Description
Kudluk (a young pigeon) set out from his home one day in search of food but before long he met Kui, a young curlew bird. Kui asked him, ”where are you going, would you like to play a game with me?’ Kudluk replied, ‘what kind of game’. Kui then said, ‘it’s called Umau Sagul (a game of death), you have to lie down and close your eyes and pretend to be dead and I have to pretend to cry for you but don’t move until I tell you to’. Kudluk then went first pretending to be dead and Kui cried for him but Kudluk played very well and didn’t move at all. Kui then told him, ‘you can get up now’, so Kudluk got up and said to Kui, ‘is that how you play, was I good’. ‘Yes, replied Kui, you were good, now it’s my turn to act dead’. Kui lay down and Kudluk pretended to cry for him, but Kui was playing so good. Kudluk then said, ‘you can get up now’, but Kui would not move. Kudluk asked him again and again but Kui would still not move until finally the sun went down and Kudluk left him there. When Kudluk got home his mother asked him, ‘where have you been’? ‘I met a young curlew, Kui, and we played a game called death. Kui taught me what it was like to be dead, and then when it was Kui’s turn. Only, that he would not get up when we had finished playing I told him many times, so I just left him there.
