464 GUNNAK Landtman. 



U. A hunier lell into a hole in a Iree where a snake-man and his wife lived. The snake- 

 nian was out in the bush, but his wile, who was like an ordinary woman, had remained in and was 

 occupied with making a belt. She kept the man there till the snake came home cairying in its moulh 

 ail sorts of spoil. At flrst the snake was wild on seeing the man but it did not hurt him, and after 

 a while the reptile assumed its human form. In course of time the man was allowed to return home 

 with many presents of food, and he promised to bring the snake-man a wife, but did not do so. Jn 

 revenge the snake one night came into his house and bit him, and the people killed it, eut the body 

 in pièces, andburnt it. (Obüro, läsa). 



THE SNAKE WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS MARRIED TO A MAN. 



421. Inside the Dibiii creek lived a snake-man, Aböma by name, with his daughter. Near 

 by on the shore lived a man by himself. One day the snake-girl thought, „No good I stop along 

 water, more better I go shore along that man. That man he marry me." And she and the man 

 were married. They spent their time working in their garden. After a time the woman became 

 pregnant, and one night she gave birth to a boy. When the father and mother \\ent to work 

 they had to leave their baby alone in the house, for there was no one to look after it. The 

 mother was very anxious lest something ill should befall her baby in her absence, so one day 

 she went to Aböma, her father, and said, „All time I go garden, no man he look out (after) my 

 pickaninny. That's all my man he stop, no got no people." Aböma pitied her and the baby and 

 the next day when his daughter and son-in-law went to work he came on shore and looked 

 after the child. In the evening the woman returned home first and spöke to her father, giving 

 him food, and he went back into the water. The husband did not know that a stranger 

 had been there, and his wife had not told him anything about her father, for she felt ashamed 

 because he was a snake. This went on for some time (abbrew). 



Once while the woman was in the bush making sago, her husband brought home some 

 firewood, and at the sight of the snake close to his baby he thought, „My god, what name (kind 

 of a) thing there lie down close to pickaninny?" He fetched his bow and arrows and shot Aböma, 

 and then he eut his body in pièces with his stone axe. At the same time his wife in the act of 

 pounding sago in the bush eut her leg with her pounding stick and called out, „Oh, my man 

 been go long time, 1 think he been kill my father! I no been teil him father come look out 

 that pickaninny." Leaving all the sago in the bush she hurried home and caught hold of her 

 father. „My god, what name (why) that woman run go close to that snake.'" her husband 

 thought, „My god, what name you kill him?" she cried, „that my father!" „What's the matter 

 you no teil me lirst time? Suppose j'ou make me know, I no kill him." The man too was 

 distressed, for the snake was his father-in-law. He brought the stem of a long creeper from the 

 bush, threaded the severed parts of the snake on to it, and after joining them together he coiled 

 up the snake in a corner of the house. Then he covered th.e reptile with a mat so that 

 he and his wife could not see it. Man and woman went to work in their plantation, and 

 during their absence the snake returned to life and became intact as before. „P\'ither, j-ou 

 come all right now?" the woman asked him on her return. „Ves, 1 come litt le bit all 

 right now." 



'1'uiu. XL\11. 



