190 THE MENTRA TRADITIONS. 
When Mérrane took his house away with him to Tanah Bangun, 
a dog, the first of the species, appeared where the house had been, 
and was prevented by Miirrane’s power from attacking mankind. 
Then Béxo had a dog at his house; from this dog came the tiger, 
which devours mankind and animals. When Mtrrane left the earth 
for Tanah Bangun, he flew away with his house in the air. 
BiLo went to Tanah Bangun by the sea on foot; he was go tall 
that the water only reached to his knees. 
Originally the sky was very low, but Bino raised it wath be 
hands, because he found it in the w ay of his pestle when he raised 
it to pound his padi. 
Mértane took his youngest sister to wife, and from them are 
descended the Méntra. 
BéLo married the other sister, but they had no offspring. 
In course of time the descendants of Mirrana multiplied to 
such an extent that he went to T0naw preAwan and represented the 
state of things, which TtnHawn pisAwaH remedied by turning half of 
mankind into trees. 
In those days men did not die, but grew thin with the waning 
of the moon, and waxed fat as she neared the full, and when their 
numbers had again inereased to an alarming extent, To’ Eran, the 
son of Mérrane and the first Bdtin, brought the matter to his 
father’s notice. The latter wished things to remain as they were, but 
Béxo said it was better they should die like the “pisang,” which leaves 
young shoots behind it, and leave children behind them when they 
died, and the matter was submitted to T0Han prpAwan, who decided 
in favour of Bixo’s view, so that since then men have died leaving 
their children behind them. 
In the earliest times there used to be three suns—husband, wife 
and child—and there was no night, there being always one sun left 
in the sky, if the others had set. In those days people a as 
they felt inclined, and there were no divisions of time. __ 
After along time To’ Enran thought the heat was too great, and 
he devised a plan for reducing it, in pursuance of which, he went 
to the moon, which then gave no light, and told her to call her hus- 
band Bintang Tiinang, the evening star, and the stars their children, 
and to put them into her mouth, but not to swallow them, and to 
