374 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [etu. ANN. :jO 



Do bend your face down a bit. I would so love to see it closer." And when the silly 

 hawk bent her face down, Koneso immediately threw a handful of sand into her 

 eyes, and so blinded her, which save him the opixirtunity of getting away from Tiger.' 

 356. There was once a celebrated Konehu, walliing along the busli, when he met 

 a female Tiger. The latter, who was hungry, wanted to go out hunting, but did not 

 like to leave her three little cubs at home without anyone in charge of the place. 

 So Konehu agreed to look after the youngsters while Tiger searched for game. Things 

 went on very well for some time, Tiger returning home each evening with meat which 

 she shared with Konehu. But on a certain day, one of the cubs bit Konehu, so he 

 killed it, threw the body away, and said nothing to the mother when she returned. 

 In fact, Konehu as usual brought from out of the hollow log one cub after another for 

 the mother to suckle, but on this occasion he brought out the same cub twice, and 

 the mother was none the wiser. Next day, another cub bit Konehu. So he killed 

 it, threw the body away as before, and said nothing, but in the evening brought 

 out the remaining cub three times to be fed, and its mother was none the wiser. 

 Next day, however, the surviving whelp bit Konehu. So he killed it, left its car- 

 cass close by the hollow log, and made tracks elsewhere.^ He knew that Tiger 

 ■would follow him, so he traveled a long, long way before he rested. He next built 

 a house on very high posts, posts too high for anyone to climb up, and then 

 started making the roof which was just as high up again. Indeed, to get up all 

 that way, he built a long ladder. And he started tying on the thatch. In the mean- 

 time, Tiger, on her return home, found her one dead cub but no signs of the other 

 two. There was also no Konehu. She therefore was vexed much, and determined 

 to follow and kill him. She traveled night and day, and went on and on until she 

 came to the house which Konehu was building, and there she saw him on top thatching 

 the roof. "Hullo!" she growls, "What are you doing up there? I am come to eat 

 you." But Konehu does not worry himself. He only says: "You had better look 

 out for yourself, because there is a big sea coming. I am building this house to save 

 myself. You had better join me. Come up the ladder." Tiger thereupon clambers 

 up the ladder and gets close to Konehu who is tying on the thatch with the itiriti 

 strand. As soon as she got too uncomfortably close to him, he suddenly exclaimed: 

 "Oh! What a pity! I have just dropped a piece of the tying strand. Wait up here 

 a minute, while I go down and fetch it." This was a lie, for directly he reached the 

 ground, he removed the ladder, leaving Tiger helpless on the roof. Again Konehu 

 made tracks and walked about. He walked so far that he got tired. He then sat 

 down and started making a quake, an openwork basket. Now, what did Tiger do? 

 When she found the ladder gone, she scrambled up and under the roof, over and 

 among the beams and rafters, but she could not get down. At last, hunger compelled 

 her to say, "I must live, or I must die." So she made a big jump and reached the 

 ground safely. She was vexed much, and determined upon following and killing 

 Konehu. She traveled night and day, and went on and on until she reached the 

 spot where Konehu was seated, busily occupied in making his quake. "Hullo!" 

 she growls, "What are you doing? I am come to eat you." Konehu however re- 

 mained quite cool and quiet. He stuck to his story about the big sea coming, and 

 swore that he was making the quake so that when completed he could get inside and 

 haul himself up to the topmost branch of a big mora tree that was close by. Silly 

 Tiger then believed what he told her, and said she would like to get into the basket 

 also. Konehu therefore took her measure and increased the size of the basket. When 

 finished, he told her to get inside, but no sooner had she comfortably fixed herself, 



> The rest of this story is fairly similar to the following Warrau version. 



2 In the Arawak version of the story as told on the Pomeroon, the slaughter of all three youngsters is 

 wilfully done on the one occasion by throwing them into boiling water in a pot, which the miscreant covers 

 with a baking-stone. 



