The Folk-Tales of Ihc Kin'oi Papuans. 287 



region of her private parts. The mother screamed out, the people ran up, and the crocodile was 

 killed. They carried the girl home, and the beast was eut up, roasted, and eaten. 



The next morning the girl was verj' ill. The Kiwai women do not treat a serious wound, 

 and as that is the mens task some of them came to attend to her. At that time the only co- 

 vering the men had was a large groin-shell. One of the men came flrst to examine the wound, 

 but as he saw the nude girl he got confused, his groin-shell „jumped up", and he had to go 

 back and said, „No, I no can eut (bleed) him." One after another tried the same but with no 

 better result. At length they called in an old man saying, „You go eut him, you no more 

 strong." The old man tried his best, but the same thing happened to him, and he too had to 

 give it up. If she had been an old woman, or if the crocodile had bitten her elsewhere, everj'- 

 thing would have been différent, said the narrator. 



After a time the woman urinated, and then she recovered, for a persons own urine is 

 the best .medicine in such a case. (Nämai, Mawåta). 



A. The narrator was at läsa when the accident happened. The woman, whose name was 

 Séruöroho, was Struck down bj' the crocodile's tall and bitten. The man who aUended to her wound 

 was very embarrassed and shielded himself wiih one hand while he examined her with the other. 

 The woman recovered, (Gaméa, Mawåta). 



222. A number of läsa boys and girls were once sent in a canoe to Samåri to look after 

 the banana gardens there. One of the boys whose name was Mogiira noticed that one of the 

 girls, Moriidoro by name, was sitting in a bad fashion in the canoe, and thought to himself, „No 

 good you sit all same, you no see plenty boy?" He felt very confused, and could not remain in 

 the canoe, for at that time the men did not use any clothing. Therefore he walked all the way 

 in the water, pushing the canoe along by the shore. ,0h, Mogiira, more better you come inside 

 canoe," said the others, but he replied, „Oh, he all right, you no sorry me." 



When they reached Samåri the girls went into the house, but Mogiira asked Moriidoro to 

 remain with him. „Whafs the matter you no sit down good along canoe?" he said to her, „My 

 God, you no see årumo (penis) belong me; that's why I go along water." He asked her to go 

 with him into the bush, and they slept there together. They were reprimanded by their com- 

 panions, but Mogüra said that it was not his fault, for the girl had been sitting in a bad fashion 

 in the canoe. Moriidoro asked him to come to her in the night, and he came, for he was not 

 afraid, as her parents stayed in another place. After three days the boys and girls returned to 

 läsa. There was a good deal of quarrelling, when the people heard what Mogiira and Moriidoro 

 had done. The two were married, and the boys parents wanted to give various things in pay- 

 ment for the girl but her parents claimed another girl in exchange, and that was the cause of the 

 quarrel. In the end the dispute was settled. (Bi'ri, Ipisia). 



223. A certain Hiamu man of Daru once sent a boy to the women's house for some 

 food, which he should bring to the men's house. When the boy passed under the house of his 

 elder brother, he saw his sister-in-law sitting on the floor, and her body was visible through a 

 joint in the tlooring. He pushed his finger into har vulva, and the woman who thought that it 

 N:o 1. 



