Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/401

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
xix.]
The Ghost-wife.
379

have not thought of me; and he went on talking. But the woman stood and urged him, saying, Come here! we two will go up away from him again. Then as Molwor spoke to him, Molgon wept wonderfully; and when he had finished speaking, Molwor sang a song to him, and got down from the canoe, and put his legs into the water, and began to turn into an eel; and when he had quite finished his song he plunged into the water, and his brother who had been standing by leapt down also into the water. And the woman stood and looked down, and blood came up from the water. And they two turned into stones lying in the water-course; and the woman stood and wept greatly, and went back again up the hill.

4. The Ghost-Wife. Mota.

A story to tell. They were living and living in their place; a famine prevailed. And there was a woman and her son, and they both were hungry. After a time the mother went to dig qauro, wild yams, for them to eat, and when she had finished digging the qauro she would return to her son in the village; and as she went she found a gaviga (Malay apple) tree in fruit, in a deserted garden, and she put down her basket, and took a stick with a crook and pulled down the branches of the gaviga with it, and then she gathered with her hands and ate. And when she had finished eating she put some seeds into her basket; and as she went along she broke the tips of the branches to mark the path. And when she had arrived at the village she said to her son, Take the things out of our basket; and he took them out one by one, and as he took them out he found the gaviga seeds in the basket which his mother had put there. Then says her son to her, What is this you have been eating, and have put the seeds in the basket for me to see? And his mother says, Where? And her son takes out the gaviga seeds. Then says his mother to him, Esi! I don't know; somebody I suppose has put them there. But he says. No! you have been eating them to-day,