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

rTI-IE AMBAT, KABAT, AND HAMBAT 631
I told you and brought the yams, I could have returned to the
world of the living and begun my life again. But now I must die.â€ù
So the Kabat died, and was buried in the logho. But his body
never decayed. It was arranged in a sitting position, the hands
resting on the knees, and set upon a flat stone which was supported
by two low upright stones. On the head and knees, and at the
buttocks were placed jars or cylinders of the prehistoric sacred
potteryn Tall stones were then erected round the body and a
large slab placed across the top, the whole forming a dolmen-
like tomb, " like a house â€ù as the native informant expressed itz
This was then covered over with :1 mound of earth and small
stones, which can be seen to-day in the logho of Melpmes. (It is
probable that the corpse and its stone seat were originally set
in an excavation, since this mound as it now appears is too low
to cover a sitting body.) Within this megalithic tomb Butwana-
baghap’s remains still rest, as fresh as on the day he died, and
annually at the festival oi the N ogho Tilabwz (“The Great
N ogha â€ù) they are solemnly washed in order that mankind may
be made fertile and prosperous.‘ It is said that had the two
sons brought the yams to their father on the correct day, then
he would have lived again. Out of his body would have come,
not by any normal method of conception and birth, but " as a
living thing rises from a dead one â€ù, a new-born child who would
be‘ the Kabat returned to life. This child would have grown
up, lived and died, and out of its body the Kahat would have
come forth yet again as a child, thus never dying, but living for
ever by continuous rebirth.‘
1 There is no clear evidence ni what happened to Butwanlsbaghayfa wile.
rt Seems probable urnr the nndecayecl body oi a wnnrnn which like that oi the
Rabat is washed tr the ceremony of Nvglw rilnnnrr is the hody oi Nilnlmin.
According to one origin myth ni Melpmeo she muét have died nna been buried,
for irnrn her skull sprang the tree which gave rise to the pwplc nr Melprnes.
A jotting in one of the note-books runs: “The woman who desires Kubat
pinrlm (ink) him ; she and sister iolluw him to his home under rho reei Namalb.“
This is the nnly teierence to a sister of Nimanin, nor is it easy to nee whence Shï¬Å
came in viow OI Nirnimilfs origin irflm the clam.—C. n. w.
1 This living for ever 13 apparently regarded 55 n property 01 the Kuhn! 15
a. race; ag, mp name of the fl!flC Kabat, Toklltuei, meaning " He rnrnninr inr-
ages '1-A. B. D.
This is the only tale recorded irom Mewun which tells of the origin of aenui,
but whether it can indeed be regarded IS 5lCl an " origin rnyul " is not absolutely
clear Lrom urn evidence befflre us, since Butwannbaghap was lmyerhuman and
.nn¢ human. 1: has perhspr the same rather anomalous position in this respect
IS tho stories one nr which tells how the Arnbat brothom all aim through
iratricidel shite, Mid the other 01 how, Owing to the prnrtosts of Awirara, Ambit
refrained from bringing one ni hin nrnlhrrs to life, but made for him instead a
mmbnmmp eï¬Ålgyr»-C. H. w. _
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