468 Gunnar Landtman. 



while, and the man said, „Me no dead, more better you me kaikai." And they ate the snake. 

 (Epére, Ipisia). 



429. Täibu, a Djibu man who had no wife, once vvent to another place where he mat 

 a woman, and he carried her off to Djibu in spite of her résistance. On reaching home he 

 fettered her arms and legs with a rope, so that she could not run avvay, and in the night they 

 slept on the same bed. In the morning he unfastened her ropes, but she did not want to go 

 avvay any more. After a time she bore a chid, and the night after a large snake came into 

 their house and carried off the baby, killing it. The parents could not tind their child anywhere. 

 Another night the snake came and carried off the tather and lastly the mother also. When the 

 snake had them all safely in its lair it began to eat them together. (Dagüri, Mawàta). 



430. One night some Mawàta people vvere staying in Ddru where they slept underneath 

 a house. They were visited by a large snake which licked the leg of one of the men named 

 Ùnagai without doing him any harm. Ûnagai pushed it aside saying, „Dog, you go away," for 

 he thought that it was a dog. The snake crawled to another man without biting him either. 

 Presently an old man named Bore got up and called out, „You fellovv get up quick! One snake 

 he corne now!" They ail rushed up and fled on to the beach, and one man named Siru eut 

 his foot on a stone in his panic. The snake was shot. (Sàibu, Mawàta). 



STORIES ABOUT MYTHICAL CROCODILES (no. 431—433). 



431. At Dap not far from Bûdji a crocodile lived in a large swamp, and once vvhen the 

 water was drying up the beast buried itself in a hole beneath the ground. One day the women 

 came to catch fish in the swamp, and among them was lübo, the wife of a great man Nâdegar 

 by name. When they came near the crocodile's lair the beast roared out, „Öööö!" „Nâdegar, 

 you corne.'" lûbo called out, „something sing out underneath ground." Nâdegar ran up and was 

 shown the place. He thought that some fish had produced the sound, so he went away. As 

 lübo put her hand into the hole in the ground the crocodile caught her and pulled her down 

 into his lair, closing the ground above. It was no ordinary crocodile, but a man in a 

 crocodile's shape. 



Mâdegar came and looked in vain for his wife. and at length he thought her lost. But 

 shé was not dead. Next morning he summoned the people to search again for the vvoman, and 

 he showed them the place where he had heard the stränge roar in the ground. On hearing the 

 people the crocodile called out again, „Öööö /" „I think that's him," Nâdegar cried, „I think my 

 wife stop there." They began to dig up the ground. After a while they had made a deep hole 

 from which smoke was escaping. Nâdegar shouted into the hole, „You been take my wife?" 

 „Nâdegar, me hère," lübo answered him, and at the same time the crocodile roared, „Ööööl" 

 The people continued to dig up the ground but after a while the sound could be heard from 

 another place a little distance off. When they went to dig there, the beast moved back to the 

 first place, so they resumed the digging there. At length the crocodile came forth and was killed 



Tom. XLVJl. 



