The Folk-Tales of tlie Knvai Papuans. 23 



ran into the sea where they became a dugong and porpoise. — Once Nåbeamuio puUed a woman 

 into the Ôromotùii creek and eut her with a Sharp shell. The people thought that she had been 

 hurt by a crocodile. — Môrigi'ro was a great fighter like Nâbeamuro, he lived underneath the 

 ground. Once a man gave hiiTi his vvife, and she died; but vvhile she lay in her grave a boy 

 was born who broke his way up through the ground. M(5rigi'ro brought the child to the people 

 and was persuaded to C(ime and live with them. — Keâburo who had no tire stole Nâbeamuro's 

 fire, and the latter sent him away to live in another place. Nâbeamuro built a men's house, and 

 the maie and female figures on the posts of the house were modelled from him and his wife. 



PASPAE WHO WAS BORN UNDER THE GROUND. 



58. He was left there by his mother and fed upon earth. Once he made his way up 

 and was greatly surprised at seeing the sun. His parents taught him in a dream to build a house. 

 He killed birds merely by pretending to throw a pièce of wood at them. Once he met a woman 

 named Mûrke whom he married, and she taught him the sexual act. Pâspae is invoked by hun- 

 ters. The croton is his particular plant. 



NIMO AND PUIPUl BRING THE FIRST CANOË TO SAIBAI FROM MAWATA. 



59. Ni'mo and Piiipui, two mythical men living in the bush in Sàibai, came to the shore 

 and met Meréva who lived there underneath a root. The two former travelled to Mawâta and 

 used an empty coconut-shell for passing over the Channels and creeks. They named many places 

 on their way, and each name had référence to some circumstance connected with the locality. 

 They obtained two canoës at Mawâta and returned with them to Sâibai. The canoës were pro- 

 vided with many improvements by the Sâibai and Mâbuiag peoples, and a regulär traffic in canoës 

 was established between New Guinea and the Islands. 



KUIAMO OF MABUIAG. 



60. In his childhood Küiamo was ugly and suffeied from bad sores. He used to do 

 mischief to the other children and also annoyed the grown up people. His mother was making 

 a mat, and he stumbled over her work and was scolded by her, and then he killed her in a rage. 

 In order to make payment for his mother he subsequently killed nearly all the Mâbuiag people. 

 He summoned the Bâdu people by means of fire signals and killed them too. Then he went 

 to fight a great number of people on the Islands and the mainland of New Guinea. He brought 

 with him his sister'.s son whom he had sparad, and taught him to become a vvarrior. At length 

 the two returned to Mâbuiag with the captured heads. Some of the latter were throvvn overboard, 

 and they form the sandbanks and reefs in the sea. The few surviving Mabuiag people were 

 spared, and Küiamo went to live on the top of a hill on the Island. He dwells there underneath 

 the ground. — At the end of Küiamo's right index there was an ever burning fire, and he taught 

 the people to cook their food. — He died in a fight with the Möa people. 



N:o 1. 



