XVII MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES 141 



merely laid the blade of the axe at the foot of each 

 one. This spectacle filled Lafaang with terror and 

 he would have ran away, but that his wife re- 

 proached him for cowardice. On the following day 

 he set to work again ; and once more forgetting his 

 lesson, he began to chop at the stems of the trees. 

 This gross breach of custom was punished by the 

 fall of a tree from the patch of jungle hard by that 

 on which Palai was at work ; for the tree in falling 

 cut off Lafaang s left arm. Disgusted by these dis- 

 agreeable incidents and by the awkward appearance 

 of his wife, who was now far advanced in pregnancy, 

 Lafaang made up his mind to return to his own 

 people. His wife reproached him for his intention ; 

 but, when she could not alter his determination, she 

 gave him sugar-cane tops and banana roots, 

 previously unknown to men, and let him down to 

 earth by means of a long creeper. Before he 

 reached the ground he heard the cry of his new-born 

 child, and begged to be allowed to go back to see 

 him. But his entreaties were unavailing, and weep- 

 ing bitterly, he alighted on the earth at Tikan Orum 

 (a spot in the upper Baram district). Still his dis- 

 obedience was not overcome ; for, although he had 

 been told to plant the sugar-cane and banana by 

 merely throwing them on the ground, he planted 

 them carefully in the soil ; and to this day a tall 

 coarse grass {bru) grows on the spot. Nevertheless 

 some sugar-cane and banana plants grew up ; but 

 they were of an inferior quality, and such they have 

 remained wherever they have spread in this world. 

 Lafaang died among his own people on earth, but 

 the bright constellation that bears his name and 

 shape still moves across the heavens, reminding 

 men of his journey to the world above the sky and 

 of the misfortunes he suffered there.^ 



^ Cf. an Iban story given in Perham's "Sea-DayakGods,"y.6'.^.^.^. Soc, 

 ix. 236. 



