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PAPUAN FAIRY TALES

elder brothers hid the youngest in a stack of sugarcane, which they leaned against the wall. Then they left him, and it came to pass that the little sister came once more into the house to cook for her brothers. The youngest brother watched while she took a piece of taro and peeled it with a sharp pearl shell. Then he came quickly from his hiding-place, and laid hold of the girl. He saw how fair she was, and said, "Aio, be my wife!"

But the girl made answer, "I cannot be thy wife, for I am thy sister."

Then the two brothers came home and saw the beautiful girl, and they said, "She is to be my wife," "She is to be my wife." But the girl told them that she was their sister, and would take care of them all and cook their food day by day.

On the morrow the brothers went out hunting, as was their custom, and Borevui went to the spring to fill her coconut water bottles. Now as she was leaning over the spring, a man who was hiding there leapt out, picked her up in his arms, and carried her off to his home far in the mountains.

After a time, when the brothers had waited in vain for Borevui to return, the eldest said that he would go and look for her. After searching for long, he found her at last, and was greeted by his sister and her husband.

"Go to the gardens," said the man to Borevui, "and bring food home and cook it, that our brother may eat."