the tree and brought down the man untying his ropes. He had been rolled up so quickly in the mat, that he had not even seen his assailant, and they told him that it was the origorúso. He asked the girls, "What time he come, father belong you?" Close up sundown he come." Seizing his bow, arrows, and beheading knife the man lay in wait for the origorúso close to the path. At last the monster made his appearance carrying a great load of sago. The man put an arrow on the string and shot the origorúso under his left arm so that the arrow passed right through his body, 41 after which he beat the creature to death with his stone-club.

On his return to the house the girls asked, "Where father belong me?" ,,I been shoot him, he dead." The girls were sorry and begged him, „That my father, you no cut him head." They buried the origorúso and stayed on in the same house. (Mánu, Ipisía).

140. A man and his wife stayed two months in the bush making sago, and meanwhile their boy and girl remained at home. A number of órigorúso were wandering about in the night, and scenting people they went underneath the house where the boy and girl were sleeping. Little suspecting any danger the boy opened the door and went out to defecate, but when he saw all those órigorúso underneath the house he went back terrified. He seized his bow and arrows and the woman her digging stick, and lifting a board of the floor they attacked the monsters. The origorúso, however, with their long tusks like those of a boar, caught the boy and girl round their ankles and pulled them down through the hole. They cut them in two at the waist and devoured both halves, bones and all.

The mother and father, missing their boy and girl, summoned the people to come and look for them. On finding the blood they knew that the órigorúso had taken them and began to wail. (Mánu, Ipisía).

141. An origorúso lived in a hole underneath the ground close to Kubíra. He caught one man after another and dragged them into the hole where he ate them. Once in the act of seizing a small boy he was seen by a cripple who never left the house, 5 and when the mother and father inquired after their boy, they were told by the cripple what had happened, and they wept over their child. After the people had returned home a large pole was thrust into the hole, and the origoruso was forced to come up. All the men shot their arrows at him, and the monster was killed. They found the boy's body in his belly and buried it. The órigorúso was thrown into the water. (Támetáme, Ipisía).

A. Another rather similar tale. (Ibía, Ipisía).

142. A Djíbu man was asked by a girl to come to her in the night, and finding her door closed dug a passage underneath the wall to try and get in that way. 1) He was killed and carried off by an origorúso, who lived underneath the ground in the bush. In the morning the people saw his blood sprinkled all over the ground, and following these tracks they found the abode of the origorúso. They dug into the ground, and seized and killed the creature. When

1) The Djíbu houses are built on the ground, not on piles (cf. p. 6).

he was dead they cut the body in pieces, which they burnt in the fire. The brother of the dead man claimed the girl, saying, "That girl he (she) pay belong (is payment for) that man he dead. Fault belong girl, he been sing out (summon) man." He married the girl without paying her father. (Dagúri, Mawáta).

143. Some boys, who had killed several birds in the bush, on their return home refused to give any to a friend of theirs who had stayed in the village. So that boy went out to look for birds on his own account and killed a number. At sunset on his way back, he was caught by an origorúso who ate him. The boy's parents, after waiting for him in vain, went to look for him with many other people, and at last found the large tree in which the origorúso lived. They cut down the tree, killed the creature and threw him into the water. They did not find the boy, whom the órigorúso had devoured entirely. (Ibía, Ipisía).

144. A. Mátaresése man used to harpoon dugong and turtle which he brought to his wife. An origorúso, who lived in the bush, scented the dugong and turtle meat and came at night into the house. The terrified man called out to the beast, „No good you kill me two fellow," and the órigorúso answered, "No, I no want kill you, I want fish." He was given a quantity of meat and fish to eat, but was not satisfied and sent the man and woman to catch more dugong, turtle, and fish. 36 He swallowed all the food raw. He and the man were friends. (Epére, Ipisía).

Múe. Drawn by Námai of Mawáta.

BEINGS AKIN TO THE ORIOGORUHO (no. 145-146).

MUE.

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145. Inside a large gúda-tree at Háemúba not far from Mawáta there lives a being called Múe. He is like the óriogorúho, and has enormous ears with which he covers himself at night. 25 Walking on his hind feet, which are like those of a pig, Múe spears fish with his finger-nails. Two pairs of tusks protrude from his mouth, and bushes and creepers grow on his head instead of hair. Múe has been seen by many people. Once he was pursued by the dogs belonging to a hunter, but instead of running away he slowly betook himself into the gúda-tree. The owner of dogs which bark at Múe is generally visited the next night by the monster and reprimanded for not checking his dogs. Some men have been taught by Múe in dreams the use of certain medicines" for hunting pig. Nobody likes to go. alone near the gúda-tree, being uncertain as to the friendly or hostile disposition of Múe, only when several men are together do they dare approach the tree. (Námai, Mawáta).

POÓPOÓ.

146. Poópoó is akin to the órigorúso but is shaped exactly like an ordinary man. He eats people, but his teeth are of ordinary length. His skin is full of knobs (po), which have given him his name.

Once when the Díbiri women were making sago in the bush, Poópoó came up from beneath the ground, where he lives, and stole all sorts of things from the empty house. The next morning the women set a girl to watch the house while they were away. Poópoó came and carried off the girl to his place beneath the ground. He kept her there, and she bore him a child. One day when Poópoó was in the bush, his wife ran away with her child and returned to the other people, and they all fled to another place from Poópoó. (Epére, Ipisía).

A. Poópoó had married the daughter of a Díbiri man, and she bore him a child. Shortly afterwards he sent her to go and swim, and in her absence he killed and ate the baby. On returning the woman learnt what had happened but did not dare say anything to Poópoó. Once she asked him to go and hunt pig, and while he was in the bush she ran away to her old home. (Japía, Ipísia).

THE PEOPLE FLEE FROM A MALIGNANT BEING.

147. A Kubíra man named Naráto used to roam about in the bush with his dogs, killing pigs. He brought the pigs home, cut them up, and divided the meat among his people, forgetting no one. He contented himself with bad food only.

Underneath the ground there lived an evil being, sugúma or óriogorúho. Once the beast dug a long passage underground opening underneath one of the houses. The sugúma then came. up and caught a boy, carrying him off into the ground where he devoured him. The Kubíra people, on returning from the bush, missed the boy, but no one knew of his fate. The parents wailed for him, thinking that he had been taken by a crocodile. The same happened again and again; for every day the sugúma seized a boy or girl, or even more than one in a day. The mothers and fathers in vain asked everybody, "Where my small boy?" and at last concluded that the child had fallen the victim of a crocodile.

Once a man and a woman, who had a very pretty little boy, asked a cripple who spent all his time at home, to look after the child while they were away in their garden. 5 „You look out that boy," they said, "alligator no catch him, me two fellow go bush." The baby could not walk yet, only crawl (,,he walk about along fore-leg"), and the cripple tied a string round one leg of the child, fastening the other end to his own wrist. After a while he fell asleep („you savy he one man (alone), nobody yarn“). The small boy wanted to go and play with the other children and crawled along as far as his tether permitted, but when he came to the sugúma's hole, he was caught by the beast, who dragged him into the ground. The cripple, awakened by the pull of the tightened string, thought to himself, "Oh, that boy he been go play." He went to see where the string led to, walking along four leg," and found the hole: „Oh," he exclaimed, ,he got hole here! Something been dig that hole that no alligator been catch that boy!" In this way the people found out that the children had been carried off by the sugúma. Sometimes

"

in the night they could hear the muffled roar of the beast, U-u-u!" and then they knew, That sugúma!"

The next day, while Naráto was out shooting, the Kubíra people all abandoned their village and ran away from the sugúma. For some reason they were angry with Naráto and left him behind without telling of their plan. Naráto's wife wanted to go with the rest, but everyone of them, even Naráto's own brother, refused her a place in his canoe. At last she found a „half canoe" (cf. p. 9), the open end of which she blocked with clay, and making herself ready she waited for Naráto. Her small boy lay with his head in her lap, and she cleaned his hair from lice which she put in some empty coconut-shells.

When Naráto arrived, his wife said, "Where you me (we) go? All people he run away, he fright that sugúma. I ask all people, he no take me." Naráto brought home many pigs which he had killed and placed them close to the sugúma's hole. After a while the beast came out roaring savagely, „U-u-u!" Naráto took a pig, which was roasting on the fire, and threw the legs, intestines, and other parts to the monster, who swallowed them up. The sugúma's teeth were enormous. He devoured all the meat, sago, and coconuts, whatever food Naráto flung at him. At last he was satisfied and lay down to sleep. 36

Naráto's wife placed a coconut-shell full of lice in each house telling the insects, "That time sugúma he sing out, you answer from altogether house, 'Ei, oi!'" 37 She put her baby in the canoe, they embarked and shoved off, the woman and her eldest boy paddling while Naráto steered. Go on," he urged them, pull away, by and by sugúma catch you me along road." The sugúma at last woke up from his death-like sleep, „Hallo, where Naráto?" he shouted. He looked round, calling out all the while, Naráto" The lice answered him from one of the houses, Oi!" and the sugúma rushed there to look, but did not find anybody. He called out .again, and the lice answered from another house, Oi!" The sugúma ran towards the sound, but there was no one. He went from house to house nobody was there, so he hurried out on the beach. Looking one way he could descry no one, looking the other way, "Oh, him he there he go!" The sugúma called out, "You devil, I kill you to-day," and hurried after them in pursuit.

Naráto seeing the sugúma exclaimed, ,,Uóu! sugúma there he come!" The monster overtook them and jumped up into the bow of the canoe. Sugúma," Naráto begged, you no kill me, I friend belong you, I been give you good kaikai." "Hm, hm," the sugúma grunted. They pulled on, and at last saw the place where the Kubíra people were making a new house.

Naráto's brother on seeing him said, "Naráto, you come, house belong you me (us both).“ "No," Naráto answered, "I no like stop along you, you no sorry wife and pickaninny belong me." One of the women asked Naráto's wife to come on shore, but she replied like her husband, ,,No, I no want come along you."

The sugúma, sitting all the time at the bow of the canoe, said to Naráto, „,Come on, you me (we) go other side along Dúdi." They paddled over to Dúdi and went up the Káuáro creek near Koábu. The sugúma said, "You me stop here." They remained there together, and the sugúma was not fierce any more. Naráto shared his food with him, pigs, taro, sago, coconuts. He had many children and founded a large people. The sugúma said to him, "You got plenty people; more better you stop along house, I stop inside along ground." He made a large hole

in the ground and lived there.

You go look out (after) garden, „he said to Naráto," make sago, I look out pickaninny, I catch him what people he want come fight, swallow him down." Many people, my informant among them, said that they had seen the large hole in which the suguma still lives. Duáne, Mawáta).

A. At Wímarimúba, not far from Súmai, a sugúma (in the same tale also called hiwai-ábére and óriogorúho) used to live underneath the ground, and dug a passage which opened at the refuse heap of the people. This monster carried off and ate many children. At last the people ran away, leaving a man behind whom they disliked because he did not give the others any meat, although he was a great hunter. His family too was deserted, and they were found by the sugúma, whom they tried to appease by giving the monster plenty to eat and drink At last the beast fell asleep, and the man, in order to make quite sure, shook him, alleging that the house was burning. 52 in a,,half canoe" and after a while were pursued by the sugúma. Just as the creature was about to reach them, the man knocked him on the head with his paddle, so that he sank. Arriving at the place where the others had settled down, the man and his family refused to go and live with them and built their house apart from the others. (Sále, Mawáta).

The people made off

B. There are no less than 8 additional versions of this tale, all more or less alike. The name of the place varies, and so (as in the previous versions) does the name of the malignant being; of names not mentioned before the monster is in one version called mamagárena and in another he is identified with the dreaded éterari, ferocious lizard of Kubíra (cf. no. 2). Various instances are given of his extraordinary appetite when fed by the people. Some of the versions contain the episode about the lice which delayed the pursuit of the people. In some versions the monster is killed, in others he joins the fugitives and makes friends with them. (Gabía, Ibía, Káku, Mánu, and Sáe, Ipisía; Báira and Mamatúa, Súmai; Gaméa, Mawáta).

A HIWAI-ABERE (MALIGNANT FEMALE BEING) SPIRITS AWAY THE WIFE OF A MAN AND TAKES HER PLACE.

148. The híwai-abére have the body of a woman, but are very fat, with a large head, bulky stomach, and quite short legs. Their finger-nails are like spears, and with them they catch and kill wild pigs when hunting.

A man Koudábo and his wife Bokári lived at a place called Búli, on one of the hills of Daváne. They were working one day in their garden, pulling up the weeds and planting taro. Koudábo had tied a band round his forehead to keep his long hair tidy, and underneath it he had inserted some sweet-smelling herbs of which girls are fond. As they were returning to their house, Koudábo and Bokári were seen by a hiwai-abére, who lived in a stone close to the path. She thought to herself, "That good man, Koudábo (K. is a handsome man). No good that woman keep him, more better he take me." On reaching home Bokári prepared food and they ate. Just as they were going to sleep Koudábo said, "Morning, fowl he sing out, you go kill him súgu along swamp" (an octopus?; said to squirt out a jet of 'blood' when it is being speared).

The hiwai-abére had heard what Koudábo said, for they hear even a whisper a long distance off. The evil woman thought to herself, „More better I go inside along súgu, Bokári