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NOTES ON AFRICAN FOLK-LORE, &c.
Legend of the Ké Islanders (in the Banda Sea, S.W. of New Guinea), as to the First Peopling of the Earth.
[Obtained by Capt. G. Langen, who lived three years in the Kè Islands; and communicated by H. W. Bates, Esq., F.R.S.]
THREE brothers named Hian, Tongül, and Parpara, and two sisters named Bikeel and Meslaang, once lived above the earth. One day Parpara went fishing in the clouds with his eldest brother's fish-hook, which he lost. Angry at this, Hian ordered him to find it and bring it back. Then Parpara took a boat and dived into the clouds in search after the hook.
After long and fruitless toil he met the fish Kiliboban, who asked him what he wanted. Parpara told him, and the fish promised to help him. Soon afterwards, Kiliboban met the fish Kerken, who was well-nigh choked with coughing. Kiloboban asked what ailed him; and when he suffered him to look down his throat, he saw the missing hook and drew it out. Then he gave it to Parpara, who returned it to his brother. Hian was surprised at this, and Parpara sought how to revenge himself upon him.
On a certain day, as Hian lay asleep in his house, Parpara hung a bamboo filled with the precious arrack, or palm wine in the heaven, over the bed in such a manner that it might be upset as soon as Hian awoke. And when this happened, Parpara ordered Hian to refill the bamboo; and he, ashamed of what he had done, set to work and dug a hole through the heaven, but did not find any palm wine. After standing in deep thought a long long time before the hole, one of the brothers said, "It would be to our gain to know what lies below us; so we will let down our dog by a rope." This being done, they pulled up the dog again, and saw that his feet were smeared with sand;
