The Folk-Talcs of tlie Khvai Papuans. 319 



The next day a great many people assembled and went to see the coconut palm. Barikâbo 

 placed them in groups round the tree and said to the first group, „You stand up hère, this side 

 belong you fellow, green coconut on top, dry coconut along ground." To the next group he 

 said, „Coconut on top (and) along ground, altogether this side he belong you." Thus he marked 

 out which nuts belonged to the différent groups of people. AH collected their coconuts and went 

 home, and the dry nuts vvere planted together with a certain „medicine" which consisted of a 

 small pièce of the skin of a crocodile. The coconut had taught Barikâbo to use that „medicine" 

 which referred to the time when the coconut had floated in the water like a fish or a crocodile. 

 Even now the people use the same „medicine" when planting coconuts. (Nâmai, Mawâta). 



A. The Di'biri people were bailing out the water of a river in order to find Mérave's drum 

 (cf. no. 56). Kakindbo, a woman, had a coconut hanging between her legs, and a man named Rasiisure 

 eut it off under exactiy the same circumstances as in the first version. They threvv the coconut into 

 the water, where one day it was speared by Rasùsure as told before, and since then every coconut has 

 a hole where one of the points penetrated the shell and two marks from the other points (cf. no. 263). 

 The man afterwards found the coconut tree and distributed the nuts among the people (Gibûma, Mawàta). 



B. The origin of the first coconut was the same as in the two preceding versions. Tiie man's 

 name was Barikâbo and the woman's Gâgena. The nut was speared in the water by Barikâbo, thence 

 the hole and the two marks in the shell. Barikâbo was visited by the tree in a dream, and he made 

 his dogs eat a little of the kernel. The old men e.xamined the nuts, but none of them knew what they 

 were, and a blind man tasted them first. Nâbeamuro (cf. no. 57), Morigiro (cf. no. 57), Begerédubu 

 (cf. no. 109), and Meséde (cf. no. 45), were among the people who assembled to see the tree. The 

 men tried in vain to climb the palm, and it was only after the women had flung up their grass petti- 

 coats into the leaf-axils by way of decorating the tree that some boy managed to get up. The women's 

 Petticoats are still to be seen in the a.xils of the leaves; there is a sort of frilly pièce that suggests a 

 skirt. Some people obtained many coconuts and others none or only a few, this is why the number 

 of coconut trees varies so much in différent villages. (Kâku, Ipisi'a). 



C. (Continuation of no. 56 A). The first coconut derived its origin from a woman as in the 

 previous versions. A man speared it in the water and threw it on shore where it began to grow. 

 The man was told of ils e.xistence in a dream, and first made a small dog, then the other dogs, and 

 lastly an old man and woman try the new food. When the people assembled at the coconut palm a 

 man was sent up to fetch some nuts but he slid down. A woman then took off her grass petticoat 

 which was tied round the ankles of a boy to support his feei, and then he managed to elimh up. 

 One of the large leaves was once al)out to fall down, and a woman was sent to lie it up with her 

 grass petticoat, and ever since the. leaf-axils are provided with fibrous envelopes which look like women's 

 skirts. Ail the people went home with their share of nuts. The Dâru people did not put their nuts 

 in their canoës, as the rest did, but tied them on to the canoë outriggers, and they were washed away. 

 For that reason there were formerly no coconut palms in Dâru. (Tom, Mawâta). 



D. A coconut once came lloating from Dibiri to Kiwai and was speared there by a man who 

 took it to be a fish. The coconut Struck root, and the tree was found by the same man who made 

 his dogs first taste the kernel. The coconuts were distributed ail over the country. (Gabia, Ipisia). 



E. Barikâbo relieved Kakinâbo from the first coconut as told above. Subsequently it was 

 speared by him and Struck root. A hunter named Oge (cf. no. 56 B) found the grown coconut tree, 



N;o 1. 



^0^'-y 



