come spear me." She came out from her stone, ran to the swamp, and passed into the súgu. In the morning Bokári arrived with her wooden spear, and on the edge of the swamp she stripped off her ornaments and put them on a mat, also removing her fine grass skirt, underneath which she wore a small one of the same kind. I go spear fish," she thought to herself, "I put him all thing along mat, I no want spoil him along water." She waded out in the swamp and found the súgu which she speared - and the "blood" spurted out with tremendous force, carrying Bokári high up into the air, right to the clouds, and finally lodging her in a large tree on an island called Kusáro, beyond Bóigu. „Héi!" she wailed, "what's way I come? I no savy what thing chuck me away. Oh, Koudábo, my man, I been come long way, I sorry my man. I no savy this place."

The hiwai-abére, left the dead body of the súgu, made herself look as much like Bokári as she could, and put on all her things. With a mat wrapped round her head, so that Koudábo could not see her face, she went into his house. Koudábo, who mistook her for his wife, said, ,,Bokári, what name you (what do you want)?" The hiwai-abére, pretending to shiver with cold, replied, "Oh, Koudábo, my husband, sick he been catch me, I too much cold." Then she asked him, „Koudábo, you make fire," and he lighted a fire. „Bokári, you take him out mat," he said. "No," the wicked woman answered, "I no can take out mat, suppose I take him, I dead.“

"

Later on Koudábo said, "I go garden now, you stop along house." "No, Koudábo, my husband, you no can go garden one man (alone), more better I go too." You no can go," he objected, you got sick." But she insisted, "No matter I got sick, I go too. I no can let you go one man, by and by other woman he go take you." So the two went to the garden, Koudábo walking in front of the woman, and she sat on the ground while he worked. Presently Koudábo asked her, "You take out mat, I want see face and body belong you." No, Koudábo, my husband," she replied, "I no can take out mat, I too cold." Then Koudábo pulled up some taro and said, "Bokári, you cut him that taro," but she answered, "Oh, Koudábo, my husband, I too cold, what's way (how should) I cut him, more better you cut him." The man thought to himself, "I no savy what's the matter this time, he (she) no been all same before, no answer like that." When Koudábo had cut off the tops of the taro and put the roots in a basket, he said to the woman, ,,Bokaro, you carry him that basket." "Oh," the hiwai-abére answered, what's way I carry him that basket, he too heavy. You lift him up, put him along my head;" so he set the basket on the head of the hiwai-abére.

When they arrived home, the Daváne women said to the hiwai-abére, „Bokári, you me (we) take him all taro, cook him one place," but the wicked woman answered, "No, no, Koudábo no speak other man (person) go cook him, I cook him kaikai belong him." "You got sick," they questioned, what's way (how should) you cook him?"

The hiwai-abére did not use proper firewood for burning, only rubbish, and the taro she wanted to roast remained half raw. She told her husband, "Oh, Koudábo, I been cook him good, I no savy what's the matter that taro." Koudábo said angrily,,,More better you me (we) no go along garden, no pull him out taro, you no savy make him proper. More better you me stop along house all time."

Meanwhile Bokári was crying in the tree whither she had been carried through the air. She made a small hut up in the tree, and while living there she cut off both her ear-lobes and

swallowed them, thereby becoming pregnant. After a few days she was delivered, but instead of a child she brought forth a wario (hawk). When the bird grew big, it caught fish for its mother, and she cut them up and cooked them on the fire. She gave some to the hawk, but it only wanted a small piece and signed to her to keep the rest herself. Bokári said, "What for you go catch him fish, give me? Father no been make you along me, I make you self." The monster hawk even caught turtle and dugong in its claws and brought them to Bokári, and she cut them up, cooked the meat, and gave it to the bird, which, however, only ate a small piece, pushing the rest with its beak towards the woman (abbrev.).

Once the hawk when playing about, hopped up on Bokári's lap, and she cut off three strips of her skirt and tied them round its neck and legs. And she said, "I put you my name, you no warto, you (your) name belong bokári. You go along Daváne, find him one big man, that Koudábo, father belong you, you make him out. Suppose people want shoot you, you go catch him Koudábo quick." So the hawk flew away, crying out, „Uá, uá, uá!“ It came to Daváne and circled about looking for Koudábo. The Daváne women called out to him, „You take bow and arrow, go shoot him big wario." Koudábo, however, did not want to shoot the bird but kept on watching it: „He got something there," he thought. He bade the people, „You stop quiet." The hawk remained for a while stationary in mid-air trying to find the right man, and the next moment it darted straight for Koudábo, alighting on his knee. Koudábo recognized his wife's strips and exclaimed, "Oh, that belong Bokári." He asked the people, "You no been see what's way he been come?" "He been come along that small hill." ,,I think," Koudábo said, he stop along some island other side that hill."

The hawk, spreading out its wings, flapped one in the direction of Koudábo's canoe and cried out, „Uá, uά, uá!“ he wanted Koudábo to launch the canoe. Koudábo said, "I think that warío been come take me," and he bade the people, „You go hoist him up sail along canoe.“ When they were ready to sail, he said to those remaining behind, „You no speak along that woman I go look that island." They departed, and the hawk perched on the mast, showing the way. At first they sailed to Sáibai, and when they arrived there, the hawk flapped its wings crying, Uá, ud, uá," and turned its head towards the New Guinea mainland, and they sailed in that direction. When they reached Búru, the bird signed to them, "No, no, I no want that place," and turned its head straight towards Kusáro. A fair wind soon took the canoe there.

Bokári was crying in the tree, thinking to herself, "What time canoe he come?" At last she saw the canoe. The hawk flapped its wings as if to say, „Bokári there on top." Koudábo looked that way and saw her: „Oh, that Bokári! I don't know what name (how) that woman he humbug me along house!" He climbed the tree, took Bokári in his arms, and both wept. Koudábo asked her, "What thing you been do that time you been catch him this island?" "Oh, hiwai-abére all time been look me from stone," Bokári related. That time I go spear him fish, hiwai-abere go inside along súgu, I spear him, blood be burst out, take me go this place." Bokári had stored up a great quantity of the meat from the many dugong and turtle which the hawk had caught for her, and they put it all in the canoe. All embarked and they set sail, the hawk resuming its perch on the mast. At last they landed in Daváne. Koudábo carried his bow and two bamboo-headed arrows, Bokári had a wooden spear, and the hawk hovered in the air over them. When they found the hiwai-abére, Koudábo shot her with one arrow underneath one of her

arms and, as she turned round, with the other arrow underneath the other arm, 41 Bokári speared her, and the hawk swooped down and smashed her head with its claws. The dead body was then cut into pieces and burnt.

Koudábo and Bokári said to the bird, "You (your) name bokári, you stop on top, fly all over every place. I send you go on top, you catch him fish, kaikai belong you." Hence the bird has two names, bokári, used of a large species, and warío used of a smaller one. (Gaméa, Mawáta).

A. In Rep. Cambr. Anthrop. Exp. vol. v. pp. 23 sqq. The Birth of Kusa Kap, the Mythical Bird. Maiwasa of Dauan when walking along the reef with his wife Bukari, was seen by a dogai (Torres straits name for hiwai-abére) who fell in love with him. The dogai turned herself into a sugu (octopus) and caught Bukari when the latter tried to spear her, and she sent the woman adrift in a drum. Then the dogai simulated the wife and lived with Maiwasa, but she had very bad manners and used to break wind when she moved. 42 At length he concluded that she was a dogai. Bukari stranded on a sandbank and ate some seeds of her ear ornament, and thereby she became pregnant. She laid an egg, and a bird was hatched, whom his mother named Kusa Kap. The bird-son grew to a gigantic size and caught fish and dugong for his mother. He also brought her water and fire. Later on she sent him to Maiwasa who rescued her, and she killed the dogai.

ANOTHER TALE OF A HIWAI-ABERE WHO SUPPLANTS A WIFE.

149. At Búdji there lived a man named Madára and his wife Síne. They spent their time working in their garden, planting many kinds of vegetables, taro, yams, sweet potatoes, and sugar-cane, and the man also used to shoot pig and kangaroo. Not far from them there lived a huge snake named Máigidúbu (cf. no. 414). He was really a man who in the day concealed himself in the skin of a snake but at night appeared in his human form. He, too, had a garden in which he used to work. There was also a hiwai-abére, who like the others worked in a garden belonging to her.

Madára and Síne led an uneventful life (abbrev.) After a time the woman became pregnant. One day she went fishing in a swamp with a net (bása-bása). The hiwai-abére was fishing in another part of the same swamp, but the two women were unaware of each other's presence, and Síne thought to herself, „I one man (alone), no man here catch fish along this swamp." In the evening both returned home, and at the same time Madára came back from the chase, and Máigidúbu, too, betook himself to his place.

The next morning Síne went fishing in the same swamp. The hiwai-abére was there again, and this time the two women happened to meet. On seeing Síne the hiwai-abére thought to herself, "Oh, very fine woman;" and she called out to her, "Oh, my girl, you come." Síne came near and asked her, "What you want?" You come, I been see one good tree, he got fruit on top, you break him, I want kaikai." "I come," Síne said, "you look out (after) my basket." While she was climbing up the tree, the hiwai-abére chewed a piece of a fish called hírimáe, which she kept for a medicine". She spat the juice of it at the tree and said, "You go long," and the tree stretched high up into the air lifting up Síne. 19 „Eh," the woman cried, "what's the good you tell lie along me? I leave my man, close up I bear pickaninny."

In the meantime Madára was hunting in the bush, but he did not get a single pig in consequence of the wrong happening to his wife, (,,that's bad luck from that woman"), and he had to return empty-handed. The hiwai-abére threw away Síne's basket and fishing net, but kept the fish which she had caught and also provided herself with some food from the garden. She appeared before Madára, carrying these things and pretended to be his wife she had wrapped her head up in a mat alleging to be ill. She cooked Madára's evening meal, and he did not know that she was a hiwai-abére but took her for Síne. In the morning he said to her, „Come, you me (we) go bush.“ „I no can go," the woman answered in a moaning voice, „I sick, more better you go bring me some kaikai. Some bad thing been catch me." "I want go look for pig," the man said, "who go take kaikai from garden?" "Never mind pig, you go bring kaikai from garden." So the man went. On his return he said to the woman, „Basket here, you 'kopamauri' (bake in an earth-oven).“ 1) „Oh, you kopamauri! I can do nothing, I very sick." The man complained to himself, „I don't know what I do. I look out all kaikai, that woman he do nothing."

Meanwhile Síne remained in the tree and built there a small shelter of branches and leaves. She thought to herself, "Oh, that hiwai-abére make me no good. I been stop along my man, that woman make me cranky altogether." After a time she bore a child in the tree. Her blood ran down the trunk till it reached the root, and it attracted Máigidúbu who was in the neighbourhood in his snake form. He raised his head and sniffed in every direction, trying to locate the smell. He then began to crawl towards the tree, scenting out the way. On looking up he saw the woman: „Oh, something there, I think one woman there on top." Máigidúbu began to ascend the tree, drawing himself higher and higher up. The woman saw him and cried out, "Oh, my life, one snake there come take me, I lose my life! That devil, that hiwai-abére been humbug me! I no been humbug that woman." And she wept and wailed in the tree.

You go kill me?" she called out to Máigidúbu, and the snake answered, „No, I no kill you." "Oh, my father, you save my life. How you take me down?" The snake said, "I open him mouth, take you and pickaninny inside." He opened his mouth, and the woman put her baby inside. You come too," he said, and the woman entered the snake's mouth. Then Máigidúbu crawled down and betook himself to his own place. There he opened his mouth and the woman came out first. You ready?" he asked her and she stretched out her hands and received the baby. „Oh, my father," the woman said, „true my father, you save me from long way. I no think I go life, I think I die along on top tree." How you go along that tree?" Máigidúbu asked her, what thing he humbug you there?" "Oh, father, one hiwai-abére been humbug him long that tree. That's why I born

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me. He tell me, 'You go along that tree.' He make that pickaninny on top" (abbrev.).

Síne and her child remained with Máigidúbu. He told her, All kaikai there, what you want you take him, any kind. Coconut-leaf there, you make him basket. I stop self (alone), no got people belong me." Síne thought to herself, "What fashion he make him that garden, he snake?" She prepared food, gave her child some, and called to. Máigidúbu, „Father, you come kaikai." But he said, "Oh, you kaikai, I no want." They went to sleep, but in the night when bright moon was shining Máigidúbu got up, assumed his human form, and went into the bush,

') The food is placed on hot stones in a hole in the ground and is covered with bark and soil.

where he killed a cassowary. Before daybreak he returned and became a snake once more. He bade Síne, „You kopamauri."

Máigidúbu plucked a number of small twigs of a kind of croton called pia which is used for ornamenting a dancer's dress. He went to all the villages in the country, and leaving one twig in each of them as a sign of invitation bade the people, "You come my house, come dance" (abbrev.). Arriving at the home of Síne's husband, he gave him the same message. When he had given this invitation to all the villages he returned to his own place (abbrev.). The people began to assemble from all over the country. 45 Máigidúbu dressed Síne beautifully in a new grass-skirt and gay croton leaves. Then he painted himself red underneath and black on top with a little white at the sides of the head and red at the eyes, and it is since then that many snakes are so coloured. At his tail he fastened a dance rattle and a bird-of-paradise plume.

When the dance was in full swing the snake put in an appearance, and everybody was frightened: „Oh, me been think that been one man he sing out come dance; that no man, that snake!" Máigidúbu, gorgeously decorated, moved among the dancing people, with the rattle clattering at his tail. Madára, who was there, noticed Síne at Máigidúbu's side and thought, "I say, that woman there, he my woman before, how that snake he get him?" Daybreak came and the dance ended. The remaining food was distributed, and the people went home. Madára went up to Máigidúbu and asked him, "I say, how you been take that woman come along you place?" "Oh, that woman belong you, hiwai-abére been make fool, he go on top big tree, he bear pickaninny on top. I take him down from that big tree. I make him my girl (daughter). True you (your) wife and pickaninny. All right, you take him."

The whole matter now became clear to Madára: „I think," he said, "that same hiwaiabére been humbug me." He took with him the boy, who was now grown up, and they went to the house where the hiwai-abére was. They shot her with their bows and arrows, killing her on the spot. When they returned, Máigidúbu said to Madára, „You come stop my place, leave place belong you. Suppose you stop you (your) place, by and by another bad thing catch you." „All right, I come," Madára answered him. Máigidúbu had a fine large house. At first he used to live inside a tree, but after he had brought home Síne he built a house. (Adági, Mawáta). Other versions of the tale of Máigidúbu, the woman, her husband, and the hiwai-ábére occur in no. 414.

A HIWAI-ABERE USURPS THE PLACE OF A BRIDE.

150. There was once a man named Nováre who lived with his mother at Péva on the Óriómu river; his father was dead. Nováre was a handsome boy whom all the girls liked. One evening, while the men were drinking gámoda (cf. p. 14) together, two of them said to each other, „To-morrow you me (we) change sister." Nováre heard their conversation and thought to himself, "Oh, two man he change sister, catch him girl. I no got no sister, no can change." His mother called him and said, "Them fellow go change sister to-morrow. You no go among people, you stop one side." The two girls were weeping for Nováre's sake, saying, „No good they change me fellow, me no want that man, me want Nováre." And they went to Nováre's mother and had a good cry. In the night all the people slept.