media carried a story about a film crew in the USA interested in filming people who have stories or even better, evidence about the existence of these creatures. In the late 80s a woman said to have been lost in the bush - and relatives believed had passed away because they gave up searching for her after two weeks - returned to the Grow area in the Plains a few years later looking very ugly, miserable and dumb. Her name was Mengo or something like that. Those who saw Mengo at the time said her mouth was full of saliva that abnormally oozed out because she was allegedly ‘taken as a wife by a Guadalcanal giants or mumus’. The truth in that rumour lay with Mengo but unfortunately, because she had lost her ability to speak, didn’t say what had actually happened to her. And, moreover, not long after that, she passed away – making her the last person rumoured as having been taken by a mumu on Guadalcanal. But today many people on the island believe – without saying it publicly - that the mumus still live in the mountains and valleys of Guadalcanal. One week before Easter this year, an Ulawa student from Su’umoli village, Adrian Smith - namesake of the Catholic Archbishop of the Diocese of Honiara – studying at the Vatu Rural Training Centre in Central east Guadalcanal was claimed by the students as having been taken by a mumu.  A nurse of nearby Verani clinic, Rose Mauriasi, relating the students’ claims said Smith disappeared for two weeks so staff and students spent a whole week searching to no avail and presumed him dead. A week later however, word came from students of Talise school in the hinterlands of Guadalcanal that a young boy claiming to be from Vatu had reached their school looking confused, scary and not communicating properly. Miss Mauriasi said his story began this way. On the week he disappeared, Smith was sick and stayed back in the boy’s dormitory while the others went to class. Around 10am, for some unknown reasons, he decided to  leave the dormitory and walk to the bush to pick mushrooms from a chopped down sago palm tree not very far from the school. When he reached the tree, he looked at the bottom but didn’t find any mushrooms. As he reached the top of the tree, he allegedly heard someone tap the bottom of the tree with a bush knife. Because he wasn’t able to see the bottom of the tree where he was, Smith decided to walk back to see who it was. And, that was the last moment he remembered having a clear conscience. His mind went blank and didn’t know what was happening. But soon, he found himself on the top of a big mountain, covered in thick clouds and mist. He couldn’t work out what had happened. But as night approached, he used his bare hands to make a small hut with the leaves of wild betel nuts. Soon, night engulfed him. And the cold touched him deeply while the shrill of cicadas and crickets around the hut deafened him. But strangely, he wasn’t afraid, he later told the students. And when he went to sleep, nothing disturbed him. But somewhere around 3am, he said a strange sound wakened him. The sound swooshed from afar and slowly approached then circled him three times. But he wasn’t afraid. As soon as deep sleep took hold of him once more, he heard the sound again. When he woke up, he said a prayer and soon the swooshing sound disappeared. And then he heard a small whispering voice which said, you better leave quickly. But, again, sleep took hold of him. And for a third time, the sound returned and circled and circled him. Then he heard the whispering voice again, ‘you better leave’. So when he woke up, he sat in the hut and didn’t know what to do. But he said another prayer and soon daylight dawned so he went outside to find out exactly where he was. What he saw far off to his right was the sea and the Guadalcanal Plains to the northwest. And exactly north, he saw what he thought was the Vatu RTC and marveled at how far he was. And wondered how on earth he had gone to where he was at that moment without remembering it. He didn’t remember walking or running there. Everything seemed to have happened in the blink of an eye. And to his left, he saw modern buildings glittering not too far below him. As soon as he saw those buildings, only one thought got into his mind, walk there. And so he did. When he reached the school, there was no one so he opted to go and sit in a garden close to the school. It was there that some students of the school saw him very early that morning. When they found him they didn’t know whether or not he was human because they claimed he looked and behaved very strangely. After some time of struggling, Smith managed to say he was a student of the Vatu RTC so the students brought him to the headmaster and explained everything. Later, the school management organized for some of the students to take Smith back to Vatu RTC on the next day - a two-day trip. However, the students didn’t take Smith all the way but left him in a village between their school and Vatu and requested the people to walk him to Vatu. But the village people instead sent word through two young boys who eventually met and passed the message on to students of Makira-Ulawa who were still searching in the nearby bushes of Vatu, despite the whole school giving up the search earlier. As soon as they heard it, the students rushed up to the village and brought him back to school still looking dazed and confused. He undertook quick medical tests but was all right despite being away for nearly two weeks. During his one mysterious disappearance, Miss Mauriasi said the story of Smith filled the Catholic Church’s HF radio frequency  expressing sorrow, apprehension as well as worry  by  the Principal and his students, his family and relatives both in Honiara and on Ulawa Island. And his return brought much relief and joy. Since his ordeal and subsequent medical treatment, the Principal and students of Vatu ensured that Smith did not get out of sight for fear of him being sought out again by his alleged abductors. But nothing happened. Until June that is. Without anyone knowing, Smith packed up on a Friday afternoon and left Vatu allegedly for Honiara: two days ahead of the official mid-year break. But two days later, on Sunday, some students who decided to go hunting for wild pigs that always destroyed their school cassava gardens got a shock of their life. Their dogs barked and barked at something some way ahead of them so they ran there to find Adrian Smith lying on the bottom of a cocoa tree, almost unconscious and in a very poor state. He had been lying there for two nights! The boys asked him what was the matter but he couldn’t say anything because he was very weak and in great pain. The boys shook him but all Smith could do was respond with pain so as they tried to lift him up, they discovered to their horror that Smith had a broken back. They deduced that he climbed a nearby coconut tree but how he ended up under the cocoa tree – some way away from the coconut – was a mystery. Was he trying to commit suicide? Was his fall caused by someone, something else? They said the coconut and the cocoa were far apart. The boys also saw his shirt hanging on a top branch of the cocoa tree. There was no need to press him for answers because their colleague was in great pain and needed urgent medical attention. They again rushed Smith to Verani clinic then brought to Honiara where he spent the whole of June and July in the Central Hospital. His sister who was looking after Smith at the Hospital reportedly said she couldn’t understand what Smith wanted or said about his second ordeal. Another theory is that the boy has always been bothered all along by his father’s mental problems. Whether or not this second theory is true is difficult to deduce because there is no one to give account. The other more believable theory, according to Miss Mauriasi, and general belief, is that his mysterious abductors were still going after him. But, this theory too, is hard to prove.