88 Gunnar Landtman. 



A. Long ago the Mawäta people lived inside a creeper of the kind ca]led hiiJic're-à/wàpn. When 

 swimming in the sea at Dùdû-pâtu, they came across liie intestines of dugong and turtle, vviiich had been 

 thrown away by the Däru people and had floated över to the opposite coast, and they ate them. '^ 

 A large hawk once flew away with a turtle bone and alighted on a iapäro-lree at Küru, close to a gar- 

 den where a man named Bidedu was working. The hawk dropped the bone, and Bidedu, after picking 

 it up and examining it, decided to go and find out where it came from. He found the people in the 

 creeper and eut them out exactly as in the first version. Both the Mawdta and Tûrili'iri people had 

 been in the creeper. Their leader Bidja came out first, and Bidedu made friends with all of them. 

 They used to eat poor kinds of fruit, roots, and earth, and to smoke the leaves of a tree called amolidri, 

 but Bidedu gave them food of the right sort and showed them the use of tobacco. He also taught 

 them to build houses, and they founded the village of OId Mawdta. (Amiira, Mawdta). 



B. This version is very like the previous iwo. When Bfdedu showed the Mawdta people the 

 use of flre, they were at first so frightened that they feil down „dead". '^ Among other things he 

 taught them to spear fish; previously they did not know wliat fish were and called them olnsare (mythi- 

 cal beings). He also inslructed them how to lieget children by demonstrating the sexual act, and he 

 laid down the rules which the women were to foliow when pregnant. (Vasdrigi, Mawdta). 



C. The Kunini people lived inside a iiovai- or dmiikc-iree and were found by Bidedu, a G6wo 

 man, who induced them to come out. The name of their leader was Bùdage. Bidedu gave them proper 

 food and fire, and taught them many things. The people went to hunt in the bush, and on returning 

 they sang, „Ofi, oh, hdic o-o-i. eh, ih-iiha båie o-o-n. — Me fellow been kill plenty thing." 



The Kunini people made friends with tlie G6wo people, who lauglit them about sexual matters. 

 After two nights the Kunini women bore children, lor they were a „story-people" and therefore did not 

 require a longer period. ' (Dudni, Mawdta). 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE OF DUDI. 



16. The Katatai, Parama, and Ubiri people in Diidi have all a common origin; they have 

 developed out of worms in the fruit of an ubiiia-tree which was growing at Wiraro. At first five 

 men and five women came into existence, and they had no fire and fed on certain larvae and 

 lived in holes in a tree. Their dwelling was broken down bj' a man named Säisu who came 

 from the Kiwai side, and they came out into the open (ef. p. 87). Säisu assigned them a place 

 on dry, high ground to live in, and taught them the use of fire and how to make gardens. After 

 a time some ol the peopie vvent and settled at Parâma and others at Ubi'ri, while the Kätatai people 

 remained at Wi'raro. (Nåmai, Mawata). 



THE BEGINNING OF PARAMA ISLAND AND PEOPLE. 



17. Formerly the Pdrtima people lived at Wiraro in Düdi. At that time Pdrdma island 

 did not exist, only a sandbank wiiich was periodically fjooded, the haunt of birds alone. The 

 people of Wi'raro were greatly troubled by mosquitoes, and did not know how to get away from 

 them. * A Kiwai man named Kc'jviniMO, who was livlng with the people, one day said, „I go 



Tom. XLVII. 



