Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/194

188 noise, like the knocking of the teeth together. Mairuer then no longer appeared as a bird, but as a man, and said to his friend, "You no find water! He close to small stone, dry bushes on top. You no drink at high tide ; two thing come. Only drink at low water. No drink all day, or harm come to you." The man awoke, got up, and looked out; but Mairuer was no longer a man, but a bird. The krīs krīs said, "You follow me; you watch me good; get up run." The bird showed him where the water was. When he returned to his canoe he felt sorry for his comrades, who were beside themselves for want of water. ["They half-tight hard up for water."] He got some red and black paint and ornamented himself therewith, making himself like the bird. He then took a belt out of the canoe and tied it round his waist, sticking a bunch of cassowary feathers behind; in his hands he took a small shell, and danced and jumped like a bird. Thus accoutred, he went and awakened the men, telling them to wake up and he would show them where there was water. When they had rubbed the sand off their bodies he told them to bring all their vessels for holding water shells, bamboo-stems, or coco-nut shells and be quick and follow him, or they would not see the water. They gladly followed him and drank the water, and he told them not to drink all day; they might drink in the morning, but not in the afternoon, and concluded by saying, "The spirit (lamar) told me about two thing, I no savvy; we watch him." The men filled all their vessels with water; all men cut wood, "cut like face," and called each after his own name, and put in canoe (6). In the afternoon the men said to one another, "You and me go watch." They went and waited, and heard the "two thing" go into the waterhole. Babat was their name, and they made the water red (7). Two of the Komet-le took a mat, caught the Babat, rolled them up, and made all secure with wooden skewers, and finally deposited them in the stern of their canoe. That night they slept where they were.