XVIII. TALES OF ANIMAIS AND PLANTS 



(n:o. 413 — 450; cf. Index, Animais and Plants). 



SNAKES WHO MAKE THEIR WAY INTO WOMEN. 



4 lo. Ätter tinishing their vvork in the bush a certain Kubira nian nameJ Gimai and his 

 wife returned home one e\'ening. The woman went apart tu i-elieve herself and was seen by a 

 large snake with her petticoat open. After a while she returned to her husband, and they 

 went to sleep. 



In the night the snake came into the house. It found the woman and passed into her 

 body, and there it remained. The woman's nipples turned black, at the sight of which Gimai 

 exclaiined, „My god, <niio (nipples) belong you come black now! 1 no been g(j for you, what's 

 the matter diiio belong you come black?" „I don't know what kind thing he come inside my 

 lie (vulva) night-time," answered the woman. 



The snake wanted to come out, and the woman thougt that she was about to give birth 

 to a child. She was taken out of the house, took off her petticoat, and sad down, and another 

 woman prepared to assist her. Suddenly the snake's head stuck out, and the other woman, 

 horribly frightened, called out, „My god, that (is a) snake !" She tried to catch the snake, but 

 it quickh' retired into the woman. Again and again the head peeped out, but whenever the woman 

 tried to catch it it drew back. Gimai, the husband of the sick woman, was inlbrmed, „That n<i 

 pickaninny he come out from you (your) woman, that head belong snake he come. We want 

 catch him, he go back." He went to his wife, and when the snake stuck out its head, the man 

 managed to get hold of it. The snake was drawn out, and Gimai called some men to come and 

 eut it up. Then they roasted it on the lire and ate it, and when they had ended their meal the 

 sick woman was dead. (Continued in no. 232 D; Gibuma, Mawåta). 



A. A Dfbiri woman was once seen by a snake while changing her petticoat alter swimming, 

 and in the night the reptile came" and made its way into her vulva. At dawn the snake withdrew 

 into the bush, but next day it saw the woman again, and in the night it came back and passed into 

 her with oniv the tail sticking out. A man vvlio saw the snake awoke the people, and Ihe reptile was 

 killed and thrown into the water, and iheie it Uansformed itself into a canoe. (Continued in no. 419 

 C; Epére, Ipisia). 



B Once while a certain Kubira woman was asleep, a snake passed into her belly without 

 her knowing. At night its head used to stick out from her vulva, and at times the reptile came out 



Tom. XLVll. 



