Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/59

Rh discovered and was now returning; on seeing Maiwasa’s canoe nearing shore she went down to welcome him home, but when she reached the canoe, Bukari, who had been crouching down, sprang up and killed Gidzö by a blow with the piece of wood across the bridge of her nose.

A man named Nadai, living on the island of Boigu, went once into the bush to collect eggs of the mound-bird (surka) (1); he found a large mound, and dug into it till he came to what he took to be an egg; he tried to pull it up, but it stuck fast; then he tried to get another, but neither would that come away. Now a Dorgai was sleeping under that mound, and she had attached to various parts of her body numerous large white cowry-like shells (boboŭm) (2), and these were what Nadai was pulling at, mistaking them for brush-turkey eggs.

Nadai at length caught hold of the boboŭm attached to the Dorgai’s chin, and giving a tremendous pull, unearthed the bogey, when he was so terrified by her appearance that he fled back to his village, Suam, and urged the inhabitants to arm themselves and slay the Dorgai, who was sure to follow.

By-and-bye a fly came, and behind it arrived the Dorgai (3), but the men no sooner saw her terrible face than they threw down their weapons and fled in dismay. Nadai then ran on to Pali, where he exhorted the warriors to make a stand against the Dorgai; but when the Dorgai appeared, preceded as before by a fly, they also scattered in terror. Nadai sped on to Kowai, and then to Gunilai, on the eastern side of the island, but all his appeals for help were answered by a stampede of the warriors as soon as the Dorgai showed herself. At last, having nearly completed the circuit of the island, he came to Kerpai, on the north side (he started on the lee or western side), where he once more entreated the people to stand firm and attack