ROTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 201 



nothing wrong in what her sisters were trying to do, because with us Indians, so long 

 aa the women are single, it is no sin for a man to live with his sisters-in-law as well 

 as with his wife.' But in s])ile of his objectiims, the two sisters-in-law persisted 

 in following him about, and while they would be bathing with his wife at the water- 

 side, with him minding the baljy on the river-bank, they would trj' to dash spray 

 over him. ^ Tiiis was verj' mcked of them, still more so because Simo had warned 

 them that if water should ever touch him, it would act like fire, that is, first 

 weaken, and then destroy him.' As a matter of fact, none of the three women had 

 ever seen him bathe: whenever he wanted to perform his ablutions, he would 

 wash himself in honey just a.s the little bees do. His wife alone was well aware 

 of this, because he had told her that he was Simo-ahawara wlien they had first met 

 under the shade of the banab. As he was.sitting one* day on the bank with the baby 

 in his arms, while the three women were washing themselves, the two sisters-in-law 

 succeeded in dasliing water over him. The result was that he screamed out, "I 

 bumi I bum!" and flying away, like other bees, into a tree, melted into honey, and 

 his child changed into Wau-uta, the Tree-frog [Sects. 17, IS]. 



1;J1A. The Man who was Changed into a Powis (W) 



A hiisband, his wife, and her two brodiers lived together in a house. One day, 

 when the sky was overclouded, and they all heard the noise of the approaching rain, 

 the husband t urned to Iiis wife and told lier that the rain always made him sleep soundly. 

 When he turned into his hammock that night, and it happened to rain, the good 

 woman accordingly said to her brothers, "1 must tie up my man out in the rain," 

 and they helped her tie him up and carry him outside into the rain where he remained 

 all night. Waking up at early dawn, his first remark was: "I have had a good sleep. 

 You may loose me." And they loosened him. Now although he was in a great 

 passion, he did not show it, but he determined to punish his wife. He bade her get 

 ready to accompany him, as he proposed going a-hunting, and when they reached a 

 suitable spot far out in the bush, ho told her to make a babracote and get firewood, 

 because he intended killing the alligator which frequented the neighboring water- 

 hole. But he was only fooling her with the alligator yam, because aa soon as she 

 had completed everj'thing, he killed her, and removing the head, cut up the rest of 

 her body and put it on the babracote to dry. WTien the flesh was cured, he packed 

 it in a waiyarri, which he had plaited in the meantime, and carried it toward his 

 house, leaving it, as is usual, at some distance fn>m the dwelling. , Upon the top of a 

 stick fixed in the ground over the waiyarri he attached his poor wife's head in such 

 a way that her face looked in the direction of her late home. The face carried a silver 

 nose-ornament. He took back with him only her dried liver, and his brothers-in-law 

 welcomed him when they saw the meat. He then gave them to eat of the liver, and 

 they ate it. At last he said, "You must go help your sister; she is weary of carrying 

 such a load of meat." They accordingly proceeded down the path, and it was not 

 long before they saw the head staring at them from above the waiyarri; they recog- 

 nized it as their sister's and rushed home. In the meantime the husband had left 

 the house in another direction, sajnng that he was going to bathe at the waterside; 

 but he was again fooling, for on reaching the river-bank, he shoved all the corials 



• Quite recently a woman complained about having been turned off a certain mission-station, for tlie 

 sole reason discoverable by me that she wanted to live with her deceased sister's husband. On the other 

 hand, when the missionary joins certain cousins in wedlock, the olii Indians regard this as bestial and 

 incestuous: it is a matter of blood-relationship.— W. E. R. 



5 During the promiscuous bathing indulged in by the untutored Indians, the fact of a woman doing this 

 to a member of the opposite sex is tantamount to solicitation. 



3 The idea intended to be conveyed here is that just in the same way that water mixed with honey weakens 

 and spoils it, so fire melts and destroys the wa.x. As alrc^ady tnenlioned, Simo belonged to the great Bee 

 Nation, whose members are not made of flesh and bone, but of honey and wax. 



