Takashi Adachi

On 4th October 1903 the American ship Benjamin Sewall was struck by typhoon. On 5th October the body of ship was broken, the crew necessarily abandoned the ship. They managed to get into the lifeboat and came in sight of Lan Yu island. Lan Yu (Orchid Island in English) is a small island, 74km off the southeast coast of Taiwan. On nearing Lan Yu, they were surrounded by Yami's canoes. The crew received terrible treatment by Yami people. Therefore a force of Japanese police was dispatch to Lan Yu to punish Yami people on 28th January 1904. In this paper I will clarify the details of this incident.

In the fishing season of the migratory fish, Yami's behavior and the order of space in the dwellings change. In this report we discuss about the order of center and boundary in the dwellings by focussing on the domavak, which can be regarded as the center place in the main house (vahay). The householder is usually identified himself with the center place (domavak). But in the fishing season he changes the position, then the domavak represents as the boundary place. We can understand that the meaning of center place is kept up through the transition.

The Yami have the highly valued main post (tomok). This report attempts to elucidate the order of place in the Yami's dwelling main house (vahay) through the place (domavak) where 'tomok' is erected. For the Yami, 'domavak' is set as the original place to dwell between sea and mountain. We can understand that 'domavak' is founded on 'tomok' and mountain as the immovable center, and it is regulated by sea-direction and mountain-direction. At the 'domavak', the Yami are satisfied themselves of their center, and, at the same time, they stand on the tension between sea and mountain.

The Yami have two important directions named "teylaod" (sea quarter) and "teyrala" (mountain quarter) which regulate their houses and action. In this report we discuss about the meaning of to "dwell" between sea and mountain topo-logically through their myth. We observe particularly the flood myth, because on the flood sea and mountain present themselves. Sea swallows up the people, and mountain remains as the last place to survive. At that time we can make clear the meaning of place to "dwell" between sea and mountain.