riiv Folh-Talis of llie Kiwai Pnpiinna. 455 



allogetiier and killed some people. Il consumed the woman's intestines. At length the snake was killed 

 and thrown inlo the waler, and there it became a canoe. (Continued in no. 419 B; Ibia, IpisiaK 



C. At Paära a woman who had been pounding sago during the day was visited at night by 

 a snake which lived in the sago tree, and it passed into her vulva. Her belly swelled out, and on 

 questioning her the people concluded that she harboured a snake. They managed to entice the reptile 

 out with a bait and killed it, but the woman died. (Duäba, OromosapLia). 



D. A certain Dorôpo man frequently slept with his wife, but she did not become pregnant. 

 Once a large snake passed into her by the vulva and coiled itsell' up vyithin her and ate her intes- 

 tines. The husband wondered what the e.Ntraordinary thing in her belly could be. One day he iried 

 to iure the snake out with a bail, a cooked fish and a pièce of cooked sago, holding a snare ready in 

 front of her vulva, and at last he managed to catch the snake. The reptile was puUed out and killed, 

 and the people eut it in pièces and burnt it. But the woman died. (Tdmetäme, Ipisia). 



E. A Wåboda canoe was once shipwrecked, and the people on board got into the water. A 

 large water snake passed into the vulva of one of the women, and coming out again it caught her 

 wrist and began to swim with her towards the shore. She was rescued by another Wåboda party, 

 and the snake was frightened away. The woman told the people what had happened, and as her 

 husband had been drowned another man took her. But she was frightfully sore after her expérience 

 with the snake, so her new husband could not sleep with her. (Tâmetàme, Ipisi'a). 



F. Once when a certain Ipisia man filled an oho/a (bottle made of a coconut-shell) at a water- 

 hole a small snake passed into the bottle. On his return home he left the nhoio in his house, and 

 presently his wife who had been catching crabs came home. She was very thirsty, and while she 

 drank out of the oho/ij the snake made its way into her belly. It grew there, and the woman swelled 

 so much .that she could not walk but had to stay indoors all the time. The people came and looked 

 at her. ,.Me think he got pickaninny inside," they said. When the snake moved the woman thought 

 it to be a child, for she did not know that there was a snake within her. When the woman thought 

 that her delivery was approaching, the people put her into an enclosure in ihe house and looked al'tor 

 her carefully, and the husband waited outside. In the night the head of the snake same out, and the 

 reptile was as large as a tree, and the \tomen exclaimed, „He no pickaninny, 1 think he (-/(f/ (snake) !" 

 They said to the husband, „Edei he come, no pickaninny," but at the same time the snake drew back 

 into the woman. She lay motionless and e.xhausted („hand he no strong, leg he no strong"). 



In the morning the man went to the bush and made some sago which he brought home and 

 cooked. He gave some to the women, and they put it in front of the sick woman so as to Iure the 

 snake out by the smell. In the night the head of the snake appeared again, and by moving the pièce 

 of sago further and further away the women succeeded in hringing the snake out altogether, and they 

 even enticed it to follow theni out from the enclosure of mats. Then they called the men to come. 

 and they shot the snake with their bows and arrows and hammered it with their stone clubs. P'inally 

 the reptile was eut in pièces and burnt. The sick woman died, for the snake had eaten ail her intes- 

 tines. (,Nàtai, Ipisial. 



G. This version is very like the preceding one. The woman who drank the water belonged 

 to Bâta in VVâpi. The people lured the snake further and furthei- out with a cooked fish, and it was 

 killed, eut up, and burnt, but the woman died. 



The same informant told a little shorter version also, a few of the détails slightly varying. 

 (Kàku, Ipisia). 



LiJ L I B R A R Y 35 

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