nd it prevents the canoe from
being tipped over. The canoe is made out of one piece of wood, and there
is a paddle at one end of it.]

'You are not so important after all, Pau Amma,' he said. 'Now, let
_me_ try,' and he made a Magic with his left hand--with just the little
finger of his left hand--and--lo and behold, Best Beloved, Pau Amma's
hard, blue-green-black shell fell off him as a husk falls off a
cocoa-nut, and Pau Amma was left all soft--soft as the little crabs that
you sometimes find on the beach, Best Beloved.

'Indeed, you are very important,' said the Eldest Magician. 'Shall I ask
the Man here to cut you with _kris_? Shall I send for Raja Moyang Kaban,
the King of the Elephants, to pierce you with his tusks, or shall I call
Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles, to bite you?'

And Pau Amma said, 'I am ashamed! Give me back my hard shell and let me
go back to Pusat Tasek, and I will only stir out once a day and once a
night to get my food.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'No, Pau Amma, I will _not_ give you back
your shell, for you will grow bigger and prouder and stronger, and
perhaps you will forget your promise, and you will play with the Sea
once more.'

Then Pau Amma said, 'What shall I do? I am so big that I can only hide
in Pusat Tasek, and if I go anywhere else, all soft as I am now, the
sharks and the dogfish will eat me. And if I go to Pusat Tasek, all soft
as I am now, though I may be safe, I can never stir out to get my food,
and so I shall die.' Then he waved his legs and lamented.

'Listen, Pau Amma,' said the Eldest Magician. 'I cannot make you play
the play you were meant to play, because you escaped me at the Very
Beginning; but if you choose, I can make every stone and every hole and
every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe Pusat Tasek for you and your
children for always.'

Then Pau Amma said, 'That is good, but I do not choose yet. Look! there
is that Man who talked to you at the Very Beginning. If he had not taken
up your attention I should not have grown tired of waiting and run away,
and all this would never have happened. What will _he_ do for me?'

And the Man said, 'If you choose, I will make a Magic, so that both the
deep water and the dry ground will be a home for you and your
children--so that you shall be able to hide both on the land and in the
sea.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet. Look! there is that girl who
saw me running away at the Very Beginnin