160 Gunnar Landtman. 



roasted his small fish, and his back and limbs were aching from the rough way in which he had 

 been handled. The next day the same thlng was repeated. The tvvo women having witnessed 

 the scene from a distance, reproached their husbands on their return, but thèse denied that they 

 had taken any fish from the boy. 



Sésere was so badly hurt that he could not vvalk, for he had wounds and bruises all 

 över his body. The next morning he could not get up and the two sisters looking for him from 

 afar saw no sign of him („that's all pigeon he vvalk ahout along point"). At midday Sésere 

 dragged himself to the place where his father and mother were buried and dug up their skulls. 

 He washed the skulls and rubbed them vvitii svveet-scented coconut oil, and when he went to 

 sleep in the evening lay on his back v\'ith one skull in each armpit. That day his brothers-in-law 

 only brought home a few small fish, and were accused by their vvives of having killed Sésere as 

 he was nowhere to be seen. 



The spirits of Sésere's parents came to him in Ihe night and said to him, „To-morrow 

 morning you get up, you see track belong dugong — little bit grass he stop, dugong been kaikai. 

 You go inside along creek, wàpo (harpoon handle) he stop, me fellow been leaxe him. You go 

 along one tree, dàni, rope he hang down, me two been hang him. You go take wood name 

 bàidanm-tûru, you split him, make kûior (harpoon-head). Low water, you make him nardto 

 (platform); sundown, high water he come, you go on top, spear dugong. You sing out me fellow, 

 you ail time think about me two fellov\', say, 'Mother, father, j'ou come e]uick!' You no forget, 

 nie tliere alongside you." 



In the morning Sésere thought, „Oh, that good dream." He put the skulls back in the 

 grave and carried out the directions of the spirits. His sisters, who did not see him, believed 

 him to be dead and wept, and their husbands, too, thought that they had killed him. 



When high water came at sunset, Sésere mounted the platform and after calling out the 

 names of his father and mother said, „Sésere ngdi dmu Kibau dmu ngdi dnm paldika Kibau dmu 

 palàika ngdi imede Kibdni imede ngdina Sésere Sésere Sésere," which means, „Ail same father, 

 Ki'bau, been spear him, hand belong father — my hand all same now. Rope he go; all same 

 father been make him fast rope, I make him now." He then speared a dugong and brought it 

 on shore, and in the morning eut it up and cooked some of the méat. The sisters saw the smoke 

 of his fire. Sésere made two more harpoonheads and the next night speared three dugong. 



Sésere's two sisters, who had not seen him for a long time, vvent to his place to find 

 out whether he was alive or dead, and brought their babies with them. When they arrived, 

 Sésere who was making harpoon-heads did not look up, and the women stood there weeping. 

 Sésere thought to himself, „What for you been bring two pickaninny? He no belong you self, 

 blood belong two man along pickaninny. Suppose you two come self (alone), I give you méat." 

 The two women waited, but he did not ask them to sit down, and at last they turned away and 

 began to go back. Then he said, „Two sister belong me — no my fault, I no give you méat, 

 you carry pickaninny belong that two man. Two fellow fight me, take altogether fish, you been 

 cook him." The women returned to the village and reprimanded their husbands for what they had 

 done and said. 



The two men went to the hôriùmtt shrine (cf. introduction to no. 287) where they covered 

 the whole of their bodies with the leaf-sheath of a coconut-palm, transforming themselves into 



Tom. XLVII. 



