///(• Folk-'fales of tlic Kiwni Ftipuans. 463 



the man not being there, the snake came out again foUowing iiis tracks. „Oh, canoë there he 

 been take him," the reptile thought. Swimming through the water the snake tbllovved the same 

 course which the man had taken and tinally reached Pi'siâmi. Il made its way into the house 

 and caught the Pisi;imi man taking him to he the one it was after, and it carried him away 

 and killed him. 



In the morning the people saw the tracks of the snake and tbund that a man was missing. 

 They said to the new-coraer, „What's the matter you no speak first time, Snake he come behind, 

 that's why I run away, come here.' Vou no more go home, you take place belong that man 

 snake he been take him. Pickaninny there, woman there belong that man, you take him." 

 Therefore the man could ne\er go back again to his proper home. (Gihüma, Mawâta). 



A. The Koåbo people vvere preparing l'or a dance, and a certain man named Gimàda wanted 

 some white l'eathers for his head-dress, but nobody gave him any. He went to shoot birds by himself 

 and feil into a hole in a tree as in the previous version. The hole led into the gound, and there was 

 a large open space and a house like that of ordinary people; „that gammon tree he stand on top," 

 said the narrator. There were gardens toc beneath the ground. Oimâda was received by a stränge 

 human being who lived there with his wife. At times he appeared as a man and at times as a snake 

 with a rattle attached to the end ot' the tail. The snake-man used to catch ail sorts of animais which 

 it brought home in his belly and there threw them up. He gave Gimàda a great quantity of white 

 feathers and carried him home in his belly. 



The dance was over, and Oimâda's wife wailed for her husband, thinking that he was 

 dead. When Gimàda returned she Hrst took him to be a ghost. Gimàda brought with him all the 

 white feathers and the supply of méat which the snake had given him. The latter he distributed 

 among the people but he refused to let them hâve a share in the feathers, for they had not given him 

 any before. (Menégi, Mawàta). 



B. A hunter used to shoot birds from a small hut which he had built in a tree. k snake 

 lived there who asked him lo give him some birds, but the man did not heed him. Another day 

 when the man was shooting in the same tree the snake came and coiled itself round him and killed 

 him by breaking his bones, and then it let him drop from Ihe tree and took ail the birds which he had 

 killed into the tree. The wife and friends of the dead man came and searched for him and eventually 

 found the small hut in the tree. Ne.xt his bow and arrows were discovered, and lastly the man himself. 

 They wailed over him, and he was buried. (Kàku, Ipisia). 



G. A man who wanted feathers for a dance feil inlo a hole in a tree and encountered there 

 a snake to whom the birds in the tree belonged. He was kindly received by the snake who gave him 

 a great many feathers. The man promised the snake a woman and went home to get him one, while 

 the snake came on behind. But the man could not persuade his sister to take the snake, and the 

 latter became enraged. One night the reptile smelled its way into the house where the girl slept, coiled 

 itself round her, lifted her up and carried her away, the girl being asleep ail the while. The snake 

 took her into the tree and kept her there. On awaking she was at first very frightened, but the animal 

 spoke kindly to her. 



The girl's parents came to search for her and found the tracks of the snake. Her brother 

 showed the people the tree where the reptile lived, and at last they found it. At the sight of it they 

 were terrified, but the snake did noi do them any harm and gave payment for the girl to her parents, 

 and she became his wife. (Manu, Ipisia). 



]S:o 1. 



