Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/405

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xix.]

Ganviviris.

383

And when she has seen that he is gone she gathers banyan leaves into a heap, and sets fire to them, and they burn. Then she says to her child, Sit here, and I will go to the other side of the fire; and she goes to the other side of the fire, and the smoke goes straight up into the clouds, and the child's mother goes up in it; and her child cries beside the fire, and she goes on up into the clouds^[1].

5. Ganviviris. Mota.

The story about what Ro Som did for Ganviviris is not an old one; he was a man whom my father's grandfather and his friends had seen; he was an orphan, his father was dead, and his mother too was dead, and he lived with his mother's brother. And his uncle did nothing for him in the suqe club, he still remained an avlava, because he was an idle fellow, and whenever they called him to go to work he would refuse, and when they were all gone inland to the gardens he would go down to the beach to shoot fish, and do nothing else day after day. But one day when they had called him to work and were all gone, he took his bow and went down to Ngerenow, and there he saw a sauma slowly swimming along and rolling from side to side quite close to him; and he took an arrow tipped with casuarina wood, and drew his bow to shoot. And just as he was releasing the string he heard a voice inciting him and saying, Let fly! Let fly! And he drew down his arrow from the bow-string, thinking it was a

↑ Here the MS. ends. The story goes on to relate that the man found his child crying for its mother beside the fire, and refusing to be comforted. He sought help from all the birds and living creatures, but none would listen to him till he came to the Spider, marawa, who readily undertook to bring the child to its mother. He spun a line from earth to heaven, took the man and the child on his back and carried them safely up. A feast was going on in heaven, and the two sat down in the circle of spectators. The men were dancing round the drum, and the women tramping round in pairs. Each time the mother passed the child it cried out Mother! She stopped at last and asked, Who is that cries Mother! to me? Recognizing her child and husband she agreed to return, and the Spider carried all three of them safe back to the earth.

[1] Here the MS. ends. The story goes on to relate that the man found his child crying for its mother beside the fire, and refusing to be comforted. He sought help from all the birds and living creatures, but none would listen to him till he came to the Spider, marawa, who readily undertook to bring the child to its mother. He spun a line from earth to heaven, took the man and the child on his back and carried them safely up. A feast was going on in heaven, and the two sat down in the circle of spectators. The men were dancing round the drum, and the women tramping round in pairs. Each time the mother passed the child it cried out Mother! She stopped at last and asked, Who is that cries Mother! to me? Recognizing her child and husband she agreed to return, and the Spider carried all three of them safe back to the earth.

[1]