Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/399

This page has been validated.
xix.]
Molgon and Molwor.
377

missed their hold upon him over and over again, and he jumped into the water. So they said, All right, we will make rain for him; and they made a great rain, and the water swelled into a flood and carried the Eel to the beach. When the flood subsided they went down and found the Eel lying on the beach, and they cut him into short pieces, and left him. But the boy, his brother, ran down and saw the Eel lying there, and wept; and his tears fell upon the Eel, and he turned into a man again, and stood up and said to his brother, You are to go up inland and tell your father and mother that you three are to go and take up your abode in another island. The boy therefore said to his father and mother, We three are to move to another island. After they had gone, one day an old woman was sitting, and she heard the Eel singing a song; and she said to the people, Listen to that singing a song like the Eel; but some of them answered, It is not that, the Eel is dead; but they heard plainly the Eel's voice, and said, It is true, it is the Eel's voice. And when he had finished singing they heard a loud report; and as they were sitting a very great surf rose and swept them away, all of them; and they all died, and that island was entirely lost.

3. Molgon and Molwor. Vanua Lava.

The father and mother of these two brothers, who lived at Gaua, said to the elder of them, Molgon, you are to look well after him, the younger one, and feed him well. All right, he said; and then their father and mother died. They two lived on; and one day they drew down a canoe, and paddled up the course of a stream, and came upon a palako fruit floating down it. They broke it in two and ate it. They paddled on and there came floating down two, one for one of them to eat, one for the other; they paddled on and three came floating down, one for one, one for the other, and one they broke in two; they paddled on and four came floating down, two for one, two for the other; they paddled on and five came floating