When he reached the tank the bonga girl came up and held out his books to him; but when he went to take them she drew back and so she enticed him into the tank; but when once he was under the water he found he was in quite a dry and sandy place.  There he stayed and was married to the bonga girl.  After he had lived with her a long time he became homesick and longed to see his father and mother.  So he told his bonga wife that he must go and visit them.  “Then do not take your school books with you,” said she; “perhaps you won’t come back.”  “No, I will surely return,” he answered; so she agreed to his going and said that she would sit on the door step and watch for his return; and he must promise to be very quick.  She tied up some cakes and dried rice for him and also gave him back his school books.

She watched him go to his home and sat and watched for his return but he never came back.  Evening came and night came but he did not return:  then the bonga girl rose and went after him.  She went through the garden and up to her husband’s house in a flame of fire:  and there she changed herself into a Karinangin snake and entering the house climbed on to the bed where the boy lay sleeping and climbed on to his breast and bit him.

    “Rise mother, rise mother,
    The Karinangin snake
    Is biting me.”

he called—­

But no one heard him though he kept on calling:  so he died and the bonga girl went away with his spirit.

CLIV.  The Bonga’s Cave.

There was once a young bonga who dwelt in a cave in the side of a hill in the jungle; and every day he placed on a flat stone outside, a pot of oil and a comb and a looking glass and some lamp black or vermilion; any woman who went to the jungle could see these things lying there; but they were never visible to a man.  After a time the girls who went to the jungle began to use the comb and looking glass and to dress and oil their hair there; it became a regular custom for them to go first to the flat stone before collecting their firewood or leaves.

One day five girls went together to the jungle and after they had combed and dressed their hair it happened that one got left behind; and seeing her alone the bonga came out of the cave and creeping up quietly from behind threw his arms round her; and although she shouted to her friends for help he dragged her inside the cave.  Her companions were just in time to see her disappear; and they begged and prayed the bonga to let the girl go for once; but the bonga answered from within that he would never let her go but was going to keep her as his wife; and he drew a stone door over the mouth of the cave.  News of the misfortune was sent to the girl’s parents and they came hastening to the place; and her mother began to sing: 

    “My daughter, you rubbed your hair with oil from a pot: 
    My daughter, you combed your hair with a comb with one row of teeth;
    Come hither to me, my daughter.”