The Fo/k- Tales of llu' Kiwai Papuans. 1 7 



instructed them in various vvays. She taught the men the practice ot sodomy, and those who 

 foUowed her directions became tall, vvhile the rest of the people remained short of stature. One 

 day the short people sank into the ground. In the end the old woman climbed up into the sky 

 by a rope which was hanging down from there. — The short people became various birds and 

 animais, and also cei'tain mythical beings in the bush. 



WANDERINGS OF THE MASINGARA AND OTHER BUSH TRIBES. 



10. Mâsingâra is the original honie of all the hush tribes. One day the boys there began 

 to fight about a wallaby which they had killed, and the grown people joined in. At length the 

 différent groups of people separated. 



11. The Mâsingâra people were troubled by mosquitoes, and one of their leaders went 

 to look for a better site for their village. He found a place where there were no mosquitoes, and 

 the people settled down there. 



12. The Mc4singâra people once went to live at Biirau but were frightened away from 

 there hy the spirit of a murdered man and then settled down in their present village. 



13. The Drdgeri people li\ing at .Müiere were frightened of a crocodile which had only 

 one fore leg and no tail. One of them was killed by the beast, and the rest went away and 

 after .some wanderings founded the present Drâgeri. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE BUGAMU AND KUNINI PEOPLE. 



14. A boy grew up from the semen of a kangaroo, and a gdmoda plant Struck root 

 there also. The boy was looked after by a female kangaroo who instructed him in various 

 matters. Once vvhen sawing a pièce of wood in two with a bamboo rope, the wood caught fire, 

 and the boy was taught the use of the fire by the kangaroo. One day he found a woman and 

 girl who had arisen out of worms in a decaying fruit. They were nude, and he taught them to 

 make petticoats. The ekler woman bore a son, and when the boy was weaned the parents left 

 him in the charge of the girl and went away, settling down elsewhere. The boy and girl remained 

 together and one day heard the voices of some people living on the other side of the Binatüri 

 river. These people too had sprung from worms. A bridge was constructed across the river, 

 and the two went and lived with the people on the other bank. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE MAWATA PEOPLE. 



15. The girl M(')rari and her little brother Bâduâme were never given a share of the 

 meat which the hunters distributed among the people. Then the girl let Bâduâme eat a little of 

 an (iuhi root, which is connected with fighting and hunting, and after that the boy became a great 

 hunter. From the effect of the „m.edicine" he became very fierce, and after he had killed some of 

 the people the rest ran away. Bâduâme wandered about the country, finally settling at Djibâru 

 where he married a girl. .She bore a boy named Bîdedu. One day the latter set out to find the 

 original home of his father, and during his wanderings he came to the place where the Mawâta 



N:o 1. 3 



