Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/186

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Legends from Torres Straits.

Naga taught the men how to "make taiai." He was unmarried, and did not live at the Taiai kwod, but in his own kwod.


xv.—What Tabu did in Muralug.

Tabu swam from Nagir to Muralug, and arrived at the kwod at Waiiza (near Port Lihon, on the south side of Muralug). Tabu, who was a man with a snake's head, went inside the kwod. He made a buk (or small mask), and started a dance on an open space. He stayed there for a month and three days (1), and when tired he stopped the dance. He got a padotu and mŭri (2); in the afternoon he ran; all the women were afraid. After that "he made warup (a large drum), all the same dance, night and day, get food."


xvi. The Two Dorgai of Muralug.

(Told by Tuigana, Chief of Muralug.)

Gilukerni, a native of Muralug, walked like a fish—Morbaigorăbĭnĭ (1). One day he was going along the sand-beach to leeward of the island, and opposite to Gialŭg (Friday Island). Two Dorgai, who lived closely by, perceived him, and one said, "That man belong to you and me—come, we take him." The Dorgai decked themselves up "flash", caught Gilukerni, and carried him into the bush, where they put him in a rock (probably a cave or crevice), which served as their home.

They then left him, walked about, worked in their yam garden, caught some fish, and made a road. On returning home they found that Gilukerni had taken their absence as his opportunity, and fled. He escaped, and swam to Gialŭg, where certain of his people lived, and persuaded some friends to return with him to Muralug, and, taking a couple of stone clubs with them, they killed both the Dorgai. They pulled an arm off one of the Dorgai, but