632 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



but as incarnations of human beings. Things concerning 

 *■' pamali " they dare not mention or discuss. 

 The legend is as follows : — 



A very ugly youngster of good family met, while fishing 

 on the sea-shore, a beautiful maiden who was catching very 

 many fine fishes. He fell in love with her at once, and 

 asked her for a present of one of her large fishes. But she 

 turned her back to him, and scolded him for his ugliness. 

 All his nice words to win her, his proposal to take her with 

 him into another country and to marry her, did not move 

 her mind in the least. Finally she ran away, throwing her 

 ugliest fish into his face, and comparing him with it. The 

 young man was so deeply grieved by this behaviour that he 

 fled into the mountains, to live there in solitude. But 

 lighting upon a " pamali" place where ghosts were swarming, 

 he confided to them his trouble, whereupon they promised 

 to help him on condition that he would, after having secured 

 his sweetheart, return immediately to the " pamali" place. 

 This condition he accepted and became suddenly transformed 

 into a male Bird-of-Paradise. He flew to the sea-shore, 

 where he found the maiden still fishing but not succeeding 

 in catching anything. The girl, perceiving the beautiful 

 bird, the equal of which she had never seen before, ran after 

 it and took much trouble to secure it. The bird flew from 

 branch to branch, into and out of the forest, the young 

 woman always following it. Thus it led her to the 

 "pamali" place, where she was in the power of the ghosts. 

 There she learned that the bird was the incarnation of the 

 ugly young man whom she had ill-treated, and that, in 

 punishment for her oflFensive behaviour towards him, she 

 would be transformed into a Bird of Paradise, though into 

 a very ugly one, and that she must marry him. The trans- 

 formation took place, and since that time there are Birds of 

 Paradise in the district. If these birds were killed the 

 ghosts would take revenge on man by inflicting death, 

 illness, or other mishaps. 



This legend, widely spread amongst the natives, is most 

 reluctantly told or even spoken of. 



