130 Gunnar Landtman. 



told Meséde, „Téterätu people been kill him four vvife belong you, Dibiri-Sagaru sing out (summon 

 them to do so)." Meséde, who was at the Båru river, pulled out one of his hairs and tied it to 

 a pièce of coconut rind vvhich he threw into the water. The rind floated to Mümutümu where 

 the banana tree was. A banana feil from the tree on to the coconut rind, and it was no longer 

 a banana but a girl. She found a canoe and paddled off to look for Meséde, while that hair of 

 his was hanging round her neck. A cripple^ showed her the way to Meséde, and she became 

 his vvife. Meséde pulled eut another hair and fastened it to a pièce of coconut rind, and the same 

 thing happened. Again a hanana feil from the tree transforming itself into a gir), and she came 

 to him. He summoned four girls in this way. 



.Somebody brought the news to Abére that her girls had been killed, and she waiied, „Oh, 

 uhat man been kill my good girl?" (Nämai, Mavvata). 



A. Abére and her daughters went from Wäboda to Puriitu where they were given a sago- 

 palm for making sago, but they stole another palm as well. In revenge the PuriUu people made a 

 model crocodile which they attached undernealh Abére's canoe, thereby causing a crocodile lo take her 

 boy Gadîva on her return to Wâboda. Abére went to summon Meséde, but as she was knovvn to eat 

 people, he hid himself. Abére soon found him, however, and took him to her place, ordering him lo 

 paddle the canoe while she steered, „Me ail same man," she said, „me steer, you go paddle along 

 fore." Dâmera-Sagâru was anxious that no harm should befall Meséde on the journey, and she begged 

 Abére, „You look out good, alligator no catch him, he good man, all time he kill him pig, you look 

 out good." Meséde and Abére had connection on the way. When Ihey arrived he shot the crocodile 

 dead, and the boy's body was recovered and buried. In spite of Abére's remonstrances Meséde took 

 her girls with him to Dâmera-miiba. Dâmera-Sagâru was very angry and gave a beheading knife of 

 Meséde's to some men, asking them to kill the girls, and Meséde afterwards found the knife on one 

 of the dead bodies. He reproached Dâmera-Sagâru, refus! ng to shoot any more pigs for her. Abére 

 waiied over her dead girls. (Duâni, Mawâta). 



R. Meséde brought Abére's girls to Dibiri, and Dâmera-Sagâru induced the Oropai people to 

 kill them. Wâpowâpo, the youngest girl, alone escaped. In the night the heads of her sisters returned 

 to the bodies, and the girls became alive again. They went to fetch Wâpowâpo, and all ran away to- 

 gether. One after another they became tired and sat down, and were transformed into anthills. *^ This 

 is why there are so many anthills in Manâvete. (Kâku, Ipisi'a). 



C. Meséde, vi'ho lived at Gâma-6romo, was once summoned by some people to shoot pigs for 

 them. In his absence his wife, dressed like a man, went to Dîbiri-dârimo, where she induced the people 

 to kill Abére's girls. Meséde failed to kill any pigs and therefore suspected that something was wrong 

 at home. He found the bodies of his wives with their heads missing. The youngest girl Wâpowâpo, 

 who was very beautiful, had been carried off alive by the Dibiri-dårimo people, but as she kept on 

 crying they killed her, lest Meséde should hear her. Her body with the head eut off was thrown into 

 the water and floated ashore at Dibiri. It was found by a woman named Géi, who came to fetch water 

 for washing her fireplace. The body had become härd and looked like a log of wood, and Géi put 

 it on her shelf over the fireplace. Large flies bored a hole from end to end through the body, which 

 gradually became like a drum. Morave, the husband of Géi, glued a skin over one end of the drum, 

 and this was the origin ot his famous drum. The tale runs on into that about Morave, or Mérave, 

 and Dâpe (no. 56 B). (Nosoro and Oborâme, läsa). 



Tom. XLVU. 



