452 Gunnar Landtman. 



and cried out, .,You no shoot boy belong me! You look out, I kill you there!" She tried to hit 

 him with a stone hut missed him. The boy ran away vvith the woman in pursuit, and she 

 called out, „I go kaikai you, you spoil my boy! Good job you been miss!" The chase went on 

 round all the trees and bushes which were growing there, and the hsh feil out ot" the boy's 

 basket. They did not stop running till it was dark, and then the boy lay down and slept on 

 one side of a bush, and the old woman on the other side. In the morning the chase was 

 resumed, but the woman could not hit the boy. Thus they ran on for many days in succession. 



The boy was missed by his friends, and they came to search for him, but could not find 

 him, and he was thought to be dead. 



At length the boy ran home, and he had become so thin that hardly any tlesh remained 

 on his body. His parents saw the old woman pursuing their son, but he could not stop but 

 signed to them what they should do. The people understood him and dug a deep hole in the 

 ground, covering it with some large leaves, and the next day when the two ran by again, the 

 boy jumped över the hole, for he knew where it was, but the old woman feil into it, and there 

 she was caughK The people Ihrew hot stones and boiling water on her, some shot her with 

 their bows and arrows or hammered her with their stone clubs, and at length she was killed. 

 The boy, half dead, was taken cai'e (jf by his parents. „That vxoman he dead, and them fellow 

 he stop." (Güi, Dirimo). 



THE BOY WHO ANNOYED A SPIRIT AND WAS KILLED. 



412. A certain Kubira boy on his dail}' way to the gardens used to pass by a hut in 

 which a spirit lived. He was in the habit of throwing a stick into the hut uhenever he went 

 by, and the spirit had to dodge the missile or he would hava been hit. He grew greatly annoyed : 

 „Oh, same boy he chuck wood! You no think man (somebody) he stop here, look out (after) 

 house? You bad fool, by-and-by — next time!" This was repeated every daj'. 



Finally the spirit took a pièce of wood and keeping it close at hand wailed foi' the boy 

 to come. The boy came as usual on his way to the bush and threw a stick into the hut. The 

 spirit seized his weapon, jumped out and hit the boy, killing him on the spot. He left him lying 

 on the path and said scornfuily, „You get up, you kill me! You strong boy? All time chuck 

 away stick along rny house — no good." 



After a while a certain big man came Walking along the path from the village, and on 

 seeing the boy he exclaimed, „Uô! what's the matter that boy? Who been flght, who kill him 

 that boy?" He went and summoned the people, and they ail wailed. The boy was carried home 

 and buried. The people burnt the hut but did not find the spirit who had killed the boy. One 

 night one of them dreamt that the spirit came to him and said, „Oh, that boy, every day, every 

 time he chuck away stick along my house, that's why I fight." And the dreamer told the people 

 what he had learnt, and everybody thought that the boy himself was to be blamed for his death. 



Since then the people take care not to throw anything into an apparently empt\^ house. 



According to another version by the same narrator the Kubfra boy used to go to the 

 bush every day playing his piago (pan-pipe), and whenever he passed by the hut where the spirit 

 livcLl he thi-ew a pièce of clay in at the dooi'. In the end hc was killed as in the first version, 



'1'om. XLVII. 



