Thf Folk -Tales of Ihr k'ih'ni Papua us. 451 



A. Some Kivvai boys caught a snaUe in a trap which they had set for bush rats. They placed 

 the snake on the palh and frightened a certain old man so that he feil and hurt himself. He was a 

 sorcerer and took revenge upon the boys as in the first version. One boy escaped, and the old man 

 and his wife were killed by children's parents. (Manu, Ipisia). 



B. The old man was so frightened by the snake that he feil and broke his arm-shell which 

 niade him furious. While he and the boys were spending the night logether he got up and eut off 

 the head of one boy after another with his beheading knife, but one little boy managed to get out in 

 time and hid underneath the house, for it was toc dark to run away. In the morning he informed his 

 parents of what had happened. The heads of the boys were found in the old man's house, and he 

 and his wife were killed. (Ibia, Ipisia). 



C. Some lasa boys once set traps for bush rats and one of them caught a snake. They fright- 

 ened an old man with the snake, and he feil and broke his arm-shell. The boys were „poisoned" as 

 in the first version, except the youngest of them, a little boy who still carried weights in his ear-lobes. 

 The old man and woman were burnt to death in their own house. (Ganåme, Ipisia.) 



HOW THE BOYS WERE CAPTURED BY AN OLD WOMAN AND ESCAPED.«- 



410. A number of boys lived inside a large tree at Büdabe on the Bi'natiiri river. One 

 da\- they shot a s6renmo-b\rd which belonged to a little old woman living at Dibegomo. She was 

 vcry angry, nnd they fled before her into their trec. One day she came and captured all the 

 boys, put them in her basket and placed it on a shelf, and then she went out closing the house 

 carefully behind her. She wanted to make some sago in order to cook the boy's flesh with it. 



The boys wondered how they should get out. One of them had a feather which he 

 put in his mouth, and thus he transformed himself into a bird. In the shape of the bird he ma- 

 naged to creep out. Then he released the rest. They put some frogs into the basket saying to 

 them, „Suppose that wOman he ask, 'You fellow there?' you gammon teil him, 'Me fellou- here, 

 me t'ellovv no been run away.'" VVhen the woman came back she was deceived by the frogs 

 and took them to be her prisoners. ^' She took the basket down and hit it with a large stone 

 meaning to crush the boys to death. but to her surprise the frogs jumped out. „Halloo, my kaikai 

 been run away!'' she exclaimed. Then she set off to pursue the run-aways. But the boys were 

 waiting for her on the other side of a creek. and when she came out on to a bridge which lead 

 across it, they shot ber, and she feil dead into the water. They carried her into her house and 

 set fire to it. A hole burst open in ber ehest, and she called out to them through the opening, 

 „Oh, you fellow been run away, 1 want kaikai you fellow. "*" „Oh, you kobori (copulate with) 

 yourself there," said the boys scornfully, „you kaikai close up me fellow. You stop; me go house 

 belong me fellow." She was consumed by the fiâmes, and the boys went home to Biidabe, and 

 there they live in the bush, although invisible. (Giii, Dirimo). 



THE 30Y WHO WAS PURSUED BY AN OLD WOMAN.«^ 



411. At Ume there lived some boys who used to fish and work in their gardens. Once 

 one of them shot at a certain fish called soreåmo, and suddenly an old woman named Päki ran to him 



N:u I. 



