BOTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 189 



when her reply came, "No, indeed, but you wanted to," he closed his eyes. How 

 glad the brother and sister were! and the brother said, "We had better tarry awhile, 

 because Konoko-kuyuha's wife will come and look for him." Sure enough, they 

 soon heard the moaning of the Spirit's wife as she came along crying, and saying, "I 

 must get payment for my husband" (i. c, her husband's death must be avenged). 

 So they both hid themselves, and as the Spirit woman passed along, tlie brother shot 

 her also, and cut up the bodies. When they both got home, they told their friends 

 and relatives about all that had happened, and everybody was delighted. 



117A. The Woman Kill.s the Hebu (W) 



When going to a party it is customary among us Indians for the man to start early 

 in the morning, leaving his ^vife to follow in the course of the afternoon. Well now, 

 on one such occasion, after the house-master had left for the drink-feast, another man 

 came and paid the spouse a visit, telling her that she must come with him to his place. 

 She said: "No! You are not my husband, so I cannot do that." But when he 

 threatened to kill her if she refused, she agreed to accompany him, although her little 

 child told her not to go. This man was really a Hebu, and when he arrived with her 

 and the child at his house, he told her she could have whatever she wanted, pointing 

 at the siime time to all the dried meat — game, fish, bird, and human fiesh — that was 

 hanging around. Picking what she required, she placed it in the pot and this she 

 put on the fire. AH the time she was thinking how she could fool the Hebu, so that 

 when he called her to come into his hammock, her plans were quite prepared. She 

 joined him in his hammock, but refused to lie down in it, and when he told her to 

 kiss and coddle him, she s;iid she couldn't do so because he was covered over so much 

 with hair. He told her where to find a bamboo-knife, and she commenced shaving hia 

 face; while holding up his chin, she stuck the knife into his throat and killed him. 

 Rushing off now with her child, the woman joined her husband at the drink-party, 

 telling him exactly what had happened: how the Hebu had made her come to hia 

 house, where she had killed him. And when the sporfwas finished next morning 

 she took her husband to the scene of the tragedy. As soon as he saw the dead Hebu's 

 body lying in the hammock, he was satisfied that she had told him the truth. 



118. The Bush Spirit and the Pregnant Woman (A) 



There was a man with his wife living in a house. One afternoon, the husband went 

 to watch for an acouri. By and by she heard a whistling sound, and a man came and 

 paid her a visit: 'tis true he was like a man, but yet different, because there was hair 

 growing all over him. He was really a Konoko-kuyuha, but she did not know this 

 at the tune. "Where has your husband gone?" he inquired; and when she told 

 him he was out hunting the acouri, the stranger asked her whether he was very far 

 away, and she replied, " Not ver>' far. " To make sure that the husband might not 

 suddenly return and frustrate his wicked designs, the Spirit made the wife shout out 

 three times, and as no answer came, he knew he would be safe. He told her to dance 

 for him, and then came very close to her. This she thought somewhat strange, because 

 she was heavily encknte, but she did what she was told. At last he took his departure, 

 and as he went along he knocked the tree-buttresses with a stick, to make the woman 

 think that it was her husband coming. So the wife was content in her mind. How- 

 ever, it was a long wait for her until her husband did finally come; he had wandered 

 far, and found no acouri. Like a good wife, she made a clean breast of all that hap- 

 pened in his absence, describing minutely how she had been visited by one who was 

 like a man, but yet different, because there was hair growing all over him, and that 

 he had been close to her. The husband laughed, and said: " Nonsense, wife! It must 

 have been some old sweetheart of yours." She replied, " Nothing of the sort; " but 



