In the Solomon Islands, adaro is a word for beings of the spirit world. On the island of Makira (formerly San Cristobal), it covers two quite different things: the ghosts of the dead, and a class of spirits that were never human. The best known of the second group are the adaro ni matawa, spirits of the open sea, which are part human and part fish. They travel in waterspouts, use the rainbow as a road, and shoot fishermen with flying fish.[1][2] In English books they are often called “mermen,” but that label leaves out most of what Makirans actually said about them.
| Name | Adaro (Arosi language of Makira); adaro ni matawa for the sea spirits |
|---|---|
| Type | Spirits and ghosts of Makiran belief, not a reported animal |
| Region | Makira (San Cristobal), with related beliefs on Ulawa and in South Malaita, Solomon Islands |
| Sea spirits’ form | Partly human, partly fish |
| Chief of the sea spirits | Ngoriaru |
| Key sources | C. E. Fox and F. H. Drew (1915); C. E. Fox, The Threshold of the Pacific (1924) |
Where our knowledge comes from
Almost everything written about the adaro in English goes back to Charles Elliot Fox, an Anglican missionary who lived on Makira and in the wider Solomon Islands for most of his long life. Fox learned the Arosi language, later compiled an Arosi dictionary, and wrote down beliefs and stories told to him by Makiran men and women, sometimes in their own words.[1][2][3] His 1924 book The Threshold of the Pacific devotes whole chapters to adaro, and includes drawings of sea spirits made by a Makiran artist named Saunitiku of Fagani.[2]
Fox wrote as an outsider and a missionary, and his accounts reflect the island as it was a century ago. They remain the most detailed record available, and they are the basis for this entry.
Two kinds of adaro
Ghosts. Fox explains that in parts of Makira a living person’s soul could itself be called adaro, while in other places, such as Wango, people used two words: aunga and adaro.[2] Later writers summarize this as a belief that each person has two souls: a benevolent aunga, which goes on after death, and an adaro, which stays behind.[4] Ghosts of this kind were the adaro most often worshipped. They could enter sharks and other sea creatures, help their own relatives, and, if powerful, harm enemies from a distance.[1]
Spirits that were never human. Fox describes a second class of adaro, “spirits of the sea, woods, and shore,” along with others found in the rainbow and the waterspout. In native opinion, he notes, these are not ghosts at all.[2] He divides them into sea spirits (adaro ni matawa), woodland spirits (adaro ni hasimou) and the shape-changing adaro here, which appears at dawn or dusk in the form of someone you know.[2] Spirits of the sea and rainbow also appear in Makiran stories about the origins of matrilineages.[5]
The sea spirits: adaro ni matawa
Matawa means the open sea or the horizon. According to Fox’s account:[2]
- Their form. They are partly human and partly fish, and were a favorite subject of Makiran artists.
- Their home. They live far out to sea or near small islands along the coast.
- Their chief. The chief of the sea spirits is Ngoriaru, known by that name on Makira, on Ulawa and in South Malaita. People prayed and made offerings to him before setting out on a voyage. Fox also names two subordinate chiefs known on Ulawa.
- Flying-fish attacks. They are malevolent and shoot people with flying fish. A man fishing from his canoe feels a sudden pain in his back or neck, a bone is broken, and the priest later tells him he was shot by a sea adaro.
- Waterspouts and rainbows. They travel in waterspouts, and the rainbow is their path. A rainbow was a sign to go indoors, and pointing at one was said to leave your finger permanently bent.
- Signs they are near. A traveling sea spirit may be seen as a wandering fire, or noticed only by a sudden fishy smell.
- Dances from the drowned. In dreams, a sea adaro might lead a person’s soul to a beach where the drowned dance in the surf. Returning night after night, the dreamer learns the dance and brings it back to the village.
Fox also records named sea spirits with local cults, such as Tararamanu on the north-east coast and Wakatarau of Goroa island, along with a list of illnesses blamed on them. One swelling that comes and goes with the tide was attributed to a sea adaro taking the sufferer’s soul.[2] Mothers caught outside in a sun-shower recited charms over their babies, because adaro were believed to be about at such times.[2]
Horns, gills and fins: where the modern description comes from
Many websites and creature encyclopedias describe the adaro in vivid detail, with gills behind the ears, tail fins in place of feet and a horn on the head like a shark’s dorsal fin. Some add that adaro live in the sun or that they guard undersea volcanoes. None of these details appears in Fox’s accounts, which describe the sea spirits simply as part human and part fish. The horn-and-gills description comes from later popular reference books and has been repeated widely since. It now also appears in fantasy games, where “adaro” is used as the name of a race of shark-like sea people.
Understanding the adaro
Like the Anchanchu of the Andes, the adaro belong to a living system of belief, not to cryptozoology. A few points help make sense of them:
- Real dangers of the sea. Flying fish really do leap from the water, and needlefish and garfish can injure people in canoes. A sudden injury at sea was explained as an attack by a sea spirit.
- Weather as a warning. Waterspouts and squalls are real hazards for small canoes. Treating rainbows, sun-showers and waterspouts as the roads of dangerous spirits encouraged caution when the weather turned.
- Ancestors in the sea. The link between ghosts and sharks reflects a relationship with the dead that could be protective as well as threatening.
- A source of culture. The belief that new dances came from the drowned, through the sea spirits, shows the adaro were part of creative and ceremonial life, not only figures of fear.
For other water beings with human features, see our entries on mer-people and the Ningen.
References
- C. E. Fox and F. H. Drew, “Beliefs and Tales of San Cristoval,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 45 (1915): 131–185. Free copy on Zenodo.
- Charles Elliot Fox, The Threshold of the Pacific: An Account of the Social Organization, Magic and Religion of the People of San Cristoval in the Solomon Islands (London: Kegan Paul, 1924), chapters on “Adaro Ghosts” and “Adaro Spirits,” esp. pp. 124–127. Internet Archive.
- Charles E. Fox, Arosi Dictionary (Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1978), pp. 41–42, s.v. “adaro.”
- Walter Ivens, “The Diversity of Culture in Melanesia,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 64 (1934): 45–56.
- Michael W. Scott, “To be Makiran is to see like Mr Parrot: the anthropology of wonder in Solomon Islands,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22, no. 3 (2016): 474–495.
Correction note (October 2026): This entry was rewritten from Fox’s published accounts. An earlier version described glowing eyes, coral spears, homes near undersea volcanoes and trenches, and a fisherman who escaped by offering a shell necklace. None of these appears in the sources and they have been removed. The chief sea spirit’s name has been corrected to Ngoriaru, Fox’s spelling. The illustration above is an artistic impression.