Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/404

382 ; and when it comes to that day he goes away again from those two; and he makes the same arrangements and goes away. After that she takes her child up on her back, and goes with it to the yam garden; and when they have arrived there she puts down her child and works at weeding. And when she has weeded all the place she does again as before; if she essays to dig a yam for their food, and she lays hold on the leaf of the yam, there is a tuber already in her hand; and if she essays to pluck hibiscus leaves, they are in her hand already; and if she essays to take a cocoa-nut, there is a cocoa-nut already in her hand. And the evening draws on, and the two go home; and her husband comes home and sees them, and asks them, What have you two eaten? And she says, We two have been in our garden working, and have dug a yam for our food, and plucked hibiscus leaves, and taken cocoa-nuts. But her husband says to her, Not so; I have been into our garden and have seen one thing, but I have not seen at all that a yam has been dug, not at all; and no cocoa-nut has been taken. And the woman says to him, Not so; we two certainly have got the food in our garden. But the man says, Not so; there is some one else probably who has given it to you. And she says, Who is there that will trouble himself about us? he will be a ghost, I suppose! And he says, Tell me who gives these things to you. Who should it be that would give me anything? says she. And the man says, No! tell me the truth. Then the woman says to him, Well! come along, we three will go into our garden. So the three set out and went and arrived; and the woman says to him, Well! look here, you are angry with us, but you may see for yourself. Then she touches taro. and it was as before, and yams, and it was so. Then the man says, Not so; some one else has been giving you things. But as he says thus he lays hold on a stick and beats her, and says, You don't belong down here below, you belong above the sky. What have you been doing here? Get back into your own country. And she says, Very well, I will soon go back into my own country. And one day after again he beat her and went off.