Page:Papuan Fairy Tales.djvu/47

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THE JUNGLE BOY
25

Then said the man, "Truly thou art my nephew. Come, let us go and set thy mother free." So they went together to the fig tree where Garawada sat, and the man tried to pull asunder the boughs which hindered the woman from coming down, but he could not. He therefore went back to the village and brought many men with him, who with their stone axes cut down the tree. But as it reached the ground, Garawada slipped from under the leaves, and ran swiftly, so that no man might follow her, to the beach, and there was turned into a gwagadogo, the crab which lives in a hole in the sand. And no man set eyes on her more. Her little son wept when he knew that his mother had left him, but his uncle led him back to the village, and cared for him in his own home, and the children no longer feared to have him as their playfellow.


HOW THE FLYING FISH LIVED FIRST IN A TREE.

In the old days there was but dry land, for no man knew that the sea was pent up in a tree in the land of Modaua, which is to the east of Wamira. This is the tale of how it was found to be there, and also how it was set free to spread its waters out upon that part of the earth which it now covers.