Tlie Folk-Tales of I lie Kiivai Papuans. 123 



day he made a raft of bamboo, and instead of a sail fixed up a leaf of the nipa-palm, and thus he 

 lloated över to More. There he married Pékai and planted all kinds of food by nieans of his semen. 

 He also gave Marùnogôre différent „medicines" to be used when planling the tirst spécimen of each 

 kind of vegetable in a garden. (Obia, låsa). 



E. Banaiias, yams, and sweet polatoes fir.st grew in the beliy of a woman named Pékai; in 

 the course of time she brought Ihem lorth as when giving birth to a child, and taught the people how 

 to plant them in their gardens. Pékai and her husband Söido once came to Yârubo (Darnley island), 

 and as the people Ihere complained that they had no food, they gave them bananas, yams, and sweet 

 potaloes. One day when Soido had connection with Pékai, the latter was killed, and Söido eut up her 

 body which he threw inte his garden, and a great number of différent kinds of yams grew up there. 

 (Japia, Ipisia). 



F. A certain Kîwai man named Mobinogére once scverely scolded his son Soido or Sôidono- 

 gére for not helping him in the garden, and the latter who was thus put to shame one night vi'ent 

 away to another place. He swallowed a number of yams and other food without chewing them. In 

 the shape of an avania bird he tlevi- over to Murray island and the various roots and fruit swallowed 

 by him started to grow from the excréments which the bird dropped while flying. In Murray island 

 Soido met Pékai and married her. After she had had connection with him she went to relieve herseif, 

 and all the différent kinds of food grew up from her excréments as they had done from Soido's. The two 

 had many children, and their sons and daughters married each other, and in this way the Islands became 

 populated. 



After a time Soido and Pékai were transformed into a stone which was kept by the people on 

 Murray island, and the narrator once saw it there. The stone shows Söido and Pékai engaged in the 

 sexual act. When planting gardens the islanders put some food close to the stone and say, „Kaikai 

 belong you fellow here. Me want make garden: you fellow come night-time make plenty kaikai. I 

 plant him wrong; Söido, Pékai, you plant him proper, make him grow quick." The next day the food 

 will have disappeared, and the people will think, „Two fellow no dead; he been take kaikai." Thanks 

 to this practice food is plentiful in Murray island. When digging yams the people will say, without 

 this time leaving any present for Söido and Pékai, „Me fellow pull out kaikai; Söido, Pckai, you been 

 make big kaikai." (Duäni, Mawäta). 



In the Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits the tales of 

 Söido and Sido (cf. no. 21 — 43) are mixed together under the name of Sida, the Bcstowcr of Vegetable 

 Food: 



G. Mnhniag version (vol. v. pp. 28 sq.) Sida flew in the shape of a frigate-bird (ivaioner or 

 womer) from Pab on the mainland of New Guinea beyond Boigu. He carried with him various kinds 

 of food and stopped at several Islands asking the people to give him a wife. But everywhere he was 

 given an old woman only, and he threw down some fruit and vegetables and went on to the next 

 place. In Moie (Mer or Murray island) the people gave him a fine-looking girl named Peper. He had 

 connection with her, and immediately every kind of vegetable food and fruit sprang up. Then some 

 épisodes of Sido's story are mixed in, and it says that Sida went to a dance in Kiwai and met there 

 Sagaru and „Maura" (ef. p. 118). 



H. Saibai version (vol. v. pp. 31 sqq.). Sida came from Sadoa in New Guinea and visited 

 many of the Islands. He flew about in the shape of a ivautner (it is here called man-of-war hawk), 

 but on arriving at a certain place he changed himself into a man. On each island he was given a 

 woman, and in proportion to her youth and good looks he gave good or poor vegetation to the island . 

 The people of Ulag gave him a fine young girl named Pakar, and he slept With her in the night, but 



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