424 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



K. then asked each bird in turn what food it wanted, and each 

 told him. He gave them permission to eat as they chose, even to 

 the flying-fox, which asked to eat at night, and the crow which eats 

 excrement. (The long list of birds is sometimes repeated, with 

 their natural food.) 



K. now cut down the tree, and all the birds flew away, except 

 the pigeon and the flying-fox, so that is how it is that those are the 

 only kinds of birds living on the island of Tewara. 



(Neda Bubune, etc., etc.) 



Distribution of Peoples, Fish, and Languages. — In the days 

 when all people lived together at Sawatupwa an old woman was out 

 gathering firewood and bush vegetables when she came across a 

 strange sight. Fish were falling on the earth from the top of a 

 mango tree. They were wriggling about on the ground, and though 

 she did not know what they were, she took five of them to her 

 village, cooked one and gave it to her dog to see if it were poisonous. 

 The dog, however, wanted more, and so ever since dogs have been 

 excessively fond of fish. The woman then said to her son : "1 

 will try it, and if I do not die, we will get some more." The next 

 morning the son said : " Mother ! are you well ? " " Oh, yes," 

 she said ; and the mother, son and son's wife went to the mango 

 tree and found some of the fish were stinking, but a fresh supply 

 had been vomited out of the tree. They gathered the live fish and 

 returned to the village, where they divided them out amongst the 

 people. They also arranged to sharpen their axes and to cut the 

 tree down next morning, so as to get all the fish at once, and not 

 wait for a small supply every morning. They went accordingly 

 in large numbers, ate the fresh fish, and chopped at the tree all day, 

 but did not succeed in cutting it right through, so returned home. 

 The next day they found that all the chips of the previous day's 

 work had gone back to their places, and the tree was intact. That 

 day a small boy took a chip to the village, and on returning they 

 found that the chips had again gone back, but there was one place 

 not filled up, just the size of the chip taken to the village. They 

 then decided to burn the chips as they chopped at the tree, which 

 was a successful plan. As the tree was swaying, the Boio tribe were 

 plaiting armlets and the Sawatupwans girdles. That is how it is 

 the Boioans make armlets unto this day and the Sawatupwans 

 girdles. As the tree fell it scattered the tribes all over the earth, 

 and their speech was made different. The top of the tree fell right 

 up to Boio (Trobriand's), and vomited out large quantities of fish. 

 That is why there are more fish in that part than anywhere else 

 in the world. The bottom end of the tree gave Sawatupwa a knock 

 into the bush. Three persons were changed into fish — Tobebesa, 

 Tobwaratoni, Tomodawa. They had jumped on to the trunk of 

 the tree to keep it steady, and as they held it tight the whole earth 

 shook with the struggles of the tree and the men. The cause of the 

 struggling of the tree was the absent chip, which it wanted to get at. 

 The motions of the tree were eating the land away, and had they lasted 



