PIVI AND KABO

Edition and rights: Original English text from Project Gutenberg ebook #31201, marked public domain in the USA. The literary text below is reproduced without AI rewriting.

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When birds were men, and men were birds, Pivi and
Kabo lived in an island far away, called New Caledonia.
Pivi was a cheery little bird that chirps at sunset; Kabo
was an ugly black fowl that croaks in the darkness. One
day Pivi and Kabo thought that they would make slings,
and practise slinging, as the people of the island still do.
So they went to a banyan tree, and stripped the bark to
make strings for their slings, and next they repaired to
the river bank to find stones. Kabo stood on the bank of
the river, and Pivi went into the water. The game was
for Kabo to sling at Pivi, and for Pivi to dodge the stones,
if he could. For some time he dodged them cleverly, but
at last a stone from Kabo’s sling hit poor Pivi on the leg
and broke it. Down went Pivi into the stream, and
floated along it, till he floated into a big hollow bamboo,
which a woman used for washing her sweet potatoes.

‘What is that in my bamboo?’ said the woman. And
she blew in at one end, and blew little Pivi out at the
other, like a pea from a pea-shooter.

‘Oh!’ cried the woman, ‘what a state you are in!
What have you been doing?’

‘It was Kabo who broke my leg at the slinging game,’
said Pivi.

‘Well, I am sorry for you,’ said the woman; ‘will you
come with me, and do what I tell you?’

‘I will!’ said Pivi, for the woman was very kind
and pretty. She took Pivi into a shed where she kept
her fruit, laid him on a bed of mats, and made him as
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comfortable as she could, and attended to his broken leg
without cutting off the flesh round the bone, as these
people usually do.

‘You will be still, won’t you, Pivi?’ she said. ‘If you
hear a little noise you will pretend to be dead. It is the
Black Ant who will come and creep from your feet up to
your head. Say nothing, and keep quiet, won’t you, Pivi?’

‘Certainly, kind lady,’ said Pivi, ‘I will lie as still as
can be.’

‘Next will come the big Red Ant—you know him?’

‘Yes, I know him, with his feet like a grasshopper’s.’

‘He will walk over your body up to your head. Then
you must shake all your body. Do you understand,
Pivi?’

‘Yes, dear lady, I shall do just as you say.’

‘Very good,’ said the woman, going out and shutting
the door.

Pivi lay still under his coverings, then a tiny noise
was heard, and the Black Ant began to march over Pivi,
who lay quite still. Then came the big Red Ant skipping
along his body, and then Pivi shook himself all over. He
jumped up quite well again, he ran to the river, he looked
into the water and saw that he was changed from a bird
into a fine young man!

‘Oh, lady,’ he cried, ‘look at me now! I am changed
into a man, and so handsome!’

‘Will you obey me again?’ said the woman.

‘Always; whatever you command I will do it,’ said
Pivi, politely.

‘Then climb up that cocoa-nut tree, with your legs
only, not using your hands,’ said the woman.

Now the natives can run up cocoa-nut trees like
squirrels, some using only one hand; the girls can do that.
But few can climb without using their hands at all.

‘At the top of the tree you will find two cocoa-nuts.
You must not throw them down, but carry them in your
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hands; and you must descend as you went up, using your
legs only.’

‘I shall try, at least,’ said Pivi. And up he went, but
it was very difficult, and down he came.

‘Here are your cocoa-nuts,’ he said, presenting them
to the woman.

‘Now, Pivi, put them in the shed where you lay, and
when the sun sets to cool himself in the sea and rise
again not so hot in the dawn you must go and take the
nuts.’

All day Pivi played about in the river, as the natives
do, throwing fruit and silvery showers of water at each
other. When the sun set he went into the hut. But as
he drew near he heard sweet voices talking and laughing
within.

‘What is that? People chattering in the hut!
Perhaps they have taken my cocoa-nuts,’ said Pivi to
himself.

In he went, and there he found two pretty, laughing,
teasing girls. He hunted for his cocoa-nuts, but none
were there.

Down he ran to the river. ‘Oh, lady, my nuts have
been stolen!’ he cried.

‘Come with me, Pivi, and there will be nuts for you,’
said the woman.

They went back to the hut, where the girls were
laughing and playing.

‘Nuts for you?’ said the woman, ‘there are two wives
for you, Pivi, take them to your house.’

‘Oh, good lady,’ cried Pivi, ‘how kind you are!’

So they were married and very happy, when in came
cross old Kabo.

‘Is this Pivi?’ said he. ‘Yes, it is—no, it isn’t. It is
not the same Pivi—but there is a kind of likeness. Tell
me, are you Pivi?’

‘Oh, yes!’ said Pivi. ‘But I am much better looking,
and there are my two wives, are they not beautiful?’

[Pg 186]
‘You are mocking me, Pivi! Your wives? How?
Where did you get them? You, with wives!’

Then Pivi told Kabo about the kind woman, and all
the wonderful things that had happened to him.

‘Well, well!’ said Kabo, ‘but I want to be handsome
too, and to have pretty young wives.’

‘But how can we manage that?’ asked Pivi.

‘Oh, we shall do all the same things over again—play
at slinging, and, this time, you shall break my leg, Pivi!’

‘With all the pleasure in life,’ said Pivi, who was
always ready to oblige.

So they went slinging, and Pivi broke Kabo’s leg, and
Kabo fell into the river, and floated into the bamboo, and
the woman blew him out, just as before. Then she picked
up Kabo, and put him in the shed, and told him what to
do when the Black Ant came, and what to do when the
Red Ant came. But he didn’t!

When the Black Ant came, he shook himself, and
behold, he had a twisted leg, and a hump back, and was
as black as the ant.

Then he ran to the woman.

‘Look, what a figure I am!’ he said; but she only
told him to climb the tree, as she had told Pivi.

But Kabo climbed with both hands and feet, and he
threw down the nuts, instead of carrying them down, and he
put them in the hut. And when he went back for them
there he found two horrid old black hags, wrangling, and
scolding, and scratching! So back he went to Pivi with
his two beautiful wives, and Pivi was very sorry, but what
could he do? Nothing, but sit and cry.

So, one day, Kabo came and asked Pivi to sail in his
canoe to a place where he knew of a great big shell-fish,
enough to feed on for a week. Pivi went, and deep in
the clear water they saw a monstrous shell-fish, like an
oyster, as big as a rock, with the shell wide open.

‘We shall catch it, and dry it, and kipper it,’ said Pivi,
‘and give a dinner to all our friends!’

[Pg 187]

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‘I shall dive for it, and break it off the rock,’ said Kabo,
‘and then you must help me to drag it up into the canoe.’

There the shell-fish lay and gaped, but Kabo, though
he dived in, kept well out of the way of the beast.

Up he came, puffing and blowing: ‘Oh, Pivi,’ he cried,
‘I cannot move it. Jump in and try yourself!’

Pivi dived, with his spear, and the shell-fish opened
its shell wider yet, and sucked, and Pivi disappeared into
its mouth, and the shell shut up with a snap!

Kabo laughed like a fiend, and then went home.

‘Where is Pivi?’ asked the two pretty girls. Kabo
pretended to cry, and told how Pivi had been swallowed.

‘But dry your tears, my darlings,’ said Kabo, ‘I will
be your husband, and my wives shall be your slaves.
Everything is for the best, in the best of all possible
worlds.’

‘No, no!’ cried the girls, ‘we love Pivi. We do not
love anyone else. We shall stay at home, and weep for
Pivi!’

‘Wretched idiots!’ cried Kabo; ‘Pivi was a scoundrel
who broke my leg, and knocked me into the river.’

Then a little cough was heard at the door, and Kabo
trembled, for he knew it was the cough of Pivi!

‘Ah, dear Pivi!’ cried Kabo, rushing to the door.
‘What joy! I was trying to console your dear wives.’

Pivi said not one word. He waved his hand, and five
and twenty of his friends came trooping down the hill.
They cut up Kabo into little pieces. Pivi turned round,
and there was the good woman of the river.

‘Pivi,’ she said, ‘how did you get out of the living
tomb into which Kabo sent you?’

‘I had my spear with me,’ said Pivi. ‘It was quite
dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish with
my spear, till he saw reason to open his shell, and out I
came.’ Then the good woman laughed; and Pivi and his
two wives lived happy ever afterwards.

[Moncelon. Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie. Series iii. vol. ix., pp. 613-365.]

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