Some time afterwards a great Mawáta party went to take revenge, but they found the Túritúri village deserted, so they burnt down the houses and brought a quantity of booty home. Gáribu's people still brooded revenge. „Me fellow want pay back before me can sleep good," said they, „me wake all time." They wanted one man to fall on the Túritúri side as well. One day they went to attack Túritúri but met a number of the enemy on the beach marching against Mawáta. After some shooting on both sides the Túritúri men fled into the bush.

Then a man named Madávi and some friends of his determined to go and find out where the Túritúri people were encamped after they left their village. They paddled some distance up the river and then penetrated into the bush looking round all the time. At last they saw some Túritúri people, and following them discovered their camp. The Túritúri people were afraid of revenge and therefore Wáira and his clan were left to sleep alone at one end of the camp. After watching the enemy for a while the scouts returned home, and the next night a few men went to try a surprise attack. Only seven men took part, lest the Túritúri people should hear them and run away.

The seven started off in the afternoon, and at sundown they sat down to rest thinking to themselves,,,Let them fellow sleep first." During the night they resumed the march, and when they came to the enemy's camp they stuck some pieces of ti-tree skin on their bone-headed arrows and lighted them to see their way. They perceived the forms of the sleeping enemy, and each of them chose one for a target: „That man belong me All that man belong me." at once they let their arrows fly, and "arrow he go inside, body blow him out fire“. Gabía shot Wáiru in the stomach and the arrow-head penetrated at his throat, and he died on the spot with his intestines frightfully torn. Ána's arrow hit Sísa in the back, and the point came out on the inside of the hip-bone. Gubúru likewise shot ĺwoi through the body, and Míruu hit Kérai in the foot. The Túritúri people started up shrieking, „U-u-u!“ bud the attackers escaped into the darkness. On their return to Mawáta they woke up the people and said, "Finish now, you me (we) all right, lay down head, no more wake up (they could sleep peacefully after that)."

The next day a Túritúri man came down to the Bínatúri river and shouted over to the Mawáta side, "What man you been shoot him, two man he dead, they bury him ground; two man he cut (bleed) him, he come all right. I learn (teach) you fellow."

After that peace was made. The Túritúri people said, "Side belong you fellow one man fall down, side belong me fellow two man fall down. Finish now; next time no more fight.“ The Túritúri people gave a woman in payment for Gáribu, and his brother married her, and the idea was that in the course of time their child would replace Gáribu. But the Mawáta people did not give any payment, as they were so much stronger than their adversaries.

Some time afterwards Gáribu's son Nánu revived the same feud. He went to some bushmen on the other side of Túritúri, gave them some payment and asked them to kill Sónai and Dogáre who were Wairu's brothers. And the two were killed by means of sorcery. Írigi, the brother of the two men, found out the truth from the bushmen, and by way of revenge caused Nánu's two brothers, Násai and Kárumo, to be killed in the same fashion. Again the two murders were detected, and the bushmen were asked by some Mawáta men to kill frigi.

Once more after much palavering a great settlement was made, and the cause of the trouble was to be buried for ever. But if the government and mission had not been established in the country, said the narrator, the feud wold probably have been kept alive to the present day. For every man who was killed there was another to take up his cause, „All same plant him garden: take away head, root he grow again." (Námai, Mawáta).

A. Three Túritúri men once,,stole" two Mawáta women in the bush, and in revenge six Mawáta men went and did the same to four Túritúri woman. The Túritúri people were in a rage and challenged the Mawáta men to come and fight, saying, "You no man, you woman!" Three Mawáta men Gáribu, Pái, and Yánga started the fight. Gáribu first shot two Túritúri men. Yánga was wounded by frigi of Túritúri and died a few days later. Wáiru, İrigi's brother, shot an arrow through Gáribu's temples, and another man named Sónai shot Pái in the leg, and the two died. The Mawáta and Másingára people went to take revenge, and finding Túritúri village deserted burnt the houses down. and destroyed the gardens. The nightly attack is related in the same way as in the first version, only the names of the people differ somewhat. The barbed arrows could not be drawn out from the people who had been shot through with them, only the shafts were broken off and the victims were buried with the weapons sticking through their bodies. At length the fight was ended, and both sides gave payment for the people they had killed. At the conclusion of peace the Túritúri people came to Mawáta to put out the fire", as the saying is. The Mawáta people did not want to go to Túritúri to make peace there, for in that case there would have been peace at Túritúri but Mawáta would have remained the scene of continual fighting, so the people believed. (Gaméa, Mawáta).

B. The Mawáta men used to steal Túritúri girls and marry them and vice versa, which caused much fighting between the villages. Once a Túritúri sorcerer put on a large wooden mask and kept on dancing till he fell down in exhaustion and thereby caused the death of a Mawáta man. This was repeated several times. The Túritúri people were compelled to move their houses further and further away from Mawáta, till they settled down in their present village, and much fighting took place. (Gaméa, Mawáta).

FIGHTS BETWEEN THE MAWATA PEOPLE AND THE BUSHMEN (no. 340-348).

340. A certain Mawáta man named Jángána, his wife Sáramádo, and some other people were once making sago at a place on the Úriómu river, and with them was a bushman named Paivére. Sáramádo was a beautiful woman, and Paivére thought to himself, "Oh, good (good) looking) woman, amo (breast) he stand out, 67 nice, fine body, very young yet, he no been born pickaninny." Whereupon he pushed Jángána's foot with his own, and the latter understood that the bushman wanted his wife, but he did not give way to his wish.

The disappointed Paivére left the camp returning to his own village, and there he asked his people to make ready for war. Then they went to attack the Mawáta people. The latter did not suspect any danger, and it was only when Jángána's old mother noticed the fine arrows and new bow-strings of the bushmen that she understood. "Oh, fight he come, that fight that!" she called out. The others did not believe her, but presently Paivére seized his bow and shot Sáramádo and after her Jángána. They were not dead and managed to get into the river and swim over to the other side, but their companions were all killed.

Jángána came to Dórogóri in the bush where he had friends. The people there brought the news of the fight to the Mawáta péople, but Jángána waited at Dórogóri for his wife. At length she arrived, and he caught her in his arm, but she blamed him saying, „Jángána, you no strong for fight, you leave me behind." An arrow had hit her in the small of her back, passing right through her body where it was still sticking, and she had only broken off the shaft.

The wounded man and woman went staggering on their way to the coast. After a while she said to him, „Jángána, better you carry me." His thigh had been pierced by an arrow, and he had broken off the shaft but left the rest of the arrow in the wound, for otherwise his leg would have been too slack" for walking. Jángána carried his wife some distance, but then she died. He made a platform of branches and placed the body on it out of reach of the pigs covering it with grass and leaves. Then he struggled on towards the coast and finally came to his friends. They were greatly surprised at seeing him, and he told them his adventure (abbrev.). ,,By-and-by body belong wife he rotten," said he, I bring him head and jaw, bury him along beach." The people bled his leg and drew out the arrow-head. That time my leg he dry (has healed)," said Jángána, „I go fight, pay back my people.“ „Oh, you stop," said the people, „we go fight." "Four hundred" canoes were launched, and „eight hundred" men made ready and sailed up the river to fight the bushmen. After landing they sent some scouts to reconnoitre. The bushmen were celebrating their recent victory with a dance. „Oh, I go kill you," said the Mawáta people, „to-morrow you dead altogether. You no can see, báidamu (shark) he here? You look, all shark he come." The hostile village was surrounded, the attack was made just before sunrise, and the Mawáta people raised their war-cry which was like the grunting roar of the wild pig. The men threw aside their bows and arrows using only their stone clubs. Neither sex nor age was spared, and only a few of the enemy escaped. After the fight the Mawáta party returned home with the captured heads, and a great feast was celebrated. The skull of Jágána's wife was brought home and buried. (Menégi, Mawáta).

341. At the time when the narrator of this story was a small boy a certain Másingára man named Gábeu and his son Úepa used to visit the Táti people bringing them some presents and receiving some in return. Every time they came they also stole from the Táti gardens. The Táti people were very angry and suspected Gábeu of the theft, and once when he came, some of them laid in wait in their garden. There he was caught in the act of stealing, and the enraged people shot a great number of arrows at him and struck him with their stone clubs. The body was left in the garden, but in accordance with the custom of the bushmen the Táti people did not cut off the head. Úepa fled and brought the news home. The next morning the Másingára people set out to fight Táti, but as they felt rather faint-hearted they stopped midway and shot off their arrows åt a tree and then returned home.

After three days Gábeu, supposed to be dead, got up. He had once been taught by a spirit how to heal any wound inflicted by an arrow, and accordingly ate a plant called dárai, · and then the arrows all came out of his body of their own accord. He rubbed himself with some of the juice and completely recovered. Leaning on a stick he came back to Másingára. On seeing him the people at first thought him to be a spirit and wanted to run away, but he called them back saying, "You no fright, me no devil (spirit). I been take out arrow." So they

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brought him into his house and took care of him. But the Táto people thought him dead and abandoned the garden where his body was supposed to be decaying.

Gábeu brooded vengeance and drawing his bow said, "Next moon no more Táti man." He went and summoned the Mawáta people to come and help him, and Máinou, the great Mawáta leader, went and fetched the Sáibai people as well, and they were joined by the Daváne and Áita men. Gábeu said to the assembled people, „Pig there along clear place, you me (we) go kill him, make 'kopamauro' (bake them in the earth-oven, cf. p. 229, foot-note)," he meant the Táti people. The men all prepared for fight. The Túritúri people had noticed the Sáibai canoes, and they too came to take part in the fight. When all were ready, they set out for Táti with Gábeu at their head.

On arriving near Táti village the people stopped to rest, and at sundown some of the fighting men proceeded to the village leaving the rest to look after the fires. There each of them chose the house he intended to attack, and then returned to the camp and said to the rest of the people. You me (we) all right; pig he there clear place." Some men spent the night talking, and some sleeping. Just before daylight all the strong men moved on preceded by the scouts who lay down at the different houses they had chosen for their attack. At dawn the onslaught was made, and the noise resembled that of a strong wind. The great leaders rushed the houses first, striking with their stone clubs right and left, and after them came the rest hammering the wounded till they were dead whereupon they cut off their heads. The houses were plundered and burnt down, and the dogs and pigs were shot.

After the return of the war-party Gábeu was presented with a great many things as a reward for the good luck he had given the people, for such is the custom after a victorious fight. The Mawáta and Sáibai men kept the captured heads, because the Másingára bushmen do not cut off the head of slain enemies. (Námai, Mawáta).

342. While Gaméa, the narrator of this story, was a young man he was once sent by his father to summon the Sáibai men to come and kill the Táti people. The Sáibai warriors put on their ornaments of war and came to Mawáta, and the Másingára people too prepared to take part in the forthcoming fight. The first night was spent at Másingára. Just beyond the parting of the ways to Bádu and Táti a number of observances were held calculated to foretell the issue of the approaching battle and to make the weapons unfailing, and care was taken to direct the effect of the rites towards Táti leaving Bádu aside (abbrev.).

A great warrior of Sáibai named Japía was so eager for the fight that he went in front of everybody else, and when the Másingára people tried to keep him back, he nearly went for them.

Máinou advised the people not to attack the village during the day but to wait till dawn, next morning. A few scouts, called óboro-rubi (spirit-people), were sent in advance, and they lay down at the different houses to watch. The Táti people did not suspect any danger. When the birds began to cry at dawn, the houses were surrounded and the fighting men rushed in. The rest of the people who waited some distance off could hear the hammering of the stone clubs and the yelling of the Táti people, „Au-au-au!" mixed with the war-cry of the Mawáta men, "Oo-00-00 !" Japia caught the arms of two bushman in his one hand and killed them both with

his stone club, and Máinou killed the leading Táti man named Djáru, his wife, and four other people. According to custom no one was spared.

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When the fight was over Máinou performed certain rites through which the bushmen became cranky", so that they should be easily killed in the following fights also. Certain other ceremonies and medicines" were calculated to make the young men great warriors. At the return of the war-party à pipi dance was celebrated, and the women held a dance called nékede. . (Gaméa, Mawáta).

343. When the Mawáta people first settled in their present village (cf. no. 19) they had no gardens and very little food, and therefore used to steal from the gardens of the bushmen. The owners did not know who the thieves were and accused other bush tribes of the theft. One night a certain bushman sat up to watch his garden and caught a Mawáta man there in the act of stealing. „Eh, I find out now!" he exclaimed, "I think about some bushman he steal; that you, Mawáta man, come humbug me fellow." He shot the man in the small of his back with a blunt arrow which is used for stunning birds. The Mawáta man seized his bow and wanted to kill the bushman, but the latter said, „No, no, you no shoot me, I pull him out taro for you, give you." And he gave him some taro and said, You' take that taro, no more come steal." The Mawáta man returned home with the taro. He did not warn his fellow-villagers by telling them what had happened to him.

Therefore it occurred some little time afterwards that three Mawáta men again went to steal food. They met a bushman and lied to him that they were looking for kangaroo. But he did not believe them and summoned some of his friends to come and watch. The Mawáta men quickly pulled up a number of taro and ran away by another path. The bushman found their taro stolen and knew who the thieves were. „All time them fellow come steal," said they, "good me find him out. I think me kill one, suppose next time he come." said to one another, „Suppose you find him Mawáta man, you shoot. others said, "no good you fellow shoot. That's new place belong them fellow, no much garden he got. You fellow leave him alone that man."

On their way home they „No poor people," some

The north-west season began, and the Mawáta people came to steal the fruit of the góro and ábe trees belonging to the bushmen. It is generally the business of the women to fetch down the fruit, but when stealing the men climbed up so as to do it quickly. The bushmen found out that the thieves came from Mawáta and decided to try and catch one of them and burn him in the fire as a punishment.

One of the Mawáta men had no fruit and in vain asked the rest to give him some. Then he went to steal from the bushmen and was caught. They burnt him with a firebrand all over his body and head, including his nose and tongue, and the poor wretch shrieked and struggled with all his might. At length they let him go, and he staggered away groaning with pain. On arriving home he told his adventure, and as he could not sit down because of his sores, the people flattened out the trunk of a banana tree and made it into a bed with some leaves on the top.

The Mawáta people made their weapons ready and set out to take revenge. The bushmen met them on the way, and there was a fight with bows and arrows. After one of the Másingára men had been shot dead the fight ceased, and when peace was made, the Mawáta people gave