Day of Prayer: Mysterious legend promises 'precious' gift to remote tribe

5/8/2009
By Don Graham

PACIFIC RIM (BP)--No one knows when the legend began. But generations of Sayang* have waited for its promise to be fulfilled.

For more than five centuries they have eked out their existence on a remote South Pacific island — virtually cut off from the outside world. Here, the Sayang have survived as farmers, growing crops on rocky soil nearly too poor to farm. Rain has been the only source of fresh water. They’ve had no electricity or phone service, not even a doctor.

Twice government troops have tried to force the village of 10,000 to relocate — once at gunpoint. But the Sayang refuse to leave because they are bound by the legend’s promise — the arrival of a foreigner bearing a precious gift. more