Tlic Folk-Taks of thc Khvai Papuans. 387 



up its terrible tail and ran the man through with its spear ripping up his belly. As the man did 

 not return to the surface his friands started to haul in the harpoon-line, and after a vvhile they 

 got hold of the man's intestines as well, which were floating in the water. The man was brought 

 on board dead, and the people sailed home and buried him. 



Before leaving the place where the accident had happened the men marked it out and 

 said to the sting-ray, „You no go other place, you stop one place. By and-by I come, I sorry 

 first that man." When the burial was over, the people returned to the reef in order to kill the 

 fish. They found the spot and formed a ring round the sting-ray in their canoës. Everybody 

 was warned to beware of the formidable tail. They speared the fish from their canoës, and finally 

 an old man ventured into the water and tied a rope to the head of the fish, and it was hauled 

 to the surface. The tail was secured to an outrigger, and its spear was removed with an axe. 

 After the fish had been lifted up on the platform the people sailed home, and there they eut it 

 up. (Bi'ri, Ipisia). 



N:o 1. 



