Is ridiculed by his friends.

87

A man with heavily laden horse asks the length of a certain trip. Boy
replies, "If you go slowly, very soon; if you go fast, all day." The
man hurries so that coconuts keep falling off the load and have to
be replaced. It is dark when he arrives.

88

A woman eats the fruit belonging to crocodile and throws away the
rind. Crocodile sees her tooth marks and recognizes the offender. He
demands that she be given him to eat. Her people agree, but first
feed him a hot iron. He swallows it and dies.

89

A lazy man goes to cut bamboo, and a cat steals his cooked rice. He
catches the cat in a trap and takes it home. It becomes a fighting
cock. The man starts for a cock fight, and on the way is joined by a
crocodile, a deer, a mound of earth and a monkey. The rooster kills
all the other birds at the fight, then the crocodile wins a diving
contest, the deer a race, the mound of earth a wrestling match, and
the monkey excels all in climbing. The man wins much money in wagers
and buys a good house.

90

A spirit lets a man take his _poncho_ which makes him invisible. He
goes to his wife who recognizes his voice and thinks him dead. He
takes off _poncho_ and appears before her.

91

A fisherman is seized by a big bird which carries him to its nest. The
small birds try to eat him, but he seizes one in each hand and jumps
from the tree. He reaches the ground unhurt and returns home.

NOTES

[1] Men or women through whom the superior beings talk to
mortals. During ceremonies the spirits possess their bodies and govern
their language and actions. When not engaged in their calling, the
mediums take part in the daily activities of the village.

[2] See page 29.

[3] The initial portion of some of these names is derived from the
respectful term _apo_--"sir," and the attributive copulate _ni_; thus
the original form of Aponitolau probably was Apo ni Tolau, literally
"Sir, who is Tolau." However, the story-tellers do not now appear
to divide the names into their component parts, and they frequently
corrected the writer when he did so; for this reason such names appear
in the text as single words. Following this explanation it is possible
that the name Aponibolinayen may be derived from Apo ni bolan yan,
literally "Sir (mistress) who is place where the moon"; but _bolan_
generally refers to the space of time between the phases of the moon
rather than to the moon i