CHAP. XXXL] 



J LEGEND, 



469 



went with liim still live in some foreign country ; and if 

 they conld but fitid out whiire, tliey would send for Llieni 

 to come back again. Now having some vague idea tliat 

 white men must know every country beyond the sea. they 

 wanted to kiiow if I hud met tlieir people in my conntrj' 

 or in the sea. They thouglit they must Ije there, for tliey 

 could not imagine where else they could be. They had 

 sought for them everywhere, they said — on the land and in 

 the sea^ in the forest and on tlie mountains, in the air and 

 in the sky, and could not tind them ; therefore, tliey must 

 be in my conntry, and they befj;ged me to tell them, for I 

 mut^t surely know, as I eatue from across the great sea. I 

 tried to explain to them tliat their friends could not have 

 reached my country in small boats; and that there were 

 plenty of islands like Am all about the sea, which they 

 would be sure to find. Besides, as it was so long ago, the 

 chief and all the peojde must be dead. But they quite 

 laughed at this idea, and said they were sure they were alive, 

 for they had proof of it And tlien they told me that a good 

 many y^ars ago, when the speakers were boys, some Wokan 

 men who were out hshing met these lost people in the sea, 

 and spoke to tliem ; and the chief gave the Wokan men a 

 hundred fatlioms of cloth to bring to the men of Wanuiiir 

 bai, to show that they were alive and would soon come 

 back to them ; bvifc tlie Wokan men were thieves, and kept 

 the cloth, and they only heanl of it afterwards ; and when 

 they spoke about it, the ^\'okan men denied it, and pre- 

 tended they had not received the cloth ; — so they were 

 quite sure their friemls were at that time alive and some- 

 where in the sea. And again, not mimy years ago, a report 

 came to them that some Bugis tradei-s had brought some 

 children of their lost people ; so they went to Dobbo to see 

 about it, and the owner of the house, who was now speak- 

 ing to me^ was one who went; but the Bugis man woidd 

 not let them see the children, and threatened to kill them 

 if they came into his house. He kept the chUdren shut 

 up in a large box, and when he went away he took them 

 with him. And at the end of each of these stories, they 

 begged me in an imploring tone to tell them if I knew 

 where their chief and their people now were. 



By dint of questioning, I got some account of the 



