The Folk-Talcs of ihc Kiwai Pnpiiaus. 537 



lie in a hole. One day she vvent out where the beach had been and squatted down, and ail the 

 vvater gushed out again with tremendous force filling ail the sea, and the woman laughed. She 

 stood up, and as she turned round vvaving her hand towards the différent quarters, the various 

 winds began to blow again. The .sea „is still laughing" as the woman did, and that is why 

 the vvater undulates. (Nâtai, Tpisia). 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SWAMP AND WATER-HOLE IN BOIGU. ^« 



495. Three brothers who lived at Bojebai on the Mâikâsa river one day speared a dugong 

 near Kusâro Island, and the dugong towed their canoë as far as Wârar near Thursday Island, 

 There the animal was stranded and died, and the men hauled it into their canoë. Then they 

 returned to Bôigu nnd arrived at the .south end of the island which is called Gânalai. By a 

 fling of his spear the eldest brother eut a passage right across Bôigu, and they paddled over to 

 the north side. There he threw his spear twice and in the first place where it feil a little swamp 

 was formed, and in the second a water-hole. The vvater in the swamp was bad but that in the 

 vvater-hole was drinkable, and the man made it sweet by pouring into it the contents of a coconut. 

 Before drinking he sjjrinkled a little water with his right hand over his right Shoulder and with 

 his left hand over his left Shoulder and thus in accordance to him this action shall be repeated 

 by everyone who drinks at the well. After drinking the man tied a little bündle of grass to the 

 branch of a certain tree growing at the well, and this too shall be done by those who drink 

 there. While the brothers were sailing over to the mainland of New Guinea the eldest of them 

 caused the canoe to sink, and they were all transformed into dugong. (.Some Biîigu men). . 



THE FIREWOOD WHICH IN THE NIGHT CHANGED INTO A MAN. 



496. A certain Ki'wai man one day brought home a log of vvood vvhich he placed on 

 the shelf over his hearth, intending to split it into firevvood, and there it remained a long time. 

 At night it changea into a man, but in the day it was a log of wood. The wife of the man 

 who had brought home the wood slept close by, and the woodman went and had connection 

 with her in the night. The woman thought at first that it was her husband, but was told in the 

 morning that it had not been he. Early another morning the man who was also firevvood called 

 the woman and asked her to go out with him fishing. She vvent thinking that it was her husband, 

 but after a while she found out her mistake. She ran homewards but he overtook her and forced 

 her to have connection with him. At daylight the man ran home, climbed up on the shelf and 

 changed into a pièce of vvood. The woman called her husband and told him what had passed. 

 The man pitched out the wood and chopped it into small pièces, and as he did so blood flovved 

 trom the wood. „You finish novv,'' said the man. „no more humbug my wife." He made a 

 large fire of the vvood. (Kâku, Ipisia). 



X;o 1. • ■ 68 



