ROTH] GAMES, SPORTS, AND AMUSEMENTS 485 
you see, was greedy and would not let him have anything. Turtle 
said, “ This won’t do,” and so at night he gave Tiger poison and killed 
him dead. Now, Tiger’s brother heard of this and followed Turtle to 
his house—a hole in the ground—and told him to come out. “ No, 
thanks,” said Turtle, “Me got good house, me stop here.” Tiger 
waited and waited until he could wait no longer, he was so hungry, 
and he therefore told the Karaka [a savanna bird with red eyes] 
to keep watch for him at the entrance to Turtle’s house. By and by, 
Turtle peeped out and said: “ You are watching for me, eh? All 
right. Open your eyes wide and watch properly.” So Karaka 
opened his eyes wide, wide, when Turtle threw a handful of peppers 
into them and half blinded him, making his eyes burn red, and while 
the bird was jumping around in rage and pain, Turtle came out of 
his hole into the open and made his escape. Some time after Tiger 
met Turtle again and said: “ Eh? I will catch you now and eat you. 
I will break you upon a rock.” “Now, don’t be stupid,” replied 
Turtle, “ you can’t break my shell upon a stone. It is too smooth and 
slippery. You will have to break me up against the turu palm at the 
waterside.”” So Tiger hoisted him on his back, took him down to the 
waterside, and threw him with full force up against the turu, but 
the hard shell glanced off the smooth bark and Turtle found him- 
self in the water, safe once more. Tiger could never kill him. 
600. Legend of the haiari root fish-poison (Makusi).—[Note— 
ef. WER, v1, sec. 170.] | A man met a bush cow (tapir) woman. She 
was tame, and he was the cause of her getting a big belly. One day 
he went to the waterside with her. And people came along with their 
dogs to hunt bush cow. He was sorry, and told them that when they 
see her, they must shoot her in the head, and not in the belly. By and 
by, the dogs track bush cow into the water, the hunters follow, and | 
they shoot her in the head, dead. They burst the belly open, and 
there is a boy inside. One of the hunters takes the child, washes it 
in the creek and finds all the fish dead. The fish are caught and the 
bush cow cut up and eaten. A girl takes the infant to look after 
until he grows big. But every time she and her people go down to 
the creek to wash it, the fish get drunk, and they all have plenty to 
eat. “This boy must be good.” the folk say, and they mind him until 
he grows big. And every time they wash him, the fish get drunk. 
They now take him to a large water hole; plenty of people go with 
him, and they say: “Go down deep, everywhere, in the water.” He 
does so, but the Fish-Mama (i. e., the protecting “ spirit,” etc., of all 
the fish (see WER, vi, sec. 71) ) kills him. The girl who looked after 
him as a child is sorry now. The people say: “We must not bury 
him, but wait till he rotten, and the blood come out.” So they put 
him in a basket and carried him all about and wherever the blood 
dropped there the haiari grew. And then at last they buried him. 
