Page:Papuan Fairy Tales.djvu/175

Rh The girl did as he bade her, and returned with some food, but, alas! she found that her brother had been killed by her husband, and that his flesh was to be eaten.

But she did not cry out or reproach her husband. She said quietly, "Eat, and give me his liver that I may eat it."

So he gave her the liver, and she placed it in a bowl made from a coconut shell, into which she poured water.

Then it was the turn of the second brother. He said, 'Now will I go to look for our sister and brother." He journeyed until he came to where Borevui lived. There the same thing came to pass. While the girl was at the gardens getting food, her husband killed her brother. And he also cooked his flesh. She said after the same manner, "Eat, and give me his liver that I may eat it."

But she placed the liver in the coconut bowl, where it lay in the water with which she had filled it.

The youngest brother, who was now at home alone with their grandmother, said, ' "I must needs go to see why my brothers have not yet returned." And he set out. But the same fate overtook him, and ere long his flesh was cooking over the fire. And Borevui could do nought but save the lad's liver, which she placed in the bowl of water where the others already lay.

Then her husband bade her follow him to their mountain garden. There they toiled for long, and