320 Gunnar Landtman. 



and through him the nuts were distributed among the people. The vvomen decorated the leaf-axils 

 with their petticoats. A man named Kakinäburo climbed up the palm, and wherever he rested his 

 head against the triink it was stained by the red paint with which he had smeared his hair, and since 

 then the trunks of some palms are reddish. For some reason Kakindburo while climbing the palm 

 could neither get up nor down, and was transformed into a siinubn (ants'-nest), and therefore such are 

 found on the trunks of coconul palms. (Nosöro and Obordme). 



F. A hunter in Dibiri once found a coconut floating in the water, and from it the first 

 coconut palm grew up. The man made his dögs taste the kernel and afterwards distributed the nuts among 

 the people. (Nätai, Ipisia). 



G. When a woman, Kakinabo by name, was once swimming in the water a fruit-spike of a 

 coconut palm passed into her de (vulva) and caused her to become pregnant, and some time afterwards 

 she brought forth a coconut. The rest of the tale runs much like the other versions. (Gaméa, Mawäta). 



H. In Rep. Cambr. Anthrop. Exp. vol. v. p. 103. The Strandirig of the First Coconut in 

 Murahig. The coconut floated to Muralug from Daudai. A woman who was bathing in the sea saw 

 it and thinking that it was a fish asked her husband to shoot it. He did so and threw the nut on to 

 the shore, and there it started to grow. One night the tree came to him in a dream and told him its 

 various uses. He found the tree and let first the ants and then the bees and dögs taste the kernel of 

 a nut, and finally he ate it himself and found it good. 



I. Ibid., vol. vi. p. 52. Discoveiy of the Use of Coconnts as Food. Gedori, of Mergar in Mer, 

 once eut down some coconut trees and one of the nuts rolled into the sea. Thinking that it was a 

 fish he speared it, and the three prongs of his fish-spear penetrated the holes of the nut. He tested the 

 kernel by giving some scrapings to ants, and then ate some himself. 



THE FIRST COCONUT (Mâsingàra version). 



263. A man named Dägi lived alone with his two wives Piiepiie and Pöpe. He had 

 many children, among them a son named Nüe whose mother was Püepüe. 



One night the wild fowl was crying in a wdrakara-Uee in the bush, ^Kekûkô kiidio nuc- 

 nue-nue.'' Dågi listened and thought, „Oh, all time wild fowl he sing out name belong my 

 pickaninny." He told Niie to make a gåta (three-pronged arrow), and another night, just hefore 

 dav\'n, when the bird was calling, he sent the boy to kill it. Niie went and shot it with the gdta, 

 one of the points pierced the body whereas two broke off (this has référence to the hole and two 

 small depressions in a coconut, ef. no. 262 A). He brought the bird home and said, „Father, he 

 here that man he been sing out me all time." Dàgi sent him back and said, „Where ne (droppings) 

 belong that pigeon (bird) he stop, you dig him ground, plant him pigeon, ncbàre (rump) he go 

 on top, head he go down." And the boy did so. 



The thing began to grow with miraculous rapidity,' and by the time the boy had got hack 

 to his father there .stood a tall coconut tree full of fruit, some of which was ripe and had fallen 

 down. One day Niie came back and seeing the tree exclaimed, „Uéi! What name that fruit.'" 

 He planted some of the ripe coconuts, and again by the time he had arrived home, they had 

 grown into large trees, some with red and some with green fruit. Nüe did not teil his father 



Tom. XLVII. 



