The Folk-Tales of the Kiwai Papuans. 197 



TUBE OF HAEMUBA. 



105. At Håemuba lives an ctengena (mythical being, ef. Introduction to no. 102) who 

 appears in dreams to certain people. Once vvhen a man named .Såibu was there making a fence 

 round his garden he saw Tube in the shape of a snake. He was about to shoot the reptile with 

 his bovv and arrows when it made a sign to him with its head. Then Såibu understood that it 

 was an ctengena and did not shoot. The snake caused him ti> become drowsy, so he left his 

 work and went home to sleep. While he slept the same snake in the shape of a man came to 

 him in a dream and said, „You go to-morrow, you look along road, I lie down all same iguana. 

 I wait you there. You no think that iguana, that me." In the morning Såibu found an iguana 

 in the bush which was holding a branch of a certain tree in its mouth. The animal looked at 

 him and made a sign by closing its eyes. Såibu patted it gently on the head, and it dropped 

 the branch which the man picked up. 



In the night the same being came and taught him how to use the „medicine" when 

 planting yams and taro. He was asked to roll a root up in a pièce of bark of the same tree and 

 to chew certain plants and spit the juice on the digging stick, but only the first root to be planted 

 required to be treated thus, as the whole garden derived benefit thereof. When doing this Såibu 

 says, „Suppose I make him wrong; I leave him garden now, you come make him again. You 

 come siisu (make water) along my garden, make him good." Sometimes in a dream he sces 

 Tube in his garden and thinks, „Oh, I got good medicine, him he there now." 



The first taro pullcd out of the ground is shared between the owner and Tube. The man 

 roa.sts the taro in the garden and rubs his face with the ashes scraped off the root. He eats half 

 the tarcj and leaves the other half near the fire, saying, „I leave for you half; you take him, you 

 (and) me been make him good that garden, I kaikai half, leave for you half close to that fireplace. 

 You me kaikai tirst time, people come behind (afterwards) kaikai that garden. Any man he 

 come puU out taro along that garden, you no humbug that man, no make sick." Tube eats a 

 little of the taro in the same way as would a rat, and the man comes and sees: „Oh, he been 

 kaikai little bit." Afterwards Tube will appear to the man in a dream saying, „Garden belong 

 you he finish now, I leave him now, I been look out good, give medicine. Next time you make 

 him garden you kaikai (chew) that wood again, I come again." 



Once the ctengena came to Såibu and said, „My name Tiibe; vvhat place you want me 

 come, you call my name, you put that wood, I savy smell belong that wood." Tube lives in a 

 large tree, and Såibu keeps the „medicine-wood" close to it. When he wants some medicine he 

 goes to the tree and says, „That's no other man, that's me, Såibu, I come take that thing." 

 Anyone who steals Saibu's medicine gets ill and dies. When Saibu's son grows up his father 

 will teach him the use of the medicine. 



Såibu told the people what Tube had taught him, and they tried their best to avail 

 themselves of the knowledge in the same way as he had done. They carried out the same rites 

 as long as they thought them useful. If the gardens are destroyed by pigs, the people think, 

 „That medicine he no good," and give up the use of it. They dream again and find some other 

 medicine. Some men are taught one procédure by the ctengena, other men another; „he no 

 everybody one road," said the narrator. (Såibu, Mawåta). 

 N:o 1. 



