528 Gunnar Landtman. 



while he told them that the man had coaie to his house and been killed by a snake, but he 

 omitted to say what he himself and his vvife had done. The people asked him a number of 

 questions and then began to wail. 



Some of the men were suspicious. „Oh, moon he good, no dark place; what's way (hovv) 

 snake he bite him?" they wondered but kept their thoughts to themselves. They went and carried 

 the dead man home, and he was buried. The people thought, „Oh, true he been kill him. Snake 

 he no can go on top; vvhats way he bite him along ärumo (penisj?" At night four men went 

 underneath the man's house to watch. The^' heard him saying to his wife, „You no teil every- 

 body, „Me fellow lie down, he want kobåri little bit, snake he come.' Me been teil him people 

 snake he been fight him along road, you teil him all same." In this way the truth was betrayed 

 to the four men underneath the house, and they went home and told the people what they had 

 heard, whereupon they resolved to kill the man. His old father-in-law tried in vain to stop the 

 people. In the evening they surrounded the house, and the old man went in first and spöke to 

 his daughter, asking her to teil him truth fuUy what had taken place, and she told him everything. 

 „He (the people) want kill man belong you," said the old man. „Oh, no good you kill him that 

 man!" she called out, „he no been kill that man, snake been kill him." But the people all attacked 

 the man and killed him, and his head was eut off. His house was burnt down, and another man 

 married his widow. (Biri, Ipi.sia). 



THE THIEF WOMAN AND HER INNOCENT VICTIM. 



482. Once upon a time at Old Mawåta a woman was expecting a child, and her husband 

 lived meanwhile in another part of the house. On a shelf close to the place where the woman lay 

 there was a large bündle of sago, belonging to another woman and her husband. The child was 

 horn in the night. 



The woman to whom thé sago belonged gave taro and other food, but no sago, to her 

 husband, who stayed in the därimo .(men's house). She kept the sago to herself, and every 

 evening went and broke off a pièce of it which she cooked and ate. This went on for some time. 

 While the woman in childbed went out to wash, the other woman came and broke off some 

 sago which she cooked; she took it without her husband knowing anything about it. She threw 

 the refuse of the cooking on the first woman 's bed to make her suspected of having stolen the 

 sago. The sick woman on coming back from her swim saw the crumbs and wondered, „I say, 

 who been chuck that sago? I no got no sago here." She did not even know that there was 

 any sago on the shelf. „Some-woman-fashion make all time like that," said the narrator. 



One day the man to whom the sago really belonged, wanted some of it, but it was nearly 

 all gone, only the leaves in which it had been wrapped up, the rope and a little sago remaining. 

 He told his wife to go and fetch the sago, but she did not want to go, „No, what's way (how) 

 I go take him? I no strong carry him. That business belong man." The man went himself, 

 and seeing the bündle of sago from a distance thought in surprise, „My god, that rope I been 

 make fast tight, what hame (why) he altogether släck novv?-' He put his hand into the bündle, 

 and it went right inside: „My God, he empty now!" Turning to the people he said, „What's 



Tom. XLVII. 



