Page:Papuan Fairy Tales.djvu/129

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THE MAGIC ALMONDS
87

sudden it was changed, and became a young man and stood upright. Then he made a fish spear for himself, and set out to catch fish that he might eat. He walked along the beach until he came to an inlet, where he caught a fish, and at another inlet he caught another, and further on yet another. Now, as he walked, he saw an old woman sitting near a coco palm making a cup of coconut shell. And she, hearing his footstep, looked up and cried, "Little brother, wilt thou climb and pluck me some coconuts, for there is here no man to climb for me."

Then said he, "Yea, truly, mother, I will climb and pluck thy coconuts." And he set about to make him ready to climb. First he laid down his fish, and then looked for a wapama or loop of fibre with which to stay himself. Then having found his wapama, he put it round his ankles and clasped the palm with his arms, and so mounted to the top.

When he had thrown down to the old woman as many coconuts as she desired, he started to come down. But she, hungering for his flesh, cried, "Ah, little brother, why dost thou come down in this manner? Thy head should be first!" Then he, being but simple, did as the old woman bade him, and came down head first. And as he was now about to reach the ground, the dame beat upon his head with her husband's wooden sword, and killed him. And when she saw that he was dead, she cut up his body and cooked it, and in the evening she and her husband ate of the flesh and were full.