Anagumang was a legendary

Yap Yap (, sometimes written as , or ) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federate ...

ese

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

who led an expedition in

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

s and

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

s five or six hundred years ago. On this expedition he discovered the islands of

Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...

and brought stones from Palau to Yap.

Expedition

Anagumang hired seven men with him for his journey, with the help of his mother, Le-gerem.

Stones

First Anagumang ordered his men to cut stone into the shape of fish, then a crescent moon, and then a full moon with a hole in it for transport. He fashioned other stones so they could be slipped onto a trunk of a betel-nut tree. The stones came in different sizes. The smallest were 7-8 centimeters long, and the longest were 3.6 meters in diameter and 0.5 meters thick and weighed four tons.

Currency

These stones were called "

Rai stones A rai stone (), or fei stone, is one of many large artifacts that were manufactured and treasured by the native inhabitants of the Yap islands in Federated States of Micronesia, Micronesia. They are also known as Yapese stone money or similar nam ...

" and were also used as a form of currency. However, it was required that the stone must be proved to be made by Anagumang in order to be used as currency. The currency was exploited by sailor David O'Keefe in the 19th century. For 30 years, he traded the stones for items such as Copra.

Studies and beliefs

* It is believed that Anagumang worked with Fatha'an in a competition to bring money to Yap.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anagumang People from Yap State Micronesian mythology Explorers of the Pacific Legendary people