RETRIBUTION 419 



know that their great, great, great grandmother was a 

 punai. 



Note. — The punai is a light-green pigeon. Mata Punai (the eye of punai) 

 is one of the most common decorative designs of many Dayak tribes. 



23. RETRIBUTION 



In the beginning there were mountain-tops and sea 

 between them. Gradually the sea subsided and the land 

 appeared. A man and a woman living on such a moun- 

 tain-top had a son. One day a typhoon lifted him in 

 the air and carried him off to Java, where he arrived in 

 the house of a rich Javanese. This was long before the 

 Hindu kingdom of Modjopahit. In this house he re- 

 mained many years, and showed much intelligence and 

 industry in his work, which was to cut wood, fish, look 

 after the poultry, and clean the rooms. It was not neces- 

 sary to give him orders, for he understood everything 

 at a glance. By and by he became a trader, assisting 

 his patron. Finally he married the rich man's only 

 daughter, and after living happily a long time he remem- 

 bered his parents, whom he had left in Borneo, desired 

 to visit them, and asked his wife to accompany him. 



They went in two ships, and, after sailing a month 

 or more, came to a mountain, for there was no river then. 

 When the ships arrived, prahus came out to ask their 

 errand. "I am looking for my father and mother whom 

 I left long ago," said the owner. They told him that 

 his father was dead, but that his mother still lived, though 

 very old. 



The people went and told her that her son had come 



