Tlic Folk-Tah'A of llic Kitvui I'npiKriis. 36^ 



fright, bushman he no make fight, no wild. That's no my talk, that s all bushman he speak, I 

 speak again along you." 



Since that time the Sàibai people and bush-people have been friends. (Säibu, Mavväta). 



298. Once a certain Mâbuiag man named Gâtori was asked by bis wife to get her some 

 dugong méat, for she was tired of ahvays eating vegetable food. He vvent to spear dugong vvith 

 seven companions, and his wife brought food, firewood, water, and other requirements to the 

 canoë. But she was great vvith child, so her husband should not have gone out harpooning at 

 ail, and that caused the disaster which befell him on the vvay. 



Gâtori speared a female dugong which was pregnant, and his genitals became entangled 

 in the harpoon Une and were eut clean off when the rope tightened, and he sank dead to the 

 bottom. The canoë drove before the wind, for Gdtori's friends on board were so absorbed in 

 wailing that none of them thought of using a paddle. The canoë drifted over the reefs and 

 some Stretches of deep water till it came to a small uninhabited Island, and there the crew 

 ianded. They lighted a fire, cooked some food, and ate, and then set sail again. But unable to 

 beat against the wind to Mâbuiag they were dri\'en to Davâne, and there they met Kogéa (a my- 

 thical man, cf no. 48). 



Gâtori's wife waited for his return. She climbed the hiU in Mâbuiag to look for him, 

 but no canoë was to be seen. When three days had elapsed, she thought him lost an wailed 

 over him. 



Kogéa invited the Mawâta men to his house and asked them where they came from. 

 „We corne from Mâbuiag, we been lose Gâtori along reef," and they told him how the accideut 

 had happened. „Vou fellow go away to-morrow," said Kogéa. He gave them food, and they 

 slept there. But early in the mornlng Kogéa got up and thought, „More hetter I kill him, I can'l 

 let him go back along Mâbuiag." And he killed them all except two men who fled into the 

 canoe, drew out the pole and drifted down to Böigu. There they were received by a man named 

 Ki'ba. He gave them only dugong meat to eat, for Bôigu at that time, as in the present day, 

 boasted of very few gardens. Ki'ba raised a favourable wind, and in one day the two men 

 reached Mâbuiag. They met Gâtori's father Wüiwa and told him about his son's death, and the 

 old man was so enraged that he seized his stone club and killed them both, for without them 

 Gâtori could not have gone to the reef and would not have perished. Wüiwa also clubbed Gâ- 

 tori's wife who was the real cause of his death. Then he rushed up on a hill, decked himself 

 with leaves and branches and danced there alone. When he came down he asked his wife to 

 light a big fire, and when it was burning he placed a spear in the middle of the fiâmes point 

 upwards and threvv himself on to it. The weapon passed right through his body, and he was 

 consumed in the fire. On the same day Gâtori's body fioated ashore in Mâbuiag, and was buried 

 there. (Vasârigi, Mawâta). 



299. One night Vasârigi and three of his friends were spearing dugong when a 

 gust of wind capsized their canoe. Sitting in the bottom of the canoe they drifted with the 

 tide. Vasârigi wanted to try to swim ashore but Ihe others said, „You no go swim, by- 



