The Folk- Tales of the Kiivai Papuans. 527 



Said, „That time he come down I shoot him." At the end ot his meal the boy drank the milk 

 of a coconut, and the man who was vvatching him said, „I think he come down now, he drink 

 coconut." While the boy was climbing down the great man shot an arrow through his body, and 

 then he eut off his head. He stuck his how into the dead body for a mark. After a time the 

 parents found their dead son, and after drawing out the bow they buried him. The great 

 man said himself, „Me been kill him that boj'. Kaikai belong me he been steal ail time, no good." 

 The father of the dead boy said, „You pay me," and the man gave payment for the dead boy. 

 (Ibîa, Ipisi'a). 



THE LONELY MAN WHO WAS INDUCED TO COME AND LIVE WITH THE REST 



OF THE PEOPLE. 



430. In former times a certain man lived all by himself in the Mao bush. One day he 

 met a large female dog which remained with him, and for a very long time the two did not see 

 a human being. While the man was working in his garden the dog kept watch över his house. 



Once a man from Måo village paddled up the creek and found the lonely man. „You 

 stop one man (alone)?" he asked him. „Yes." „No good you stop one man, more better you 

 come where people he stop," and he took him along to the village. The people there gave him 

 a wife and provided him with a garden. (Biri, Ipisia). 



THE CAPTURED THIEF WHO BOUGHT HIMSELF FREE BY GIVING UP HIS WIFE, AND 

 HOW HIS CAPTURER WAS BITTEN BY A SNAKE. 



481. At Kubi'ra there lived a man who had no brothers; in vain he asked one man after 

 another to come and help him in his garden. No one was wiUing, and at length he left the 

 people and went to live by himself in a little hut in the bush. He used to steal food in the 

 people's gardens. The owners were very angry and wondered who the thief was. One night a 

 certain man who went out hunting caught the thief in the act of stealing. „Oh, you no teil him 

 people!" the thief begged him, „by-and-by I pay you." ,,\Vhat thing you pay me?" „Oh, any 

 thing I pay you. Come on, you me (we) go house belong me," said the thief. „Where wife 

 belong you?" „He stop along house." They went to the house, and the thief offered the hunter 

 a string of dog's teeth, but the latter said, „No, I want wife belong j'ou." Then the thief woke 

 his wife up and said, „That man he kobôri (has connection with) you little bit, I pay him." The 

 woman was not at first willing but at length she conceded. She lay down on the ground outside 

 the hut without noticing that there was a snake close by, but when the man came to her the 

 reptile bit him in the penis, and he died. The terrified woman got up and rushed into the house 

 where her husband was waiting. They set fire to the grass in order to find the snake and killed it. 

 Looking at the dead body the man thought to himself, „What talk (explanation) I go give people?-'. 

 He waited till dawn, and then he said to his wife, „Ycu stop, I go teil him people, 'That man 

 he been come, snake he been fight him, he no more.'" He went to the village and entered one of 

 the houses wailing. „That man he been come, he no talk, he cry," said the people. After a 

 N:o 1. 



