486 Gunnar Landtman. 



(the three last names signify „moon"). Every place I go light all över, my name Ganiimi." 

 Then he said, „You throw him that thing," and the mother flung one end of the navelcord to 

 him holding the other end tightly in her hand, for she meant to draw him down from the tree 

 and put him in her basket. But Ganümi gave a pull to the cord, the tree bent towards Wi'owi'o, 

 and the next moment he hurled his mother up to the sky, and with a jerk of the cord he was 

 himself hoisted after her. Wiovvi'o caught hold of him and put him in her basket, where she is 

 still carrying him in the sky. 



There is some white powder-like substance on the leaves and trunks of .sago -palms, and 

 when Ganümi was ciimbing from tree to tree his face got smeared with it and is white ever 

 since. When Ganümi's face peeps out a little from his mother's basket he appears as the new 

 moon, and gradually more and more of his face will appear. Sometimes the mother hides the 

 basket behind her, and then the moon cannot be seen at all. The mother herseif is invisible 

 except her fingers which are sometimes outlined against Ganümi's face, and they are the spots 

 in the moon. According to another version Ganümi's face got whitened in the foUowing way. 

 When a boy he was once crj'ing for some sago which his mother was just roasting, and at last 

 she threw a little of it at him, and it stuck to his face. The soot are the spots in the moon. 

 Ganümi married his own mother. 



Some of the white powder which had stuck to Ganümi's face was wiped off by him and 

 dropped on to the sago-palms and even on to the ground where it can still be found in small lumps. 

 It is called ganumi-ére {ére meaning „small pièce" or „fragment") and is a good „medicine" 

 which, administered to a boy, will make all the girls like him. For the same purpose a little of 

 this „medicine" is sometimes placed in a boy's armlet, or applied to the shell which he carries 

 round his neck, or the long feather (sagåia) which may be stuck in his head-dress and by swaying 

 to and fro beckons the girls to come to him. A little of it may also be put on the harpoon-line 

 if a man wants a fat dugong, or given to one of the dögs if a hunter covets a fat pig. 



The tale of Ganümi is known to everybody, and sometimes a pair of lovers will quote 

 his conversation with Gebâe when talking together. „Who you?" the girl will ask. „Me 

 there, piro,^ he will answer, „me there sogömi, me there sagdna," and so on. (Nâmai, 

 Mawâta). 



454. A man named Gisüa and his wife named Gauàpe lived near Mäubo. Although 

 they were very old, Gauàpe became pregnant, and the people said to them, „You fellow no shame 

 make him pickaninny?" — because of their age. When his wife was about to be confined Gisüa 

 gathered certain sweet-smelling herbs which form a love medicine, and put them in a large basin. 

 Then he asked some little girls to scrape two coconuts, the oil of which he poured into the same 

 basin, and the rest of the scrapings were thrown on to the village road so that the girls should 

 tread on them and in course of time fall in love with the boy to be born. After his birth the 

 boy was named Ganümi and placed in the bowl. The parents then put the bowl in the water 

 so that it floated away, for they would not keep the child, as the people had made them 

 ashamed. ** 



The Mäubo people were playing paru or kokddi (rather like hockey) on the beach when 

 the basin with Ganümi in it came floating along. The girls went out in their canoës to catch it, 



Tora. XLVII. 



