The Folk-Tales of ihc Khvai Papuaiis. 523 



boy sat down close to his parents the man got- up, seized his bow and arrows and without 

 uttering a word he shot an arrow through the armpits of the boy. ^i „Oh, father he been shoot 

 boy belong me!" the mother shrieked. The people came rushing along and started a general 

 battle, and they fought and fought till they were tired. The boy was buried, and the people held 

 a moLirning feast. (Biri, Ipisia). 



475. One day when the Wiorubi people were catching crabs and fish on Aibini'o Island 

 one man named Ùmai went alone into the bush carrying a large basket in vvhich he intended to 

 put his catch. He marched on a long distance and after a time he felt very thirsty („throat he 

 shut him altogether"). As he had no water he called out, „Oh, I want water!" But no one was 

 there to hear him. In the end he feil down and died of thirst. The people began to miss him 

 after a while, and his wife said, „Where my man, he no come? I think he finish along bush." 

 .Sorne men went to look for him and sought till it was dark, calling him by name, but they had 

 to return without him. It wa.s in vain too that they sounded their trumpet-shells. The wife of 

 the missing man wept all night, and at daybreak the search was 'resumed. The people found 

 Ümai's tootprints and followed them, and at length the body was discovered. They carried it to 

 the village tied to a large pole, and his friends all wailed, and he was buried. Two days låter 

 the people sailed back to Wiörubi, and there the wailing was resumed. 



Since that incident the people always take food and water with them when going far 

 into the bush. (Kåku, Ipisia). 



476. Once when a Mawata man named Kéri and his wife v\hose name was Aukia went 

 to their plantations they asked another man named Bddai to look after their child in their absence. ^ 

 On their return in the evening Kéri and Aukia in conformity with custom brought food and 

 firewood to Bddai but they forgot to give him any uater. Bådai dränk the milk of a coconut 

 and roasted sorne taro which he ate, and when he had finished his meal he wanted sorne water 

 to drink, but there was none. He went and asked another man, „You give me water, my mouth 

 he dry, I been kaikai finish." „I no go give you," the other man answered, „you been look out 

 (after) pickaninny belong other man, you no been look out my pickaninny. That man give you 

 water." Bädai sufïered much, for his throat was quite dry, and he tried härd to get some water, 

 but no one pitied him. He was a fool, said the narrator, not to speak to Kéri; why did he go 

 to the wrong man? In the evening he felt tired and exhausted, and lying down on his bed he 

 said to another man, „You fellovv look out. Suppose I die now, you no wild for people, you no 

 speak, 'Somebody been kill me, somebody heen give poison." I no die for sick, I die for hungry 

 for water." He fel! asleep, and in the night he died without anybody knowing of it. In the niorning 

 everybody got up excepting he, and finally another man tried to awake him saying, „Sun he high 

 now, everybody go along bush now make garden." He pushed Bädai with his foot, and then 

 he found that the man was dead and called the people to come. Kéri ran out with his weapons 

 and shot an arrow into the roof of the men's house calling out, „Somebody make him puripuri, 

 that's why he die. He no been walk about long way; look out (after) my pickaninny, that's all." 

 Kéri wailed and buried his friend in Ihe ground. .-Xfter the burial a mourning feast was held, 

 and some men sprinkled out gdiiiüda saying, „Bddai, you devil (spirit) now, you no more come 



N:o 1. 



