The Poetry of the Kiwai Papuans, 3 i 3
man, Sabake, at first refused to go with the others, and stayed behind. After a time his brother Gamea went back to Old Mawata to persuade Sabake to come. But Sabake said, in the wording of the tale, " I no like go, I no been see place all same Mawata. What's good I go that place, I no can leave my good place." Now Old Mawata, like the whole coast, is merely a sand and mud bank between the sea and the inland swamps, overgrown with mangroves and pestered with mosquitos. The brother did not cease his persuasions, and at last Sabake yielded. He went to his garden, smeared his face with mud in token of his sorrow and wailed, — " I leave my place belong garden, I leave my good place Old Mawata, good place, good sand, no good I go dark corner, I been stop light place." On their way to New Mawata he still wept, sitting at the stern of the canoe with his feet in the water, " I never look place all same Old Mawata."
G. Landtman.
