118' Gunnar Landtman. 



to drink from his own skull, which made him exclaim, „You spoil me; I want go back, you send me 

 altogether. 1 cannot go back, I drink head belong me finish." Sido went to Davane and further on 

 .in the same direction — „me fellow no savy". „That cloud, ground too close (where the sky and 

 earth are near each other), long way, he got ladder, Sido go on top inside." He said, „What place 

 I leave him people belong me, suppose he dead, he come here along me. Any man, any village, man 

 he die, he come along me, me master belong you fellow, you fellow been spoil me." This is the 

 reason why people die. If Sido had not been „spoiled", the people would only „gammon die", and 

 the dead would simply go to Saibai for a short time and then come back to life again. (Séggium, 

 Dirimo). 



In the Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits Sido and Soido 

 (ef. no. 44) are identified under the common name of SrWû, the Besloiver nf Vec;elahle Food. 



I). Mabuiag version (vol. v. 29). Sida went to Kiwai where the people were dancing. One 

 of the men there named Mauri was anxious to marry a certain beautiful girl named Sagaru. Sida's drum 

 sounded, „Sagaru, Sagaru!"^* During the dance a row sprang up, and Sida was killed by Mauri. His 

 body was laid in a canoë and sent adrift down the creek. It was found by two women who were 

 joined back to back, and they restored Sida to life by throwing him on to the fire. They prepared 

 food for him, and the next day he split tliem in two with a „long stick like a canoe paddle". One 

 day he lay down on a sära (platform for a corpse) and was seen by the two women who ran home. 

 Sida then jumped off the sära and ran home arriving there before the women, and lying down on his 

 back he pretended to be asleep. Another day he dressed himself up like a spirit, again frightening the 

 two women who ran home, but he got there before them and lay down as before. Finally he disap- 

 peared into the ground. 



E. Saibai version (vol. v. 32 sqq.). In Mibu Sida saw two women Kumu and Kasu who were 

 joined together back to back by their skin. He passed into a small shell called ni and was picked up 

 by them. One of the sisters swallowed the shell and became pregnant, and the son she bore was 

 called Sida Sula. When he had grown up he separated the women with a sharp wooden implement. 

 One day he bent a korun tree into the form of a bridge '" and went to a dance in Kiwai, and there were 

 Sagaru and her wooer Maura. Sida and Sagaru met under the house and in the morning there was 

 a fight between the former and the rest of the men. Sagaru ran away and sat on a small tree to rest, 

 but the tree grew up very high so that she could not get down again. '^ Sida tollowed ber tracks 

 and seeing her reflection in a well under the tree jumped into the water, and some pièce of wood went 

 through his forehead and killed him.^" 



Y. Kiwai version {v o\. v. pp. 35 sq.). Sopuse of Dropo in Kiwai, while cultivating sago, made 

 a hole in the ground and had connection with it. Soiida was born in the ground and some time af- 

 terwards Sopuse took him to his house. One day Sopuse made a drum and went to a dance in Kiwai 

 with Soiida. There they saw Sagaru, and Sopuse threw a lump of beeswa.x at her, hitting the septum 

 of her nose, and she feil down through the floor. Soiida went to look for her. They were married 

 and remained in Kiwai. 



Once Soiida caught an user-fish which Sagaru cooked for him, and he ate it, leaving only a 

 bone for her. She bit it and broke her teeth and went away very angry. Then follows an épisode 

 from Söido's story telling how he killed a woman and how all kinds of plants grew up from the va- 

 rious parts of her body (ef. no. 44 I).'' 



G. E. Beardmore in Journ. Anthr. Inst. .xix pp. 465 sqq., T/ie S/nry of Sidor: Tlie First Cause 

 of Dentli. Sidor had a wife named Sigaru who one day caught some fish which she ate by herself, 

 leaving only the bones for her husband. In the night Sidor's spirit entered several animais and birds 

 in succession and eventually became a goura pigeon which flew to the top of a high tree. The next 



Tom. XLVII. 



