The man did as he was told, and at once a slit appeared in the boulder, through which the two human beings wriggled.  No sooner were they ensconced in their hideaway than the vent closed tightly behind them, enveloping the pair as though they were in a womb.  The devils arrived, hungrily searching for their intended victims, but could not find them.

Meanwhile the dog ran around the boulder, barking so furiously God became alerted to what was going on.  He looked down from the sky and called to the marauders: “Begone, devils! It’s too soon for me to allow you to bring death to this man and woman.  Let them multiply.  Then, when there are lots of them, I shall give you leave to bring death upon them.”

After the devils had departed, the couple were “born from the womb of the boulder.”  They procreated, and in the course of time God gave the devils permission to bring death to humanity.

                                                                                                                               - D.H.

David Hicks is professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.  He received a doctorate from the University of Oxford after nineteen months of fieldwork in East Timor and has since returned to the East Indies three times for further research.  He has written and translated six books on anthropology.