The Folk-Tales of the Kiwai Papuans. 201 



in Mäbuiag. One day when the wind was blowing from tlie Gimini side he thought of his old Iiome 

 and wept. He sailed över there with his tvvo wives and children. When he met his brother he gave 

 him his one wife and her child, for Möiso had no wife before. At that time Gimini was a wooded 

 island, not a mere sandbanlc as nowadays. (Iku, Mawäta). 



HOW GIMINI ISLAND WAS DESTROYED. 



112. Gîmini island, which formerly was a wooded island belonging to Giibo and Möiso, 

 was destroyed in the following way. One day some Mawata boys and giiis borrowed a canoe 

 from a man named Säsa and went över to fish at the island. They did not fasten their canoe 

 properly, so it drifted away and eventually stranded at Wönaröma on the mainland, and was 

 badly damaged through being knoci<ed on to the mangrove roots. Säsa was very angry and 

 shot an arrow at the people saying, „What name (why) you no been look out proper?" He 

 thought that the existence of the island was the cause of the trouble. For if there had been no 

 land there, the people when fishing on the reefs would have been compelled to sleep in their 

 canoës, and if this had been the case his craft would not have gone lost. Therefore he determined 

 to destroy Gimini. He provided himsell with the spear of a sting-ray, and the leg and snout of 

 a pig (with which the animal roots up the ground) and used the bone of a dead person for making 

 these objects „warm". During his preparatory nécromancies he danced in the men's house decked 

 with leaves. Then he buried the leg and snout of the pig among the grass on Gi'mini just above 

 the water-line, and the spear of the sting-ray as weil as the bone of the dead man were buried 

 in the centre of the island. Hnally he carried the snout and leg of the pig round all of Gimini. 

 He asked the différent things to destroy the island, and this was done exactly as when a pig 

 roots up the ground, or a sting-ray digs a hole in the sand. The high tide washed över the 

 island and felled the trees, and the next time the people came there nothing remained but a 

 sandbank. The people got to know that it was Såsa who had brought it all about and killed 

 him by means of sorcery. 



During Old Gaméa's time (et. no. 19) Gimini had been discovered by tvvo of his companions 

 named Kiwia and Sagüba, and at the present time the reef is considered to belong to six Mawåta 

 men who are his descendants. (Nåmai, Mawåta). 



THE GUARDIANS OF MARUKARA ISLAND. 



113. On Mårukära island between Mawåta and Mâbudavâne there used to live a iiiamagå- 

 rena (mythical being, ef. Introduction to no. 102). At that time the place was noted for its turtle 

 eggs. It belonged to a Mawåta man named Odai, and when he came to Mårukära he used to 

 pour out some freshwater on the sand, saying, „Oh, mamagärena, more better you make plenty 

 turtle egg belong me." After this observance he always found plenty of eggs. When Odai was 

 dead the people used to appeal to him too when asking for turtle eggs, because he had been the 

 owner of the island. They poured out water and put down a little food saying, „Oh, Odai, more 

 better you and mamagärena put plenty egg for me." 



Once a man named Gabia killed the mamagärena, and since then it is very rarely that 

 the people find any turtle eggs on the island. Gabia slept there alone one night and had no fire. In 

 N:o 1. •'ie 



