82 Gunnar Landtman. 



„Oh, Bârberi, you head-man belong Mâsingara, you been find him good place for me fellow." 

 (Glbûma, Mawâta). 



12. In former times the Mâsingara and Aipùpu people lived together at Aipûpu, close to 

 Glùlu. One day an Aipûpu man named Muta vvent to see the country round the present Bürau. 

 The place was not inhabited at that time, and the land did not belong to anybody, so Muta put 

 a stick in the ground for a mark, attaching some bushes to the top of it. Shortly aftervvards a 

 Mâsingara man named Wiîmu came to the place and finding Mûta's mark vvondered who had put 

 it there. Ail the people then decided to move to the new place. Muta had a son named Barbelé, 

 and the latter a son named Gaie. When Gaie grevv up he once took the wife of another man 

 and was detected and shot by the injured husband. One night his ghost came and said to the 

 man, „You fellow been kill me, I kill you fellow too. My ghost go inside, kill you fellow." On 

 learning of this dream the people vvere frightened, hence they left Biirau and settled down at the 

 present Mâsingara. (Sâle, Mawâta). 



13. The Drâgeri people used formerly to live at Miiiere. There was a creek close bj', 

 and one night a crocodile came out of the water, and it had only one foreleg and no tail. The 

 beast caught one of the men who was asleep and dragged him into the water. It was only in 

 the morning that the people found out from the tracks what had happened. They ail said, „No 

 good stop hère, more better go other place. By and by that alligator make me ail same, finish 

 altogether people — close to river." So they ail left Müiere and settled down at Irue. From 

 that time forward they and the Mawâta people used to fight each other at their various coconut 

 places. Once when the Irue people were hard up for food, one of their leaders advised them to 

 kill a crocodile and bury the skin and bone in their garden where they planted taro and sweet 

 potatoes, and this gave them an abundant crop. 



Later on the people moved to Drâgeri and thence to Mûkuri, but they did not remain in 

 the latter place, only made gardens there and went back to Drâgeri, where they are living still. 

 Once in a fight with the Mawâta people a Drâgeri man named Üdai lay in ambush, meaning to 

 kill one of the enemy. But he was detected by the Mawâta people and killed, and his head was 

 eut (iff. The narrator of the story said that he was himself the first Mawâta man to make friends 

 with the Drâgeri people. (Àbai, Mawâta). 



THE ORIGIN OF THE BUGAMU AND KUNINI PEOPLE. 



14. Once when a maie kangaroo was playing in the grass at Kûru its semen passed out 

 and ran on to the ground, where it was dried up by the sun. From the semen a boy grew up, 

 and a gâmoda plant too Struck root there. The maie kangaroo ran away, but a female came 

 instead and suckled the boy, staying with him for only a little while at a time, otherwise the 

 boy's skin would hâve become like that of an animal. The boy slept on the grass roUing about 

 there, and because of the continuous friction with the ground no hair grew on his body. One 

 day the kangaroo brought him a certain wood to eat which was very hard, and it stuck in his 

 mouth and turned into teeth. The kangaroo also brought a certain lichen („stag's-horn") which 



Tom. XLVII. 



