THE CAPTURED THIEF WHO BOUGHT HIMSELF FREE BY GIVING UP HIS WIFE, AND HOW HIS CAPTOR WAS BITTEN BY A SNAKE. 481. A man when stealing from a garden was captured by a hunter and promised to lend the latter his wife, if he set him free. Just as the hunter was about to have connection with the woman he was bitten by a snake and died. The thief was at a loss how to explain the death to the people. Everything was found out, and the thief was killed by the people. THE THIEF WOMAN AND HER INNOCENT VICTIM. 482. A bundle of sago belonging to a certain woman was kept in the house close to a place where another woman lay in childbed. The owner little by little ate the sago without giving her husband any, and when nearly all was consumed she accused the sick woman of having stolen it. The latter denied the charge but the people did not believe her and cut her stomach open to see whether there was any sago. They did not find any and then turned round and killed the false woman, in whose stomach they found the sago. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ACCIDENTAL DEATHS. 483. A woman was killed by a tree which some people were cutting down. The latter were considered responsible and had to give payment to her relatives. 484. A little boy who had been left in the charge of an old woman was killed through an accident, and on their return his parents nearly beat the old woman to death. MURDER AND REVENGE. 485. A man poisoned a boy, and the latter's father killed the murderer in revenge. He cut off his head and placed it underneath that of the boy's as a pillow. A MAN'S REVENGE: HOW THE PIGS BEGAN TO DESTROY THE GARDENS 486. A baby boy was drowned accidentally, and his father blamed the people for his death and took revenge by causing the pigs to come and ruin the people's gardens which they had not done before. HOW A MAN THOUGHT THAT A WOMAN CALLED HIM A SORCERER 487. A man heard how a woman warned the children about a sorcerer, and thinking that she meant him killed her. THE MAN WITHOUT FIREWOOD. T 488. The Man who was refused Firewood by his Wife and was killed by her. A man used to depend upon his wife to give him firewood, but at length she refused to let him have any more. One night when he wanted to light a fire at his place in the men's house he went outside the house where his wife was and as usual asked her to give him firewood. The woman threw out a piece of wood which was sharp at one end and unknowingly hit her husband in the eye, killing him. He was found in the morning. 489. The Man who offered his Drum for some Firewood. A man had omitted to provide himself with firewood, and one night when some visitors came he had nothing to light a fire with. He asked his friends for firewood but no one gave him any, even when he offered his drum in exchange. At length he smashed the drum and lighted a fire of the broken pieces. He felt so mortified that he caused himself to be killed in a subsequent fight. 490. The Man who had left himself without Firewood and subsequently made up for his Neglect by cutting a Great Quantity of it. A man who never brought home firewood was one night in need of a fire and had great difficulty in obtaining some from a friend. After that he set out and cut firewood for many days in succession. THE MAN WHO WAS PUT TO SHAME AND COMMITTED SUICIDE. 491-492. A man was put to shame before the people on account of the behaviour of his wife (in the other instance: his baby) and caused his own death. C. VARIOUS ADDITIONAL STORIES. THE DELUGE. 493. A Kíwai man caused the whole country to be flooded but saved himself and his belongings in a canoe. The water closed over the coconut trees, and the people in their canoes were swept away. At length the water abated. When the land was bare the same man went and removed the spell with which he had caused the flood. HOW THE SEA DRIED UP. 494. All the sea once flowed into a woman, causing her body to swell out enormously. One day she squatted down, and the water gushed out again, whereupon she laughed, and copying her the waves in the sea are still „laughing". THE ORIGIN OF THE SWAMP AND WATER-HOLE IN BOIGU. 495. Three brothers cut a passage across Bóigu by a throw of a spear, and in the same way they created the swamp and water-hole on the island. The brothers inaugurated certain rites which must be followed by those who drink from the water-hole. THE FIREWOOD WHICH AT NIGHT CHANGED INTO A MAN. 496. A log of firewood lying on the shelf over a fireplace at night changed into a man and had connection with a woman in the house. At dawn the man again became firewood. The husband of the outraged woman cut the firewood into pieces, and blood flowed out of it. D. THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST WHITE MEN. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BRITISH PROTECTORATE; D'ALBERTI'S JOURNEY (497). AN EARLY VISIT OF PEARLING BOATS TO MAWATA (498). FOLKTALES. I. LEGENDARY HISTORY (no. 1-20; cf. Index, History). THE ORIGIN OF KIWAI ISLAND AND PEOPLE. 1. Long ago there was no Kíwai, no Abaúra nor Míbu, nor any other island (in the Fly), except Wáboda; only Dúdi and Manávete, the two banks of the river, existed. 1 The people of Dúdi and Manávete used to throw all sorts of refuse into the river, and it floated with the current to a certain place where it sank; as this went on for a long period a sandbank gradually formed, but no one lived there as yet. One day a dead nipa-palm drifted down the river and was stranded on the sandbank. A large hawk called wario came flying and lighted on the nipa-palm. The bird carried a fish in its claws, and while it was eating it some particles of the fish fell on to the palm and began to decay under the burning sun. A number of worms formed in the fish, one of which began to grow larger and larger till it developed into a man, and his name was Méuri (cf. no. 272). He was the first man in Kíwai, and he all same make himself, he no come along (from) other place." When Méuri was full-grown he walked all over the island. The wario brought him fish which he ate. Certain fruit and seeds floated over from Manávete and struck root in Kíwai, and in the course of time a wood sprang up. The first tree to grow there was the úmiaumia, next came the wárakara or sósómé, and the third was the sóputámo. 10000 A man. Head-dress of cassowary feathers; breast-shell; groin-shell. Drawn by Káku of Ipisía. One day two men named Gérepa and Báduri came to Méuri from Páturi in Manávete, they were looking for a boy named Ámue who had been taken by a crocodile (cf. no. 2 C). "Who you?" they said on seeing Méuri. „Me Méuri, me stop this place. Where you come?" "Me come along Páturi." The two men thought the sandbank a good place, so they went back to Páturi and fetched all their people to live there. Their fire went out on the way back to Kíwai, and they sent Kapía, the black cockatoo, to get them fire from Manávete (cf. no. 272). The sandbank which was the first beginning of Kiwai can be seen still in a large swamp on the island, and Méuri lives there underneath. (Káku, Ipisía). A. Two brothers named Sogío and Gumáru lived in Kiwai at Iásamúba before there were any other people on the island. They fed on fish which they dried in the sun on a stranded nipa-palm. When one side of the fish was done, they turned it over to let the other side dry. Some of the fish began to decay and gave rise to worms which in the course of time developed into people, some into men and others into women. The names of the two last men to be produced thus were Wía and Bárane (cf. Index). When these two men came into existence they found themselves from the beginning in possession of a fire-stick with which they lighted a fire for the people. " Sogío and Gumáru did not know what had befallen with the worms until they suddenly discovered that there were fresh people on the island. They were afraid and went and asked them, Where you come from?",,Me no savy," they answered, ,me come up this place where fish he stop." "Oh," said Sogío and Gumáru, you belong worm." Wía and Bárane taught Sogío, Gumáru, and all the others to cook their food. They built a house and occupied one end of it themselves, while Sogío and Gumáru lived at the other end and the rest of the people in the centre. The Kíwai people have arisen thus from the worms bred in the decaying fish. (Gaméa, Mawáta). A man carrying a bow and arrows. Drawn by Bírida of Ipisía. THE ORIGIN OF THE KUBIRA PEOPLE IN KIWAI. 2. While Kíwai island was still a sandbank a large tree once came floating from Manávete and stranded at Kubíra, and an élerari (Mawáta pronunciation, in Kíwai atéraro, ferocious mythical gaycoloured lizard) crouching in the tree, was carried over there. The common name of all the people living in Díbiri (east of the Fly) near the two mountains Sívare and Nákare is Díbiri-dárimo. One morning a certain woman wanted to go to her garden and said to her elder sister, who was to remain at home, "You look out (after) my boy, |