The Folk-Tales of the Khvai Papuans.. 315 



A. (This version is preceded by one of the épisodes of the two quarrelling brothers, ef. no. 

 257 A). After the two brothers had made friends they stayed together. Once when they and their wives 

 were in the bush, their sons who remained at home humbugged the grass-petticoat of their mothers. 

 .After a time the two women became pregnant, and the two husbands guessed the truth. They 

 enticed the boys into the bush and caused them to get jammed up in the trunk of a tree as in the 

 first version. After a time the parents went to live inside a large tree in the bush, as they had no 

 children who looked after them. Even at the present time it happens when someone is dead that the 

 people can hear the two brothers beating their drums inside the large tree. The spirits are believed to 

 come to visit the two brothers, and they dance together. The boys who were jammed up in the tree 

 all died, for the sharp edges of the tree eut off their hands. (Iku, Mawàta). 



N:o 1. 



