138 Gunnar Landtman. 



tried it in the water it did not sink, so he threvv it away. The thing same happened with the croco- 

 dile which he made of the kap/rro-tree. At last he tried the wöngai-tree, and that proved to be the right 

 kind. Entering the wöngai crocodile he jumped into the water and went right dovvn to the bottom. 

 By way of testing the crocodile he ran about underneath the water all round Tüdu Island, and a heavy 

 swell foliowed him because of his great speed. Ndga feit sorry for his people, thinking to him- 

 self, „Oh, Tüdu man, he go lose by and by, I got good thing." Returning from the water he 

 placed the crocodile at the höriamu shrine and covered it with leaves. When the people asked 

 him where he had been, he said, „I been sleep, that time 1 stop along reef 1 no been sieep; I 

 been sleep along bush." 



Någa called out to the people, „Tomorrow j'ou me (we) go Mawdta," and thej' made 

 themselves ready for the journey. In the morning when they were about to start, N:iga said to 

 the others, „You fellow go firsl, I come behind." All the canoës sailed off except Näga's which 

 waited for him, but he said to the crew, „You go, I catch you along road." „What road you go," 

 the men said, „canoe here.'" (how are you Coming without a canoe). „No matter me," was his 

 answer, „I catch you along road." 



Nâga passed into the crocodile and plunged into the sea. He ran and swam, cutting his 

 way right through Tüdu to and fro, so that only a small part of the Island remained. This is 

 why there are many Channels and passages in the sliallow water round Tüdu. Quickly he over- 

 took the canoes and passed them by. Between the Kémusu and Kümadäri reefs there is a passage 

 called Wäpa, and there Nâga stopped, waiting for the canoes to come up. He stood upright in 

 the water with the crocodile's tail turned towards the bottom and the mouth wide open at the sur; 

 face. He caused a high swirling sea to arise, and the people in the foremost canoe looked on in terror: 

 „Oh, what name (what is) that sea! What name that thing he open him mouth?" Ndga swal- 

 lowed them, canoe and all, and so he did with the foUowing canoes as well, one after another. 

 On the arrivai of the canoe, in which the tvvo offenders were, he stood up in the mouth of the 

 crocodile and spöke to the people, *" „Fault belong you two man. M}' name Nâga, me sink down 

 canoe belong you two fellovv. You been humbug my wife that time 1 go reef — fault belong 

 you." And the crocodile swallowed the canoe. At last the canoe of Nâga's wife arrived, and the 

 crew, who had lost sight of the others, pulled down the sails. Nâga, reappearing in the mouth 

 of the crocodile, called out, „You go back along Tüdu. My name Nâga, my name alligator. I 

 finish along Tüdu. Every place I go, kil! him man, woman. I been sink down all canoe." The 

 crocodile then disappeared, and the canoe returned to Tüdu. The people found their Island eut 

 to pièces and wailed („cry for Tüdu, cry tor Nâga, cry for all people"). 



Nâga in the shape of the crocodile left Kimusu and came slraight to the coast of New 

 Guinea. He eut a iurrow right inland, thereby making the Bi'natüri river and its tributaries, no 

 river having been there before. At Yömusa he went on shore and lay down, making it his new 

 dvvelling-place. A Mâsingâra man, Sfde, who was out looking for kangaroo and pig, found Nâga. 

 The latter emerging from the crocodile, called out to him, „You man.' you devil (spirit).'" „I no 

 devil, I man, I Side, 1 belong Mâsingâra." Nâga asked for his friend Wakéa, whose home was 

 there. He told the man, „I stop here. Suppose you fellow want go flght, you come see me first." 

 Side went home and summoned the Mâsingâra men to come and see Nâga. ,.0h, 1 been find 

 him good man," he said, „he come along alligator, alligator stop close to him. More better you 



Tom. XLVII.' 



