134 Gunnar Landtman. 



go for him along canoe." They had connection in the canoe. But Abére did not really want 

 him and got angry. She let her nose-stick dröp into the water and called to the man, „Oh, Bä- 

 dabada, my ivùde-mùti (nose-stick) he lose novv along water!" Bâdabâda dived into the water to 

 get it, and when he came up again she Struck him on the head with a paddle, and he sank but 

 was not killed. 



Abére paddled on to Diidi and found there a man and woman who were making sago. 

 They had no other kind of food, and in the night Abére threw out her grass skirt, thereby caus- 

 ing banana-trees to grow up. 



Bâdabâda, floating about in the water, at last reached Düdi. On seeing him Abére hid 

 herself in the grass. She passed her nose-stick once in a circle round her and then threw it 

 away, and this caused a certain grass called niimia to grow in such a dense mäss round her 

 her that nobody could find her, and there she still remains. Since then the iiiiniia-grass, which 

 plays a part in the ceremony of the same, is connected with Abére. (Nâmai, Mawâta). 



A. The north-west wind comes from Abére's place, which is situated far away inland from 

 Tirio in Diidi. That part of the country is famous for ils bananas, some of which have rather härd 

 seeds. The bananas in that part of the country were made originally by Abére and belong to her. 

 (Nätai and Käku, Ipisia). 



NAGA (no. 52-55; ef. Index). 



NAGA AND WAIATI STEAL FIRE FROM IRU. 



52. Nâga lived inside a stone on Nâgir Island in Torres Straits. When he spoke to the 

 stone, it opened and he went inside, and it closed after him. He lived on fish, which he speared 

 and dried in the sun. 



In Mâbuiag there lived a man named Waiati with his vvife and daughter, the latter called 

 Pâtagâmu. 



Iku was the name of a man who lived in Muri. He was making a canoe out of a trunk 

 which had floated about on the sea and stranded on a sandbank. Between the thumb and index 

 of his right hand there was a fire burning, ^" and this was the only fire in the Islands, all fire 

 having originated from Iku. Even now we have a wide space between the thumb and index with 

 no finger, because iku used to have a firestick there. 



Nâga went to see Waiati in Mâbuiag and said to him, „More better you me (we) go look 

 round fire. One man he stop along Muri name Iku, he got fire stop along hand. All time you 

 me Cook kaikai along sun." A ivario, hawk, fiew with the two men over to Muri and lighted on 

 a large tree, and they climbed down, leaving the hawk to wait for them. tku was working at 

 his canoe, and the two men, watchi'ng him from the bush, saw his fire: „Oh, fire he stop along 

 hand!" Putting down his stone axe iku set fire to some pièces of wood, and they watched him: 

 „He make him fire along wood now, light him fire from hand, oh, yes — yes." The two men 

 came out, and iku turned round: „Where you two fellow come from? I got no man hère, vvhat 

 name (why) you come?" „Me two come look fire, me no got no fire, all time make him fish 



Tom. XLVn. 



