[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

ECONOMIC LIFE 201
attend a Nimangki festival there. On his way home he accident-
ally dropped the tusk overboard from the canoe in mid-channel.
VVhen he got back to Benaur he offered to pay his friend for the
lost object, but the friend said that he would take no payment
either i.n pigs, bows and arrows, or in any other valuables ; he
wanted only his tusk. The borrower then replied: “ But it is
lost in a place too deep for me to ï¬Ånd it." Now secretly this
supposed friend wished the man dead; he insisted therefore
that he would take nothing but the tusk itself. The man went
sorrowiully to his canoe, paddled it out into mid-stream, and
began to dive for the lost pig’s tusk. Again and again he dived,
but all to no purpose. Finally, he dived for the last time, but
instead of reaching the bottom of the channel, he found that
he went on and on, until he noticed that he was no longer going
through water. At last he came to a place where an old man
was living. This old man was the sun. He said : " What have
you come here for P â€ù The diver replied : " I was diving to ï¬Ånd
a curved pig's tusk.â€ù " Well, here it is," answered the sun.
The man was overjoyed to have the lost object returned to him,
and wanted to go back home at once. But the sun asked him,
saying : “ How are you going to get back? " At this the man
was nonplussed, for he did not know how to get to Benaur again.
“_You had much better remain here with me,â€ù added the sun,
and, since there was nothing else for him to do, the man stayed.
The people of Benaur saw his drifting canoe washed on shore
and concluded that he was dead. The man remained with the
sun for two years, with whom he lived a very pleasant life, being
well looked after and entertained. At the end of this time the
sun said : “ Do you want to go back home ? " “ Yes,â€ù-replied
the other; The sun now went into his hut and brought thence a
string of pig's tusks. One of these was of very great value
indeed, having formed three complete circles. This the sun put
on the man's arm, saying: “ Come with me to the entrance of
the village} When I tell you to close your eyes, close them;
and when I tell you to open them, do so, but not before I have
given the order." The man did as he was bid. When they
reached the entrance to the village he closed his eyes, and after
a time he heard the sun's voice telling him to open them again.
1 The malrmhal, this is presumably the matanhal of the village where the
sun lived.—C. H. W.