Before he reached the ground he heard the cry of his
new-born child, and begged to be allowed to go back to see him. But
his entreaties were unavailing, and weeping bitterly, he alighted on
the earth at TIKAN ORUM (a spot in the upper Baram district). Still
his disobedience was not overcome; for, although he had been told to
plant the sugar-cane and banana by merely throwing them on the ground,
he planted them carefully in the soil; and to this day a tall coarse
grass (BRU) grows on the spot. Nevertheless some sugar-cane and banana
plants grew up; but they were of an inferior quality, and such they
have remained wherever they have spread in this world. LAFAANG died
among his own people on earth, but the bright constellation that
bears his name and shape still moves across the heavens, reminding
men of his journey to the world above the sky and of the misfortunes
he suffered there.[161]
The Story of USAI
The following myth, current under several forms among the Klemantans,
accounts for a number of the geographical features of the Baram
district, in which it was told us. The story was evoked from an
old man of the Long Kiputs by a question as to his views about the
nature of the stars. He explained that the stars are holes in the
sky made by the roots of trees in the world above the sky projecting
through the floor of that world.
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