THE WONDERFUL TREE 393 



After he had cooked the meal and they had eaten 

 he said: "Take the two children and go with me to the 

 river." All four of them went into a prahu which he 

 paddled down stream until they came to a large rock 

 in the middle of the river, where he stopped it. They 

 all climbed on the rock, and the prahu he allowed to 

 drift away. He then said to his wife: "You and I will 

 drown ourselves." "I cannot," she said, "because I 

 have a small child to suckle." He then tore the child 

 from the mother's breast and placed it on the rock. The 

 two children and the mother wept, and he caught hold 

 of one of her hands, dragged her with him into the water, 

 and they were both drowned. 



The two children remained on the rock all day. 

 After sunset Deer (rusa) arrived. The older child called 

 out: "Take me from here." And Deer came to the stone 

 and placed Aneitjing on his back, and behind her Inu, 

 and carried them ashore. Deer then made a clearing 

 in the utan and built a hut for them. He then went to 

 the ladang to look for food, but before starting he said 

 to the children: "I am going to the ladang. Maybe I 

 shall be killed by the dogs. In that case you must take 

 my right arm and my right eye and bring them here." 



Deer went away and was attacked by dogs. The 

 two children heard the barking, and when they arrived 

 the dogs were gone and Deer was found dead. The chil- 

 dren took the right arm and the right eye and went home, 

 made a clearing and dug a hole, where the arm and the 

 eye were placed, and they covered the hole with earth. 

 They often went to look at that place. After twenty 



