ROTH] THE SPIEITS OF THE BUSH 183 



him say to himself: "I am dead. But though dead. I am looking for her, and I shall 

 soon make her dead also,'' and with this she lost sight of liim in the darkness. Emerg- 

 ing from her hiding place, she reached the next settlement, and told her friends 

 exactly what had happened. And what the Spirit had said was quite true: she soon 

 became sick, and died. 



112A. The Result of Stealing Other People's Property (W) 



Twenty men started out to hunt bush-hog. taking with them their hammocks, 

 as they expected to be out some days. They soon picked up tracks and followed tliem 

 until nightfall, when they camped. Next morning they continued on the tracks 

 until about mid-day, when they noticed plenty of \actuals all stacked ready for 

 consumption: there were drink and meat, plenty of everj'thing that an Indian can 

 desire. They asked one anotlier. "'Are you going to eat of this? " Some said, "Of 

 course I am. \\'hynot? Isn't it all ready prepared for us? " But others said: ''No. 

 It is not ours. We will not cat what does not belong to us.'' The wislies of the 

 majority prevailed, however, and all except two of tlie party partook of the fine 

 food. When all was eaten, tliey resumed the trail vmtil nightfall, and they again 

 camped. The two, however, who had declined to eat, erected their banab at a 

 distance apart from the otliers. And all. except these two, fell fast asleep. During 

 the night the Hebu came along with a light in his hand, and approached the spot 

 where tlie eighteen were sleeping, ^\■hen he got close to the first man, he extin- 

 guished the light, and, sucking tlie air through his half-closed liaud, extracted his 

 victim's eyes, just as we suck the iie^h out of one end of a crab-claw. He did the 

 same thing in turn to each of the other seventeen, and tlien witlidrew. The two who 

 were camped in tlie banab apart from the others, kept awake, and watched everrthing 

 that happened. Next morning early, as each of the eighteen woke, he exclaimed, 

 "Me, eye out! Me, eye out!" The poor fellows who had thus been blinded called 

 out to the other two who had not eaten of the food in question, and asked whether 

 they had also lost their eyes. Tlie latter said "Yes" at first, but being pressed again 

 and again to tell the truth, were finally forced to admit that notliing evil had hap- 

 pened to them. Now, some of these blind people felt their trouble very keenly. 

 Some of them had big women at home, and .some had little girls there — little girls 

 to whom they liad looked forward to making their wives some day. Indeed, those of 

 them who possessed such little girls grieved sorely, and said: "We have little girls at 

 home, and a.s yet we lia\e never had anything to do with them. Alas! Alas! If we 

 had only made women of them before this trouble fell on us." ' So as to get home 

 again, the blind ones told their uninjured mates to loosen the strings from all their 

 bows and tie their ends together so as to make one long string of them. The eighteen 

 held on to this string, and tlie two led the way. and so they proceeded on their journey 

 homeward. But the two uninjured ones led the way, not homeward, as they had been 

 told to do, but toward a big pond that contained a large number of piiid (Serrasahno) 

 fish. Reaching there, the two made the blind ones surround the sheet of water in 

 the form of a circle, telling them that they were about to cross a river, and that when 

 they heard a splash they must immediately rush in straight ahead. The two leaders 

 then stepping behind, threw over the heads of their blind companions some heavy 

 pieces of timber: as soon as these fell into the water, there was of course a splash, 

 and all the eighteen blind ones rushed ahead only to knock up against one another 

 in the middle of the pond, where the voracious fish mutilated and destroyed them. 

 They were thus punished for taking food wliich did not belong to them. 



' It is not an uncommon thing to see an Indian who has already a wife and family of young children 

 bringing up a little girl who will be his second wife (Br, 352). 



