, all soft
as I am now, though I may be safe, I can never stir out to get my food,
and so I shall die.' Then he waved his legs and lamented.

'Listen, Pau Amma,' said the Eldest Magician. 'I cannot make you play
the play you were meant to play, because you escaped me at the Very
Beginning; but if you choose, I can make every stone and every hole and
every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe Pusat Tasek for you and your
children for always.'

Then Pau Amma said, 'That is good, but I do not choose yet. Look! there
is that Man who talked to you at the Very Beginning. If he had not taken
up your attention I should not have grown tired of waiting and run away,
and all this would never have happened. What will he do for me?'

And the Man said, 'If you choose, I will make a Magic, so that both
the deep water and the dry ground will be a home for you and your
children--so that you shall be able to hide both on the land and in the
sea.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet. Look! there is that girl who
saw me running away at the Very Beginning. If she had spoken then, the
Eldest Magician would have called me back, and all this would never have
happened. What will she do for me?'

And the little girl-daughter said, 'This is a good nut that I am eating.
If you choose, I will make a Magic and I will give you this pair of
scissors, very sharp and strong, so that you and your children can eat
cocoa-nuts like this all day long when you come up from the Sea to the
land; or you can dig a Pusat Tasek for yourself with the scissors that
belong to you when there is no stone or hole near by; and when the earth
is too hard, by the help of these same scissors you can run up a tree.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet, for, all soft as I am, these
gifts would not help me. Give me back my shell, O Eldest Magician, and
then I will play your play.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'I will give it back, Pau Amma, for eleven
months of the year; but on the twelfth month of every year it shall grow
soft again, to remind you and all your children that I can make magics,
and to keep you humble, Pau Amma; for I see that if you can run both
under the water and on land, you will grow too bold; and if you can
climb trees and crack nuts and dig holes with your scissors, you will
grow too greedy, Pau Amma.'

Then Pau Amma thought a little and said, 'I have made my choice. I will
take all the gifts.'

Then the Eldest Magician made a Magic