Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/250

242 INJÂY.

In old times, they say, there was a certain man who, among others, was appointed to serve in the wars. So his wife and children and family were exceedingly sorry and troubled; and he himself also was very sad and full of fear, for it was a serious matter to go to the wars. So he went to consult a famous diviner. And when he got there, the diviner worked the oracle, and the man was seen by the divination to be liable to regret; but yet he would not be hurt by gun or spear, or by any sharp weapon. So the diviner spoke to him thus: "Thou, Sir, art not to be hurt by the hand of man, nor hurt by your own hand; nevertheless you are liable to this little matter called 'regret ' (énina). Still, Sir, if you invoke (or make an offering to) the 'god in-the-house' (i.e. the sunlight entering into the house through a hole in the ridge), and the road be straight, and if you offer money to the ancestors, and kill an ox of the right colour for the tribe and the family that they may bless you (literally, "blow water on you"), for you are overtaken by blame from the dead, and have blame from the living, then you shall be free. Therefore make this (aforesaid) offering (sòrona). And this also is the expiation (fàditra, a word from the same root as fàdy tabooed, consecrated, devoted) you shall make: an unfinished web of cloth, an unpierced gourd, a weed, an unripe lemon, something which has died of itself, a withered banana, a stone which has stopped the way, earth which has caused one to fall, a twisted tree, a liàna climbing a tree, a road which leads nowhere. These are the things you are to take for an expiation. And these also are the things for divination: a piece of unbroken money (a dollar), two small coins, a cloth in one unjoined piece, a bowl (called "step of divination"), a chopper, scissors, a fine cock, honey from living bees, and pieces of money of the value of eightpence and a halfpenny. If therefore you do all this, you shall free from blame from the dead and shall be blessed by the living, you shall have no hindrance, but shall return in health and prosperity here to your ancestral home."

And when the man heard about these many things to be done and to pay, he was discouraged and could not hold up his head; so he said, "Yes, I understand it, and I thank you, may you be blessed by the ancestors; but I will wait a little first to consult with my wife and children at home, for to save my life what would I not do, although