M5C. Hairy octopus. .20.

The octopus or starfish was covered in fur, but the rat ate it.

Tuvalu, Tokelau, Nauku, Nukuria.

Micronesia – Polynesia. Tuvalu : David 1899 (Funafuti) [A Lark launches a boat, Crab, then Rat ask to be taken along; they promise to save them in case of shipwreck; the boat sinks, Crab clings to a rock, Rat swims to the shore, gets tired; Starfish offers to take her ashore; Rat eats the fur off her head; once ashore, she cries out that Starfish is now bald, hides in a hollow tree; Starfish pulls her out, kills her]: 99-100; Kennedy 1931 (Vaitupu) [Manumanu invites the passengers into his boat, asks what they will do if the boat sinks; all the birds say they will fly, Crab says he will dive to the bottom, Rat says he will swim; the boat sank, the Rat began to drown; the Octopus took her to the shore; she pulled out all the hair on his head, saying that she was looking for insects; she shouted from the shore that the Octopus was now bald; one day he waylaid the Rat, she bit off one of his tentacle, but with the other he climbed into her ear, killed her; if they see an octopus without a tentacle, they say that a rat bit it off; to catch octopuses, they make bait in the shape of a rat]: 161-162; Tokelau [A hermit crab is the captain of a boat, catching bonito with his crew: a Pacific golden plover on the bow, a turnstone near the bow, a rat in the middle and a white tern bailing out water; the crab is at the stern. When the boat sinks during a storm, three birds fly away, the crab drowns on the reef. A rat begins to drown, asks a shark to help, the shark refuses, and an octopus agrees. On the way, the rat eats all the hair on his head and then shits on his bald head. Eventually, the octopus kills the rat]: Huntsman 1977: 34–39; Nauru [Birds, a hermit crab, and a rat build a canoe. When the canoe sinks, the birds fly away, the crab sinks to the bottom, and the rat looks for help. An octopus helps her, but while he is carrying her to shore, she eats his hair. The octopus tries to take revenge on the rat, but she bites through his tentacles one by one. After this, he asks the women Ebwiyeye, Eaeae, and Eaekerow to cook him]: Petit-Skinner 1981: 248–250; Nukuria [Animals leave an island in a boat that has run out of food. On the way, the boat sinks, everyone except the rat saves themselves. An octopus comes to the rat's aid. While he is taking her to the shore, she looks for insects in his hair and eats his hair too. When she ends up on the shore, she laughs at the fact that he is bald. Since then, octopuses hide from people]: https://www.facebook.com/groups/596600183759032.