Description
Told by Wees Nawia at Kubin. 1 November 1967 A woman named Murarat lived by herself at Baua. She wove mats, tended her garden and dug in the damp sand of the beach for silei ( shellfish). She became pregnant and gave birth to a son whom she named Sik. Sik grew in to a handsome boy, and, as soon as he was strong enough to hold a bow and arrows, his mother made them for him and taught him how to use them. She told him to watch the trees and shoot at anything that hopped and flew among the branches. When he killed one of these creatures he was to bring it to her and she would cook it. The first thing that Sik shot was a tiny lizard (mogai) He took it to Murarat. ” Mother, is it good to eat” he asked her. “No, my son” she replied. “It is not.” Try shooting at creatures that fly about in the trees.” So Sik went into the bush again, and this time he brought back a very small black bird (mut). ” Mother” he said, “Is this good food?” “My son” said Murarat; “You have shot very good food. I will cook it for you.” After that Sik went into the bush every day and shot birds. But Murarat worried the whole time he was gone, for fear that he might be stolen by dogai or an adiad (a monstrous bush creature) So she made a pronged spear for him and showed him how to throw it, believing that he would be safer spearing fish on the reef than wandering alone in the scrub. She praised him highly when he speared his first fish, and told him to obtain that kind of food in future. Sik had no fear on the reef and walked further and further from home as the days went by. Murarat often told him not to go so far. ” You must remember that there are dogai and adiad everywhere. They want nothing more than a fine youth like
