Le-gerem

The indefatigable fairy mother Le-gerem prepared to astonish her people with a further display of first-class magical powers. One day a very big canoe was seen slowly floating down from the clouds, let down by innumerable ropes or pulleys, just over the village of Grocham or Gotham in Tomil. The people flocked in crowds to see the wonderful sight. Some inauspicious words of the impatient multitude broke the charm. Before the canoe could be lowered in safety to the earth, the ropes broke, and the wondrous structure was smashed up beyond all hopes of repair. Then Le-gerem hewed a Voi tree, measured it out with care, and with infinite pains made another of similar model. The long and somewhat clumsy Yap canoes, running high in bow and stern fore and aft like Scandinavian vessels, with their heavy solid outriggers and the curious fish-tail ornamentation in bow and stem, show how the industry of the Gothamite ship-builders followed the directions of their long-suffering patroness.