288 Gunnar Landtman. 



was her hushand let it pass. After a while the boy went on and performed his errand. He did 

 the same thing to his sister-in-law several evenings, when he passed underneath her house. 



Once the elder brother was clearing the boy's hair from lice, and during the operation 

 the latter feil asleep with his head in his brother's lap.^- Just for fun the elder brother eut a 

 mark with a shell on the thumb nail of the sleeping boy without thinking any more about it.* 



One day the woman scolded her husband for molesting her from underneath the house 

 when she was sitting on the floor. He was greatly surprised at vvhat she told him and said, 

 „No, 1 no been come here, I think somebody been come humbug you." They determined to find 

 out vvho it was. In the evening the boy was again sent on his usual errand, and on passing 

 under the wom.an's house he harrassed her in the same way as before. Her husband who was 

 Standing beside her asked her to rise up a little, and as she gradually did .so the boy pushed his 

 hand further and further in through the hole in the floor. .Suddenly the man and woman caught 

 hold of the hand and dragged the boy upwards till his head knocked against the floor, but he 

 did not utter a sound. While the woman was holding the hand tightly, the man eut through the 

 wrist with a shell. At length the hand was severed, and the boy feil to the ground. He pressed 

 the stump of his arm between his legs and in that position staggered to the men's house, blood 

 flowing freely. On reaching his bed he lay down on his face in a fold of his sleeping mat, co- 

 vering himself with half of the mat. He kept his wounded arm between his legs. and rested his 

 face on the other arm. Nobody knevv that he had only one hand. He wept by himself and in 

 the night he died. 



After cutting off the hand the man and woman lighted a torch and examined it. The man 

 at once recognized that it was his brother's hand from the mark which he had eut on his thumb 

 nail. „What name (what) you think? Who belong finger (hand)?" asked the woman. „Look, 

 that my brother," he replied, „I been make mark here that time I look out louse." They were 

 sorry and went to look underneath the house. „Oh, mark here! Oh, kaikai here, he been leave 

 him!" They went in and the man sat down. Leaning his back against one of the posts and 

 keeping the severed hand on his knee he wailed all night, and his wife with him. 



In the morning the men got up and left the men's house. One of them noticed that the 

 boy did not stir and tried to wake him up. As he lifted up the mat, he noticed the blood and 

 called out, „Oii! he got full up blood! What name (what is) that? Éy! he no got other finger 

 (hand). That boy he dead, long time dead!" His brother was summoned and said to the people, 

 „That me been eut him," and he and his wife told the people what had happened. „He nobody 

 talk (nobody has a cause for quarrel)," said the people, „belong you kill you (your) brother self, 

 blood belong you." The body and hand were wrapped up in a mat and buried. (Nämai, 

 Mawäta). 



A. A certain man named Nàbo one evening passed underneath a house in which another 

 man named Sonüpu and his wife Asiäbe lived, and as the latter was sitting över a hole in the floor 

 for a natural purpose he molested her as in the first version. She thought al first that it was her 

 husband, and the same thing was repeated several days. At length Nåbo was caught as in the pre- 

 vious version, and his hand was eut off. He managed to reach his bed, where he lay down between 

 two mats and died. Soniipu went with the hand to the men's house and told the people what had 



Tom. XLVII. 



