hem
what they were doing. The younger, whose name was Fukan, answered:
"We are gathering beans, but it takes a long time to get enough,
for my sister wants to go bathing all the time."
Then Lumawig said to the older sister:
"Hand me a single pod of the beans."
And when she had given it to him, he shelled it into the basket and
immediately the basket was full. [101] The younger sister laughed at
this, and Lumawig said to her:
"Give me another pod and another basket."
She did so, and when he had shelled the pod, that basket was full
also. Then he said to the younger sister:
"Go home and get three more baskets."
She went home, but when she asked for three more baskets her mother
said that the beans were few and she could not need so many. Then
Fukan told her of the young man who could fill a basket from one pod
of beans, and the father, who heard her story, said:
"Go bring the young man here, for I think he must be a god."
So Fukan took the three baskets back to Lumawig, and when he had
filled them as he did the other two, he helped the girls carry them
to the house. As they reached their home, he stopped outside to cool
himself, but the father called to him and he went up into the house
and asked for some water. The father brought him a cocoanut shell full,
and before drinking Lumawig looked at it and said:
"If I stay here with you, I shall become very strong."
The next morning Lumawig asked to see their chickens, and when they
opened the chicken-coop out came a hen and many little chicks. "Are
these all of your chickens?" asked Lumawig; and the father assured
him that they were all. He then bade them bring rice meal that he
might feed them, and as the chickens ate they all grew rapidly till
they were cocks and hens.
Next Lumawig asked how many pigs they had, and the father replied
that they had one with some little ones. Then Lumawig bade them fill
a pail with sweet potato leaves and he fed the pigs. And as they ate
they also grew to full size.
The father was so pleased with all these things that he offered his
elder daughter to Lumawig for a wife. But the Great Spirit said he
preferred to marry the younger; so that was arranged. Now when his
brother-in-law learned that Lumawig desired a feast at his wedding,
he was very angry and said:
"Where would you get food for your wedding feast? There is no rice,
nor beef, nor pork, nor chicken,"
But Lumawig only answered, "I shall provide our
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