II. FABULOUS MEN AND WOMEN (no 21-6I; ef index) 



SIDO, THE FIRST MAN WHO DIED (no. 21-43; ef. Index). 



SIDOS BIRTH. 



21. Si'do's home was at Uüo. His father S<')puse vvorked all the time in his garden. 

 One day he smoothed the ground, moulding it into the form of the vulva of a woman, and 

 had intercourse with the ground every da}' for some time. Si'do was born in the ground. The 

 father did not know that he had begotten a child there. 



One day Sido came up from the ground. Sopuse had made a small ditch in the garden, 

 and Sido walked about close to it standing up straight, for he had grovvn with supernatural 

 rapidity.' .Söpuse went to the garden and looked: „Who been make this track along creek? 

 He small boy, I no got no boy." He went back to the village and taking his bow shot at 

 the long-house, for he was very angry and said, „Who been make him track along my garden ?" 

 He did not want to hit the people but only shot at the roof of the house. 



Sido slept in the ground but walked about above; when Srjpuse approached, he heard 

 the ground move and thought, „F"ather he come." Hiding himself in the ground he heard 

 Sdpuse shout out angrily. 



One day when Söpuse went to the garden, Sido was standing under a banana tree. 

 Söpuse, carrying his digging stick and stone axe, passed close by v\ithout noticing Sido, but the 

 boy went after him and took him by the hand. The father cried out, „Oh, who you?" and Sido 

 said, „Father, me here." „I no father, I no got no pickaninny." „You no been make me?'' 

 „Where I been make you?" „Vou look hole there, that place belong me, you been make me, 

 all time 1 stop inside." Söpuse did not answer, he was astounded („throat belong him long"). 

 He thought, „True that boy he speak — boy belong me." 



Söpuse prepared a lotion of sweet-scented plants, mixing them with coconut oil in a 

 dish made of a palm-Ieaf. He took the boy to a creek where he washed off all the mud which 

 covered his body as a result of living underground, and afterwards Sido was dried in the sun. 

 The father eut some scented leaves which he spread on the ground and making Sido sit down 

 on them rubbed him with the contents of the dish, after which he adorned his body and hair. 



Si')puse left a ripe banana close to Sido who after eating it feil down „dead", not being 

 used to that kind of food. ^^ After a while he got up again and thought, „Oh, father, no good 

 K:o 1. 



