Page:Papuan Fairy Tales.djvu/158

116 Then as he slept she stabbed him until he was dead, and she fled far away, and no more came back thither. The little child lay on, in its dead father's blood, and when the mother came back, bearing the taro, she found her husband and her child lying dead upon the ground. Then was her heart filled with grief, and she mourned for them many days.



the old days, it befell that the men of Kulawa, who were out hunting, found a snake and killed it. When they returned home they smoked it, and would have eaten it at their evening meal. But a girl who was near said, "Ye are about to eat of the snake. Will ye not give me a little that I may taste it?" Then they, willing to please her, gave her the tail, and she ate it. And so much did she love the taste of its flesh that she said again, "I pray you, give me a little of the snake that I may eat." So they gave her the middle, and she ate it all. Again she asked for more, and they gave it to her, and again, until the head was all that was left. Then she prayed that they would give her the head also, and they gave it to her, and she ate it and went away.

Now it came to pass that after a time the woman gave birth to a son, in form like to a snake, and she