Page:Papuan Fairy Tales.djvu/187

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GELARURU
145

treated her so again, she fell upon the wife whom he loved, and would have slain her had not the man come between and parted them.

Now after a time the woman whom her husband held not dear gave birth to a son, and she said in her heart, "When my son is grown he will bring me gelaruru." And the child grew, and each year the woman thought, 'He will soon be big enough to bring me gelaruru." And many times she said to the little lad, "Soon thou mayest go over the sea and search for gelaruru that thy mother may eat."

Now it fell upon a day that the child sat alone in the house, and as he sat he bethought him of the gelaruru of which his mother had spoken. And he arose, and sought for a canoe, that he might go in search of some to make glad her heart. When therefore he had found one he set forth, taking with him a paddle, but forgetting a niutepo wherewith to bail out the water if the waves should grow big.

Not to the east or the west did he steer, but far away to the north, where no land is. And as he paddled he gazed over the water seeking for gelaruru, and he found much and heaped it upon the canoe. Then he would have made for home, but Kariwabu, the strong east wind, blew upon the water, and caused great waves to beat against the canoe. The child looked at his feet for a niutepo that he might bail out the water, but found none. Then he cast the