426 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



Prom this they cooked food, and buried the old woman, saying, 

 " Oe ! Oe !" We are happy now ! So they kept the fire as long 

 as they could, and then found out how to produce it by rubbing 

 the point of a hard piece of wood on a softer piece. 



A Snake Story. — A python called Moata Weiu took up its 

 residence on the top of a tree, and made a roof over itself by joining 

 the leaves of the tree together. It reposed under this roof. The 

 ■snake swallowed up every person and animal on Dobu, and after- 

 wards at Nekumara. The body never left the tree entirely ; the 

 head stretched out and so reached the victims. After Nekumara 

 Bwaio was finished, and then the whole world. But there was one 

 woman on Dobu who hid away by digging a hole in the ground and 

 staying in the hole so that the snake could not see her. She was 

 lying down in the hole with head and feet hidden away and only 

 certain parts exposed to the rain, which poured down the hole, 

 the result being she gave birth to a cockatoo — her male 

 child. The cockatoo grew and came out of the hole, flew up 

 and rested on a branch of the tree, and said " Wakekeka 

 Daidudaidu " — a dancing song. The snake said, "Where do 

 you come from ? I have killed everything in the whole world — 

 where do you come from ? " And the cockatoo said, " I have come 

 from Nekumara," and then he flew high up and towards Nekumara, 

 but came back quietly to his mother. The snake stretched out to 

 look for him, but could not find him. In the daytime, while the 

 snake was asleep, the cockatoo plucked the snake's house to pieces, 

 and the snake woke up and said, " Where do you come from ? I 

 have killed everybody, and here you are again." The cockatoo 

 answered, " I have come from Bwaio " ; and so it went on, the 

 cockatoo changing the places whence he was supposed to come, 

 until the world was finished, and yet the snake's house was not 

 properly cleared away. Once the snake's head went to Boio (the 

 land of dreams), searching for the cockatoo, but could not find him. 

 At the last the cockatoo answered to the snake's enquiry, " From 

 Heaven," and he flew so high that the snake could not see him, so 

 he came quietly down to his mother. The snake imrolled itself 

 upwards to follow the cockatoo, who was then with his mother 

 looking up out of the hole. As soon as they saw that the snake had 

 stretched itself up until only the tip of its tail touched the tree the 

 cockatoo came out of hiding, and bit the snake's tail off, and then 

 as the snake dropped down the cockatoo snipped his body off piece 

 by piece, until he was all cut up, and therefore slain. The cockatoo 

 then went down the hole and brought his mother up, and she pro- 

 ceeded to divide the pieces out. She threw some into the sea, and 

 they became jackfish, sea-snakes, etc. She threw some into the 

 bush, and they became snakes and lizards, and eels. The head was 

 thrown into the sea, and it became a shark, and the woman was 

 rejoiced so to finish off their revenge- victim. (Neda Bubune, etc.) 



