Note 48 — Chapter IV · MYTHS AND LEGENDS

“Another of their antediluvian ancestors was famous for propagating yams. This was Maia Bumroag, who in shooting an arrow, struck the creeper belonging to the favourite variety called gono; his curiosity being excited he dug up the root, and tasted it: the result being satisfactory, he informed his friends of his discovery, and they all feasted upon it; when they had had sufficient, he scattered the remains in different directions; this apparent waste so angered his mother that, on pretence of shaving him, she split his head open with a flint. After his death it was found that the act for which he had suffered had tended to the spread of the plant which is now plentiful48.”