The S’iring

The S’iring [120] is the ugly man that has long nails and curly hair.  He lives in the forest trees.  If a boy goes into the forest without a companion, the S’iring tries to carry him off.  When you meet a S’iring, he will look like your father, or mother, or some friend; and he will hide his long nails behind his back, so that you cannot see them.  It is the S’iring who makes the echo (a’u’d).  When you talk in a loud voice, the S’iring will answer you in a faint voice, because he wants to get you and carry you away.

There was once a boy who went without a companion into the forest, and he met a man who looked just like his own father, but it was a S’iring; and the S’iring made him believe that he was his father.  The S’iring said to the boy, “Come, you must go with me.  We will shoot some wild birds with our bow and arrows.”

And the boy, not doubting that he heard his father’s voice, followed the S’iring into the deep forest.  After a while, the boy lost his memory, and forgot the way to his own house.  The S’iring took him up on a high mountain, and gave him food; but the poor boy had now lost his mind, and he thought the food was a milleped one fathom long, or it seemed to him the long, slim worm called liwati.

So the days went on, the boy eating little, and growing thinner and weaker all the time.  When he met any men in the forest, he grew frightened, and would run away.  When he had been a long time in the forest, the S’iring called to him and said, “We will move on now.”

So they started off again.  When they reached the high bank of a deep and swift-flowing river, the S’iring scratched the boy with his long nails.  Straightway the boy felt so tired that he could no longer stand on his legs, and then he dropped down into the ravine.  He fell on the hard rocks, so that his bones were broken, and his skull split open.

All this time, the mother at home was mourning for her son, and crying all day long.  But soon she arranged a little shrine (tambara [121]) under the great tree, and, having placed there a white bowl with a few betel-nuts and some buyo-leaf as an offering for her son, she crouched on the ground and prayed for his life to the god in the sky.

Now, when the S’iring heard her prayer, he took some betel-nuts, and went to the place where the boy’s body lay.  On the parts where the bones were broken, he spit betel-nut, and did the same to the boy’s head.  Immediately the boy came to life, and felt well again.  Then the S’iring took him up, and carried him to the shrine where the mother was praying; but she could not see the S’iring nor her boy.  She went home crying.

That night, as the woman slept, she dreamed that a boy came close to her, and spoke about her son.  “To-morrow morning,” he said, “you must pick red peppers, and get a lemon, [122] and carry them to the shrine, and burn them in the fire.”