ROTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 203 



in the depths of the forest. So, taking the biggest of the buck-pota, she put all kinds of 

 food into it, and placed it on the fire. A\'hen the contents were boiled, she went to 

 take it off, but pretended she could not stand the heat, and turning to Tiger, said, 

 "No! it is too heavy. I want you to help me." So without more ado. Tiger stooped 

 down, put his paws one on each side of the projecting rim of the pot, and so lifted it 

 off the fire. While thus occupied, she smartly tapped the pot from below up, dashing 

 the boiling contents over the creature's face, a procedure which made him fall, yell 

 with pain, and die. His two brothers heard the roaring and said, "Oh! the old man 

 must be sporting with his girl " ; but this was not the case, he never having had inti- 

 mate relations with her. In the meantime, the woman went to the place where she 

 had been told her people lived, and called out: "I am the little girl that was lost 

 many a long day ago. Where are my parents?" The latter showed themselves 

 and said, "You are our daughter," and would have liked a long chat over what had 

 happened during her absence, but the woman warned them that there was no time 

 for this, that they must all escape because Tiger's two brothers would come and 

 kill theni for payment [i. e. in revenge]. So the\- loosened their hammock-ropes 

 and hurried themselves to leave. While they were doing so, a young man, a cousin, 

 said: "Well! I can not leave this grindstone here: I shall want it for sharpening." ' 

 So saying, he placed it in his hammock, folded the latter, and, in the hurry of the 

 moment, not thinking of what he was doing, slung it in the usual manner over his 

 shoulder. The unprepared-for weight, however, broke his back and he fell down 

 dead, and there the othon* left him.- 



133. The Tigeh Changed into a Woman (A) 



There was a man justly noted for his skill in himting bush-hog. Though his friends 

 might be more than a match for him in hunting other game, with bush-hog he had 

 hardly an equal, certainly no superior. He would always succeed in killing five or six, 

 when the Tiger who invariably followed on the heels of the pack would catch only 

 one or two. The Tiger could not help not icing his success, and on the next occasion 

 that our friend went into the bush changed himself into a woman, and spoke to him. 

 She asked him how he managed to kill so many bush-hog, but all he could tell her 

 was that he had been trained to it ever since the days of his early boyhood. She 

 next expressed her desire to have him for a husband, but he, knowing her origin, 

 was not too anxious to give a decided answer. She overcame his scruples, however, 

 by convincing him that if they lived together, they could kill ever so many more 

 bush-hog than it was possible to do singly. And then he agreed. He lived with 

 her for a long, long time, and she turned out to be an exceedingly good wife, for besides 

 looking after the cooking and the barbecuing, she made an excellent htmtress. One 

 day she asked him whether he hail father or mother, and learning that his parents 

 and other relatives were still alive, inquired whether he would not like to pay them 

 a visit, because she felt sure that from not hav-ing seen him for so long the old people 

 would think him dead. And when he said, "All right! I would like to go home," 

 she offered to show him the road and to accompany him, but only on the condition 

 that he never told his folk from what nation she was sprtrng. Before they started, 

 she said they must go hunting for a few days, so as to be able to take plenty of bush-hog 

 with them. This they did, finally arriving at the house of his parents, who were 

 indeed glad to welcome him after so many years. The first question his old mother 

 asked him was, ' ' Where did you get that beautiful woman ? " He told her that he had 



• The grindstone referred to here is a large chunk of sandstone, which is brought into the Pomeroon 

 District from the Waini by way of trade and barter. 



2 When, throiigli the interpreter, I pointed out to the old woman who told me the story that the ending 

 was somewhat unsatisfactory, she reminded me that wlien Tiger's two lirothers came to the house, they 

 found only tile corpse there. Hence there was no one left to teil her what actually did transpire subse- 

 quently.— W. E. R. * 



