328 



Gunnar Landtman. 



A crayfish. Drawn 

 bv Nàmai of Mawàta. 



time sing out for woinan? That me there you (your) wife. No matter I got 

 long tail, no matter two long hand, altogether leg. 1 woman, vvhere that red, 

 that åe (vulva)." 



Gimodöburo vvoke up in the morning and felt very pleased at his dream. 



He vvent and caught the crayfish, and to prevent its escape vvhile he was 



working he tied it up with a string. A hot sun was scorching the crayfish 



^ il/ \ l\ Ii " all day, and in the evening it was dead. The man returned from his work 



^M ' t ly^ ^"'^ picked it up and shook it saying, „Umanio (crayfish), you sleep too much ! 



X^Ä f\/ Oh, poor fellow he dead! Fault belong me no leave him along cold place, 



that sun he burn." Then he buried the crayfish (in the ground) at the root 



of a large kunimi-tvee. And he wailed, 



„Gimodoburo, Gimodöburo Sôidobitro Soidoburo Sosidöburo. — My v\'oman 

 he die now, I cry." The right name of the crayfish was Sôido, and Sosidöburo 

 is coined from idöbi which means ,,\veep". 



When he had finished his lament, he did not think any more about the crayfish 

 and went on with his work as before. 



After a time the stem of a banana tree sprouted from the dead crayfish. 

 One night Ginodöburo was visited by the spirit of the crayfish which said to him, „GimodtJburo, 

 what name (why) you cry one time for me, no more come look my burying ground? You go 

 see what thing he come out. When kaikai come out, hang down, you ruh him along that red 

 thing belong my tail. That time you plant him you put him that red thing underneath. You 

 make that same cr^', „Gimodöburo, Gimodoburo Söidoburo Söidoburo, Sosidöburo." 



„My God, good dream," Gimodöburo thought on awakening in the morning. He went 

 to the place where he had buried the crayfish and saw there a banana tree, and when he came 

 near, the leaves began to flutter (,he glad inside, father he come"). Gimodöburo thought, „No 

 got no wind, him he shake himself. My God, good thing he come out from that umanio !" 



Différent kinds of banana trèe sprouted from the root of the first tree. A bunch of fruit 

 began to form in the tree, and Gimodöburo rolled it up in leaves and eut off the bud at the end, 

 rubbing the wound with the tail of the crayfish as he had been told. When the fruit ripened it 

 feil, and new trees sprang up from it. 



Gimodc')buro had refrained from eating the first ripe bananas, hut when the next bunches 

 ripened, he began eating them. He planted many trees, and made new gardens, and from him 

 the cultivation of bananas has spread to other people as well, instead of rubbing the 3'oung 

 plants with the vulva of a female craj'fish the people nowadays use „medicine" from the vulvae 

 of their wives. They also put a small pièce of a crayfish and a kunhni-root underneath the first 

 hanana planted in a new garden, and when the young tree stands erect, they shake it a little nnd 

 sing the song which they have learnt from Gimodöburo. The whole garden benefits from the 

 „medicine" applied to the first tree. These observances are still kept up. When the new trees 

 have been planted, the men will wander round the garden singing the same song again („that 

 .sing (song) go all över garden, make him grow"). The people do not eat the first ripe bunch of 

 fruit in a new banana garden, and when the fruit has fallen, it is thrown all över the garden and 

 left to decay. (Nämai, Mawåta). 



Tom. .\L\11. 



