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The man whom Gamíga had told of the turtle ceremony imparted his knowledge to the people. He also said, „Gamíga been see people belong turtle inside hole. He (they) proper man like you me (us). He show him Gamíga plenty thing, that's why he been stop long time. That people feed him turtle all same you me feed him pig." (Námai, Mawáta).

SACRILEGE AGAINST THE HORIOMU SHRINE.

289. Once while the hóriómu ceremony was being performed a small boy thoughtlessly threw a stick over the screen into the shrine. Immediately afterwards another boy who was a little older happened to enter the shrine from the same side. „Who chuck that stick!" the men asked him angrily, „You been chuck him?“ „No, I no chuck him, boy there outside chuck him. “ „No, no," they persisted, „no other man chuck him, that you." The boy burst out crying, for he foresaw his fate. He took a dugong bone, stood up with his back against the screen, and stuck the bone into the screen, thus marking out his exact height. „Mark belong me here," he said, "you fellow watch all time." He knew that he would be killed, and this was the only sign or memorial he could leave behind. The others killed him by means of a certain „poison“ (sorcery), while the real culprit remained undetected. Since then the children are carefully watched by their parents when the horiómu ceremony is in progress, lest they should throw something over the screen. (Námai, Mawáta).

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AN INCIDENT FROM THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FIRST GAERA CEREMONY.

The gaera is a king of harvest festival. When determined to hold a gáera the natives prepare abundant crop by working particularly hard in their gardens. At the festival itself a tree is put to stand with the stumps of the branches still remaining, and various kinds of vegetable produce are hung all over the tree which is also gaily decorated. A continuous series of magical rites accompanies the erection and decoration of the tree, and a particular importance is attached to the placing of the first few roots or fruits on the tree.

290. The Wási people long ago held the first gáera ceremony, and when the large gáera tree was erected they wanted someone to hang up the first few yams on it before any other food was placed there. So they sent the sisei (a cassowary with brownish feathers) to Máo in Kíwai to fetch a man named Bubúa who lived there with his wife Dódiábere, for they wanted him to hang up the yams. And the sései ran off. In his absence the people began to think that someone else than Bubúa could perform the office of putting the first food on the gáera tree, and they asked the wallaby to do it. But the wallaby answered, „I no savy," and squatted down beside the people. Then they called the iguana, „You come put kaikai along gáera." And the iguana came and scratched the ground rather embarrassed, for it did not know how to hang up the food. But the époo, (wild fowl) flapped its wings and said, "What for you send him that man (the cassowary) long way, what for you no speak along me?" And it flew up, caught two yams in its claws, cried out, „Tou, kiou, ko-ko-ko-ko!" and hung up the two roots on two stumps of the tree. When that was done the people all went and hung the rest of the food on the gáera, and they said, "Oh, no good you me (we) been send him that casssowary, by-and-by he wild that time he come back. That man (the cassowary) he too much strong, he kick."

The gáera was covered with all sorts of food and beautifully decorated, and the people began to dance. In the meantime the cassowary had run half-way to Máo, and soon he was at his journey's end. He said to Bubúa, „You come, wife belong you too, go along Wási." Rubúa called his two wives and they all set off to Wási with the cassowary. „I old man," said Bubúa to the bird, "you no go quick." „All right, I no go quick."

The people were dancing and singing a long serial song which begins with telling of Adiri, the abode of the dead. It was night, and many fires were burning. Meanwhile the cassowary with his companions was on his way back. „People he fool," the narrator interpolated, „humbug that cassowary; what for he no been speak first time along wild fowl!" The travelling party spent the night at Mábudaváne.

At dawn the singing and dancing ceased. The ceremonial ground with the gáera tree was deserted except for an old man who was set to watch the tree, the rest of the men all withdrew to hunt in the bush or catch fish.

The cassowary when approaching Wási saw the gáera tree from a distance. „Oh, gáera there!" he exclaimed, „full up kaikai on top! All he been put him that kaikai finish, make dance." And the bird became furious („throat belong him no good altogether"). He made for the gaera tree, snatched up some fruit and roots which he swallowed and then kicked at the tree and scaffold, so that the whole gáera fell to pieces. The old guardian called out, „Look there, cassowary he kick him altogether gaera! You go sing out man, gaera he fall along water!" The women and children tried to hold up the gaera shouting, „Cassowary kick him gáera, he go now!" They blew a trumpet-shell to summon the people. The wild fowl flew up crying out, „Kióu kekó kepokó ko-ko-ko-ko!" and seized the same two yams which he had placed on the gaera tree at the beginning. But all the rest fell into the water.

There was a great commotion, and the people were all yelling at the top of their voices. The gáera tree sank to the bottom in deep water, and when the men came home nothing was to be seen of it. The people quarrelled as to whose fault it had been, and formed two parties, that of the cassowary and that of the wild fowl, and they began to shoot at each other. When the fight was over, they all parted in different directions.

The cassowary said, "I no want stop this place, I go walk about all over country. I no make house. Suppose I stop one place, by-and-by you fellow send me go some place again (as they had just done). Every way I walk about, swamp place, dry place. I no want nobody, I no want make friend, that's all one man (alone) I go walk about. Any fruit I kaikai, any water I drink, along swamp, along creek. Raw fish too I kaikai, like cranky I walk about." Ever since then the cassowary roams alone all over the country. It swallows fruit whole without biting it so that the seeds grow up from its droppings, and in this way the bird has spread many plants all over the country. For this reason the people when planting yams and other roots put a piece of a cassowary's sinew underneath for a „medicine", for „cassowary been carry kaikai along other place, plant him all over."

The wild fowl said, "I no want stop, more better I run away along tree. Sundown, middle night, morning time, I sing out from tree. Altogether rubbish I go kaikai, I fly on top tree, ne (dung) he fall down from on top."

The wallaby said, „I go run alongside where small bushes, I got any kaikai (I can eat anything). No got no house, any place I go sleep."

The rat said, "I go alongside house, inside any kind thing I sleep, inside where roll up banana (inside the leaves in which the people wrap up the ripening banana bunches), inside any hole I sleep. Some bone, people he chuck away, I go kaikai."

The Wási people who had held the gáera festival remained in the same place, but the Dábo, Búdji, Pábo, Árakára, Págara, Sánani, and other peoples withdrew after the fight to their present villages.

The gáera tree remained in the creek at Wasi and can sometimes be seen there at low water. When holding the gaera ceremony the people still place the first articles of food on the. gáera tree by means of the claws of a wild fowl which they hold in their hands. And if a man wants to deprive an enemy of his good luck in gardening he goes and steals some food from the other's garden, snatching it away with the foot of a wild fowl, and replants the stolen things in his own garden. (Námai, Mawáta).

A.

Once while the Búdji people were holding the gaera ceremony, the men all went away one day to hunt in the bush, leaving the decorated gaera tree in the village with a cripple to look after it. 5 The tree thought, „What for you fellow leave me? What for you no take out all kaikai first? Me too heavy." And it began to wriggle to and fro, till all the wood-work broke and fell into the water, and too late the guardian sounded a trumpet-shell to call the people back. Just when the tree was falling the wild fowl caught a few yams in its claws crying out, „Kepokó, krr!" When the people nowadays present someone with food, they place all the things before him and then take back one yam or something else with the foot of a wild fowl so as to avoid giving away their own good luck. (Gaméa, Mawáta).

XI. COMMUNICATION AND TRAVEL

(no. 291-311; cf. Index).

A. LEGENDARY METHODS OF TRAVELLING (no. 291-293; cf. Index).

291. One morning the mythical people (ororárora, cf. Introduction to no. 102), who formerly lived at Kubira went out to defecate and mounted a large tree which had been washed up on the beach. While they were sitting and talking together with their faces turned towards the water the tide carried the tree away, and not until after a good while did one of them notice what had happened. „Oh, you me (we) long way!" they shouted. „What's way (how) you me go? No can swim, by-and-by lose along water." The rising tide floated them a long distance from home, and lying down on the tree they saw many places as they passed on their way. They were very frightened and thought, „By-and-by people look, take canoe, come kill you me." They were hungry, for their journey lasted a long time.

At last the tide turned floating the tree back, and the people thought, „My God, what time you me catch him shore?" The wood was washed up at Daváre, and the ororárora went on shore. That place was inhabited by some other ororárora who used to sleep inside a large bamboo, closing the tree behind them when they entered it. The new-comers followed their tracks to the bamboo close to the road. They heard the voices of the Daváre people and after some hesitation concluded that somebody was inside the bamboo. One of them called out, „Man there he stop?" 10 „Yes; where you come from?“ „Oh, me come from Kubira, all me ne (defecate), that tree take me go," said the Kubira people, „You look out, me split that bamboo.“ They cut the bamboo open, and the Daváre ororárora came out headed by their chief man Warío. „No good you stop inside that bamboo," the Kubira people said, „more better you me make house." Then they cut posts, built a house, and thatched it with leaves. The Kubíra and Daváre ororárora stayed together. But the Kubíra women cried bitterly at home, „Oh, all man belong me, what place he go?"

Ever since that meeting the Kubíra and Daváre people have remained friends. After the Kubíra people had finished the house at Daváre they returned home in a canoe. The women all called out, „Oh, where you fellow come?“ „Oh, tide he take one big tree, he fast; he take me go along Daváre. Me find him all Daváre man he stop along bamboo." The Kubíra people went after a time to visit their friends at Daváre, and some of them remained there for good. (Duáne, Mawáta).

292. A certain İmióro man in Dúdi was looking round for a suitable tree on which to travel about on the river. He found a large tree which had floated down with the current. „Oh, that good fellow canoe belong me," he thought. Holding his basket, spear, and a rope in bis hand he jumped on to the tree and was carried away by the ebbing tide. He sang to himself, „Négebúro yánorúdo wáuro nátíkóro. That wood, tide he take him out, I go along." Finally the tree was washed on to a reef near Páráma. He got down, caught some fish and went back to the tree. After a while the rising tide floated the tree back to Ímióro, and he sang the same song. On reaching his native place he went on shore, and his dogs came running towards him crying out, „Father he come, father he come! He got plenty fish!“ You no talk, you stop quiet," said the man, and cooked some fish for himself and the dogs.

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In the night when the tide was going out the man set off on the same journey on the tree, and again he sang his song. He was heard by a shark and a sting-ray. After catching fish on the reef off Páráma he returned with the rising tide, placed his spear, rope, and basket on the tree and stood up singing the same song again. The large shark came swimming towards him and started to cut off the branches of the tree and split the trunk. The man sought refuge at the end of the tree but there was the sting-ray, who turned him back. When only a little part of the tree remained, the man fell into the water and was swallowed up by the sting-ray excepting his head which was cut off by the shark. The man was dead, and his spirit returned home. „Oh, father he come, father he come!" his dogs called out. But on noticing that it was his spirit they went in, closed the door, and set fire to the house, burning themselves to death. (Abai, Mawáta).

293. Wáwui lived at Noóradámera, a little way up the Bínatúri, and Ídamári lived in the bush at the mouth of the river.

Wawui and another man named Sása used to work in their garden. One day a strong tide was running down the Bínatúri. Wawui wanted to get to the mouth of the river. „What's way I swim?" he thought. „Suppose I swim, alligator catch me. More better I take one thing.“ And he took a large bamboo, placed it on the water and passed into it. The tide carried him away, and he sang inside the bamboo, „Oh, Wáwui Sása Wawui Sása." Finally, the bambo0 was washed up on the beach.

Ídamári who had been working in his garden went to the shore to swim. He found the bamboo without knowing that a man was inside it. Wáwui saw him and thought, „Oh, man there he walk about, he go swim. I been think he no got no people here." After swimming in the water Ídamári went back to his abode, and the rising tide carried Wawui upstream. He sang inside the bamboo,

„Oh, İdamári Sása, oh, Ídamári ngóde rórowáme, oh, irevo irevo. You come close to me, I see you, you no see me."

On reaching his native place Wáwui passed out of the bamboo and went on shore. „Oh, I find him good play now," he said, "what I make him to-day, to-morrow I make him all same. I watch that tide; what time he go down passage (the creek) I go too."

Both the men slept in the night, and the next morning Wáwui brought home food which he cooked, and so did Ídamári also. When the tide was going out Wawui travelled in his bam

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