{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32877/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32877","id":"gutenberg_32877","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32877","summary":null,"tags":["Animals -- Africa, Central","Animals -- Folklore","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore -- Africa, Central"],"text":"Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England\n\n\n\n\nMy Dark Companions, by Henry M. Stanley.\n\n________________________________________________________________________\n\n________________________________________________________________________\nMY DARK COMPANIONS, BY HENRY M. STANLEY.\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nThe nightly custom of gathering around the camp fire, and entertaining\none another with stories, began in 1875, after Sabadu, a page of King\nMtesa, had astonished his hearers with the legend of the \"Blameless\nPriest.\"\n\nOur circle was free to all, and was frequently well attended; for when\nit was seen that the more accomplished narrators were suitably rewarded,\nand that there was a great deal of amusement to be derived, few could\nresist the temptation to approach and listen, unless fatigue or illness\nprevented them.\n\nMany of the stories related were naturally of little value, having\nneither novelty nor originality; and in many cases, especially where the\nZanzibaris were the narrators, the stories were mere importations from\nAsia; while others, again, were mere masks of low inclinations.  I\ntherefore had often to sit out a lengthy tale which had not a single\npoint in it.\n\nBut whenever a real aborigine of the interior undertook to tell a tale\nof the old days, we were sure to hear something new and striking; the\nlanguage became more quaint, and in almost every tale there was a\ndistinct moral.\n\nThe following legends are the choicest and most curious of those that\nwere related to me during seventeen years, and which have not been\nhitherto published in any of my books of travel.  Faithfully as I have\nendeavoured to follow the unsophisticated narrators it is impossible for\nme to reproduce the simplicity of style with which they were given, or\nto describe the action which accompanied them.  I take my cue from the\nAfrican native.  He told them with the view of pleasing his native\naudience, after much solicitation.  He was unused to the art of public\nspeaking, and never dreamed that he was exposing himself to criticism.\nHe was also shy, and somewhat indolent, or tired perhaps, and would\nprefer listening to others rather than speak himself, but though\nprotesting strongly that his memory was defective, and that he could not\nremember anything, he yielded at last for the sake of peace, and\ngood-fellowship.  As these few, now about to be published, are not\nwholly devoid of a certain merit as examples of Central African lore,\nand oral literature, I have thought it best to consider myself only as a\ntranslator and to render them into English with as direct and true a\nversion as possible.\n\nI begin with the Creation of Man merely for preference, and not\naccording to the date on which it was related.  The legend was delivered\nby Matageza, a native of the Basoko, in December, 1883.  [The Basoko are\na tribe occupying the right bank of the Aruwimi river from its\nconfluence with the Congo to within a short distance of the rapids of\nYambuya, and inland for a few marches.]  He had been an assiduous\nattendant at our nightly circle, but hitherto had not opened his mouth.\nFinally, as the silence at the camp fire was getting somewhat awkward,\nBaruti, one of my tent-boys, was pressed to say something; but he drew\nback, saying that he never was able to remember a thing that was told to\nhim, but, added he, \"Matageza is clever; I have heard him tell a long\nlegend about the making of the first man by the moon.\"\n\nAll eyes were at once turned upon Matageza, who was toasting his feet by\na little fire of his own, and there was a chorus of cries for \"Matageza!\nMatageza!\"  He affected great reluctance to come forward, but the men,\nwhose curiosity was aroused, would not take a denial, and some of them\nseized him, and dragged him with loud laughter to the seat of honour.\nAfter a good deal of urging and a promise of a fine cloth if the story\nwas good, he cleared his throat and began the strange legend of the\nCreation of Man as follows:--\n\n\n\nCHAPTER ONE.\n\nTHE CREATION OF MAN.\n\nIn the old, old time, all this land, and indeed all the whole earth was\ncovered with sweet water.\n\nBut the water dried up or disappeared somewhere, and the grasses, herbs,\nand plants began to spring up above the ground, and some grew, in the\ncourse of many moons, into trees, great and small, and the water was\nconfined into streams and rivers, pools and lakes, and as the rain fell\nit kept the streams and rivers running, and the pools and lakes always\nfresh.  There was no living thing moving upon the earth, until one day\nthere sat by one of the pools a large Toad.  How long he had lived, or\nhow he came to exist, is not known; it is suspected, however, that the\nwater brought him forth out of some virtue that was in it.  In the sky\nthere was only the Moon glowing and shining--on the earth there was but\nthis one Toad.  It is said that they met and conversed together, and\nthat one day the Moon said to him:\n\n\"I have an idea.  I propose to make a man and a woman to live on the\nfruits of the earth, for I believe that there is rich abundance of food\non it fit for such creatures.\"\n\n\"Nay,\" said the Toad, \"let me make them, for I can make them fitter for\nthe use of the earth than thou canst, for I belong to the earth, while\nthou belongest to the sky.\"\n\n\"Verily,\" replied the Moon, \"thou hast the power to create creatures\nwhich shall have but a brief existence; but if I make them, they will\nhave something of my own nature; and it is a pity that the creatures of\none's own making should suffer and die.  Therefore, O Toad, I propose to\nreserve the power of creation for myself, that the creatures may be\nendowed with perfection and enduring life.\"\n\n\"Ah, Moon, be not envious of the power which I share with thee, but let\nme have my way.  I will give them forms such as I have often dreamed of.\nThe thought is big within me, and I insist upon realising my ideas.\"\n\n\"An thou be so resolved, observe my words, both thou and they shall die.\nThou I shall slay myself and end utterly; and thy creatures can but\nfollow thee, being of such frail material as thou canst give them.\"\n\n\"Ah, thou art angry now, but I heed thee not.  I am resolved that the\ncreatures to inhabit this earth shall be of my own creating.  Attend\nthou to thine own empire in the sky.\"\n\nThen the Moon rose and soared upward, where with his big, shining face\nhe shone upon all the world.\n\nThe Toad grew great with his conception, until it ripened and issued out\nin the shape of twin beings, full-grown male and female.  These were the\nfirst like our kind that ever trod the earth.\n\nThe Moon beheld the event with rage, and left his place in the sky to\npunish the Toad, who had infringed the privilege that he had thought to\nreserve for himself.  He came direct to Toad's pool, and stood blazingly\nbright over it.\n\n\"Miserable,\" he cried, \"what hast thou done?\"\n\n\"Patience, Moon, I but exercised my right and power.  It was within me\nto do it, and lo, the deed is done.\"\n\n\"Thou hast exalted thyself to be my equal in thine own esteem.  Thy\nconceit has clouded thy wit, and obscured the memory of the warning I\ngave thee.  Even hadst thou obtained a charter from me to attempt the\ntask, thou couldst have done no better than thou hast done.  As much as\nthou art inferior to me, so these will be inferior to those I could have\nendowed this earth with.  Thy creatures are pitiful things, mere animals\nwithout sense, without the gift of perception or self-protection.  They\nsee, they breathe, they exist; their lives can be measured by one round\njourney of mine.  Were it not out of pity for them, I would even let\nthem die.  Therefore for pity's sake I propose to improve somewhat on\nwhat thou hast done: their lives shall be lengthened, and such\nintelligence as malformed beings as these can contain will I endow them\nwith, that they may have guidance through a life which with all my power\nmust be troubled and sore.  But as for thee, whilst thou exist my rage\nis perilous to them, therefore to save thy kin I end thee.\"\n\nSaying which the Moon advanced upon Toad, and the fierce sparks from his\nburning face were shot forth, and fell upon the Toad until he was\nconsumed.\n\nThe Moon then bathed in the pool, that the heat of his anger might be\nmoderated, and the water became so heated that it was like that which is\nin a pot over a fire, and he stayed in it until the hissing and bubbling\nhad subsided.\n\nThen the Moon rose out of the pool, and sought the creatures of Toad:\nand when he had found them, he called them unto him, but they were\nafraid and hid themselves.\n\nAt this sight the Moon smiled, as you sometimes see him on fine nights,\nwhen he is a clear white, and free from stain or blurr, and he was\npleased that Toad's creatures were afraid of him.  \"Poor things,\" said\nhe, \"Toad has left me much to do yet before I can make them fit to be\nthe first of earthly creatures.\"  Saying which he took hold of them, and\nbore them to the pool wherein he had bathed, and which had been the home\nof Toad.  He held them in the water for some time, tenderly bathing\nthem, and stroking them here and there as a potter does to his\nearthenware, until he had moulded them into something similar to the\nshape we men and women possess now.  The male became distinguished by\nbreadth of shoulder, depth of chest, larger bones, and more substantial\nform; the female was slighter in chest, slimmer of waist, and the\nbreadth and fulness of the woman was midmost of the body at the hips.\nThen the Moon gave them names; the man he called Bateta, the woman\nHanna, and he addressed them and said:\n\n\"Bateta, see this earth and the trees, and herbs and plants and grasses;\nthe whole is for thee and thy wife Hanna, and for thy children whom\nHanna thy wife shall bear unto thee.  I have re-made thee greatly, that\nthou and thine may enjoy such things as thou mayest find needful and\nfit.  In order that thou mayest discover what things are not noxious but\nbeneficial for thee, I have placed the faculty of discernment within thy\nhead, which thou must exercise before thou canst become wise.  The more\nthou prove this, the more wilt thou be able to perceive the abundance of\ngood things the earth possesses for the creatures which are to inhabit\nit.  I have made thee and thy wife as perfect as is necessary for the\npreservation and enjoyment of the term of life, which by nature of the\nmaterials the Toad made thee of must needs be short.  It is in thy power\nto prolong or shorten it.  Some things I must teach thee.  I give thee\nfirst an axe.  I make a fire for thee, which thou must feed from time to\ntime with wood, and the first and most necessary utensil for daily use.\nObserve me while I make it for thee.\"\n\nThe Moon took some dark clay by the pool and mixed it with water, then\nkneaded it, and twisted it around until its shape was round and hollowed\nwithin, and he covered it with the embers of the fire, and baked it; and\nwhen it was ready he handed it to them.\n\n\"This vessel,\" continued the Moon, \"is for the cooking of food.  Thou\nwilt put water into it, and place whatsoever edible thou desirest to eat\nin the water.  Thou wilt then place the vessel on the fire, which in\ntime will boil the water and cook the edible.  All vegetables, such as\nroots and bulbs, are improved in flavour and give superior nourishment\nby being thus cooked.  It will become a serious matter for thee to know\nwhich of all the things pleasant in appearance are also pleasant for the\npalate.  But shouldst thou be long in doubt and fearful of harm, ask and\nI will answer thee.\"\n\nHaving given the man and woman their first lesson, the Moon ascended to\nthe sky, and from his lofty place shone upon them, and upon all the\nearth with a pleased expression, which comforted greatly the lonely\npair.\n\nHaving watched the ascending Moon until he had reached his place in the\nsky, Bateta and Hanna rose and travelled on by the beautiful light which\nhe gave them, until they came to a very large tree that had fallen.  The\nthickness of the prostrate trunk was about twice their height.  At the\ngreater end of it there was a hole, into which they could walk without\nbending.  Feeling a desire for sleep, Bateta laid his fire down outside\nnear the hollowed entrance, cut up dry fuel, and his wife piled it on\nthe fire, while the flames grew brighter and lit the interior.  Bateta\ntook Hanna by the hand and entered within the tree, and the two lay down\ntogether.  But presently both complained of the hardness of their bed,\nand Bateta, after pondering awhile, rose, and going out, plucked some\nfresh large leaves of a plant that grew near the fallen tree, and\nreturned laden with it.  He spread it about thickly, and Hanna rolled\nherself on it, and laughed gleefully as she said to Bateta that it was\nsoft and smooth and nice; and opening her arms, she cried, \"Come,\nBateta, and rest by my side.\"\n\nThough this was the first day of their lives, the Moon had so perfected\nthe unfinished and poor work of the Toad that they were both mature man\nand woman.  Within a month Hanna bore twins, of whom one was male and\nthe other female, and they were tiny doubles of Bateta and Hanna, which\nso pleased Bateta that he ministered kindly to his wife who, through her\ndouble charge, was prevented from doing anything else.\n\nThus it was that Bateta, anxious for the comfort of his wife, and for\nthe nourishment of his children, sought to find choice things, but could\nfind little to please the dainty taste which his wife had contracted.\nWhereupon, looking up to Moon with his hands uplifted, he cried out:\n\n\"O Moon, list to thy creature Bateta!  My wife lies languishing, and she\nhas a taste strange to me which I cannot satisfy, and the children that\nhave been born unto us feed upon her body, and her strength decreases\nfast.  Come down, O Moon, and show me what fruit or herbs will cure her\nlonging.\"\n\nThe Moon heard Bateta's voice, and coming out from behind the cloud with\na white, smiling face, said, \"It is well, Bateta; lo!  I come to help\nthee.\"\n\nWhen the Moon had approached Bateta, he showed the golden fruit of the\nbanana--which was the same plant whose leaves had formed the first bed\nof himself and wife.\n\n\"O Bateta, smell this fruit.  How likest thou its fragrance?\"\n\n\"It is beautiful and sweet.  O Moon, if it be as wholesome for the body\nas it is sweet to smell, my wife will rejoice in it.\"\n\nThen the Moon peeled the banana and offered it to Bateta, upon which he\nboldly ate it, and the flavour was so pleasant that he besought\npermission to take one to his wife.  When Hanna had tasted it she also\nappeared to enjoy it; but she said, \"Tell Moon that I need something\nelse, for I have no strength, and I am thinking that this fruit will not\ngive to me what I lose by these children.\"\n\nBateta went out and prayed to Moon to listen to Hanna's words--which\nwhen he had heard, he said, \"It was known to me that this should be,\nwherefore look round, Bateta, and tell me what thou seest moving\nyonder.\"\n\n\"Why, that is a buffalo.\"\n\n\"Rightly named,\" replied Moon.  \"And what follows it?\"\n\n\"A goat.\"\n\n\"Good again.  And what next?\"\n\n\"An antelope.\"\n\n\"Excellent, O Bateta; and what may the next be?\"\n\n\"A sheep.\"\n\n\"Sheep it is, truly.  Now look up above the trees, and tell me what thou\nseest soaring over them.\"\n\n\"I see fowls and pigeons.\"\n\n\"Very well called, indeed,\" said Moon.  \"These I give unto thee for\nmeat.  The buffalo is strong and fierce, leave him for thy leisure; but\nthe goat, sheep, and fowls, shall live near thee, and shall partake of\nthy bounty.  There are numbers in the woods which will come to thee when\nthey are filled with their grazing and their pecking.  Take any of\nthem--either goat, sheep, or fowl--bind it, and chop its head off with\nthy hatchet.  The blood will sink into the soil; the meat underneath the\nouter skin is good for food, after being boiled or roasted over the\nfire.  Haste now, Bateta; it is meat thy wife craves, and she needs\nnaught else to restore her strength.  So prepare instantly and eat.\"\n\nThe Moon floated upward, smiling and benignant, and Bateta hastened to\nbind a goat, and made it ready as the Moon had advised.  Hanna, after\neating of the meat which was prepared by boiling, soon recovered her\nstrength, and the children throve, and grew marvellously.\n\nOne morning Bateta walked out of his hollowed house, and lo! a change\nhad come over the earth.  Right over the tops of the trees a great globe\nof shining, dazzling light looked out from the sky, and blazed white and\nbright over all.  Things that he had seen dimly before were now more\nclearly revealed.  By the means of the strange light hung up in the sky\nhe saw the difference between that which the Moon gave and that new\nbrightness which now shone out.  For, without, the trees and their\nleaves seemed clad in a luminous coat of light, while underneath it was\nbut a dim reflection of that which was without, and to the sight it\nseemed like the colder light of the Moon.\n\nAnd in the cooler light that prevailed below the foliage of the trees\nthere were gathered hosts of new and strange creatures; some large,\nothers of medium, and others of small size.\n\nAstonished at these changes, he cried, \"Come out, O Hanna, and see the\nstrange sights without the dwelling, for verily I am amazed, and know\nnot what has happened.\"\n\nObedient, Hanna came out with the children and stood by his side, and\nwas equally astonished at the brightness of the light and at the numbers\nof creatures which in all manner of sizes and forms stood in the shade\nranged around them, with their faces towards the place where they stood.\n\n\"What may this change portend, O Bateta?\" asked his wife.\n\n\"Nay, Hanna, I know not.  All this has happened since the Moon departed\nfrom me.\"\n\n\"Thou must perforce call him again, Bateta, and demand the meaning of\nit, else I shall fear harm unto thee, and unto these children.\"\n\n\"Thou art right, my wife, for to discover the meaning of all this\nwithout other aid than my own wits would keep us here until we\nperished.\"\n\nThen he lifted his voice, and cried out aloud upward, and at the sound\nof his voice all the creatures gathered in the shades looked upward, and\ncried with their voices; but the meaning of their cry, though there was\nan infinite variety of sound, from the round, bellowing voice of the\nlion to the shrill squeak of the mouse, was:\n\n\"Come down unto us, O Moon, and explain the meaning of this great change\nunto us; for thou only who madest us can guide our sense unto the right\nunderstanding of it.\"\n\nWhen they had ended their entreaty unto the Moon, there came a voice\nfrom above, which sounded like distant thunder, saying, \"Rest ye where\nye stand, until the brightness of this new light shall have faded, and\nye distinguish my milder light and that of the many children which have\nbeen born unto me, when I shall come unto you and explain.\"\n\nThereupon they rested each creature in its own place, until the great\nbrightness, and the warmth which the strange light gave faded and\nlessened, and it was observed that it disappeared from view on the\nopposite side to that where it had first been seen, and also immediately\nafter at the place of its disappearance the Moon was seen, and all over\nthe sky were visible the countless little lights which the children of\nthe Moon gave.\n\nPresently, after Bateta had pointed these out to Hanna and the children,\nthe Moon shone out bland, and its face was covered with gladness, and he\nleft the sky smiling, and floated down to the earth, and stood not far\noff from Bateta, in view of him and his family, and of all the creatures\nunder the shade.\n\n\"Hearken, O Bateta, and ye creatures of prey and pasture.  A little\nwhile ago, ye have seen the beginning of the measurement of time, which\nshall be divided hereafter into day and night.  The time that lapses\nbetween the Sun's rising and its setting shall be called day, that which\nshall lapse between its setting and re-rising shall be called night.\nThe light of the day proceeds from the Sun, but the light of the night\nproceeds from me and from my children the stars; and as ye are all my\ncreatures, I have chosen that my softer light shall shine during the\nrestful time wherein ye sleep, to recover the strength lost in the\nwaking time, and that ye shall be daily waked for the working time by\nthe stronger light of the Sun.  This rule never-ending shall remain.\n\n\"And whereas Bateta and his wife are the first of creatures, to them,\ntheir families, and kind that shall be born unto them, shall be given\npre-eminence over all creatures made, not that they are stronger, or\nswifter, but because to them only have I given understanding and a gift\nof speech to transmit it.  Perfection and everlasting life had also been\ngiven, but the taint of the Toad remains in the system, and the result\nwill be death,--death to all living things, Bateta and Hanna excepted.\nIn the fulness of time, when their limbs refuse to bear the burden of\ntheir bodies and their marrow has become dry, my first-born shall return\nto me, and I shall absorb them.  Children shall be born innumerable unto\nthem, until families shall expand into tribes, and from here, as from a\nspring, mankind will outflow and overspread all lands, which are now but\nwild and wold, ay, even to the farthest edge of the earth.\n\n\"And hearken, O Bateta, the beasts which thou seest, have sprung from\nthe ashes of the Toad.  On the day that he measured his power against\nmine, and he was consumed by my fire, there was one drop of juice left\nin his head.  It was a life-germ which soon grew into another toad.\nThough not equal in power to the parent toad, thou seest what he has\ndone.  Yonder beasts of prey and pasture and fowls are his work.  As\nfast as they were conceived by him, and uncouth and ungainly they were,\nI dipped them into Toad's Pool, and perfected them outwardly, according\nto their uses, and, as thou seest, each specimen has its mate.  Whereas,\nboth thou and they alike have the acrid poison of the toad, thou from\nthe parent, they in a greater measure from the child toad, the mortal\ntaint when ripe will end both man and beast.  No understanding nor gift\nof speech has been given to them, and they are as inferior to thyself as\nthe child toad was to the parent toad.  Wherefore, such qualities as\nthou mayst discover in them, thou mayst employ in thy services.\nMeantime, let them go out each to its own feeding-ground, lair, or\ncovert, and grow and multiply, until the generations descending from\nthee shall have need for them.  Enough for thee with the bounties of the\nforest, jungle, and plain, are the goats, sheep, and fowls.  At thy\nleisure, Bateta, thou mayst strike and eat such beasts as thou seest\nakin in custom to these that will feed from thy hand.  The waters abound\nin fish that are thine at thy need, the air swarms with birds which are\nalso thine, as thy understanding will direct thee.\n\n\"Thou wilt be wise to plant all such edibles as thou mayest discover\npleasing to the palate and agreeable to thy body, but be not rash in\nassuming that all things pleasant to the eye are grateful to thy\ninwards.\n\n\"So long as thou and Hanna are on the earth, I promise thee my aid and\ncounsel; and what I tell thee and thy wife thou wilt do well to teach\nthy children, that the memory of useful things be not forgotten--for\nafter I take thee to myself, I come no more to visit man.  Enter thy\nhouse now, for it is a time, as I have told thee, for rest and sleep.\nAt the shining of the greater light, thou wilt waken for active life and\nwork, and family care and joys.  The beasts shall also wander each to\nhis home in the earth, on the tops of the trees, in the bush, or in the\ncavern.  Fare thee well, Bateta, and have kindly care for thy wife Hanna\nand the children.\"\n\nThe Moon ended his speech, and floated upward, radiant and gracious,\nuntil he rested in his place in the sky, and all the children of the\nMoon twinkled for joy and gladness so brightly, as the parent of the\nworld entered his house, that all the heavens for a short time seemed\nburning.  Then the Moon drew over him his cloudy cloak, and the little\nchildren of the Moon seemed to get drowsy, for they twinkled dimly, and\nthen a darkness fell over all the earth, and in the darkness man and\nbeast retired, each to his own place, according as the Moon had\ndirected.\n\nA second time Bateta waked from sleep, and walked out to wonder at the\nintense brightness of the burning light that made the day.  Then he\nlooked around him, and his eyes rested upon a noble flock of goats and\nsheep, all of whom bleated their morning welcome, while the younglings\npranced about in delight, and after curvetting around, expressed in\nlittle bleats the joy they felt at seeing their chief, Bateta.  His\nattention was also called to the domestic fowls; there were red and\nwhite and spotted cocks, and as many coloured hens, each with its own\nbrood of chicks.  The hens trotted up to their master--cluck, cluck,\nclucking--the tiny chicks, following each its own mother--cheep, cheep,\ncheeping--while the cocks threw out their breasts and strutted grandly\nbehind, and crowed with their trumpet throats, \"All hail, master.\"\n\nThen the morning wind rose and swayed the trees, plants, and grasses,\nand their tops bending before it bowed their salutes to the new king of\nthe earth, and thus it was that man knew that his reign over all was\nacknowledged.\n\nA few months afterwards, another double birth occurred, and a few months\nlater there was still another, and Bateta remembered the number of\nmonths that intervened between each event, and knew that it would be a\nregular custom for all time.  At the end of the eighteenth year, he\npermitted his first-born to choose a wife, and when his other children\ngrew up he likewise allowed them to select their wives.  At the end of\nninety years, Hanna had born to Bateta two hundred and forty-two\nchildren, and there were grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and\ncountless great-great-grandchildren, and they lived to an age many times\nthe length of the greatest age amongst us now-a-days.  When they were so\nold that it became a trouble to them to live, the Moon came down to the\nearth as he had promised, and bore them to himself, and soon after the\nfirst-born twins died and were buried in the earth, and after that the\ndeaths were many and more frequent.  People ceased to live as long as\ntheir parents had done, for sickness, dissensions, wars, famines,\naccidents ended them and cut their days short, until they at last forgot\nhow to live long, and cared not to think how their days might be\nprolonged.  And it has happened after this manner down to us who now\nlive.  The whole earth has become filled with mankind, but the dead that\nare gone and forgotten are far greater in number than those now alive\nupon the earth.\n\nYe see now, my friends, what mischief the Toad did unto all mankind.\nHad his conceit been less, and had he waited a little, the good Moon\nwould have conceived us of a nobler kind than we now are, and the taint\nof the Toad had not cursed man.  Wherefore abandon headstrong ways, and\ngive not way to rashness, but pay good heed to the wise and old, lest ye\ntaint in like manner the people, and cause the innocent, the young, and\nthe weak to suffer.  I have spoken my say.  If ye have heard aught\ndispleasing, remember I but tell the tale as it was told unto me.\n\n\"Taking it as a mere story,\" said Baraka, \"it is very well told, but I\nshould like to know why the Moon did not teach Bateta the value of\nmanioc, since he took the trouble to tell him about the banana.\"\n\n\"For the reason,\" answered Matageza, \"that when he showed him the\nbanana, there was no one but the Moon could have done so.  But after the\nMoon had given goats and sheep and fowls for his companions, his own\nlively intelligence was sufficient to teach Bateta many things.  The\ngoats became great pets of Bateta, and used to follow him about.  He\nobserved that there was a certain plant to which the goats flocked with\ngreat greed, to feed upon the tops until their bellies became round and\nlarge with it.  One day the idea came to him that if the goats could\nfeed so freely upon it without harm, it might be also harmless to him.\nWhereupon he pulled the plant up and earned it home.  While he was\nchopping up the tops for the pot his pet goats tried to eat the tuber\nwhich was the root, and he tried that also.  He cut up both leaves and\nroot and cooked them, and after tasting them he found them exceedingly\ngood and palatable, and thenceforward manioc became a daily food to him\nand his family, and from them to his children's children, and so on down\nto us.\"\n\n\"Verily, that is of great interest.  Why did you not put that in the\nstory?\"\n\n\"Because the story would then have no end.  I would have to tell you of\nthe sweet potato, and the tomato, of the pumpkin, of the millet that was\ndiscovered by the fowls, and of the palm oil-nut that was discovered by\nthe dog.\"\n\n\"Ah, yes, tell us how a dog could have shown the uses of the palm\noil-nut.\"\n\n\"It is very simple.  Bateta coaxed a dog to live with him because he\nfound that the dog preferred to sit on his haunches and wait for the\nbones that his family threw aside after the meal was over, rather than\nhunt for himself like other flesh-eating beasts.  One day Bateta walked\nout into the woods, and his dog followed him.  After a long walk Bateta\nrested at the foot of the straight tall tree called the palm, and there\nwere a great many nuts lying on the ground, which perhaps the monkeys or\nthe wind had thrown down.  The dog after smelling them lay down and\nbegan to eat them, and though Bateta was afraid he would hurt himself,\nhe allowed him to have his own way, and he did not see that they harmed\nhim at all, but that he seemed as fond as ever of them.  By thinking of\nthis he conceived that they would be no harm to him; and after cooking\nthem, he found that their fat improved the flavour of his vegetables,\nhence the custom came down to us.  Indeed, the knowledge of most things\nthat we know to-day as edibles came down to us through the observation\nof animals by our earliest fathers.  What those of old knew not was\nfound out later through stress of hunger, while men were lost in the\nbushy wilds.\"\n\nWhen at last we rose to retire to our tents and huts, the greater number\nof our party felt the sorrowful conviction that the Toad had imparted to\nall mankind an incurable taint, and that we poor wayfarers, in\nparticular, were cursed with an excess of it, in consequence of which\nboth Toad and tadpole were heartily abused by all.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER TWO.\n\nTHE GOAT, THE LION, AND THE SERPENT.\n\nBaruti, which translated means \"gunpowder,\" envied Matageza the \"piece\"\nof a dozen gay handkerchiefs, with which he had been rewarded for his\nexcellent story, and one evening while he served dinner, ventured to\ntell me that he also remembered a story that had been told to him when a\nchild among the Basoko.\n\n\"Very well, Baruti,\" I replied, \"we will all meet to-night around the\ncamp fire as usual, and according to the merits of your story you will\nsurely be rewarded.  If it is better than Matageza's, you shall have a\nstill finer piece of cloth; if it is not so interesting, you cannot\nexpect so much.\"\n\n\"All right, sir.  Business is business, and nothing for him that can say\nnothing.\"\n\nSoon after the darkness had fallen the captains of the expedition and\nthe more intelligent men began to form the evening circle, and after we\nhad discussed the state of the night, and the events of the day, I\ncalled out to Baruti for his story, when, after telling us what a great\ntime had elapsed since he had heard it, and how by searching into the\nrecesses of his memory he had at last remembered it, he delivered the\nstory of \"The Goat, the Lion, and the Serpent,\" in the following\nmanner:--\n\nA Goat and a Lion were travelling together one day on the outskirts of a\nforest, at the end of which there was a community of mankind comfortably\nhutted within a village, which was fenced round with tall and pointed\nstakes.  The Goat said to the Lion:\n\n\"Well, now, my friend, where do you come from this day?\"\n\n\"I have come from a feast that I have given many friends of mine--to the\nleopard, hyena, wolf, jackal, wild cat, buffalo, zebra, and many more.\nThe long-necked giraffe and dew-lapped eland were also there, as well as\nthe springing antelope.\"\n\n\"That is grand company you keep, indeed,\" said the Goat, with a sigh.\n\"As for poor me, I am alone.  No one cares for me very much, but I find\nabundance of grass and sweet leafage, and when I am full, I seek a soft\nspot under a tree, and chew my cud, dreamily and contentedly.  And of\nother sorrows, save an occasional pang of hunger, in my wanderings I\nknow of none.\"\n\n\"Do you mean to say that you do not envy me my regal dignity and\nstrength?\"\n\n\"I do not indeed, because as yet I have been ignorant of them.\"\n\n\"What?  Know you not that I am the strongest of all who dwell in the\nforest or wilderness? that when I roar all who hear me bow down their\nheads, and shrink in fear?\"\n\n\"Indeed, I do not know all this, nor am I very sure that you are not\ndeceiving yourself, because I know many whose offensive powers are much\nmore dangerous, my friend, than yours.  True, your teeth are large, and\nyour claws are sharp, and your roar is loud enough, and your appearance\nis imposing.  Still, I know a tiny thing in these woods that is much\nmore to be dreaded than you are; and I think if you matched yourself\nagainst it in a contest, that same tiny thing would become victor.\"\n\n\"Bah!\" said the Lion, impatiently, \"you anger me.  Why, even to-day all\nwho were at the feast acknowledged that they were but feeble creatures\ncompared with me: and you will own that if I but clawed you once there\nwould be no life left in you.\"\n\n\"What you say in regard to me is true enough, and, as I said before, I\ndo not pretend to the possession of strength.  But this tiny thing that\nI know of is not likely to have been at your feast.\"\n\n\"What may this tiny thing be that is so dreadful?\" asked the Lion,\nsneeringly.\n\n\"The Serpent,\" answered the Goat, chewing his cud with an indifferent\nair.\n\n\"The Serpent!\" said the Lion, astounded.  \"What, that crawling reptile,\nwhich feeds on mice and sleeping birds--that soft, vine-like, creeping\nthing that coils itself in tufts of grass, and branches of bush?\"\n\n\"Yes, that is its name and character clearly.\"\n\n\"Why, my weight alone would tread it until it became flat like a smashed\negg.\"\n\n\"I would not try to do so if I were you.  Its fangs are sharper than\nyour great corner teeth or claws.\"\n\n\"Will you match it against my strength?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"And if you lose, what will be the forfeit?\"\n\n\"If you survive the fight, I will be your slave, and you may command me\nfor any purpose you please.  But what will you give me if you lose?\"\n\n\"What you please.\"\n\n\"Well, then, I will take one hundred bunches of bananas; and you had\nbetter bring them here alongside of me, before you begin.\"\n\n\"Where is this Serpent that will fight with me?\"\n\n\"Close by.  When you have brought the bananas he will be here, waiting\nfor you.\"\n\nThe Lion stalked proudly away to procure the bananas, and the Goat\nproceeded into the bush, where he saw Serpent drowsily coiled in many\ncoils on a slender branch.\n\n\"Serpent,\" said the Goat, \"wake up.  Lion is raging for a fight with\nyou.  He has made a bet of a hundred bunches of bananas that he will be\nthe victor, and I have pledged my life that you will be the strong one;\nand, hark you, obey my hints, and my life is safe, and I shall be\nprovided with food for at least three moons.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Serpent, languidly, \"what is it that you wish me to do?\"\n\n\"Take position on a bush about three cubits high, that stands near the\nscene where the fight is to take place, and when Lion is ready, raise\nyour crest high and boldly, and ask him to advance near you that you may\nsee him well, because you are short-sighted, you know.  And he, full of\nhis conceit and despising your slight form, will advance towards you,\nunwitting of your mode of attack.  Then fasten your fangs in his\neyebrows, and coil yourself round his neck.  If there is any virtue left\nin your venom, poor Lion will lie stark before long.\"\n\n\"And if I do this, what will you do for me?\"\n\n\"I am thy servant and friend for all time.\"\n\n\"It is well,\" answered the Serpent.  \"Lead the way.\"\n\nAccordingly Goat led Serpent to the scene of the combat, and the latter\ncoiled itself in position, as Goat had advised, on the leafy top of a\nyoung bush.\n\nPresently Lion came, with a long line of servile animals, bearing one\nhundred bunches of bananas; and, after dismissing them, he turned to the\nGoat, and said:\n\n\"Well, Goatee, where is your friend who is stronger than I am?  I feel\ncurious to see him.\"\n\n\"Are you Lion?\" asked a sibilant voice from the top of a bush.\n\n\"Yes, I am; and who are you that do not know me?\"\n\n\"I am Serpent, friend Lion, and short of sight and slow of movement.\nAdvance nearer to me, for I see you not.\"\n\nLion uttered a loud roaring laugh, and went confidently near the\nSerpent--who had raised his crest and arched his neck--so near that his\nbreath seemed to blow the slender form to a tremulous movement.\n\n\"You shake already,\" said Lion, mockingly.\n\n\"Yes, I shake but to strike the better, my friend,\" said Serpent, as he\ndarted forward and fixed his fangs in the right eyebrow of Lion, and at\nthe same moment its body glided round the neck of Lion, and became\nburied out of sight in the copious mane.\n\nLike the pain of fire the deadly venom was felt quickly in the head and\nbody.  When it reached the heart, Lion fell down and lay still and dead.\n\n\"Well done,\" cried Goat, as he danced around the pile of bananas.\n\"Provisions for three moons have I, and this doughty roarer is of no\nmore value than a dead goat.\"\n\nGoat and Serpent then vowed friendship for one another, after which\nSerpent said:\n\n\"Now follow me, and obey.  I have a little work for you.\"\n\n\"Work!  What work, O Serpent?\"\n\n\"It is light and agreeable.  If you follow that path, you will find a\nvillage of mankind.  You will there proclaim to the people what I have\ndone, and show this carcase to them.  In return for this they will make\nmuch of you, and you will find abundance of food in their gardens--\ntender leaves of manioc and peanut, mellow bananas, and plenty of rich\ngreens daily.  True, when you are fat and a feast is to be made, they\nwill kill you and eat you; but, for all your kind, comfort, plenty, and\nwarm, dry housing is more agreeable than the cold damp jungle, and\ndestruction by the feral beasts.\"\n\n\"Nay, neither the work nor the fate is grievous, and I thank you, O\nSerpent; but for you there can be no other home than the bush and the\ntuft of grass, and you will always be a dreaded enemy of all who come\nnear your resting-place.\"\n\nThen they parted.  The Goat went along the path, and came to the gardens\nof a village, where a woman was chopping fuel.  Looking up she saw a\ncreature with grand horns coming near to her, bleating.  Her first\nimpulse was to run away, but seeing, as it bleated, that it was a\nfodder-eating animal, with no means of offence, she plucked some manioc\ngreens and coaxed it to her, upon which the Goat came and spoke to her.\n\n\"Follow me, for I have a strange thing to show you a little distance\noff.\"\n\nThe woman, wondering that a four-footed animal could address her in\nintelligible speech, followed; and the Goat trotted gently before her to\nwhere Lion lay dead.  The woman upon seeing the body, stopped and asked,\n\"What is the meaning of this?\"\n\nThe Goat answered, \"This was once the king of beasts; the fear of him\nwas upon all that lived in the woods and in the wilderness.  But he too\noften boasted of his might, and became too proud.  I therefore dared him\nto fight a tiny creature of the bush, and lo! the boaster was slain.\"\n\n\"And how do you name the victor?\"\n\n\"The Serpent.\"\n\n\"Ah! you say true.  Serpent is king over all, except man,\" answered the\nwoman.\n\n\"You are of a wise kind,\" answered the Goat.  \"Serpent confessed to me\nthat man was his superior, and sent me to you that I might become man's\ncreature.  Henceforth man shall feed me with greens, tender tops of\nplants, and house and protect me; but when the feast-day comes, man\nshall kill me, and eat of my flesh.  These are the words of Serpent.\"\n\nThe woman hearkened to all Goat's words, and retained them in her\nmemory.  Then she unrobed the Lion of his furry spoil, and conveyed it\nto the village, where she astonished her folk with all that had happened\nto her.  From that day to this the goat kind has remained with the\nfamilies of man, and people are grateful to the Serpent for his gift to\nthem; for had not the Serpent commanded it to seek their presence, the\nGoat had remained for ever wild like the antelope, its brother.\n\n\"Well done, Baruti,\" cried Chowpereh.  \"That is a very good story, and\nit is very likely to be a true one too.  Wallahi, there is some sense in\nthese pagans after all, and I had thought that their heads were very\nwoodeny.\"  It is needless to say that the sentiments of Chowpereh were\ngenerally shared, and that Baruti received the new dress he so well\ndeserved.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER THREE.\n\nTHE QUEEN OF THE POOL.\n\nKassim was a sturdy lad from the Basoko country, and a chum of Baruti.\nAs yet he had never related to us a legend, though he loved to sit near\nthe fire, and listen to the tales of the days of old.  This silence on\nhis part was at last remarked, and one night he was urged by all of us\nto speak, because it was unfair that those who frequented our open-air\nclub should be always ready to receive amusement, and yet refuse to\ncontribute their share to the entertainment.  This kind of argument\npushed home, brought him at last to admit that he owed the party a debt\nin kind, and he said:\n\nWell, friends, each man according to his nature, though there are so\nmany men in the world they differ from one another as much as stones, no\ntwo of which are exactly alike.  Here is Baruti here, who never seems to\ntire of speech, while I find more pleasure in watching his lips move up\nand down, and his tongue pop out and in, than in using my own.  I cannot\nremember any legend, that is the truth; but I know of something which is\nnot fiction, that occurred in our country relating to Izoka--a woman\noriginally of Umane, the big town above Basoko.  Izoka, the Queen of the\nPool, as we call her, is alive now, and should you ever pass by Umane\nagain, you may ask any of the natives if my words are true, and you will\nfind that they will certify to what I shall now tell you.\n\nIzoka is the daughter of a chief of Umane whose name is Uyimba, and her\nmother is called Twekay.  One of the young warriors called Koku lifted\nhis eyes towards her, and as he had a house of his own which was empty,\nhe thought Izoka ought to be the one to keep his hearth warm, and be his\ncompanion while he went fishing.  The idea became fixed in his mind, and\nhe applied to her father, and the dowry was demanded; and, though it was\nheavy, it was paid, to ease his longing after her.\n\nNow, Izoka was in every way fit to be a chief's wife.  She was tall,\nslender, comely of person; her skin was like down to the touch, her\nkindly eyes brimmed over with pleasantness, her teeth were like white\nbeads, and her ready laugh was such that all who heard it compared it to\nthe sweet sounds of a flute which the perfect player loves to make\nbefore he begins a tune, and men's moods became merry when she passed\nthem in the village.  Well, she became Koku's wife, and she left her\nfather's house to live with her husband.\n\nAt first it seemed that they were born for one another.  Though Koku was\nno mean fisherman, his wife excelled him in every way.  Where one fish\ncame into his net, ten entered into that of Izoka, and this great\nsuccess brought him abundance.  His canoe returned daily loaded with\nfish, and on reaching home they had as much work to clean and cure the\nfish as they could manage.  Their daily catch would have supported quite\na village of people from starving.  They therefore disposed of their\nsurplus stock by bartering it for slaves, and goats, and fowls, hoes,\ncarved paddles, and swords; and in a short time Koku became the\nwealthiest among the chiefs of Umane, through the good fortune that\nattended Izoka in whatever she did.\n\nMost men would have considered themselves highly favoured in having such\nfortunate wives, but it was not so with Koku.  He became a changed man.\nProsperity proved his bane.  He went no more with Izoka to fish; he\nseldom visited the market in her company, nor the fields where the\nslaves were at work, planting manioc, or weeding the plantain rows, or\nclearing the jungle, as he used to do.  He was now always seen with his\nlong pipe, and boozing with wretched idlers on the plantain wine\npurchased with his wife's industry; and when he came home it was to\nstorm at his wife in such a manner that she could only bow to it in\nsilence.\n\nWhen Koku was most filled with malice, he had an irritating way of\ndisguising his spitefulness with a wicked smile, while his tongue\nexpressed all sorts of contrary fancies.  He would take delight in\nsaying that her smooth skin was as rough as the leaf with which we\npolish our spear-shafts, that she was dumpy and dwarfish, that her mouth\nreminded him of a crocodile's, and her ears of an ape's; her legs were\ncrooked, and her feet were like hippopotamus hoofs, and she was scorned\nfor even her nails, which were worn to the quick with household toil;\nand he continued in this style to vex her, until at last he became\npersuaded that it was she who tormented him.  Then he accused her of\nwitchcraft.  He said that it was by her witch's medicines that she\ncaught so many fish, and he knew that some day she would poison him.\nNow, in our country this is a very serious accusation.  However, she\nnever crossed her husband's humour, but received the bitterness with\nclosed lips.  This silent habit of hers made matters worse.  For, the\nmore patience she showed, the louder his accusations became, and the\nworse she appeared in his eyes.  And indeed it is no wonder.  If you\nmake up your mind that you will see naught in a wife but faults, you\nbecome blind to everything else.\n\nHer cooking also according to him was vile--there was either too much\npalm-oil or too little in the herb-mess, there was sand in the meat of\nthe fish, the fowls were nothing but bones, she was said to empty the\nchilli-pot into the stew, the house was not clean, there were snakes in\nhis bed--and so on and so on.  Then she threatened, when her tough\npatience quite broke down, that she would tell her father if he did not\ndesist, which so enraged him that he took a thick stick, and beat her so\ncruelly that she was nearly dead.  This was too much to bear from one so\nungrateful, and she resolved to elope into the woods, and live apart\nfrom all mankind.\n\nShe had travelled a good two days' journey when she came in sight of a\nlengthy and wide pool which was fed by many springs, and bordered by\ntall, bending reeds; and the view of this body of water, backed by deep\nwoods all round, appeared to her so pleasing that she chose a level\nplace near its edge for a resting-place.  Then she unstrapped her\nhamper, and sitting down turned out the things she had brought, and\nbegan to think of what could be done with them.  There was a wedge-like\naxe which might also be used as an adze, there were two hoes, a handy\nBasoko bill-hook, a couple of small nets, a ladle, half-a-dozen small\ngourds full of grains, a cooking-pot, some small fish-knives, a bunch of\ntinder, a couple of fire-sticks, a short stick of sugar-cane, two banana\nbulbs, a few beads, iron bangles, and tiny copper balls.  As she looked\nover all these things, she smiled with satisfaction and thought she\nwould manage well enough.  She then went into the pool a little way and\nlooked searchingly in for a time, and she smiled again, as if to say\n\"better and better.\"\n\nNow with her axe she cut a hoe-handle, and in a short time it was ready\nfor use.  Going to the pool-side, she commenced to make quite a large\nround hole.  She laboured at this until the hole was as deep and wide as\nher own height; then she plastered the bottom evenly with the mud from\nthe pool-bank, and after that she made a great fire at the bottom of the\npit, and throughout the night that followed, after a few winks of sleep,\nshe would rise and throw on more fuel.  When the next day dawned, after\nbreaking her fast with a few grains baked in her pot, she swept out all\nthe fire from the well, and wherever a crack appeared in the baked\nbottom she filled it up carefully, and she also plastered the sides all\nround smoothly, and again she made a great fire in the pit, and left it\nto burn all that day.\n\nWhile the fire was baking the bottom and walls of the well, she hid her\nhamper among a clump of reeds, and explored her neighbourhood.  During\nher wanderings she found a path leading northward, and she noted it.\nShe also discovered many nuts, sweet red berries, some round, others\noval and the fruit which is a delight to the elephants; and loading\nherself with as many of these articles as she could carry, she returned,\nand sat down by the mouth of the well, and refreshed herself.  The last\nwork of the day was to take out the fire, plaster up the cracks in the\nbottom and sides, and re-make the fire as great as ever.  Her bed she\nmade not far from it, with her axe by her side.\n\nOn the next morning she determined to follow the path she had discovered\nthe day before, and when the sun was well-nigh at the middle of the sky,\nshe came suddenly in view of a banana-grove, whereupon she instantly\nretreated a little and hid herself.  When darkness had well set, she\nrose, and penetrating the grove, cut down a large blanch of bananas,\nwith which she hurried back along the road.  When she came to a stick\nshe had laid across the path, she knew she was not far from the pool,\nand she remained there until it was sufficiently light to find her way\nto the well.\n\nBy the time she arrived at her well it was in a perfect state, the walls\nbeing as sound and well-baked as her cooking-pot.  After half-filling it\nwith water, she roasted a few bananas, and made a contented meal from\nthem.  Then taking her pot she boiled some bananas, and with these she\nmade a batter.  She now emptied the pot, smeared the bottom and sides of\nit thickly with this sticky batter, and then tying a vine round the pot\nshe let it down into the pond.  As soon as it touched the ground, lo!\nthe minnows flocked greedily into the vessel to feed on the batter.  And\non Izoka suddenly drawing it up she brought out several score of\nminnows, the spawn of catfish, and some of the young of the bearded fish\nwhich grow to such an immense size in our waters.  The minnows she took\nout and dried to serve as food, but the young of the cat and bearded\nfish she dropped into her well.  She next dug a little ditch from the\nwell to the pool, and after making a strong and close netting of cane\nsplinters across the mouth of the ditch, she made another narrow ditch\nto let a thin rillet of spring water supply the well with fresh water.\n\nEvery day she spent a little time in building a hut, in a cosy place\nsurrounded by bush, which had only one opening; then she would go and\nwork a little at a garden wherein she had planted the sugar-cane, which\nhad been cut into three parts, and the two banana bulbs, and had sowed\nher millet, and her sesamum, and yellow corn which she had brought in\nthe gourds, and every day she carefully fed her fish in the well.  But\nthere were three things she missed most in her loneliness, and these\nwere the cries of an infant, the proud cluck of the hen after she lays\nan egg, and the bleating of a kid at her threshold.  This made her think\nthat she might replace them by something else, and she meditated long\nupon what it might be.\n\nObserving that there were a number of ground-squirrels about, she\nthought of snares to catch them.  She accordingly made loops of slender\nbut strong vines near the roots of the trees, and across their narrow\ntracks in the woods.  And she succeeded at last in catching a pair.\nWith other vines rubbed over with bird-lime she caught some young\nparrots and wagtails, whose wing feathers she chopped off with her\nbill-hook.  And one day, while out gathering nuts and berries for her\nbirds, she came across a nest of the pelican, wherein were some eggs;\nand these she resolved to watch until they were hatched, when she would\ntake and rear them.  She had found full occupation for her mind, in\nmaking cages for her squirrels and birds, and providing them with food,\nand had no time at all for grief.\n\nIzoka, however, being very partial to the fish in her well, devoted most\nof her leisure to feeding them, and they became so tame, and intelligent\nthat they understood the cooing notes of a strange song which she taught\nthem, as though they were human beings.  She fed them plentifully with\nbanana-batter, so that in a few months they had grown into a goodly\nsize.  By-and-by, they became too large for the well, and as they were\nperfectly tame, she took them out, and allowed them to go at large in\nthe pool; but punctually in the early morning, and at noon and sunset,\nshe called them to her, and gave them their daily portion of food, for\nby this time she had a goodly store of bananas and grain from her\nplantation and garden.  One of the largest fish she called Munu, and he\nwas so intelligent and trustful in his mistress's hands that he disliked\ngoing very far from the neighbourhood; and if she laid her two hands in\nthe water, he would rest contentedly in the hollow thus formed.  She had\nalso strung her stock of shells and beads into necklaces, and had\nfastened them round the tails of her favourite fish.\n\nHer other friends grew quite as tame as the fish, for all kinds of\nanimals learn to cast off their fears of mankind in return for true\nkindness, and when no disturbing shocks alarm them.  And in this lonely\nplace, so sheltered by protecting woods, where the wind had scarce power\nto rustle the bending reed and hanging leaves, there was no noise to\ninspire the most timid with fright.\n\nIf you try, you can fancy this young woman Izoka sitting on the ground\nby the pool-side, surrounded by her friends, like a mother by her\noffspring.  In her arms a young pelican, on one shoulder a chattering\nparrot, on the other a sharp-eyed squirrel, sitting on his haunches,\nlicking his fore-feet; in her lap another playing with his bushy tail,\nand at her feet the wagtails, wagging friskily their hind parts and\nkicking up little showers of dusty soil.  Between her and the pool a\nlong-legged heron, who has long ago been snared, and has submitted to\nhis mistress's kindness, and now stands on one leg, as though he were\nwatching for her safety.  Not far behind her is her woodland home, well\nstored with food and comforts, which are the products of her skill and\ncare.  Swifts and sand-martins are flying about, chasing one another\nmerrily, and making the place ring with their pipings; the water of the\npool lies level and unwrinkled, save in front of her, where the fish\nsometimes flop about, impatient for their mistress's visit.\n\nThis was how she appeared one day to the cruel eyes of Koku her husband,\nwho had seen the smoke of her fire as he was going by the path which led\nto the north.  Being a woodman as well as a fisher, he had the craft of\nsuch as hunt, and he stealthily approached from tree to tree until he\nwas so near that he could see the beady eyes of the squirrel on her\nshoulder, who startled her by his sudden movements.  It was strange how\nquickly the alarm was communicated from one to another.  His brother\nsquirrel peeped from one side with his tail over his back like a crest,\nthe parrot turned one eye towards the tree behind which Koku stood, and\nappeared transfixed, the heron dropped his other leg to the ground,\ntittered his melancholy cry, _Kwa-le_, and dropped his tail as though he\nwould surge upward.  The wagtails stopped their curtseying, the pelicans\nturned their long bills and laid them lazily along their backs, looking\nfixedly at the tree; and at last Izoka, warned by all these signs of her\nfriends, also turned her head in the same direction, but she saw no one,\nand as it was sunset she took her friends indoors.\n\nPresently she came out again, and went to the pool-side with fish-food,\nand cooed softly to her friends in the water, and the fish rushed to her\ncall, and crowded around her.  After giving them their food, she\naddressed Munu, the largest fish, and said, \"I am going out to-night to\nsee if I cannot find a discarded cooking-vessel, for mine is broken.\nBeware of making friends with any man or woman who cannot repeat the\nsong I taught you,\" and the fish replied by sweeping his tail to right\nand left, according to his way.\n\nIzoka, who now knew the woods by night as well as by day, proceeded on\nher journey, little suspecting that Koku had discovered her, and her\nmanner of life and woodland secrets.  He waited a little time, then\ncrept to the pool-side, and repeated the song which she had sung, and\nimmediately there was a great rush of fish towards him, at the number\nand size of which he was amazed.  By this he perceived what chance of\nbooty there was here for him, and he sped away to the path to the place\nwhere he had left his men, and he cried out to them, \"Come, haste with\nme to the woods by a great pool, where I have discovered loads of fish.\"\n\nHis men were only too glad to obey him, and by midnight they had all\narrived at the pool.  After stationing them near him in a line, with\ntheir spears poised to strike, Koku sang the song of Izoka in a soft\nvoice, and the great and small fish leapt joyfully from the depths where\nthey were sleeping, and they thronged towards the shore, flinging\nthemselves over each other, and they stood for awhile gazing doubtfully\nup at the line of men.  But soon the cruel spears flew from their hands,\nand Munu, the pride of Izoka, was pierced by several, and was killed and\ndragged on land by the shafts of the weapons which had slain him.  Munu\nwas soon cut up, he and some others of his fellows, and the men, loading\nthemselves with the meat, hastily departed.\n\nNear morning Izoka returned to her home with a load of bananas and a\ncooking-vessel, and after a short rest and refreshment, she fed her\nfriends--the ground-squirrels, the young pelicans, the parrots and\nherons, and scattered a generous supply for the wagtails, and martins,\nand swifts; then hastened with her bounties to the pool-side.  But,\nalas! near the water's edge there was a sight which almost caused her to\nfaint--there were tracks of many feet, bruised reeds, blood, scales, and\nrefuse of fish.  She cooed softly to her friends; they heard her cry,\nbut approached slowly and doubtingly.  She called out to Munu,\n\"Munu-nunu, oh, Munu, Munu, Munu;\" but Munu came not, and the others\nstood well away from the shore, gazing at her reproachfully, and they\nwould not advance any nearer.  Perceiving that they distrusted her, she\nthrew herself on the ground and wept hot tears, and wailing, \"Oh!  Munu,\nMunu, Munu, why do you doubt me?\"\n\nWhen Izoka's grief had somewhat subsided she followed the tracks through\nthe woods until she came to the path, where they were much clearer, and\nthere she discovered that those who had violated her peaceful home, had\ntravelled towards Umane.  A suspicion that her husband must have been of\nthe number served to anger her still more, and she resolved to follow\nthe plunderers, and endeavour to obtain justice.  Swiftly she sped on\nthe trail, and after many hours' quick travel she reached Umane after\ndarkness had fallen.  This favoured her purpose, and she was able to\nsteal, unperceived, near to the open place in front of her husband's\nhouse, when she saw Koku and his friends feasting on fish, and heard him\nboast of his discovery of the fine fish in a forest pool.  In her fury\nat his daring villainy she was nearly tempted to rush upon him and\ncleave his head with her bill-hook, but she controlled herself, and sat\ndown to think.  Then she made the resolution that she would go to her\nfather and claim his protection--a privilege she might long ago have\nused had not her pride been wounded by the brutal treatment her person\nhad received at the hands of Koku.\n\nHer father's village was but a little distance away from Umane, and in a\nshort time all the people in it were startled by hearing the shrill\nvoice of one who was believed to be long ago dead, crying out in the\ndarkness the names of Uyimba and Twekay.  On hearing the names of their\nchief and his wife repeatedly called, the men seized their spears and\nsallied out, and discovered, to their astonishment, that the long-lost\nIzoka was amongst them once again, and that she was suffering from great\nand overpowering grief.  They led her to her father's door, and called\nout to Uyimba and his wife Twekay to come out, and receive her, saying\nthat it was a shame that the pride of Umane should be suffering like a\nslave in her father's own village.  The old man and his wife hurried\nout, torches were lit, and Twekay soon received her weeping daughter in\nher arms.\n\nIn our country we are not very patient in presence of news, and as\neverybody wished to know Izoka's story, she was made to sit down on a\nshield, and tell all her adventures since she had eloped from Umane.\nThe people listened in wonder to all the strange things that were told;\nbut when she related the cruelty of Koku, the men rose to their feet all\ntogether, and beat their shields with their spears, and demanded the\npunishment of Koku, and that Uyimba should lead them there and then to\nUmane.  They accordingly proceeded in a body to the town, to Koku's\nhouse, and as he came out in answer to the call of one of them, to\nascertain what the matter was, they fell upon him, and bound him hand\nand foot, and carrying him to their superior chief's house they put him\nto his trial.  Many witnesses came forward to testify against his cruel\ntreatment of Izoka, and of the robbery of the fish and of the manner of\nit; and the great chief placed Koku's life in the power of Uyimba, whose\ndaughter he had wronged, who at once ordered Koku to be beheaded, and\nhis body to be thrown into the river.  The sentence was executed at the\nriver-side without loss of time.  The people of Uman and Uyimba's\nvillage then demanded that, as Izoka had shown herself so clever and\ngood as to make birds, animals, and fish obey her voice, some mark of\npopular favour should be given to her.  Whereupon the principal chief of\nUmane, in the name of the tribe, ceded to her all rights to the Forest\nPool, and the wood and all things in it round about as far as she could\ntravel in half a day, and also all the property of which Koku stood\npossessed.\n\nIzoka, by the favour of her tribe, thus became owner of a large\ndistrict, and mistress of many slaves, and flocks, goats, and fowls, and\nall manner of useful things for making a settlement by the Pool.  There\nis now a large village there, and Izoka is well known in many lands near\nUmane and Basoko as the Queen of the Pool, and at last accounts was\nstill living, prosperous and happy; but she has never been known to try\nmarriage again.\n\nKassim's story was greatly applauded, and he became at once a favourite\nwith the Zanzibaris.\n\nHe was drawn towards the head man, and made to sit down by him.  One\nZanzibari gave him a handful of roasted peanuts, another gave him a\nroasted banana, while a third touched up the fire; and the compliments\nhe received were so many, that for the time, as one could see, he was\nquite vain.  When a royal Dabwani cloth was spread out for inspection,\nand finally flung over his shoulders, we saw him cast a look at Baruti,\nwhich we knew to mean, \"Ah, ah, Baruti, other folk can tell a story as\nwell as you!\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FOUR.\n\nTHE ELEPHANT AND THE LION.\n\nAt a camp on the Upper Congo, in 1877, Chakanja drew near our fire as\nstory-telling was about to begin, and was immediately beset with eager\ndemands for a tale from him.  Like a singer who always professes to have\na cold before he indulges his friends with a song, Chakanja needed more\nthan a few entreaties; but finally, after vowing that he never could\nremember anything, he consented to gratify us with the legend of the\nElephant and the Lion.\n\n\"Well,\" he answered, with a deep sigh, \"if I must, I must.  You must\nknow we Waganda are fond of three things--To have a nice wife, a\npleasant farm, and to hear good news, or a lively story.  I have heard a\ngreat many stories in my life, but unlike Kadu, my mind remembers them\nnot.  Men's heads are not the same, any more than men's hearts are\nalike.  But I take it that a poor tale is better than none.  It comes\nback to me like a dream, this tale of the Elephant and the Lion.  I\nheard it first when on a visit to Gabunga's; but who can tell it like\nhim?  If you think the tale is not well told, it is my fault; but then,\ndo not blame me too much, or I shall think I ought to blame you\nto-morrow when it will be your turn to amuse the party.\"\n\nNow open your ears!  A huge and sour-tempered elephant went and wandered\nin the forest.  His inside was slack for want of juicy roots and\nsucculent reeds, but his head was as full of dark thoughts as a gadfly\nis full of blood.  As he looked this way and that, he observed a young\nlion asleep at the foot of a tree.  He regarded him for awhile, then, as\nhe was in a wicked mood, it came to him that he might as well kill the\nlion, and he accordingly rushed forward and impaled him with his tusks.\nHe then lifted the body with his trunk, swung it about, and dashed it\nagainst the tree, and afterwards kneeled on it until it became as\nshapeless as a crushed banana pulp.  He then laughed and said, \"Ha! ha!\nThis is a proof that I am strong.  I have killed a lion, and people will\nsay proud things of me, and will wonder at my strength.\"\n\nPresently a brother elephant came up and greeted him.\n\n\"See,\" said the first elephant, \"what I have done.  It was I that killed\nhim.  I lifted him on high, and lo, he lies like a rotten banana.  Do\nyou not think that I am very strong?  Come, be frank now, and give me\nsome credit for what I have done.\"\n\nElephant Number 2 replied, \"It is true that you are strong, but that was\nonly a young lion.  There are others of his kind, and I have seen them,\nwho would give you considerable trouble.\"\n\n\"Ho, ho!\" laughed the first elephant, \"Get out, stupid.  You may bring\nhis whole tribe here, and I will show you what I can do.  Ay! and to\nyour dam to boot.\"\n\n\"What?  My own mother, too?\"\n\n\"Yes.  Go and fetch her if you like.\"\n\n\"Well, well,\" said Number 2, \"you are far gone, there is no doubt.  Fare\nyou well.\"\n\nNumber 2 proceeded on his wanderings, resolved in his own mind that if\nhe had an opportunity he would send some one to test the boaster's\nstrength.  No.  I called out to him as he moved off--\n\n\"Away you go.  Good-by to you.\"\n\nIn a little while Number 2 Elephant met a lion and lioness, full-grown,\nand splendid creatures, who turned out to be the parents of the\nyoungster which had been slain.  After a sociable chat with them, he\nsaid:\n\n\"If you go further on along the path I came you will meet a kind of game\nwhich requires killing badly.  He has just mangled your cub.\"\n\nMeantime Elephant Number 1, after chuckling to himself very conceitedly,\nproceeded to the pool near by to bathe and cool himself.  At every step\nhe went you could hear his \"Ha, ha, ha! loh!  I have killed a lion!\"\nWhile he was in the pool, spurting the water in a shower over his back,\nhe suddenly looked up, and at the water's edge beheld a lion and lioness\nwho were regarding him sternly.\n\n\"Well!  What do you want?\" he asked.  \"Why are you standing there\nlooking at me in that way?\"\n\n\"Are you the rogue who killed our child?\" they asked.\n\n\"Perhaps I am,\" he answered.  \"Why do you want to know?\"\n\n\"Because we are in search of him.  If it be you that did it, you will\nhave to do the same to us before you leave this ground.\"\n\n\"Ho! ho!\" laughed the elephant loudly.  \"Well, hark.  It was I who\nkilled your cub.  Come now, it was I.  Do you hear?  And if you do not\nleave here mighty quick, I shall have to serve you both in the same way\nas I served him.\"\n\nThe lions roared aloud in their fury, and switched their tails\nviolently.\n\n\"Ho, ho!\" laughed the elephant gaily.  \"This is grand.  There is no\ndoubt I shall run soon, they make me so skeery,\" and he danced round the\npool and jeered at them, then drank a great quantity of water and blew\nit in a shower over them.\n\nThe lions stirred not, but kept steadfastly gazing at him, planning how\nto make their attack.\n\nPerceiving that they were obstinate, he threw another stream of water\nover the lions and then backed into the deepest part of the pool, until\nthere was nothing seen of him but the tip of his trunk.  When he rose\nagain the lions were still watching him, and had not moved.\n\n\"Ho, ho!\" he trumpeted, \"still there!  Wait a little, I am coming to\nyou.\"  He advanced towards the shore, but when he was close enough the\nlion sire sprang into the air, and alighted on the elephant's back, and\nfuriously tore at the muscles of the neck, and bit deep into the\nshoulder.  The elephant retreated quickly into the deepest part of the\npool, and submerged himself and his enemy, until the lion was compelled\nto abandon his back and begin to swim ashore.  No sooner had the\nelephant felt himself relieved, than he rose to the surface, and hastily\nfollowed and seized the lion with his trunk.  Despite his struggles he\nwas pressed beneath the surface, dragged under his knees, and trodden\ninto the mud, and in a short time the lion sire was dead.\n\nThe elephant laughed triumphantly, and cried, \"Ho, ho! am I not strong,\nMa Lion?  Did you ever see the likes of me before?  Two of you!  Young\nLion and Pa Lion are now killed!  Come, Ma Lion, had you not better try\nnow, just to see if you won't have better luck?  Come on, old woman,\njust once.\"\n\nThe lioness fiercely answered, while she retreated from the pool, \"Rest\nwhere you are.  I am going to find my brother, and will be back\nshortly.\"\n\nThe elephant trumpeted his scorn of her and her kind, and seizing the\ncarcase of her lord, flung it on shore after her, and declared his\nreadiness to abide where he was, that he might make mash of all the lion\nfamily.\n\nIn a short time the lioness had found her brother, who was a mighty\nfellow, and full of fight.  As they advanced near the pool together,\nthey consulted as to the best means of getting at the elephant.  Then\nthe lioness sprang forward to the edge of the pool.  The elephant\nretreated a short distance into deeper water.  The lioness upon this\ncrept along the pool, and pretended to lap the water.  The elephant\nmoved towards her.  The lion waited his chance, and finally, with a\ngreat roar, sprang upon his shoulders, and commenced tearing away at the\nvery place which had been torn by lion sire.\n\nThe elephant backed quickly into deep water as he had done before, and\nsubmerged himself, but the lion maintained his hold and bit deeper.  The\nelephant then sank down until there was nothing to be seen but the tip\nof his trunk, upon which the lion, to avoid suffocation, relaxed his\nhold and swam vigorously towards shore.  The elephant rose up, and as\nthe lion was stepping on shore, seized him, and drove one of his tusks\nthrough his adversary's body; but as he was in the act, the lioness\nsprang upon the elephant's neck, and bit and tore so furiously that he\nfell dead, and with his fall crushed the dying lion.\n\nSoon after the close of the terrible combat, Elephant Number 2 came up,\nand discovered the lioness licking her chops and paws, and said--\n\n\"Hello, it seems there has been quite a quarrel here lately.  Three\nlions are dead, and here lies one of my own kind, stiffening.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied lioness, gloomily, \"the rogue elephant killed my cub\nwhile the little fellow was asleep in the woods.  He then killed my\nhusband and brother, and I killed him; but I do not think the elephant\nhas gained much by fighting with us.  I did not have much trouble in\nkilling him.  Should you meet any friends of his, you may warn them to\nleave the lioness alone, or she may be tempted to make short work of\nthem.\"\n\nElephant Number 2, though a patient person generally, was annoyed at\nthis, and gave her a sudden kick with one of his hind feet, which sent\nher sprawling a good distance off, and asked--\n\n\"How do you like that, Ma Lion?\"\n\n\"What do you mean by that?\" demanded the enraged lioness.\n\n\"Oh, because I hate to hear so much bragging.\"\n\n\"Do you also wish to fight?\" she asked.\n\n\"We should never talk about doing an impossible thing, Ma Lion,\" he\nanswered.  \"I have travelled many years through these woods, and I have\nnever fought yet.  I find that when a person minds his own business he\nseldom comes to trouble, and when I meet one who is even stronger than\nmyself I greet him pleasantly, and pass on, and I should advise you to\ndo the same, Ma Lion.\"\n\n\"You are saucy, Elephant.  It would be well for you to think upon your\nstupid brother there, who lies so stark under your nose, before you\ntrouble with your insolence one who slew him.\"\n\n\"Well, words never yet made a plantation; it is the handling of a hoe\nthat makes fields.  See here, Ma Lion, if I talked to you all day I\ncould not make you wise.  I will just turn my back to you.  If you will\nbite me, you will soon learn how weak you are.\"\n\nThe lioness, angered still more by the elephant's contempt, sprang at\nhis shoulders, and clung to him, upon which he rushed at a stout tree,\nand pressing his shoulders against it, crushed the breath out of her\nbody, and she ceased her struggles.  When he relaxed his pressure, the\nbody fell to the ground, and he knelt upon it, and kneaded it until\nevery bone was broken.\n\nWhile the elephant was meditatively standing over the body, and thinking\nwhat misfortunes happen to boasters, a man came along, carrying a spear,\nand seeing that the elephant was unaware of his presence, he thought\nwhat great luck had happened to him.\n\nSaid he, \"Ah, what fine tusks he has.  I shall be rich with them, and\nshall buy slaves and cattle, and with these I will get a wife and a\nfarm,\" saying which he advanced silently, and when he was near enough,\ndarted his spear into a place behind the shoulder.\n\nThe elephant turned around quickly, and on beholding his enemy rushed\nafter and overtook him, and mauled him, until in a few moments he was a\nmangled corpse.\n\nSoon after a woman approached, and seeing four lions, one elephant, and\nher husband dead, she raised up her hands wonderingly and cried, \"How\ndid all this happen?\"  The elephant, hearing her voice, came from behind\na tree, with a spear quivering in his side, and bleeding profusely.  At\nthe sight of him the woman turned round to fly, but the elephant cried\nout to her, \"Nay, run not, woman, for I can do you no harm.  The happy\ndays in the woods are ended for all the tribes.  The memory of this\nscene will never be forgotten.  Animals will be henceforth at constant\nwar one with another.  Lions will no more greet elephants, the buffaloes\nwill be shy, the rhinoceroses will live apart, and man when he comes\nwithin the shadows will think of nothing else than his terrors, and he\nwill fancy an enemy in every shadow.  I am sorely wounded, for thy man\nstole up to my side and drove his spear into me, and soon I shall die.\"\n\nWhen she had heard these words the woman hastened home, and all the\nvillagers, old and young, hurried into the woods, by the pool, where\nthey found four lions, two elephants, and one of their own tribe lying\nstill and lifeless.\n\nThe words of the elephant have turned out to be true, for no man goes\nnow-a-days into the silent and deserted woods but he feels as though\nsomething were haunting them, and thinks of goblinry, and starts at\nevery sound.  Out of the shadows which shift with the sun, forms seem\ncrawling and phantoms appear to glide, and we are in a fever almost from\nthe horrible illusions of fancy.  We breathe quickly and fear to speak,\nfor the smallest vibration in the silence would jar on our nerves.  I\nspeak the truth, for when I am in the woods near the night, there swims\nbefore my eyes a multitude of terrible things which I never see by the\nlight of day.  The flash of a fire-fly is a ghost, the chant of a frog\nbecomes a frightful roar, the sudden piping of a bird signalises murder,\nand I run.  No, no; no woods for me when alone.\n\nAnd Chakanja rose to his feet and went to his own quarters, solemnly\nshaking his head.  But we all smiled at Chakanja, and thought how\nterribly frightened he would be if any one suddenly rose from behind a\ndark bush and cried \"Boo!\" to him.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FIVE.\n\nKING GUMBI AND HIS LOST DAUGHTER.\n\nWe were all gathered about the fire as usual, when Safeni, the sage\ncoxswain, exclaimed, \"See here, boys; do you not think that for once in\na while it would be well to hear some legend connected with men and\nwomen?  I vote that one of you who have amused us with tales of lions\nand leopards, should search his memory, and tell the company a brave\nstory about some son of Adam.  Come, you Katembo, have the Manyema no\nlegends!\"\n\n\"Well, yes, we have; but my ears have been so open heretofore that my\ntongue has almost forgotten its uses, and I fear that after the smooth\nand delightful tales of Kadu, you will not think me expert in speech.\nHowever, and if you care to hear of it, I can give you the legend of\nGumbi, one of our kings in long-past days, and his daughter.\"\n\n\"Speak, speak, Katembo,\" cried the company; \"let us hear a Manyema\nlegend to-night.\"\n\nKatembo, after this general invitation, cleared his throat, brought the\nsoles of his feet nearer the fire, and amid respectful silence spoke as\nfollows:--\n\nIt was believed in the olden time that if a king's daughter had the\nmisfortune to be guilty of ten mistakes, she should suffer for half of\nthem, and her father would be punished for the rest.  Now, King Gumbi\nhad lately married ten wives, and all at once this old belief of the\nelders about troubles with daughters came into his head, and he issued a\ncommand, which was to be obeyed upon pain of death, that if any female\nchildren should be born to him they should be thrown into the Lualaba,\nand drowned, for, said he, \"the dead are beyond temptation to err, and I\nshall escape mischief.\"\n\nTo avoid the reproaches of his wives, on account of the cruel order, the\nking thought he would absent himself, and he took a large following with\nhim and went to visit other towns of his country.  Within a few days\nafter his departure there were born to him five sons and five daughters.\nFour of the female infants were at once disposed of according to the\nking's command; but when the fifth daughter was born, she was so\nbeautiful, and had such great eyes, and her colour was mellow, so like a\nripe banana, that the chief nurse hesitated, and when the mother pleaded\nso hard for her child's life, she made up her mind that the little\ninfant should be saved.  When the mother was able to rise, the nurse\nhastened her away secretly by night.  In the morning the queen found\nherself in a dark forest, and, being alone, she began to talk to\nherself, as people generally do, and a grey parrot with a beautiful red\ntail came flying along, and asked, \"What is it you are saying to\nyourself, O Miami?\"\n\nShe answered and said, \"Ah, beautiful little parrot, I am thinking what\nI ought to do to save the life of my little child.  Tell me how I can\nsave her, for Gumbi wishes to destroy all his female children.\"\n\nThe parrot replied, \"I grieve for you greatly, but I do not know.  Ask\nthe next parrot you see,\" and he flew away.\n\nA second parrot still more beautiful came flying towards her, whistling\nand screeching merrily, and the queen lifted her voice and cried--\n\n\"Ah, little parrot, stop a bit, and tell me how I can save my sweet\nchild's life; for cruel Gumbi, her father, wants to kill it.\"\n\n\"Ah, mistress, I may not tell; but there is one comes behind me who\nknows; ask him,\" and he also flew to his day's haunts.\n\nThen the third parrot was seen to fly towards her, and he made the\nforest ring with his happy whistling, and Miami cried out again--\n\n\"Oh, stay, little parrot, and tell me in what way I can save my sweet\nchild, for Gumbi, her father, vows he will kill it.\"\n\n\"Deliver it to me,\" answered the parrot.  \"But first let me put a small\nbanana stalk and two pieces of sugar-cane with it, and then I shall\ncarry it safely to its grandmamma.\"\n\nThe parrot relieved the queen of her child, and flew through the air,\nscreeching merrier than before, and in a short time had laid the little\nprincess, her banana stalk, and two pieces of sugar-cane in the lap of\nthe grandmamma, who was sitting at the door of her house, and said--\n\n\"This bundle contains a gift from your daughter, wife of Gumbi.  She\nbids you be careful of it, and let none out of your own family see it,\nlest she should be slain by the king.  And to remember this day, she\nrequests you to plant the banana stalk in your garden at one end, and at\nthe other end the two pieces of sugar-cane, for you may need both.\"\n\n\"Your words are good and wise,\" answered granny, as she received the\nbabe.\n\nOn opening the bundle the old woman discovered a female child,\nexceedingly pretty, plump, and yellow as a ripe banana, with large black\neyes, and such smiles on its bright face that the grandmother's heart\nglowed with affection for it.\n\nMany seasons came and went by.  No stranger came round to ask questions.\nThe banana flourished and grew into a grove, and each sprout marked the\npassage of a season, and the sugar-cane likewise throve prodigiously as\nyear after year passed and the infant grew into girlhood.  When the\nprincess had bloomed into a beautiful maiden, the grandmother had become\nso old that the events of long ago appeared to her to be like so many\ndreams, but she still worshipped her child's child, cooked for her,\nwaited upon her, wove new grass mats for her bed, and fine grass-cloths\nfor her dress, and every night before she retired she washed her dainty\nfeet.\n\nThen one day, before her ears were quite closed by age, and her limbs\nhad become too weak to bear her about, the parrot who brought the child\nto her, came and rested upon a branch near her door, and after piping\nand whistling its greeting, cried out, \"The time has come.  Gumbi's\ndaughter must depart, and seek her father.  Furnish her with a little\ndrum, teach her a song to sing while she beats it, and send her forth.\"\n\nThen granny purchased for her a tiny drum, and taught her a song, and\nwhen she had been fully instructed she prepared a new canoe with food--\nfrom the bananas in the grove, and the plot of sugar-cane, and she made\ncushions from grass-cloth bags stuffed with silk-cotton floss for her to\nrest upon.  When all was ready she embraced her grand-daughter, and with\nmany tears sent her away down the river, with four women servants.\n\nGranny stood for a long time by the river bank, watching the little\ncanoe disappear with the current, then she turned and entered the\ndoorway, and sitting down closed her eyes, and began to think of the\npleasant life she had enjoyed while serving Miami's child; and while so\ndoing she was so pleased that she smiled, and as she smiled she slept,\nand never woke again.\n\nBut the princess, as she floated down and bathed her eyes, which had\nsmarted with her grief, began to think of all that granny had taught\nher, and began to sing in a fluty voice, as she beat her tiny drum--\n\n  \"List, all you men,\n  To the song I sing.\n  I am Gumbi's child,\n  Brought up in the wild;\n  And home I return,\n  As you all will learn,\n  When this my little drum\n  Tells Gumbi I have come, come, come.\"\n\nThe sound of her drum attracted the attention of the fishermen who were\nengaged with their nets, and seeing a strange canoe with only five women\naboard floating down the river, they drew near to it, and when they saw\nhow beautiful the princess was, and noted her graceful, lithe figure\nclad in robes of fine grass-cloths, they were inclined to lay their\nhands upon her.  But she sang again--\n\n  \"I am Gumbi's child,\n  Make way for me;\n  I am homeward bound,\n  Make way for me.\"\n\nThen the fishermen were afraid and did not molest her.  But one desirous\nof being the first to carry the news to the king, and obtain favour and\na reward for it, hastened away to tell him that his daughter was coming\nto visit him.\n\nThe news plunged King Gumbi into a state of wonder, for as he had taken\nsuch pains to destroy all female children, he could not imagine how he\ncould be the father of a daughter.\n\nThen he sent a quick-footed and confidential slave to inquire, who soon\nreturned and assured him that the girl who was coming to him was his own\ntrue daughter.\n\nThen he sent a man who had grown up with him, who knew all that had\nhappened in his court; and he also returned and confirmed all that the\nslave had said.\n\nUpon this he resolved to go himself, and when he met her he asked--\n\n\"Who art thou, child?\"\n\nAnd she replied, \"I am the only daughter of Gumbi.\"\n\n\"And who is Gumbi?\"\n\n\"He is the king of this country,\" she replied.\n\n\"Well, but I am Gumbi myself, and how canst thou be my daughter?\" he\nasked.\n\n\"I am the child of thy wife, Miami, and after I was born she hid me that\nI might not be cast into the river.  I have been living with grandmamma,\nwho nursed me, and by the number of banana-stalks in her garden thou\nmayest tell the number of the seasons that have passed since my birth.\nOne day she told me the time had come, and she sent me to seek my\nfather; and I embarked in the canoe with four servants, and the river\nbore me to this land.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Gumbi, \"when I return home I shall question Miami, and I\nshall soon discover the truth of thy story; but meantime, what must I do\nfor thee?\"\n\n\"My grandmamma said that thou must sacrifice a goat to the meeting of\nthe daughter with the father,\" she replied.\n\nThen the king requested her to step on the shore, and when he saw the\nflash of her yellow feet, and the gleams of her body, which were like\nshining bright gum, and gazed on the clear, smooth features, and looked\ninto the wondrous black eyes, Gumbi's heart melted and he was filled\nwith pride that such a surpassingly beautiful creature should be his own\ndaughter.\n\nBut she refused to set her feet on the shore until another goat had been\nsacrificed, for her grandmother had said ill-luck would befall her if\nthese ceremonies were neglected.\n\nTherefore the king commanded that two goats should be slain, one for the\nmeeting with his daughter, and one to drive away ill-luck from before\nher in the land where she would first rest her feet.\n\nWhen this had been done, she said, \"Now, father, it is not meet that thy\nrecovered daughter should soil her feet on the path to her father's\nhouse.  Thou must lay a grass-cloth along the ground all the way to my\nmother's door.\"\n\nThe king thereupon ordered a grass-cloth to be spread along the path\ntowards the women's quarters, but he did not mention to which doorway.\nHis daughter then moved forward, the king by her side, until they came\nin view of all the king's wives, and then Gumbi cried out to them--\"One\nof you, I am told, is the mother of this girl.  Look on her, and be not\nashamed to own her, for she is as perfect as the egg.  At the first\nsight of her I felt like a man filled with pleasantness, so let the\nmother come forward and claim her, and let her not destroy herself with\na lie.\"\n\nNow all the women bent forward and longed to say, \"She is mine, she is\nmine!\" but Miami, who was ill and weak, sat at the door, and said--\n\n\"Continue the matting to my doorway, for as I feel my heart is connected\nwith her as by a cord, she must be the child whom the parrot carried to\nmy mother with a banana stalk and two pieces of sugar-cane.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes, thou must be my own mother,\" cried the princess; and when the\ngrass-cloth was laid even to the inside of the house, she ran forward,\nand folded her arms around her.\n\nWhen Gumbi saw them together he said, \"Truly, equals always come\ntogether.  I see now by many things that the princess must be right.\nBut she will not long remain with me, I fear, for a king's daughter\ncannot remain many moons without suitors.\"\n\nNow though Gumbi considered it a trifle to destroy children whom he had\nnever seen, it never entered into his mind to hurt Miami or the\nprincess.  On the contrary, he was filled with a gladness which he was\nnever tired of talking about.  He was even prouder of his daughter,\nwhose lovely shape and limpid eyes so charmed him, than of all his tall\nsons.  He proved this by the feasts he caused to be provided for all the\npeople.  Goats were roasted and stewed, the fishermen brought fish\nwithout number, the peasants came loaded with weighty bunches of\nbananas, and baskets of yams, and manioc, and pots full of beans, and\nvetches, and millet and corn, and honey and palm-oil, and as for the\nfowls--who could count them?  The people also had plenty to drink of the\njuice of the palm, and thus they were made to rejoice with the king in\nthe return of the princess.\n\nIt was soon spread throughout Manyema that no woman was like unto\nGumbi's daughter for beauty.  Some said that she was of the colour of a\nripe banana, others that she was like fossil gum, others like a reddish\noil-nut, and others again that her face was more like the colour of the\nmoon than anything else.  The effect of this reputation was to bring\nnearly all the young chiefs in the land as suitors for her hand.  Many\nof them would have been pleasing to the king, but the princess was\naverse to them, and she caused it to be made known that she would marry\nnone save the young chief who could produce matako (brass rods) by\npolishing his teeth.  The king was very much amused at this, but the\nchiefs stared in surprise as they heard it.\n\nThe king mustered the choicest young men of the land, and he told them\nit was useless for any one to hope to be married to the princess unless\nhe could drop brass rods by rubbing his teeth.  Though they held it to\nbe impossible that any one could do such a thing, yet every one of them\nbegan to rub his teeth hard, and as they did so, lo! brass rods were\nseen to drop on the ground from the mouth of one of them, and the people\ngave a great shout for wonder at it.\n\nThe princess was then brought forward, and as the young chief rose to\nhis feet he continued to rub his teeth, and the brass rods were heard to\ntinkle as they fell to the ground.  The marriage was therefore duly\nproceeded with, and another round of feasts followed, for the king was\nrich in flocks of goats, and sheep, and in well-tilled fields and\nslaves.\n\nBut after the first moon had waned and gone, the husband said, \"Come,\nnow, let us depart, for Gumbi's land is no home for me.\"\n\nAnd unknown to Gumbi they prepared for flight, and stowed their canoe\nwith all things needful for a long journey, and one night soon after\ndark they embarked, and paddled down the river.  One day the princess,\nwhile she was seated on her cushions, saw a curious nut floating near\nthe canoe, upon which she sprang into the river to obtain it.  It eluded\nher grasp.  She swam after it, and the chief followed her as well as he\nwas able, crying out to her to return to the canoe, as there were\ndangerous animals in the water.  But she paid no heed to him, and\ncontinued to swim after the nut, until, when she had arrived opposite a\nvillage, the princess was hailed by an old woman, who cried, \"Ho,\nprincess, I have got what thou seekest.  See.\"  And she held the nut up\nin her hand.  Then the princess stepped on shore, and her husband made\nfast his canoe to the bank.\n\n\"Give it to me,\" demanded the princess, holding out her hand.\n\n\"There is one thing thou must do for me before thou canst obtain it.\"\n\n\"What is that?\" she asked.\n\n\"Thou must lay thy hands upon my bosom to cure me of my disease.  Only\nthus canst thou have it,\" the old woman said.\n\nThe princess laid her hands upon her bosom, and as she did so the old\nwoman was cured of her illness.\n\n\"Now thou mayest depart on thy journey, but remember what I tell thee.\nThou and thy husband must cling close to this side of the river until\nthou comest abreast of an island which is in the middle of the entrance\nto a great lake.  For the shore thou seekest is on this side.  Once\nthere thou wilt find peace and rest for many years.  But if thou goest\nto the other side of the river thou wilt be lost, thou and thy husband.\"\n\nThen they re-embarked, and the river ran straight and smooth before\nthem.  After some days they discovered that the side they were on was\nuninhabited, and that their provisions were exhausted, but the other\nside was cultivated, and possessed many villages and plantations.\nForgetting the advice of the old woman, they crossed the river to the\nopposite shore, and they admired the beauty of the land, and joyed in\nthe odours that came from the gardens and the plantations, and they\ndreamily listened to the winds that crumpled and tossed the great fronds\nof banana, and fancied that they had seen no sky so blue.  And while\nthey thus dreamed, lo! the river current was bearing them both swiftly\nalong, and they saw the island which was at the entrance to the great\nlake, and in an instant the beauty of the land which had charmed them\nhad died away, and they now heard the thunderous booming of waters, and\nsaw them surging upward in great sweeps, and one great wave curved\nunderneath them, and they were lifted up, up, up, and dropped down into\nthe roaring abyss, and neither chief nor princess was ever seen again.\nThey were both swallowed up in the deep.\n\n\"Is _that_ all?\" asked Safeni, who had been listening breathlessly to\nthe story.\n\n\"That is all,\" replied Katembo.\n\n\"Why, what kind of a story is this, that finishes in that way?\"\n\n\"It is not mine,\" answered Katembo.  \"The telling of it has been\naccording to the words I heard, and it is not good to alter a tale.\"\n\n\"Then what is the object of such a story?\" demanded Safeni, in an\nirritable tone.\n\n\"Why, to warn people from following their inclinations.  Did not the\ngirl find her father?  Did not her father welcome her, and pardon the\nmother for very joy?  Was not her own choice of a husband found for her?\nWas not the young chief fortunate in possessing such a beautiful wife?\nWhy should they have become discontented?  Why not have stayed at home\ninstead of wandering into strange lands of which they knew nothing?  Did\nnot the old woman warn them of what would happen, and point to them how\nthey might live in peace once again?  But it was all to no purpose.  We\nnever know the value of anything until we have lost it.  Ruin follows\nthe wilful always.  They left their home and took to the river, the\nriver was not still, but moved on, and as their heads were already full\nof their own thoughts, they could not keep advice.  But Katembo has\nended.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER SIX.\n\nTHE STORY OF MARANDA.\n\n\"Master,\" said Baruti, \"I have been trying hard to recall some of the\nother legends I used to hear when I was very small, and I now recollect\none, which is not very long, about Maranda, a wife of one of the Basoko\nwarriors, called Mafala.\"\n\nMaranda's father was named Sukila, and he lived in the village of Chief\nBusandiya.  Sukila owned a fine large canoe and many paddles, which he\nhad carved with his own hand.  He possessed also several long nets which\nhe himself also made, besides spears, knives, a store of grass-cloths,\nand a few slaves.  He was highly respected by his countrymen, and sat by\nthe chief's side in the council place.\n\nAs the girl grew to be fit for marriage, Mafala thought she would suit\nhim as a wife, and went and spoke of it to Sukila, who demanded a slave\ngirl, six long paddles ornamented with ivory caps, six goats, as many\ngrass-cloths as he had fingers and toes, a new shield, two axes, and two\nfield-hoes.  Mafala tried to reduce the demand, and walked backwards and\nforwards many times to smoke pipes with Sukila, and get him to be less\nexacting.  But the old man knew his daughter was worth the price he had\nput upon her, and that if he refused Mafala, she would not remain long\nwithout a suitor.  For a girl like Maranda is not often seen among the\nBasokos.  Her limbs were round and smooth, and ended in thin, small\nhands and feet.  The young men often spoke about Maranda's light,\nstraight feet, and quick-lifting step.  A boy's arm could easily enclose\nthe slim waist, and the manner in which she carried her head, and the\nsupple neck and the clear look in her eyes belonged to Maranda only.\n\nMafala, on the other hand, was curiously unlike her.  He always seemed\nset on something, and the lines between the eyebrows gave him a severe\nface, not pleasant to see, and you always caught something in his eyes\nthat made you think of the glitter which is in a serpent's eye.\n\nPerhaps that was one reason why Sukila did not care to have him for his\ndaughter's husband.  At any rate, he would not abate his price one\ngrass-cloth, and at last it was paid, and Maranda passed over from her\nfather's house into that of her husband.\n\nSoon after, the marriage Maranda was heard to cry out, and it was\nwhispered that she had learned much about Mafala in a few days, and that\nblows as from a rod had been heard.  Half a moon passed away, and then\nall the village knew that Maranda had fled to Busandiya's house, because\nof her husband's ill-treatment.  Now the custom in such a case is that\nthe father keeps his daughter's dowry, and if it be true that a wife\nfinds life with her husband too harsh to be borne, she may seek the\nchief's protection, and the chief may give her to another husband who\nwill treat her properly.\n\nBut before the chief had chosen the man to whom he would give her,\nMafala went to a crocodile--for it turned out that he was a Mganga, a\nwitch-man who had dealings with reptiles on land, as well as with the\nmonsters of the river,--and he bargained with it to catch her as she\ncame to the river to wash, and carry her up to a certain place on the\nriver bank where there was a tall tree with a large hole in it.\n\nThe crocodile bided his chance, and one morning, when Maranda visited\nthe water, he seized her by the hand, and swept her onto his back, and\ncarried her to the hiding-place in the hollow tree.  He then left her\nthere, and swam down opposite the village, and signalled to Mafala that\nhe had performed his part of the bargain.\n\nOn the crocodile's departure Maranda looked about the hole, and saw that\nshe was in a kind of pit, but a long way up the hollow narrowed like the\nneck of a gourd, and she could see foliage and a bit of sky.  She\ndetermined to climb up, and though she scratched herself very much, she\nfinally managed to reach the very top, and to crawl outside into the\nair.  The tree was very large and lofty, and the branches spread out\nfar, and they were laden with the heavy fruit of which elephants are so\nfond [the jackfruit].  At first she thought that she could not starve\nbecause of so many of these big fruit; then, as they were large and\nheavy, she conceived the idea that they might be useful to defend\nherself, and she collected a great number of them, and laid them in a\nheap over some sticks she had laid across the branches.\n\nBy-and-by Mafala came, and discovered her high up among the foliage, and\nafter jeering at her, began to climb the tree.  But when he was only\nhalf-way up, Maranda lifted one of the ponderous fruit and flung it on\nhis head, and he fell to the ground with his senses all in a whirl and\nhis back greatly bruised.  When he recovered he begged the crocodile to\nhelp him, and he tried to climb up, but when he had ascended but a\nlittle way, Maranda dropped one of the elephant fruit fairly on his\nsnout, which sent him falling backwards.  Mafala then begged two great\nserpents to ascend and bring her down, but Maranda met them with the\nheavy fruit one after another, and they were glad to leave her alone.\nThen the man departed to seek a leopard, but while he was absent\nMaranda, from her tree, saw a canoe on the river with two young\nfishermen in it, and she screamed loudly for help.  The fishermen\npaddled close ashore and found that it was Sukila's daughter, the wife\nof Mafala, who was alone on a tall tree.  They waited long enough to\nhear her story, and then returned to the village to obtain assistance.\n\nBusandiya was much astonished to hear the fishermen's news, and\nforthwith sent a war-canoe full of armed men, led by the father, Sukila,\nto rescue her.  By means of rattan-climbers they contrived to reach her,\nand to bring her down safely.  While some of the war-party set out to\ndiscover Mafala, the others watched for the crocodile and the two\nserpents.  In a short time the cruel man was seen and caught, and he was\nbrought to the river-side, bound with green withes.  His legs and his\narms were firmly tied together, and, after the Basoko had made Maranda\nrepeat her story from the beginning, and Sukila had told the manner of\nthe marriage, they searched for great stones, which they fastened to his\nneck; and, lifting him into the war-canoe, they paddled into the middle\nof the stream, where they sang a death-chant; after which they dropped\nMafala overboard and he was never heard of more.  That is all there is\nof the story of Maranda.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER SEVEN.\n\nTHE STORY OF KITINDA AND HER WISE DOG.\n\nOn another night Baruti, whose memory was freshened by the reward which\nfollowed a story worthy of being written in the Master's book, told us\nabout Kitinda and her wise dog, so well indeed that by common consent he\nwas acclaimed one of the best among the story-tellers.\n\nBut it was not so well rehearsed to me while I had my pencil in hand as\nhe had delivered it at the camp fire.  It bothered him to be asked to\ndictate it a little slower to me, and he showed marked signs of\ninattention when told to repeat a sentence twice over.  All I can\nflatter myself is that it contains the sense of what was said.\n\nKitinda, a woman of the Basoko, near the Aruwimi river, possessed a dog\nwho was remarkable for his intelligence.  It was said that he was so\nclever that strangers understood his motions as well as though he talked\nto them; and that Kitinda, familiar with his ways and the tones of his\nwhines, his yelps, and his barks, could converse with him as easily as\nshe could with her husband.\n\nOne market-day the mistress and her dog agreed to go together, and on\nthe road she told him all she intended to do and say in disposing of her\nproduce in exchange for other articles which she needed in her home.\nHer dog listened with sympathy, and then, in his own manner, he conveyed\nto her how great was his attachment to her, and how there never was such\na friend as he could be; and he begged her that, if at any time she was\nin distress, she would tell him, and that he would serve her with all\nhis might.  \"Only,\" he said, \"were it not that I am afraid of the\neffects of being too clever, I could have served you oftener and much\nmore than I have done.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" said Kitinda.\n\n\"Well, you know, among the Basoko, it is supposed, if one is too clever,\nor too lucky, or too rich, that it has come about through dealings in\nwitchcraft, and people are burned in consequence.  I do not like the\nidea of being burned--and therefore I have refrained often from\nassisting you because I feared you could not contain your surprise, and\nwould chat about it to the villagers.  Then some day, after some really\nremarkable act of cleverness of mine, people would say, `Ha! this is not\na dog.  No dog could have done that!  He must be a demon--or a witch in\na dog's hide!' and of course they would take me and burn me.\"\n\n\"Why, how very unkind of you to think such things of me!  When have I\nchatted about you?  Indeed I have too many things to do, my housework,\nmy planting and marketing so occupy me, that I could not find time to\ngossip about my dog.\"\n\n\"Well, it is already notorious that I am clever, and I often tremble\nwhen strangers look at and admire me for fear some muddle-headed fellow\nwill fancy that he sees something else in me more than unusual\nintelligence.  What would they say, however, if they really knew how\nvery sagacious I am?  The reputation that I possess has only come\nthrough your affection for me, but I assure you that I dread this excess\nof affection lest it should end fatally for you and for me.\"\n\n\"But are you so much cleverer than you have already shown yourself?  If\nI promise that I will never speak of you to any person again, will you\nhelp me more than you have done, if I am in distress?\"\n\n\"You are a woman, and you could not prevent yourself talking if you\ntried ever so hard.\"\n\n\"Now, look you here, my dog.  I vow to you that no matter what you do\nthat is strange, I wish I may die, and that the first animal I meet may\nkill me if I speak a word.  You shall see now that Kitinda will be as\ngood as her word.\"\n\n\"Very well, I will take you at your word.  I am to serve you every time\nyou need help, and if you speak of my services to a soul, you are\nwilling to lose your life by the first animal you may meet.\"\n\nThus they made a solemn agreement as they travelled to market.\n\nKitinda sold her palm-oil and fowls to great advantage that day, and in\nexchange received sleeping-mats, a couple of carved stools, a bag of\ncassava flour, two large well-baked and polished crocks, a bunch of ripe\nbananas, a couple of good plantation hoes, and a big strong basket.\n\nAfter the marketing was over she collected her purchases together and\ntried to put them into the basket, but the big crocks and carved stools\nwere a sore trouble to her.  She could put the flour and hoes and the\nbananas on top with the mats for a cover very well, but the stools and\nthe crocks were a great difficulty.\n\nHer dog in the meantime had been absent, and had succeeded in killing a\nyoung antelope, and had dragged it near her.  He looked around and saw\nthat the market was over, and that the people had returned to their own\nhomes, while his mistress had been anxiously planning how to pack her\nproperty.\n\nHe heard her complain of her folly in buying such cumbersome and weighty\nthings, and ask herself how she was to reach home with them.\n\nPitying her in her trouble, the dog galloped away and found a man\nempty-handed, before whom he fawned and whose hands he licked, and being\npatted he clung to his cloth with his teeth and pulled him gently\nalong--wagging his tail and looking very amiable.  He continued to do\nthis until the man, seeing Kitinda fretting over her difficulty,\nunderstood what was wanted, and offered to carry the stools and crocks\nat each end of his long staff over his shoulders for a few of the ripe\nbananas and a lodging.  His assistance was accepted with pleasure, and\nKitinda was thus enabled to reach her home, and on the way was told by\nthe man how it was that he had happened to return to the marketplace.\n\nKitinda was very much tempted there and then to dilate upon her dog's\nwell-known cleverness, but remembered in time her promise not to boast\nof him.  When, however, she reached the village, and the housewives came\nout of their houses, burning to hear the news at the market, in her\neagerness to tell this one and then the other all that had happened to\nher, and all that she had seen and heard, she forgot her vow of the\nmorning, and forthwith commenced to relate the last wonderful trick of\nher dog in dragging a man back to the marketplace to help her when she\nthought that all her profit in trade would be lost, and when she was\njust about to smash her nice crocks in her rage.\n\nThe dog listened to her narrative, viewed the signs of wonder stealing\nover the women's faces, heard them call out to their husbands, saw the\nmen advancing eagerly towards them, saw them all look at him narrowly,\nheard one man exclaim, \"That cannot be a dog! it is a demon within a\ndog's hide.  He--\"\n\nBut the dog had heard enough.  He turned, and ran into the woods, and\nwas never more seen in that village.\n\nThe next market-day came round, and Kitinda took some more palm-oil and\na few fowls, and left her home to dispose of them for some other\ndomestic needs.  When about half-way, her dog came out of the wood, and\nafter accusing her of betraying him to her stupid countrymen, thus\nreturning evil for good, he sprang upon her and tore her to pieces.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER EIGHT.\n\nTHE STORY OF THE PRINCE WHO INSISTED ON POSSESSING THE MOON.\n\n\"Sir,\" said Baruti, one evening, \"another story came to my mind to-day\nwhich was told to me a long time ago by an old man among the Basoko.  I\ndoubt whether you will like it, but since you wish to hear another\nlegend of my country you shall have the story as it was told to me.\"\n\nThe country now inhabited by the Basoko tribe was formerly known as\nBandimba.  A king called Bahanga was its sole rider.  He possessed a\nhouseful of wives, but all his children were unfortunately of the female\nsex, which he considered to be a great grievance, and of which he\nfrequently complained.  His subjects, on the other hand, were blessed\nwith more sons than daughters, and this fact increased the king's grief,\nand made him envy the meanest of his subjects.  One day, however, he\nmarried Bamana, the youngest daughter of his principal chief, and\nfinally he became the father of a male child, and was very happy, and\nhis people rejoiced in his happiness.\n\nThe prince grew up to be a marvel of strength and beauty, and his father\ndoted on him so much, that he shared his power with the boy in a curious\nmanner.  The king reserved authority over all the married people, while\nthe prince's subjects consisted of those not yet mated.  It thus\nhappened that the prince ruled over more people than his father, for the\nchildren were, of course, more numerous than the parents.  But with all\nthe honour conferred upon him the prince was not happy.  The more he\nobtained, the more he wished to possess.  His eyes had but to see a\nthing to make him desire its exclusive possession.  Each day he\npreferred one or more requests to his father, and because of his great\nlove for him, the king had not the heart to refuse anything to him.\nIndeed, he was persuaded to bestow so many gifts upon his son that he\nreserved scarcely anything for himself.\n\nOne day the prince was playing with the youth of his court, and after\nthe sport retired to the shade of a tree to rest, and his companions sat\ndown in a circle at a respectful distance from him.  He then felt a gush\nof pride stealing over him as he thought of his great power, at the\nnumber and variety of his treasures, and he cried out boastfully that\nthere never was a boy so great, so rich and so favoured by his father,\nas he had become.  \"My father,\" said he, \"can deny me nothing.  I have\nonly to ask, and it is given unto me.\"\n\nThen one little slender boy with a thin voice said, \"It is true, prince.\nYour father has been very good to you.  He is a mighty king, and he is\nas generous as he is great.  Still, I know of one thing that he cannot\ngive you--and it is certain that you will never possess it.\"\n\n\"What thing is that which I may not call my own, when I see it--and what\nis it that is not in the king's power to give me?\" asked the prince, in\na tone of annoyance.\n\n\"It is the moon,\" answered the little boy; \"and you must confess\nyourself that it is beyond the king's power to give that to you.\"\n\n\"Do you doubt it?\" asked the prince.  \"I say to you that I shall possess\nit, and I will go now and claim it from my father.  I will not give him\nany peace until he gives it to me.\"\n\nNow it so happens that such treasures as are already ours, we do not\nvalue so much as those which we have not yet got.  So it was with this\nspoiled prince.  The memory of the many gifts of his father faded from\nhis mind, and their value was not to be compared with this new toy--the\nmoon--which he had never thought of before and which he now so ardently\ncoveted.\n\nHe found the king discussing important matters with the old men.\n\n\"Father,\" said he, \"just now, while I was with my companions I was\ntaunted because I did not have the moon among my toys, and it was said\nthat it was beyond your power to give it to me.  Now, prove this boy a\nliar, and procure the moon for me, that I may be able to show it to\nthem, and glory in your gift.\"\n\n\"What is it you say, my son, you want the moon?\" asked the astonished\nking.\n\n\"Yes.  Do get it for me at once, won't you?\"\n\n\"But, my child, the moon is a long way up.  How shall we be ever able to\nreach it?\"\n\n\"I don't know; but you have always been good to me, and you surely would\nnot refuse me this favour, father?\"\n\n\"I fear, my own, that we will not be able to give you the moon.\"\n\n\"But, father, I must have it; my life will not be worth living without\nit.  How may I dare to again face my companions after my proud boast\nbefore them of your might and goodness?  There was but one thing that\nyonder pert boy said I might not have, and that was the moon.  Now my\nsoul is bent upon possessing this moon, and you must obtain it for me or\nI shall die.\"\n\n\"Nay, my son, speak not of death.  It is an ugly word, especially when\nconnected with my prince and heir.  Do you not know yet that I live only\nfor your sake?  Let your mind be at rest.  I will collect all the wise\nmen of the land together, and ask them to advise me.  If they say that\nthe moon can be reached and brought down to us, you shall have it.\"\n\nAccordingly the great state drum was sounded for the general palaver,\nand a score of criers went through the towns beating their little drums\nas they went, and the messengers hastened all the wise men and elders to\nthe presence of the king.\n\nWhen all were assembled, the king announced his desire to know how the\nmoon could be reached, and whether it could be shifted from its place in\nthe sky and brought down to the earth, in order that he might give it to\nhis only son the prince.  If there was any wise man present who could\ninform him how this could be done, and would undertake to bring it to\nhim, he would give the choicest of his daughters in marriage to him and\nendow him with great riches.\n\nWhen the wise men heard this strange proposal, they were speechless with\nastonishment, as no one in the Basoko Land had ever heard of anybody\nmounting into the air higher than a tree, and to suppose that a person\ncould ascend as high as the moon was, they thought, simple madness.\nRespect for the king, however, held them mute, though what their glances\nmeant was very clear.\n\nBut while each man was yet looking at his neighbour in wonder, one of\nthe wise men, who appeared to be about the youngest present, rose to his\nfeet and said:\n\n\"Long life to the prince and to his father, the king!  We have heard the\nwords of our king, Bahanga, and they are good.  I--even I--his slave, am\nable to reach the moon, and to do the king's pleasure, if the king's\nauthority will assist me.\"\n\nThe confident air of the man, and the ring of assurance in his voice\nmade the other wise men, who had been so ready to believe the king and\nprince mad, feel shame, and they turned their faces to him curiously,\nmore than half willing to believe that after all the thing was possible.\nThe king also lost his puzzled look, and appeared relieved.\n\n\"Say on.  How may you be able to perform what you promise?\"\n\n\"If it please the king,\" answered _the_ man, boldly, \"I will ascend from\nthe top of the high mountain near the Cataract of Panga.  But I shall\nfirst build a high scaffold on it, the base of which shall be as broad\nas the mountain top, and on that scaffold I will build another, and on\nthe second I shall build a third, and so on and so on until my shoulder\ntouches the moon.\"\n\n\"But is it possible to reach the moon in this manner?\" asked the king\ndoubtingly.\n\n\"Most certainly, if I were to erect a sufficient number of scaffolds,\none above another, but it will require a vast quantity of timber, and a\ngreat army of workmen.  If the king commands it, the work will be done.\"\n\n\"Be it so, then,\" said the king.  \"I place at your service every\nable-bodied man in the kingdom.\"\n\n\"Ah, but all the men in your kingdom are not sufficient, O king.  All\nthe grown-up men will be wanted to fell the trees, square the timber and\nbear it to the works; and every grown-up woman will be required to\nprepare the food for the workmen; and every boy must carry water to\nsatisfy their thirst, and bark rope for the binding of the timbers; and\nevery girl, big and little, must be sent to till the fields to raise\ncassava for food.  Only in this manner can the prince obtain the moon as\nhis toy.\"\n\n\"I say, then, let it be done as you think it ought to be done.  All the\nmen, women, and children in the kingdom I devote to this service, that\nmy only son may enjoy what he desires.\"\n\nThen it was proclaimed throughout the wide lands of the Bandimba that\nall the people should be gathered together to proceed at once with the\nwork of obtaining the moon for the king's son.  And the forest was cut\ndown, and while some of the workmen squared the trees, others cut deep\nholes in the ground, to make a broad and sure base for the lower\nscaffold; and the boys made thousands of rope coils to lash the timbers\ntogether, out of bark, fibre of palm, and tough grass; and the girls,\nbig and little, hoed up the ground and planted the cassava shrubs and\ncuttings from the banana and the plantain, and sowed the corn; and the\nwomen kneaded the bread and cooked the greens, and roasted green bananas\nfor food for the workmen.  And all the Bandimba people were made to\nslave hard every day in order that a spoiled boy might have the moon for\nhis toy.\n\nIn a few days the first scaffolding stood up as high as the tallest\ntrees, in a few weeks the structure had grown until it was many\narrow-flights in height, in two months it was so lofty that the top\ncould not be seen with the naked eye.  The fame of the wonderful wooden\ntower that the Bandimba were building was carried far and wide; and the\nfriendly nations round about sent messengers to see and report to them\nwhat mad thing the Bandimba were about, for rumour had spread so many\ncontrary stories among people that strangers did not know what to\nbelieve.  Some said it was true that all the Bandimba had become mad;\nbut some of those who came to see with their own eyes, laughed, while\nothers began to feel anxious.  All, however, admired the bigness, and\nwondered at the height of the tower.\n\nIn the sixth month the top of the highest scaffold was so high that on\nthe clearest day people could not see half-way up; and it was said to be\nso tall that the chief engineer could tell the day he would be able to\ntouch the moon.\n\nThe work went on, and at last the engineer passed the word down that in\na few days more it would be finished.  Everybody believed him, and the\nnations round about sent more people to be present to witness the\ncompletion of the great tower, and to observe what would happen.  In all\nthe land, and the countries adjoining it, there was found only one wise\nman who foresaw, if the moon was shifted out of its place what damage\nwould happen, and that probably all those foolish people in the vicinity\nof the tower would be destroyed.  Fearing some terrible calamity, he\nproposed to depart from among the Bandimba before it should be too late.\nHe then placed his family in a canoe, and, after storing it with\nsufficient provisions, he embarked, and in the night he floated down the\nriver Aruwimi and into the big river, and continued his journey night\nand day as fast as the current would take him--far, far below any lands\nknown to the Bandimba.  A week later, after the flight of the wise man\nand his family, the chief engineer sent down word to the king that he\nwas ready to take the moon down.\n\n\"It is well,\" replied the king from below.  \"I will ascend, that I may\nsee how you set about it.\"\n\nWithin twenty days the king reached the summit of the tower, and,\nstanding at last by the side of the engineer, he laid his hand upon the\nmoon, and it felt exceedingly hot.  Then he commanded the engineer to\nproceed to take it down.  The man put a number of cool bark coils over\nhis shoulder and tried to dislodge it; but, as it was firmly fixed, he\nused such a deal of force that he cracked it, and there was an\nexplosion, the fire and sparks from which scorched him.  The timber on\nwhich the king and his chiefs were standing began to burn, and many more\nbursting sounds were heard, and fire and melted rock ran down through\nthe scaffolding in a steady stream, until all the woodwork was ablaze,\nand the flames soared upward among the uprights and trestles of the wood\nin one vast pile of fire; and every man, woman, and child was utterly\nconsumed in a moment.  And the heat was so great that it affected the\nmoon, and a large portion of it tumbled to the earth, and its glowing\nhot materials ran over the ground like a great river of fire, so that\nmost of the country of the Bandimba was burnt to ashes.  On those who\nwere not smothered by the smoke, nor burnt by the fire, and who fled\nfrom before the burning river, the effect was very wonderful.  Such of\nthem as were grown up, male and female, were converted into gorillas,\nand all the children into different kinds of long-tailed monkeys.\n\nThe old man who told me this story ended by saying to us, who listened\nwith open mouth to his words:\n\n\"Friends, if you doubt the truth of what I have said, all you have to do\nis to look at the moon when it is full, and you may then see on a clear\nnight a curious dark portion on its face, which often appears as though\nthere were peaky mountains in it, and often the dark spots are like some\nkind of homed animals; and then again, you will often fancy that on the\nmoon you see the outlines of a man's face, but those dark spots are only\nthe holes made in the moon by the man who forced his shoulders through\nit.  By this you will know that I have not lied unto you.  Now ever\nsince that dreadful day when the moon burst and the Bandimba country was\nconsumed, parents are not in the habit of granting children all they ask\nfor, but only such things as their age and experience warn them are good\nfor their little ones.  And when little children will not be satisfied\nby such things, but fret and pester their parents to give them what they\nknow will be harmful to them, then it is a custom with all wise people\nto take the rod to them, to drive out of their heads the wicked\nthoughts.\"\n\n\"But, Baruti,\" said a Zanzibari who believed the story, for had he not\noften viewed the dark spots on the moon, \"what became of Bahanga and the\nlittle prince?\"\n\n\"Why, after the engineer of the works, the first who died were the king\nand the prince whose folly had brought ruin on the land.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER NINE.\n\nHOW KIMYERA BECAME KING OF UGANDA.\n\nKadu was a native lad of Uganda, who having made blood brotherhood with\na young Zanzibari of his own age, asked permission to join our\nexpedition of 1874-77.  He survived the perils of the descent of the\nCongo, and in 1879 enlisted again, and served faithfully another term of\nthree years in Africa.  He afterwards joined Mr H.H. Johnston on his\nvisit to Kilimanjaro, and proved himself as devoted to him as he had\nbeen for seven years to me.  It was while road-making along the banks of\nthe Congo, after becoming thoroughly conversant with the Zanzibari\nvernacular, that he entertained us with his remarkable legends.  Next to\nhis countryman Sabadu he was the most entertaining.\n\nOne of the first tales he related to us was about Kimyera, a king of\nUganda, who by his exploits in hunting deserves to be called the Nimrod\nof that country.  It ran as follows:--\n\nMany ages ago Uni reigned as king over Unyoro, a great country which\nlies to the north and west of Uganda.  One day he took to wife Wanyana,\na woman of the neighbouring kingdom, who on the first night she had been\ntaken into the inner harem manifested a violent aversion for his person.\nAt that time a man named Kalimera, who was a dealer in cattle, was\nvisiting the court, and had already resided some months there as an\nhonoured guest of the king, on account of his agreeable manners, and his\naccomplishments on the flute.  During his stay he had not failed to note\nthe beauty of the young women who were permitted to crowd around him\nwhile he played; but it had long been observed that he had been\nspecially attracted by the charms of Wanyana.  It was whispered by a few\nof the more maliciously disposed among the women that a meeting had\ntaken place, and that an opportunity had been found by them to inform\neach other of their mutual passion.  However that may be, King Uni,\nsurprised at the dislike which she manifested towards him, forbore\npressing her for the time, trustfully believing that her sentiments\nwould change for the better after a more intimate acquaintance with him.\nMeantime he built for her a separate apartment, and palisaded its court\nclosely around with thick cane.  His visits were paid to her on\nalternate days, and each time he brought some gift of bead or\nbark-cloth, or soft, furry hide, in the hope of winning her favour.\n\nIn time she discovered that she was pregnant, and, fearing King Uni's\nwrath, she made a compact with him that if he would abstain from\nvisiting her for one month she would repay his kindness with all\naffection.  Uni gladly consented to this proposal, and confined his\nattentions to sending his pages with daily greetings and gifts.\nMeantime she endeavoured through her own servants to communicate with\nKalimera, her lover, but, though no effort on her part was wanting, she\ncould gain no news of him, except a report that soon after she had\nentered the harem of Uni, Kalimera had disappeared.\n\nIn a few days she was delivered of a fine male child, but as she would\nundoubtedly be slain by the king if the child was discovered, she\ndeparted by night with it, and laid it, clad in fur adorned with fine\nbead-work, at the bottom of a potter's pit.  She then hastened to a\nsoothsayer in the neighbourhood, and bribed him to contrive in some way\nto receive and rear her child until he could be claimed.  Satisfied with\nhis assurance that the child would be safe, Wanyana returned to her\nresidence at the court in the same secret manner that she had left it.\n\nNext morning Mugema, the potter, was seen passing the soothsayer's door,\nand was hailed by the great witch-finder.\n\n\"Mugema,\" said he, \"thy pots are now made of rotten clay.  They are not\nat all what they used to be.  They now crumble in the hand.  Tell me why\nis this?\"\n\n\"Ah, doctor, it is just that.  I thought to bribe thee to tell me, only\nI did not wish to disturb thee.\"\n\n\"It is well, Mugema; I will tell thee why.  Thou hast an enemy who\nwishes evil to thee, but I will defeat his projects.  Haste thou to thy\npit, and whatever living thing thou findest there, keep it, and rear it\nkindly.  While it lives thou art safe from all harm.\"\n\nWondering at this news, Mugema departed from the soothsayer's house, and\nproceeded to the pit where he obtained his clay.  Peering softly over\nthe edge of the pit, he saw a bundle of bark-cloth and fur.  From its\nexternal appearance he could not guess what this bundle might contain,\nbut, fearing to disturb it by any precipitate movement, he silently\nretreated from the pit, and sped away to tell his wife, as he was in\nduty bound, and obtain her advice and assistance, for the wife in all\nsuch matters is safer than the man.  His wife on hearing this news cried\nout at him, saying:\n\n\"Why, what a fool thou art!  Why didst thou not do as the soothsayer\ncommanded thee?  Come, I will go with thee at once, for my mind is\ntroubled with a dream which I had last night, and this thing thou\ntellest me may have a weighty meaning for us both.\"\n\nMugema and his wife hurried together towards the clay-pit, and as her\nhusband insisted on it, she crept silently to its edge to look down.  At\nthat moment the child uttered a cry and moved the clothes which covered\nit.\n\n\"Why, it is a babe,\" cried the woman; \"just as I found it in my dream.\nHurry, Mugema.  Descend quickly, and bring it up to me; and take care\nnot to hurt it.\"\n\nMugema wondered so much at his wife's words that he almost lost his\nwits, but being pushed into the pit he mechanically obeyed, and brought\nup the bundle and its living occupant, which he handed to his wife\nwithout uttering a word.\n\nOn opening the bundle there was discovered the form of a beautiful and\nremarkably lusty child, of such weight, size, and form, that the woman\nexclaimed:\n\n\"Oh!  Mugema, was ever anybody's luck like this of ours?  My very heart\nsighed for a child that I could bring up to be our joy, and here the\ngood spirits have given us the pick of all the world.  Mugema, thy\nfortune is made.\"\n\n\"But whose child is it?\" asked Mugema, suspiciously.\n\n\"How can I tell thee that?  Hadst thou not brought the news to me of it\nbeing in the pit, I should have been childless all my life.  The\nsoothsayer who directed thee hither is a wise man.  He knows the secret,\nI warrant him.  But come, Mugema, drop these silly thoughts.  What\nsayest thou? shall we rear the child, or leave it here to perish?\"\n\n\"All right, wife.  If it prove of joy to thee, I shall live content.\"\n\nThus it was that the child of Wanyana found foster-parents, and no woman\nin Unyoro could be prouder of her child than Mugema's wife came to be of\nthe foundling.  The milk of woman, goat, and cow was given to him, and\nhe throve prodigiously; and when Mugema asked the soothsayer what name\nwould be fittest for him, the wise man said:\n\n\"Call him Kimyera--the mighty one.\"\n\nSome months after this, when Kimyera was about a year old, Wanyana came\nto the potter's house to purchase pots for her household, and while she\nwas seated in the porch selecting the soundest among them, she heard a\nchild crying within.\n\n\"Ah, has thy wife had a child lately?  I did not observe or hear when I\nlast visited thee that she was likely to become a mother.\"\n\n\"No, princess,\" replied Mugema; \"that is the cry of a child I discovered\nin the clay-pit about a year ago.\"\n\nWanyana's heart gave a great jump, and for a moment she lost all\nrecollection of where she was.  Recovering herself with a great effort,\nshe bade Mugema tell her all about the incident: but while he related\nthe story, she was busy thinking how she might assure herself of his\nsecrecy if she declared herself to be the mother of the child.\n\nMugema, before concluding his story, did not fail to tell Wanyana how\nfor a time he had suspected his wife of having played him falsely, and\nthat though he had no grounds for the suspicion further than that the\nclay-pit was his own and the child had been found in it, he was not\nquite clear in his mind yet, and he would be willing to slave a long\ntime for any person who could thoroughly disabuse his mind of the doubt,\nas, with that exception, his wife was the cleverest and best woman in\nUnyoro.\n\nWanyana, perceiving her opportunity, said:\n\n\"Well, much as I affected not to know about the child, I know whose\nchild it is, and who placed it in the pit.\"\n\n\"Thou, princess!\" he cried.\n\n\"Yes, and, if thou wilt take an oath upon the great Muzimu to keep it\nsecret, I will disclose the name of the mother.\"\n\n\"Thou hast my assurance of secrecy upon the condition that the child is\nnot proved to be my wife's.  Whosoever else's it may be, matters not to\nme; the child was found, and is mine by right of the finder.  Now name\nthe mother, princess.\"\n\n\"Wanyana!\"\n\n\"Thine?\"\n\n\"Even so.  It is the offspring of fond love, and Kalimera of Uganda is\nhis father.  The young man belongs to one of the four royal clans of\nUganda, called the Elephant clan.  He is the youngest son of the late\nking of Uganda.  To him, on his father's death, fell his mother's\nportion, a pastoral district rich in cattle not far from the frontier of\nUnyoro.  It was while he drove fat herds here for sale to Uni that he\nsaw and loved me, and I knew him as my lord.  Dreading the king's anger,\nhe fled, and I was left loveless in the power of Uni.  One night the\nchild was born, and in the darkness I crept out of the king's court, and\nbore the babe to thy pit.  To the wise man I confided the secret of that\nbirth.  Thou knowest the rest.\"\n\n\"Princess, my wife never appeared fairer to me than she does now, and I\nowe the clear eye to thee.  Rest in peace.  My wife loves the babe, let\nher nurse it until happier times, and I will guard it safe as though it\nwere mine own.  Ay, the babe, I feel assured, will pay me well when he\nis grown.  The words of the wise man come home to me now, and I see\nwhereby good luck shall come to all.  If bone and muscle can make a\nking, Kimyera's future is sure.  But come in to see my wife, and to her\ndiscretion and wisdom confide thy tale frankly.\"\n\nWanyana soon was hanging over her child, and, amid tears of joy, she\nmade Mugema's wife acquainted with his birth, and obtained from her\nearnest assurance that he would be tenderly cared for, and her best help\nin any service she could perform for Kimyera and his mother.\n\nGreat friendship sprang up between Princess Wanyana and the potter\nMugema and his wife, and she found frequent excuses for visiting the\nfast-growing child.\n\nThrough the influence of the princess, the potter increased in riches,\nand his herds multiplied; and when Kimyera was grown tall and strong, he\nwas entrusted by his foster-father with the care of the cattle, and he\ngave him a number of strong youths as assistants.  With these Kimyera\nindulged in manly games, until he became wonderfully dexterous in\ncasting the spear, and drawing the bow, and in wrestling.  His swiftness\nexceeded that of the fleetest antelope; no animal of the plain could\nescape him when he gave chase.  His courage, proved in the defence of\nhis charge, became a proverb among all who knew him.  If the cry of the\nherdsman warned him that a beast sought to prey upon the cattle, Kimyera\nnever lost time to put himself in front, and, with spear and arrow, he\noften became victor.\n\nWith the pride becoming the possessor of so many admirable qualities, he\nwould drive his herds right through the corn-fields of the villagers,\nand to all remonstrances he simply replied that the herds belonged to\nWanyana, favourite wife of Uni.  The people belonged to her also, as\nwell as their corn, and who could object to Wanyana's cattle eating\nWanyana's corn?\n\nAs his reputation for strength and courage was well known, the villagers\nthen submissively permitted him to do as he listed.\n\nAs he grew up in might and valour, Uni's regards cooled towards Wanyana,\nand, as she was not permitted that freedom formerly enjoyed by her, her\nvisits to Kimyera ceased.  Mugema sympathised with the mother, and\ncontrived to send Kimyera with pots to sell to the people of the court,\nwith strict charge to discover every piece of news relating to the\nPrincess Wanyana.  The mother's heart dilated with pride every time she\nsaw her son, and she contrived in various ways to lengthen the\ninterview.  And each time he returned to his home he carried away some\ngift from Wanyana, such as leopard-skins, strings of beast claws, beads,\nand crocodile-teeth, girdles of white monkey-skin, parcels of ground\nochre, or camwood, or rare shells, to show Mugema and his wife.  And\noften he used to say, \"Wanyana bade me ask you to accept this gift from\nher as a token of her esteem,\" showing them similar articles.\n\nHis mother's presents to him in a short time enabled him to purchase two\nfine large dogs--one was black as charcoal, which was named by him\n_Msigissa_, or \"Darkness,\" the other was white as a cotton tuft, and\ncalled _Sema-gimbi_, or \"Wood-burr.\"  You must know that it is because\nof the dog Darkness, that the Baboon clan of Uganda became so attached\nto black dogs, by which they perpetuate the memory of Kimyera.\n\nWhen he had become the owner of Darkness and Wood-burr, he began to\nabsent himself from home for longer periods, leaving the herds in charge\nof the herdsmen.  With these he explored the plains, and hills, and\nwoods to a great distance from his home.  Sometimes he would be absent\nfor weeks, causing great anxiety to his kind foster-parents.  The\nfurther he went the more grew his passion to know what lay beyond the\nfurthest ridge he saw, which, when discovered, he would be again tempted\nto explore another that loomed in the far distance before him.  With\nevery man he met he entered into conversation, and obtained a various\nknowledge of things of interest relating to the country, the people, and\nthe chiefs.  In this manner before many months he had a wide knowledge\nof every road and river, village and tribe, in the neighbouring lands.\n\nOn his return from these daring excursions, he would be strictly\nquestioned by Mugema and his wife as to what he had been doing, but he\nevaded giving the entire truth by rehearsing the hunting incidents that\nattended his wanderings, so that they knew not the lands he had seen,\nnor the distances that he travelled.  However, being uneasy in their\nminds they communicated to Wanyana all that was related to them and all\nthey suspected.  Wanyana then sought permission to pay a visit to the\npotter and his wife, and during the visit she asked Kimyera, \"Pray tell\nme, my son, whither dost thou travel on these long journeys of thine to\nseek for game?\"\n\n\"Oh!  I travel far through woods, and over grassy hills and plains.\"\n\n\"But is it in the direction of sunrise, or sunset, is it north or is it\nsouth of here?\"\n\nTo which he replied: \"I seek game generally in the direction whence the\nsun rises.\"\n\n\"Ah!\" said Wanyana.  \"In that way lies Ganda, where thy father lives,\nand whence he came in former days to exchange cattle for salt and hoes.\"\n\n\"My father!  What may be my father's name, mother?\"\n\n\"Kalimera.\"\n\n\"And where did he live?\"\n\n\"His village is called Willimera, and is near the town of Bakka.\"\n\n\"Bakka!  I know the town, for in some of my journeys I entered a long\nway into Uganda, and have chased the leopard in the woods that border\nthe stream called Myanja, and over the plains beyond the river many an\nantelope has fallen a victim to my spear.\"\n\n\"It is scarcely credible, my son.\"\n\n\"Nay, but it is true, mother.\"\n\n\"Then thou must have been near Willimera in that case, and it is a pity\nthat thou shouldst not have seen thy father, and been received by him.\"\n\nA few days later Kimyera slung his knitted haversack over his shoulder,\nand with shield, two spears, and his faithful dogs Darkness and\nWood-burr, he strode out of the potter's house, and set his face once\nmore towards the Myanja river.  At the first village across the stream\nhe questioned the natives if they knew Willimera, and was told that it\nwas but eight hours east.  The next day he arrived, and travelled round\nthe village, and rested that night at the house of one of the herdsmen\nof Kalimera.  He made himself very agreeable to his host, and from him\nhe received the fullest information of all matters relating to his\nfather.\n\nThe next day he began his return to Unyoro, which he reached in two\nweeks.  He told Mugema and his foster-mother of his success, and they\nsent a messenger to apprise Wanyana that Kimyera had returned home.\n\nWanyana, impatient to learn the news, arrived that night at Mugema's\nhouse, and implored Kimyera to tell her all that he had heard and seen.\n\n\"In brief, it is this,\" replied Kimyera.  \"I now know to a certainty\nwhere Kalimera lives.  I have gone round the village, I know how many\nnatives are in it, how many herds of cattle, and how many herdsmen and\nslaves he has.  Kalimera is well.  All these I learned from one of his\nchief herdsmen with whom I rested a night.  I came here straight to let\nthee and my foster-parents know it.\"\n\n\"It is very well, my son.  Now, Mugema, it is time to move,\" she said to\nthe potter.  \"Uni daily becomes more intolerable to me.  I never have\nyet mated with him as his wife, and I have been true to the one man who\nseemed to me to be the comeliest of his kind.  Now that I know Kalimera\nlives, my heart has gone to him, though my body is here.  Mugema, speak,\nmy friend.\"\n\n\"Wanyana, my wit is slow and my tongue is heavy.  Thou knowest my\ncircumstances.  I have one wife, but many cattle.  The two cows, Namala\nand Nakaombeh, thou gavest me first, I possess still.  Their milk has\nalways been abundant and sweet.  Namala has sufficed to nourish Kimyera\ninto perfect lustiness and strength; Nakaombeh gives more than will feed\nmy wife and I.  Let Kimyera take his flute, his dogs, Darkness and\nWood-burr, his spears and shield; Sebarija, my cowherd, who taught\nKimyera the flute, will also take his flute and staff, and drive Namala\nand Nakaombeh.  My wife will carry a few furs, some of the spoils won by\nKimyera's prowess; and, lo!  I and my family will follow Wanyana.\"\n\n\"A true friend thou hast been to me and mine, Mugema!  We will hence\nbefore dawn.  In Willimera thou shalt receive tenfold what thou leavest\nhere.  The foundling of the clay-pit has grown tall and strong, and at\nlast he has found the way to his father and his father's kindred.\"\n\nAnd as Wanyana advised, the journey was undertaken that night, and\nbefore the sun arose Wanyana, Mugema and his wife, the slave Sebarija\ndriving the two cows, Namala and Nakaombeh, were far on their way\neastward, Kimyera and his two dogs, Darkness and Wood-burr, preceding\nthe emigrants and guiding the way.\n\nThe food they took with them sustained them for two days; but on the\nthird day they saw a lonely buffalo, and Kimyera, followed by Mugema and\nSebarija, chased him.  The buffalo was uncommonly wild, and led them a\nlong chase, far out of sight of the two women.  Then Mugema reflected\nthat they had done wrong in thus leaving the two women alone, and called\nout to Sebarija to hurry back, and to look after the women and two cows.\nNot long after, Darkness fastened his fangs in the buffalo, until\nWood-burr came up and assisted him to bring it to the ground, and there\nthey held him until Kimyera gave him his death-stroke.  The two men\nloaded themselves with the meat, and returned to the place where they\nhad left, but alas! they found no traces of the two women, nor of\nSebarija and the two cows.\n\nDay after day Kimyera and Mugema hunted all around the country for news\nof the missing party, until, finally, to their great sorrow, they were\nobliged to abandon the search, and came to the conclusion that it was\nbest for them to continue their journey and trust to chance for the\nknowledge they desired.\n\nNear Ganda another buffalo was sighted by Kimyera, and, bidding Mugema\nremain at the first house he came to, he went after it with his dogs.\nThe buffalo galloped far, and near noon he stood still under the shelter\nof a rock.  Kimyera bounded to the top, and, exerting all his strength,\nhe shot his spear clean through the back of the animal.  That rock is\nstill shown to strangers as the place where Kimyera killed the first\ngame in Uganda, and even the place where he stood may be seen by the\nmarks of his feet which were, impressed on it.  While resting on the\nrock he saw a woman pass near by with a gourd of water.  He called out\nto her, and begged for a drop to allay his thirst.  She smilingly\ncomplied, as the stranger was comely and his manner pleasant.  They\nentered into conversation, during which he learned that she belonged to\nGanda, and served as maid to Queen Naku, wife of Sebwana, and that Naku\nwas kind to strangers, and was famed for her hospitality to them.\n\n\"Dost thou think she will be kind to me?\" asked Kimyera.  \"I am a native\nof Unyoro, and I am seeking a house where I may rest.\"\n\nTo which the maid replied: \"It is the custom of Naku, and, indeed, of\nall the princes of Ganda, to entertain the stranger since, in the far\nolden times, the first prince settled in this land in which he was a\nstranger.  But what may that be which is secured in thy girdle?\"\n\n\"That is a reed flute on which I imitate when alone the songs of such\nbirds as sound sweetest to me.\"\n\n\"And art thou clever at it?\" asked the maid.\n\n\"Be thou judge,\" he said; and forthwith blew on his flute until the maid\nmarvelled greatly.\n\nWhen he had ended, she clapped her hands gaily and said:\n\n\"Thou wilt be more than welcome to Naku and her people.  Haste and\nfollow me that I may show thee to her, for thy fortune is made.\"\n\n\"Nay.  I have a companion not far from here, and I must not lose him.\nBut thou mayest say thou hast met a stranger who, when he has found his\nfriend, will present himself before Queen Naku and Sebwana before\nsunset.\"\n\nThe maid withdrew and Kimyera rose, and cutting a large portion of the\nmeat he retraced his steps, and sought and found Mugema, to whom he told\nall his adventures.\n\nAfter washing the stains of travel and refreshing themselves, they\nproceeded into the village to the residence of the queen and her consort\nSebwana.  Naku was prepared by the favourable reports of the maid to\nreceive Kimyera kindly, but when she saw his noble proportions and\nhandsome figure she became violently in love with him, and turning to\nSebwana she said:\n\n\"See now, we have guests of worth and breeding.  They must have\ntravelled from a far land, for I have heard of no tribe which could\nboast of such a youth as this.  Let us receive him and his old friend\nnobly.  Let a house close by our own be made ready for his lodging, and\nlet it be furnished with abundance of food, with wine [banana wine] and\nmilk, bananas and yams, water and fuel, and let nothing be lacking to\nshow our esteem for them.\"  Sebwana gave orders accordingly and\nproceeded to select a fit house as a lodging for the guests.\n\nThen Naku said: \"I hear that thou art skilled in music.  If that is the\ninstrument in thy girdle with which thou hast delighted my maid, I\nshould be pleased to hear thee.\"\n\n\"Yes, Queen Naku, it is my flute; and if my music will delight thee, my\nbest efforts are at thy service.\"\n\nThen Kimyera, kneeling on the leopard-skins placed for the convenience\nof himself and Mugema, took out his flute, and after one or two\nflourishes, poured forth such melodious sounds that Naku, unable to keep\nher eyes open, closed them and lay down with panting breasts, while her\nsenses were filled as it were with dreams of happier lands, and faces of\nbrighter people than ever she knew in real life.  As he varied the\nnotes, so varied the gladsome visions of her mind.  When the music\ngently vibrated on her ears, her body palpitated under the influence of\nthe emotions which swayed her; when they became more enlivened she\ntossed her arms about, and laughed convulsively; and when the notes took\na solemn tone, she sighed and wept as though all her friends had left\nher only their tender memory.  Grieved that Naku should suffer, Kimyera\nwoke the queen from her sorrowful condition with tones that soon started\nher to her feet, and lo, all at once, those who were present joined in\nthe lively dance, and nothing but gay laughter was heard from them.  Oh,\nit was wonderful what quick changes came over people as they heard the\nflute of Kimyera.  When he ceased people began to look at one another in\na foolish and confused way, as though something very strange had\nhappened to them.\n\nBut Naku quickly recovered, and went to Kimyera, smiling and saying:\n\n\"It is for thee to command, O Kimyera.  To resist thy flute would be\nimpossible.  Again welcome to Ganda, and we shall see if we cannot keep\nthee and thy flute amongst us.\"\n\nShe conducted Kimyera and his foster-father Mugema to their house.  She\nexamined carefully the arrangements made by the slaves, and when she\nfound anything amiss she corrected it with her own hands.  Before she\nparted from them she called Mugema aside, and questioned him further\nrespecting the youth, by which means she obtained many interesting\nparticulars concerning him.\n\nOn arriving at her own house she called all the pages of the court to\nher, and gave orders that if Sebwana told them to convey such and such\nthings to the strangers next day, that none of them should do so, but\ncarry them to the rear court where only women were admitted.\n\nIn consequence of this command Mugema and Kimyera found themselves\ndeserted next day, and not one person went near them.  Mugema therefore\nsought an interview the day after with Queen Naku and said:\n\n\"The custom of this country seems strange to us, O Queen.  On the first\nday we came thy favours showered abundance on us, but on the next not a\nsingle person showed his face to us.  Had we been in a wilderness we\ncould not have been more alone.  It is possible that we may have\noffended thee unknown to ourselves.  Pray acquaint us with our offence,\nor permit us to depart at once from Ganda.\"\n\n\"Nay, Mugema, I must ask thee to be patient.  Food ye shall have in\nabundance, through my women, and much more is in store for ye.  But\ncome, I will visit the young stranger, and thou shalt lead me to him.\"\n\nKimyera had been deep in thought ever since he had parted from Naku, and\nhe had not observed what Mugema had complained of; but on seeing Naku\nenter his house, he hasted and laid matting on the floor, and, covering\nit with leopard-skins, begged Naku to be seated on them.  He brought\nfresh banana-leaves in his arms, and spread them near her, on which he\narranged meat and salt, and bananas and clotted milk, and kneeled before\nher like a ready servitor.\n\nNaku observed all his movements, her admiration for his person and\ngraces of body becoming stronger every minute.  She peeled a mellow\nbanana and handed it to him, saying, \"Let Kimyera taste and eat with me,\nand I will then know that I am in the house of a friend.\"\n\nKimyera accepted the gift with thanks, and ate the banana as though he\nhad never eaten anything so delicious in his life.  Then he also peeled\na beautiful and ripe banana, and, presenting it to her on a fragment of\ngreen leaf with both hands, said to her:\n\n\"Queen Naku, it is the custom of my country for the master of the house\nto wait upon his guests.  Wherefore accept, O Queen, this banana as a\ntoken of friendship from the hands of Kimyera.\"\n\nThe queen smiled, bent forward with her eyes fixed on his own, and took\nthe yellow fruit, and ate it as though such sweetness was not known in\nthe banana land of Ganda.\n\nWhen she had eaten she said:\n\n\"List, Kimyera, and thou, Mugema, hearken well, for I am about to utter\nweighty words.  In Ganda, since the death of my father, there has been\nno king.  Sebwana is my consort by choice of the elders of the land, but\nin name only.  He is really only my _kate-kiro_ (Premier).  But I am now\nold enough to choose a king for myself, and according to custom, I may\ndo so.  Wherefore I make known to thee, Mugema, that I have already\nchosen my lord and husband, and he by due right must occupy the chair of\nmy father, the old king who is dead.  I have said to myself since the\nday before yesterday that my lord and husband shall be Kimyera.\"\n\nBoth Kimyera and Mugema prostrated themselves three times before Naku,\nand, after the youth had recovered from his confusion and surprise, he\nreplied:\n\n\"But, Queen Naku, hast thou thought what the people will say to this?\nMay it not be that they will ask, `who is this stranger that he should\nreign over us?' and they will be wroth with me and try to slay me?\"\n\n\"Nay.  For thou art my father's brother's son, as Mugema told me, and my\nfather having left no male heirs of his body, his daughter may, if she\nchoose, ally herself with a son of his brother.  Kalimera is a younger\nbrother of my father.  Thou seest, therefore, that thou, Kimyera, hast a\nright to the king's chair, if I, Naku, will it to be so.\"\n\n\"And how, Naku, dost thou propose to act?  In thy cause my arm is ready\nto strike.  Thou hast but to speak.\"\n\n\"In this way.  I will now leave thee, for I have some business for\nSebwana.  When he has gone I will then send for thee, and thou, when\nthou comest to me, must say, `Naku, I have come.  What can Kimyera do\nfor Queen Naku?'  And I will rise and say, `Kimyera, come and seat\nthyself in thy father's brother's chair.'  And thou wilt step forward,\nbow three times before me, then six times before the king's chair, and,\nwith thy best spear in hand and shield on arm, thou wilt, proceed to the\nking's chair, and turning to the people who will be present, say in a\nloud voice thus: `Lo, people of Ganda, I am Kimyera, son of Kalimera, by\nWanyana of Unyoro.  I hereby declare that with her own free will I this\nday do take Naku, my father's brother's daughter, to wife, and seat\nmyself in the king's chair.  Let all obey, on pain of death, the king's\nword.'\"\n\n\"It is well, Naku; be it according to thy wish,\" replied Kimyera.\n\nNaku departed and proceeded in search of Sebwana; and, when she found\nhim, she affected great distress and indignation.\n\n\"How is this, Sebwana?  I gave orders that our guests should be tenderly\ncared for and supplied with every needful thing.  But I find, on\ninquiring this morning, that all through yesterday they were left alone\nto wonder at our sudden disregard for their wants.  Haste, my friend,\nand make amends for thy neglect.  Go to my fields and plantations,\ncollect all that is choicest for our guests, lest, when they leave us,\nthey will proclaim our unkindness.\"\n\nSebwana was amazed at this charge of neglect, and in anger hastened to\nfind out the pages.  But the pages, through Naku's good care, absented\nthemselves, and could not be found; so that old Sebwana was obliged to\ndepend upon a few unarmed slaves to drive the cattle and carry the\nchoicest treasures of the queen's fields and plantations for the use of\nthe strangers.\n\nSebwana having at last left the town, Naku returned to Kimyera, whom she\nfound with a sad and disconsolate aspect.\n\n\"Why, what ails thee, Kimyera?\" she asked.  \"The chair is now vacant.\nArm thyself and follow me to the audience court.\"\n\n\"Ah, Naku!  I but now remembered that as yet I know not whether my\nmother and good nurse are alive or dead.  They may be waiting for me\nanxiously somewhere near the Myanja, or their bones may be bleaching on\none of the great plains we traversed in coming hither.\"\n\n\"Nay, Kimyera, my lord, this is not a time for mourning.  Bethink thee\nof the present needs first.  The chair of the king awaits thee.  Rise,\nand occupy it, and to-morrow all Ganda is at thy service to find thy\nlost mother and nurse.  Come, delay not, lest Sebwana return and take\nvengeance on us all.\"\n\n\"Fear not, Naku, it was but a passing fit of grief which filled my mind.\nSebwana must needs be strong and brave to dispossess me when Naku is on\nmy side,\" saying which Kimyera dressed himself in war-costume, with a\ncrown of cock's tail feathers on his head, a great leopard skin\ndepending from his neck down his back, a girdle of white monkey-skin\nround his waist, his body and face brilliantly painted with vermilion\nand saffron.  He then armed himself with two bright shining spears of\ngreat length, and bearing a shield of dried elephant hide, which no\nordinary spear could penetrate, he strode after Queen Naku towards the\naudience court in the royal palace.  Mugema, somewhat similarly armed,\nfollowed his foster-son.\n\nAs Kimyera strode proudly on, the great drum of Ganda sounded, and its\ndeep tones were heard far and wide.  Immediately the populace, who knew\nwell that the summons of the great drum announced an important event,\nhastily armed themselves, and filled the great court.  Naku, the queen,\nthey found seated in a chair alongside of the king's chair, which was\nnow unfilled, and in front of her was a tall young stranger, who\nprostrated himself three times before the queen.  He was then seen\nbowing six times before the empty king's chair.  Rising to his feet, he\nstepped towards it, and afterwards faced the multitude, who were looking\non wonderingly.\n\nThe young stranger, lifting his long spears and raising his shield in an\nattitude of defence, cried out aloud, so that all heard his voice:\n\n\"Lo, people of Ganda!  I am Kimyera, son of Kalimera, by Wanyana of\nUnyoro.  I hereby declare that with her own free will I this day do take\nNaku, my father's brother's daughter, to wife, and seat myself in the\nking's chair.  Let all obey, on pain of death, the king's word.\"\n\nOn concluding this address, he stepped back a pace, and gravely sat in\nthe king's chair.  A loud murmur rose from the multitude, and the shafts\nof spears were seen rising up, when Naku rose to her feet, and said:\n\n\"People of Ganda, open your ears.  I, Naku, the legitimate queen of\nGanda, hereby declare that I have found my father's brother's son, and\nI, this day, of my own free will and great love for him, do take him for\nmy lord and husband.  By full right Kimyera fills the king's chair.  I\ncharge you all henceforth to be loyal to him, and him only.\"\n\nAs she ended her speech the people gave a great shout of welcome to the\nnew king, and they waved their spears, and clashed them against their\nshields, thus signifying their willing allegiance to King Kimyera.\n\nThe next day great bodies of strong men were despatched in different\ndirections for the king's mother and his nurse, and for Sebarija and the\ntwo cows, Namala and Nakaombeh.  If alive they were instructed to convey\nthem with honour and care to Ganda, and if any fatal misadventure had\nhappened to them, their remains were to be borne with all due respect to\nthe king.\n\nSebwana, meanwhile, had started for the plantations, and hearing the\nthunder of the great drum, divined that Naku had deposed him in favour\nof the young stranger.  To assure himself of the fact, he sent a\nconfidential slave to discover the truth of the matter, while he sought\na place where he could await, unobserved, the return of his messenger.\nWhen his slave came back to him he learned what great event had occurred\nduring his short absence, and that his power had been given to another.\nKnowing the fate attending those thus deposed, he secretly retired to\nthe district that had given him birth, where he lived obscure and safe\nuntil he died at a good old age.\n\nAfter some days Sebarija and Mugema's wife, and the two cows Namala and\nNakaombeh, were found by the banks of Myanja, near a rocky hill which\ncontained a cave, whither they had retired to seek a dwelling-place\nuntil news could be found of Mugema and Kimyera.  But Wanyana, the\nking's mother, while gathering fuel near the cave during the absence of\nSebarija and the potter's wife, had been fatally wounded by a leopard,\nbefore her cries brought Sebarija to her rescue.  A short time after she\nhad been taken into the cave she had died of her wounds, and her body\nhad been folded in such furs and covering as her friends possessed, that\nKimyera, on his return, might be satisfied of the manner of her death.\n\nKimyera, accompanied by his wife Naku and old Mugema, set out from Ganda\nwith a great escort to receive the long-lost couple and the remains of\nWanyana.  Mugema rejoiced to see his old wife once more, though he\ndeeply regretted the loss of his friend the princess.  As for the king,\nhis grief was excessive, but Naku, with her loving ways, assisted him to\nbear his great misfortune.  A period of mourning, for an entire moon,\nwas enjoined on all the people, after which a great mound was built at\nKagoma over the remains of the unfortunate princess, and Sebarija was\nduly installed as keeper of the monument.  Ever since that day it has\nbecome the custom to bury the queen-mothers near the grave of Wanyana,\nand to appoint keepers of the royal cemetery in memory of Sebarija, who\nfirst occupied that post.\n\nWhile he lived Sebarija was honoured with a visit, on the first day of\nevery alternate moon, from Kimyera, who always brought with him a young\nbuffalo as a gift to the faithful cowherd.  During these days the king\nand Sebarija were accustomed to play their flutes together as they did\nin the old time, and their seats were on mats placed on top of the\nmound, while the escort and servants of the king and queen sat all round\nthe foot of it, and this was the manner in which Wanyana's memory was\nhonoured during her son's life.\n\nKimyera finally settled with Queen Naku at Birra, where he built a large\ntown.  Mugema and his wife, with their two cows Namala and Nakaombeh,\nlived near the palace for many years, until they died.\n\nDarkness and Wood-burr accompanied the king on many a hunt in the plains\nbordering the Myanja, in the woods of Ruwambo, and along the lakelands\nwhich look towards Bussi; and they in their turn died and were\nhonourably interred with many folds of bark-cloth.  Queen Naku, after\ngiving birth to three sons, died during the birth of her fourth child,\nand was buried with great honour near Birra, and finally, after living\nto a great old age, the hunter king, Kimyera, died, mourned by all his\npeople.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER TEN.\n\nTHE LEGEND OF THE LEOPARDESS AND HER TWO SERVANTS, DOG AND JACKAL.\n\nThe following legend was also told by Kadu as we approached Isangila\ncataract.\n\nLong ago, in the early age of Uganda, a leopardess, in want of a servant\nto do chores in her den, was solicited by a jackal to engage him to\nperform that duty.  As Jackal had a very suspicious appearance, with his\nears drawn back, and his furtive eyes, and a smile which always seemed\nto be a leer, the Leopardess consulted with Dog, whom she had lately\nhired as her steward, as to the propriety of trusting such a\ncunning-looking animal.\n\nDog trotted out to the entrance of the den to examine the stranger for\nhimself, and, after close inspection of him, asked Jackal what work he\ncould do.  Jackal replied humbly and fawningly, and said that he could\nfetch water from the brook, collect fuel, sweep out the house, and was\nwilling, if necessary, to cook now and then, as he was not a novice in\nthe art of cooking; and, looking at Leopardess, \"I am very fond of cubs,\nand am very clever in nursing them.\"  Mistress Leopardess, on hearing\nthis, seemed to be impressed with the abilities of Jackal, and, without\nwaiting for the advice of Dog, engaged him at once, and said:\n\n\"Jackal, you must understand that my custom is to feed my servants well.\nWhat is left from my table is so abundant that I have heard no\ncomplaints from any who have been with me.  Therefore you need fear no\nstarvation, but while you may depend upon being supplied with plenty of\nmeat, the bones must not be touched.  Dog shall be your companion, but\nneither he nor anyone else is permitted to touch the bones.\"\n\n\"I shall be quite content, Mistress Leopardess.  Meat is good enough for\nme, and for good meat you may depend upon it I shall give good work.\"\n\nThe household of Mistress Leopardess was completed; she suffered no\nanxiety, and enjoyed herself in her own way.  The chase was her great\ndelight.  The forest and plains were alive with game, and each morning\nat sunrise it was her custom to set out for the hunt, and scarcely a day\npassed but she returned with sufficient meat to fatten her household.\nDog and Jackal expressed themselves delighted with the luscious repasts\nwhich they enjoyed, and a sleek roundness witnessed that they fared\nnobly.  But as it frequently happens with people who have everything\nthey desire, Dog, in a short while, became more nice and fastidious in\nhis tastes.  He hankered after the bones which were forbidden him, and\nwas heard to sigh deeply whenever Mistress Leopardess collected the\nbones and stored them in the interior, and his eyes became filled with\ntears as he eyed the rich morsels stowed away.  His feelings at last\nbecoming intolerable, he resolved to appeal to his mistress one day, as\nshe appeared to be in a more amiable mood than usual, and said:\n\n\"Mistress, thanks to you, the house is always well supplied with meat,\nand none of your servants have any reason to think that they will ever\nsuffer the pangs of hunger; but, speaking for myself, mistress mine, I\nwish for one thing more, if you will be so good as to grant it.\"\n\n\"And what may that be, greedy one?\" asked Leopardess.\n\n\"Well, you see, mistress, I fear you do not understand the nature of\ndogs very well.  You must know dogs delight in marrow, and often prefer\nit to meat.  The latter by itself is good, but however plentiful and\ngood it may be, without an occasional morsel of marrow it is apt to\npall.  Dogs also love to sharpen their teeth on bones and screw their\ntongues within the holes for the sake of the rich juice.  By itself,\nmarrow would not fatten my ribs; but meat with marrow is most\ndelectable.  Now, good mistress, seeing that I have been so faithful in\nyour service, so docile and prompt to do your bidding, will you not be\ngracious enough to let me gnaw the bones and extract the marrow?\"\n\n\"No,\" roared Leopardess decisively, \"that is positively forbidden; and\nlet me warn you that the day you venture to do so, a strange event will\nhappen suddenly, which shall have most serious consequences to you and\nto all in this house.\n\n\"And you, Jackal, bear what I say well in mind,\" she continued, turning\nto that servile subordinate.\n\n\"Yes, mistress; I will, most certainly.  Indeed, I do not care very\ngreatly for bones,\" said Jackal, \"and I hope my friend and mate, Dog,\nwill remember, good mistress, what you say.\"\n\n\"I hear, mistress,\" replied Dog, \"and since it is your will, I must\nneeds obey.\"\n\nThe alarming words of Leopardess had the effect of compelling Dog and\nJackal for awhile to desist from even thinking of marrow, and the\nentreaty of Dog appeared to be forgotten by Leopardess, though Jackal\nwas well aware, by the sparkles in the covetous eyes of Dog when any\nlarge bone was near him, how difficult it was for him to resist the\ntemptation.  Day after day Leopardess sallied out from her den, and\nreturned with kids, goats, sheep, antelopes, zebra, and often a young\ngiraffe; and one day she brought a great buffalo to her household, and\ncubs and servants came running to greet her, and praise her successful\nhunting.\n\nOn this day Dog undertook to prepare the dinner.  The buffalo-meat was\ncooked in exquisite fashion, and when it was turned out of the great\npot, steaming and trickling over everywhere with juice, Dog caught sight\nof a thigh-bone and yellow marrow glistening within.  The temptation to\nsteal it was too great to resist.  He contrived to drop the bone back\nagain into the pot, furnished the tray quickly with the meat, and sent\nJackal with it to Leopardess, saying that he would follow with the\nkabobs and stew.  As soon as Jackal had gone out of the kitchen, Dog\nwhipped the bone out of the pot and slyly hid it; then, loading stew and\nkabobs on a tray, he hurried after Jackal, and began officiously\nbustling about, fawning upon Leopardess, stroking the cubs as he placed\nthem near their mamma around the smoking trays, scolding Jackal for his\nlaziness, and bidding him hurry up with the steaks.  All of which, of\ncourse, was due to his delight that he had a rare treat in store for\nhimself snugly hidden away.\n\nLeopardess was pleased to bestow a good many praises upon Dog's cooking,\nand the cubs even condescended to smile their approval for the excellent\nway in which their wants were supplied.\n\nTowards evening Mistress Leopardess went out again, but not before\nreminding Jackal of his duties towards the cubs, and bidding him, if it\nwere late before she returned, on no account to leave them alone in the\ndark.  Dog smilingly followed his mistress to the door, wishing her, in\nthe most fawning manner, every success.  When he thought that his\nmistress was far enough, and Jackal quite occupied with the cubs, Dog\nhastened to the kitchen, and, taking up his bone, stole out of the\nhouse, and carried it to a considerable distance off.  When he thought\nhe was safe from observation, he lay down, and, placing the bone between\nhis paws, was about to indulge his craving for marrow, when lo! the bone\nwas seen to fly away back to the den.  Wondering at such a curious\nevent, furious at his disappointment, and somewhat alarmed as he\nremembered Leopardess's warning words, he rushed after it, crying:\n\n\"Jackal, Jackal! shut the door; the bone is coming.  Jackal, please shut\nthe door.\"\n\nJackal fortunately was at the door, squatting on his haunches, having\njust arrived there from nursing the cubs, and saw the bone coming\nstraight towards him, and Dog galloping and crying out to shut the door.\nQuickly perceiving that Dog had at last allowed his appetite to get the\nbetter of his duty, and having, truth to say, a fellow-feeling for his\nfellow-servant, Jackal closed the door just in time, for in about a\nsecond afterwards the bone struck the door with a tremendous force,\ndinting it deeply.\n\nThen Jackal turned to Dog, on recovering from his astonishment, and\nangrily asked, \"Oh, Dog, do you know what you are doing?  Have you no\nsense?  You came near being the death of me this time.  I'll tell you\nwhat, my friend, if Mistress Leopardess hears of this, your life is not\nworth a feather.\"\n\n\"Now don't, please, good Jackal--don't say anything of it this time.\nThe fright I have had is quite sufficient to keep me from touching a\nbone again.\"\n\n\"Well, I am sure I don't wish you any harm, but for your life's sake do\nnot be so dull as to forget the lesson you have learned.\"\n\nSoon after Leopardess returned with a small antelope for the morrow's\nbreakfast, and cried out to Jackal, as was usual with her on returning\nfrom the hunt:\n\n\"Now, my Jackal, bring the cubs hither; my dugs are so heavy.  How are\nthe little ones?\"\n\n\"Ah, very well, ma'am: poor little dears, they have been in a sweet\nsleep ever since you went out.\"\n\nA few days later, Leopardess brought a fat young zebra, and Jackal\ndisplayed his best skill in preparing it for dinner.  Dog also assisted\nwith wise suggestions in the preparation of certain auxiliaries to the\nfeast.  When all was ready, Dog laid the table, and as fast as Jackal\nbrought the various dishes, Dog arranged them in the most tempting\nmanner on fresh banana-leaves, spread over the ample plateau.  Just\nbefore sitting down to the meal, Leopardess heard a strange noise\nwithout, and bounded to the door, growling angrily at being disturbed.\nDog instantly seized the opportunity of her absence to extract a great\nbone from one of the trays, and stowed it in a recess in the wall of the\npassage leading from the kitchen.  Presently Leopardess came back, and\nwhen the cubs were brought the meal was proceeded with in silence.  When\nthey had all eaten enough, the good effect of it was followed by\ncommendations upon the cooking, and the juicy flavour of the meat, and\nhow well Jackal had prepared everything.  Neither was Dog forgotten by\nthe mistress and her young ones, and he was dismissed with the plenteous\nremnants of the feast for himself and mate, with the courteous hope that\nthey would find enough and to spare.\n\nIn the afternoon Leopardess, having refreshed herself with a nap,\nsallied out once more, enjoining Jackal, as she was going out of the\nden, to be attentive to her little ones during her absence.\n\nWhile his friend Jackal proceeded towards the cubs, Dog surreptitiously\nabstracted his bone from the cavity in the passage wall, and trotted out\nunobserved.  When he had arrived at a secluded place, he lay down, and,\nseizing the bone between his paws, was about to give it a preliminary\nlick, when again, to his dismay and alarm, the bone flew up and away\nstraight for the door.  Dog loped after it as fast as his limbs could\ncarry him, crying out:\n\n\"Oh, Jackal, Jackal, good Jackal!  Shut the door.  Hurry up.  Shut the\ndoor, good Jackal.\"\n\nAgain Jackal heard his friend's cry, and sprang up to close the door,\nand the instant he had done so the bone struck it with dreadful force.\n\nTurning to the crestfallen and panting Dog, Jackal said sternly: \"You\nare a nice fellow, you are.  I well see the end of you.  Now listen,\nthis is the last time that I shall help you, my friend.  The next time\nyou take a bone you will bear the consequences, so look out.\"\n\n\"Come, Jackal, now don't say any more; I will not look at a bone again,\nI make you a solemn promise.\"\n\n\"Keep to that, and you will be safe,\" replied Jackal.\n\nPoor Dog, however, was by no means able to adhere to his promise, for a\nfew days afterwards Leopardess brought a fat young eland, and he found\nan opportunity to abstract a fine marrowbone before serving his generous\nmistress.  Late in the afternoon, after dinner and siesta, Leopardess,\nbefore going out, repeated her usual charge to Jackal, and while the\nfaithful servant retired to his nursing duties, greedy Dog sought his\nbone, and stole out to the forest with it.  This time he went further\nthan usual.  Jackal meanwhile finding the cubs indisposed for sleep, led\nthem out to the door of the den, where they frisked and gambolled about\nwith all the liveliness of cubhood.  Jackal was sitting at a distance\nfrom the door when he heard the cries of Dog.  \"Oh, Jackal, Jackal, good\nJackal!  Shut the door quickly.  Look out for the bone.  It is coming.\nShut the door quickly.\"\n\n\"Ha, ha! friend Dog!  At it again, eh?\" said the Jackal.  \"It is too\nlate, too late, Doggie dear, the cubs are in the doorway.\"  He looked\nup, however, saw the bone coming with terrific speed; he heard it whiz\nas it flew close over his head, and almost immediately after it struck\none of the cubs, killing it instantly.\n\nJackal appeared to quickly realise the consequences of Dog's act, and\nhis own carelessness, and feeling that henceforth Leopardess's den would\nbe no home for him, he resolved to escape.  Just then Dog came up, and\nwhen he saw the dead cub he set up a piteous howl.\n\n\"Ay,\" said Jackal.  \"You fool, you begin to see what your greed has\nbrought upon us all.  Howl on, my friend, but you will howl differently\nwhen Mistress Leopardess discovers her dead cub.  Bethink yourself how\nall this will end.  Our mighty mistress, if she catches you, will make\nmincemeat of you.  Neither may I stay longer here.  My home must be a\nburrow in the wild wood, or in the rocky cave in future.  What will you\ndo?\"\n\n\"I, Jackal?  I know not yet.  Go, if you will, and starve yourself.  I\ntrust to find a better home than a cramped burrow, or the cold shelter\nof a cave.  I love warmth, and kitchen fires, and the smell of roast\nmeats too well to trust myself to the chilly covert you propose to seek,\nand my coat is too fine for rough outdoor life.\"\n\n\"Hark!\" cried Jackal, \"do you hear that?  That is the mistress's warning\nnote!  Fare you well, Doggie.  I shall dream of you to-night lying stark\nunder the paw of the Leopardess.\"\n\nJackal waited to say no more, but fled from the scene, and from that day\nto this Jackal has been a vagabond.  He loves the darkness, and the\ntwilight.  It is at such times you hear his yelp.  He is very selfish\nand cowardly.  He has not courage enough to kill anything for himself,\nbut prefers to wait--licking his chops--until the lion or the leopard,\nwho has struck the game, has gorged himself.\n\nAs for Dog he was sorely frightened, but after a little deliberation he\nresolved to face the matter out until he was certain of the danger.  He\nconveyed the cubs, living and dead, quickly within, and then waited with\nwell-dissembled anxiety the coming of his mistress.\n\nLeopardess shortly arrived, and was met at the door by the obsequious\nDog with fawning welcome.\n\n\"Where is Jackal?\" asked Leopardess as she entered.\n\n\"I regret to say he has not returned yet from a visit which he said he\nwas bound to pay his friends and family, whom he had not seen for so\nlong,\" replied Dog.\n\n\"Then you go and bring my little ones to me.  Poor little dears, they\nmust be hungry by this, and my milk troubles me,\" commanded the\nmistress.\n\nDog departed readily, thinking to himself, \"I am in for it now.\"  He\nsoon returned, bearing one of the cubs, and laid it down.\n\n\"Bring the other one, quickly,\" cried Leopardess.\n\n\"Yes, ma'am, immediately,\" he said.\n\nDog took the same cub up again, but in a brief time returned with it.\nThe cub, already satisfied, would not touch the teat.\n\n\"Go and bring the other one, stupid,\" cried Leopardess, observing that\nit would not suck.\n\n\"This is the other one, mistress,\" he replied.\n\n\"Then why does it not suck?\" she asked.\n\n\"Perhaps it has not digested its dinner.\"\n\n\"Where is Jackal?  Has he not yet returned?  Jackal!\" she cried.  \"Where\nare you, Jackal?\"\n\nFrom the jungle out-doors Jackal shrilly yelped, \"Here I am, mistress!\"\n\n\"Come to me this instant,\" commanded Leopardess.\n\n\"Coming, mistress, coming,\" responded Jackal's voice faintly, for at the\nsound of her call he had been alarmed and was trotting off.\n\n\"Why, what can be the matter with the brute, trifling with me in this\nmanner?  Here, Dog, take this cub to the crib.\"\n\nDog hastened to obey, but Leopardess, whose suspicions had been aroused,\nquietly followed him as he entered the doorway leading into the inner\nrecess of the house where the crib was placed.  Having placed the living\nnear the dead cub in the crib, Dog turned to leave, when he saw his\ndreaded mistress in the doorway, gazing with fierce distended eyes, and\nit flashed on him that she had discovered the truth, and fear adding\nspeed to his limbs he darted like an arrow between her legs, and rushed\nout of the den.  With a loud roar of fury Leopardess sprang after him,\nDog running for dear life.  His mistress was gaining upon him, when Dog\nturned aside, and ran round the trees.  Again Leopardess was rapidly\ndrawing near, when Dog shot straight away and increased the distance\nbetween them a little.  Just as one would think Dog had no hope of\nescaping from his fierce mistress, he saw a wart-hog's burrow, into\nwhich he instantly dived.  Leopardess arrived at the hole in the ground\nas the tail of Dog disappeared from her sight.  Being too large of body\nto enter, she tore up the entrance to the burrow, now and then extending\nher paw far within to feel for her victim.  But the burrow was of great\nlength, and ran deep downwards, and she was at last obliged to desist\nfrom her frantic attempts to reach the runaway.\n\nReflecting awhile, Leopardess looked around and saw Monkey near by,\nsitting gravely on a branch watching her.\n\n\"Come down, Monkey,\" she imperatively commanded, \"and sit by this burrow\nand watch the murdering slave who is within, while I procure materials\nto smoke him out.\"\n\nMonkey obeyed, and descending the tree, took his position at the mouth\nof the burrow.  But it struck him that should Dog venture out, his\nstrength would be unable to resist him.  He therefore begged Leopardess\nto stay a moment, while he went to bring a rock with which he could\nblock the hole securely.  When this was done Leopardess said, \"Now stay\nhere, and do not stir until I return; I will not be long, and when I\ncome I will fix him.\"\n\nLeopardess, leaving the burrow in charge of Monkey, commenced to collect\na large quantity of dry grass, and then proceeded to her house to\nprocure fire wherewith to light it, and suffocate Dog with the smoke.\n\nDog, soon after entering the burrow had turned himself round and faced\nthe hole, to be ready for all emergencies.  He had heard Leopardess give\nher orders to Monkey, had heard Monkey's plans for blockading him, as\nwell as the threat of Leopardess to smoke him out.  There was not much\nhope for him if he stayed longer.\n\nAfter a little while he crept close to the rock that blocked his exit,\nand whispered:\n\n\"Monkey, let me out, there's a good fellow.\"\n\n\"It may not be,\" replied Monkey.\n\n\"Ah, Monkey, why are you so cruel?  I have not done any harm to you.\nWhy do you stand guard over me to prevent my escape?\"\n\n\"I am simply obeying orders, Dog.  Leopardess said, `Stay here and\nwatch, and see that Dog does not escape;' and I must do so or harm will\ncome to me, as you know.\"\n\nThen said Dog, \"Monkey, I see that you have a cruel heart, too, though I\nthought none but the Leopard kind could boast of that.  May you feel\nsome day the deep despair I feel in my heart.  Let me say one word more\nto you before I die.  Put your head close to me that you may hear it.\"\n\nMonkey, curious to know what the last word could be about, put his face\nclose between the rock and the earth and looked in, upon which Dog threw\nso much dust and sand into his cunning eyes as almost to blind him.\n\nMonkey staggered back from the entrance, and while knuckling his eyes to\nnib the sand out, Dog put his fore-feet against the rock and soon rolled\nit away.  Then, after a hasty view around, Dog fled like the wind from\nthe dangerous spot.\n\nMonkey, after clearing his eyes from the dirt thrown in them, and\nreviewing his position, began to be concerned as to his own fate.  It\nwas not long before his crafty mind conceived that it would be a good\nidea to place some soft nuts within the burrow, and roll back the stone\ninto its place.\n\nWhen Leopardess returned with the fire she was told that Dog was\nsecurely imprisoned within, upon which she piled the grass over the\nburrow and set fire to it.\n\nPresently a crackling sound was heard within.\n\n\"What can that be?\" demanded Leopardess.\n\n\"That must surely be one of Dog's ears that you heard exploding,\"\nreplied Monkey.\n\nAfter a short time another crackling sound was heard.\n\n\"And what is that?\" asked Leopardess.\n\n\"Ah, that must be the other ear of course,\" Monkey answered.\n\nBut as the fire grew hotter and the heat increased within there were a\ngreat many of these sounds heard, at which Monkey laughed gleefully and\ncried:\n\n\"Ah ha! do you hear?  Dog is splitting to pieces now.  Oh, he is burning\nup finely; every bone in his body is cracking.  Ah, but it is a cruel\ndeath, though, is it not?\"\n\n\"Let him die,\" fiercely cried Leopardess.  \"He killed one of my young\ncubs--one of the loveliest little fellows you ever saw.\"\n\nBoth Leopardess and Monkey remained at the burrow until the fire had\ncompletely died out, then the first said:\n\n\"Now, Monkey, bring me a long stick with a hook at the end of it, that I\nmay rake Dog's bones out and feast my eyes upon them.\"\n\nMonkey hastened to procure the stick, with which the embers were raked\nout, when Leopardess exclaimed:\n\n\"What a queer smell this is!  It is not at all like what one would\nexpect from a burnt dog.\"\n\n\"Ah,\" replied Monkey, \"Dog must be completely burnt by this.  Of that\nthere can be no doubt.  Did you ever burn a dog before that you know the\nsmell of its burnt body so well?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the Leopardess; \"but this is not like the smell of roast\nmeat.  Rake out all the ashes that I may see the bones and satisfy\nmyself.\"\n\nMonkey, compelled to do as he was commanded, put in his stick, and drew\nout several half-baked nuts, the shells of which were cracked and gaping\nopen.  These Leopardess no sooner saw than she seized Monkey, and\nfuriously cried:\n\n\"You wretch, you have deceived and trifled with me!  You have permitted\nthe murderer of my cub to escape, and your life shall now be the forfeit\nfor his.\"\n\n\"Pardon, mighty Leopardess, but let me ask how do you propose to slay\nme?\"\n\n\"Why, miserable slave, how else should I kill you but with one scratch\nof my claws?\"\n\n\"Nay, then, great Queen, my blood will fall on your head and smother\nyou.  It is better for yourself that you should toss me up above that\nthorny bough, so that when I fall upon it the thorns may penetrate my\nheart and kill me.\"\n\nNo sooner had Monkey ended, than fierce Leopardess tossed Monkey upward\nas he had directed; but the latter seized the bough and sat up, and from\nthis he sprang upward into another still higher, and thence from branch\nto branch and from tree to tree until he was safe from all possible\npursuit.\n\nLeopardess perceived that another of her intended victims had escaped,\nand was furious with rage.\n\n\"Come down this instant,\" she cried to Monkey, hoping he would obey her.\n\n\"Nay, Leopardess.  It has been told me, and the forest is full of the\nreport, that your cruelty has driven from you Jackal and Dog, and that\nthey will never serve you again.  Cruel people never can reckon upon\nfriends.  I and my tribe, so long servants to you, will henceforth be\nstrangers to you.  Fare you well.\"\n\nA great rustling was heard in the trees overhead as Monkey and his tribe\nmigrated away from the district of the cruel Leopardess who, devoured\nwith rage, was obliged to depart with not one of her vengeful thoughts\ngratified.\n\nAs she was returning to her den, Leopardess bethought herself of the\nOracle, who was her friend, who would no doubt, at her solicitations,\nreveal the hiding-places of Jackal and Dog.  She directed her steps to\nthe cave of the Oracle, who was a nondescript practising witchcraft in\nthe wildest part of the district.\n\nTo this curious being she related the story of the murder of her cub by\nJackal and Dog, and requested him to inform her by what means she could\ndiscover the criminals and wreak her vengeance on them.\n\nThe Oracle replied, \"Jackal has gone into the wild wood, and he and his\nfamily henceforward will always remain there, to degenerate in time into\na suspicious and cowardly race.  Dog has fled to take his shelter in the\nhome of man, to be his companion and friend, and to serve man against\nyou and your kind.  But lest you accuse me of ill-will to you, I will\ntell you how you may catch Dog if you are clever and do not allow your\ntemper to exceed your caution.  Not far off is a village belonging to\none of the human tribes, near which there is a large ant-hill, where\nmoths every morning flit about in the sunshine of the early day.  About\nthe same time Dog leaves the village to sport and gambol and chase the\nmoths.  If you can find a lurking-place not far from it, where you can\nlie silently in wait, Dog may be caught by you in an unwary moment while\nat his daily play.  I have spoken.\"\n\nLeopardess thanked the Oracle and retired brooding over its advice.\nThat night the moon was very clear and shining bright, and she stole out\nof her den, and proceeding due west as she was directed, in a few hours\nshe discovered the village and the ant-hill described by the Oracle.\nNear the mound she also found a thick dense bush, which was made still\nmore dense by the tall wild grass surrounding it.  In the depths of this\nshe crouched, waiting for morning.  At dawn the village wherein men and\nwomen lived was astir, and at sunrise the gates were opened.  A little\nlater Dog signalled himself by his well-known barks as he came out to\ntake his morning's exercise.  Unsuspicious of the presence of his late\ndread mistress he bounded up the hill and began to circle around,\nchasing the lively moths.  Leopardess, urged by her anger, did not wait\nuntil Dog, tired with his sport, would of his own accord stray among the\nbushes, but uttering a loud roar sprang out from her hiding-place.  Dog,\nwarned by her voice, which he well knew, put his tail between his legs\nand rushed through the open gates and alarmed his new masters, who came\npouring from their houses with dreadful weapons in their hands, who\nchased her, and would have slain her had she not bounded over the fence.\nThus Leopardess lost her last chance of revenging the death of her cub;\nbut as she was creeping homeward her mortification was so great that she\nvowed to teach her young eternal hostility towards Dog and all his\ntribe.  Dog also, convinced that his late mistress was one who nourished\nan implacable resentment when offended, became more cautious, and a\ncontinued life with his new masters increased his attachment for them.\nWhen he finally married, and was blessed with a progeny, he taught his\npups various arts by which they might ingratiate themselves more and\nmore with the human race.  He lived in comfort and affluence to a good\nold age, and had the satisfaction to see his family grow more and more\nin the estimation of their generous masters, until dogs and men became\ninseparable companions.\n\nLeopardess and her cub removed far away from the house associated with\nher misfortune, but though Time healed the keen sore of her bereavement\nby blessing her annually with more cubs, her hate for Dog and his kind\nwas lasting and continues to this day.  And thus it was that the\nfriendly fellowship which reigned between the forest animals during the\ngolden age of Uganda was broken for ever.\n\nFor proof of the truth of what I have said consider the matter in your\nown minds.  Regard the Ape who, upon the least alarm springs up the\ntree, and stays not until he has secured himself far from reach.  Think\nof the Jackal in his cheerless solitude deep in the bowels of the earth,\nor in the farthest rocky recess that he can discover, ever on the watch\nagainst some foe, too full of distrust to have a friend, the most\nselfish and cowardly of the forest community.  The Leopard is the enemy\nat all times, night and day, of every animal, unless it be the lion and\nthe elephant.  As for the Dog, where is the man who is not acquainted\nwith his fidelity, his courage in time of danger, his watchful care of\nhis interests by night, and his honest love for the family which feeds\nhim?  My story is here ended.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER ELEVEN.\n\nA SECOND VERSION OF THE LEOPARD AND THE DOG STORY.\n\nSarboko, who was originally from Unyoro, a country which lies to the\nnorth of Uganda, and had been employed as a page by Mtesa, king of\nUganda, protested that his version of how the dog became estranged from\nthe leopard, his chum, was nearer the truth than that given by Kadu.\nPerceiving that he was inclined to contribute to our amusement, for a\nreason of his own, we ranged ourselves around the camp fire in the usual\nway and prepared to listen to another version of a legend which is\npopular among most of the tribes dwelling in the Lake Region.\n\nHOW THE DOG OUTWITTED THE LEOPARD.\n\nIn the early time there was a dog and a leopard dwelling together in a\ncave like chums.  They shared and fared alike.  Exact half of everything\nand equal effort were the terms upon which they lived.  Many and many a\nfamous raid among the flocks and fowls in the human villages they made.\nThe leopard was by far the strongest and boldest, and was most\nsuccessful in catching prey.  Dog lived so well on the spoils brought\nhome by his friend that he became at last fat and lazy, and he began to\ndislike going out at night in the rain and cold dew, and to hide this\ngrowing habit from Leopard he had to be very cunning.  He always\ninvented some excuse or another to explain why he brought nothing to the\ncommon larder, and finally he hit upon a new plan of saving himself from\nthe toil and danger.\n\nJust before dusk one day, Leopard and Dog were sociably chatting\ntogether, when Leopard said that he intended that night to catch a fine\nfat black goat which he had observed in the nearest village to their\nden.  He had watched him getting fatter every day, and he was bent upon\nbringing him home.\n\n\"Black is it?\" cried Dog.  \"That is strange, for that is also the colour\nof the one I purposed to catch to-night.\"\n\nThe two friends slept until most of the night was gone, but when there\nwere signs that morning was not far off they silently loped away to\ntheir work.\n\nThey parted at the village which Leopard had selected to rob, Dog\nwhispering \"Good luck\" to him.  Dog trotted off a little way and sneaked\nback to watch his friend.\n\nLeopard stealthily surveying the tall fence, saw one place which he\ncould leap over, and at one spring was inside the village.  Snuffing\nabout, he discovered the goat-pen, forced an entrance, and seizing his\nprize by the neck, drew it out.  He then flung it over his shoulders,\nand with a mighty leap landed outside the fence.\n\nDog, who had watched his chance, now cried out in an affected voice,\n\"Hi, hi--wake up!  Leopard has killed the goat.  There he is.  Ah, ah!\nKill him, kill him!\"\n\nAlarmed at the noise made, and hearing a rustle in the grass near him,\nLeopard was obliged to abandon his prize, and to save his own life,\ndropped the goat and fled.\n\nDog, chuckling loudly at the success of his ruse, picked the dead goat\nup, and trotted home to the den with it.\n\n\"Oh, see, Leopard!\" cried he, as he reached the entrance, \"what a fat\ngoat I've got at my village.  Is it not a heavy one?  But where is\nyours?  Did you not succeed after all?\"\n\n\"Oh!  I was alarmed by the owners in the village, who pursued me and\nyelled out, `Kill him, kill him!' and there was something rustling in\nthe grass close by, and I thought that I was done for; but I dropped the\ngoat and ran away.  I dare say they have found the animal by this, and\nhave eaten our meat.  Never mind, though, better luck next time.  I saw\na fine fat white goat in the pen, which I am sure to catch to-morrow\nnight.\"\n\n\"Well, I am very sorry, but cheer your heart.  You shall have an equal\nshare with me of this.  Let us bestir ourselves to cook it.\"\n\nThey gathered sticks and made a fire, and began to roast it.  When it\nwas nearly ready Dog went outside, and took a stick and beat the ground,\nand whined out:\n\n\"Oh! please, I did not do it.  It was Leopard that killed the goat.  Oh!\ndon't kill me.  It was Leopard who stole it.\"\n\nLeopard, hearing these cries and the blows of the stick, thought to\nhimself: \"Ah! the men have followed us to our den, and are killing Dog;\nthen they will come and kill me if I do not run.\"  He therefore ran out\nand escaped.\n\nDog, on seeing him well away, coolly returned to the den and devoured\nthe whole of the meat, leaving only the bones.\n\nAfter a long time Leopard returned to the den, and found Dog moaning\npiteously.  \"What is the matter, my friend?\" he asked.\n\n\"Ah! oh! don't touch me; don't touch me, I beg of you.  I am so bruised\nand sore all over!  Ah! my bones!  They have half killed me,\" moaned\nDog.\n\n\"Poor fellow!  Well, lie still and rest.  There is nothing like rest for\na bruised body.  I will get that white goat the next time I try.\"\n\nAfter waiting two or three days, Leopard departed to obtain the white\ngoat.  Dog sneaked after him, and served his friend in the same way,\nbringing the white goat himself, and bragging how he had succeeded,\nwhile pretending to pity Leopard for his bad luck.\n\nThree times running Dog served him with the same trick, and Leopard was\nmuch mortified at his own failure.  Then Leopard thought of the Muzimu--\nthe oracle who knows all things, and gives such good advice to those who\nare unfortunate and ask for his help--and he resolved, in his distress,\nto seek him.\n\nIn the heart of the tall, dark woods, where the bush is most dense,\nwhere vines clamber over the clumps, and fold themselves round and round\nthe trees, and hang in long coils by the side of a cool stream, the\nMuzimu resided.\n\nLeopard softly drew near the sacred place and cried, \"Oh!  Muzimu, have\npity on me.  I am almost dying with hunger.  I used to be bold and\nstrong, and successful, but now, of late, though I catch my prey as of\nold, something always happens to scare me away, and I lose the meat I\nhave taken.  Help me, O Muzimu, and tell how my good luck may return.\"\n\nAfter a while the Muzimu answered in a deep voice, \"Leopard, your\nill-luck comes from your own folly.  You know how to catch prey, but it\ntakes a dog to know how to eat it.  Go; watch your friend, and your\nill-luck will fly away.\"\n\nLeopard was never very wise, though he had good eyes, and was swift and\nbrave, and he thought over what the Muzimu said.  He could not\nunderstand in what way his good luck would return by watching his\nfriend, but he resolved to follow the advice of the Muzimu.\n\nThe next night Leopard gave out that he was going to seize a\ndun-coloured goat, and Dog said, \"Ah! that is what I mean to do too.  I\nthink a dun-coated goat so sweet.\"\n\nThe village was reached, a low place was found in the palings, and\nLeopard, as quick as you could wink, was over and among the goats.  With\none stroke he struck his victim dead, threw it over his shoulders, and,\nwith a flying leap, carried it outside.  Dog, who was hiding near the\nplace, in a strange voice cried, \"Ah! here he is--the thief of a\nLeopard!  Kill him! kill him!\"\n\nLeopard turning his head around, saw him in the grass and heard him\nyelp, \"Awu-ou-ou!  Awu-ou-ou!  Kill him! kill him!\" dropped the goat for\nan instant and said, \"Ah, it is you, my false friend, is it?  Wait a\nbit, and I will teach you how you may steal once too often.\"  With eyes\nlike balls of fire, he rushed at him, and would have torn him into\npieces, but Dog's instinct told him that the game he had been playing\nwas up, and burying his tail between his hind legs, he turned and fled\nfor dear life.  Round and round the village he ran, darting this way and\nthat, until, finding his strength was oozing out of him, he dashed\nfinally through a gap in the fence, straight into a man's house and\nunder the bed, where he lay gasping and panting.  Seeing that the man,\nwho had been scared by his sudden entry, was about to take his spear to\nkill him, he crawled from under the bed to the man's feet, and licked\nthem, and turned on his back imploring mercy.  The man took pity on him,\ntied him up, and made a pet of him.  Ever since Dog and Man have been\nfirm friends, but a mortal hatred has existed between Dog and Leopard.\nDog's back always bristles straight up when his enemy is about, and\nthere is no truer warning of the Leopard's presence than that given by\nDog--while Leopard would rather eat a dog than a goat any day.  That is\nthe way--as I heard it in Unyoro--that the chumship between Leopard and\nDog was broken up.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER TWELVE.\n\nTHE LEGEND OF THE CUNNING TERRAPIN AND THE CRANE.\n\nThe following story of the cunning Terrapin and the Crane established\nKadu's reputation among us, and the Zanzibaris were never so amused as\non this evening.\n\n\"Master,\" began Kadu, after we had made ourselves comfortable before a\nbright and crackling fire, \"some men say that animals do not reason, and\ncannot express themselves, but I should like to know how it is that we\nperceive that there is great cunning in their actions, as though they\ncalculated beforehand how to act, and what would be the result.  We\nWaganda think animals are very clever.  We observe the cock in the yard,\nand the hen with her chickens; the leopard, as he is about to pounce on\nhis prey; the lion, as he is about to attack; the crocodile, as he\nprepares for his rush; the buffalo in the shade, as he awaits the\nhunter; the elephant, as he stands at attention; and we say to\nourselves, how intelligent they are!  Our legends are all founded on\nthese things, and we interpret the actions of animals from having seen\ntheir methods; and I think men placed in the same circumstances could\nnot have acted much better.  It may appear to you, as though we were\ntelling you mere idle tales to raise a laugh.  Well, it may be very\namusing to hear and talk about them, but it is still more amusing to\nwatch the tricks of animals and insects, and our old men are fond of\nquoting the actions of animals to teach us, while we are children, what\nwe ought to do.  Indeed, there is scarcely a saying but what is founded\nupon something that an animal was seen to do at one time or another.\n\n\"Now the story that I am about to relate, is a very old one in Uganda.\nI heard it when a child, and from the fact that a Terrapin was said to\nbe so cunning, I have never liked to ill-treat a Terrapin, and every\ntime I see one, the story comes to my mind in all its freshness.\"\n\nA Terrapin and a Crane were one time travelling together very sociably.\nThey began their conversation by the Terrapin asking:\n\n\"How is your family to-day, Miss Crane?\"\n\n\"Oh, very well.  Mamma, who is getting old, complains now and then,\nthat's all.\"\n\n\"But do you know that it strikes me that she is very fat?\" said\nTerrapin.  \"Now a thought has just entered my head, which I beg to\npropose to you.  My mother, too, is ailing, and I am rather tired of\nhearing her complaints day after day; but she is exceedingly lean and\ntough, though there is plenty of her.  I wonder what you will say to my\nplan?  We are both hungry.  So let us go and kill your mother, and eat\nher; and to-morrow, you will come to me, and we will kill my mother.  We\nthus shall be supplied with meat for some days.\"\n\nReplied the Crane, \"I like the idea greatly, and agree to it.  Let us go\nabout it at once, for hunger is an exacting mistress, and the days of\nfasting are more frequent than those of fulness.\"\n\nThe matricides turned upon their tracks, and, arriving at the house of\nMrs Crane, the two cruel creatures seized upon Mamma Crane, and put her\nto death.  They then plucked her clean, and placed her body in the\nstew-pot, and both Terrapin and Crane feasted.\n\nTerrapin then crawled home, leaving Crane to sleep, and the process of\ndigestion.  But, alas!  Crane soon became very ill.  Whether some qualms\nof conscience disturbed digestion or not, I cannot say, but she passed a\ntroublesome night, and for several days afterwards she did not stir from\nher house.\n\nTerrapin, on reaching the house of its mamma, which was in the hollow of\na tree, cried out:\n\n\"Tu-no-no-no!\" upon which Mrs Terrapin said, \"Oh, that is my child,\"\nand she let down a cord, to which young Terrapin made himself fast, and\nwas assisted to the nest where the parent had already prepared a nice\nsupper for him.\n\nSeveral days later, Terrapin was proceeding through the woods to the\npool where he was accustomed to bathe, when at the water-side he met\nMiss Crane apparently quite spruce and strong again.\n\nShe hailed Terrapin and said, \"Oh, here you are, at last.  I have been\nwaiting to see you for some time.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied Terrapin, \"here I am, and you--how do you feel now?  My\nneighbours told me you were very ill.\"\n\n\"I am all right again,\" said Miss Crane, \"but I think my old ma\ndisagreed with me, and I was quite poorly for some days; but I am now\nanxious to know when you are going to keep your part of the bargain\nwhich we made.\"\n\n\"What--you mean about the disposing of my old ma?\"\n\n\"Yes, to be sure,\" answered Crane, \"I feel quite hungry.\"\n\n\"Well, well.  Bargains should always be kept, for if the blood-oath be\nbroken misfortune follows.  Your mother's death rests on my head, and I\nmean to return your hospitality with interest, otherwise, may my shell\nbe soon empty of its tenant.  Stay here awhile and I will bring her.\"\n\nSo saying, Terrapin departed, and crept to where he had secretly stowed\na quantity of india-rubber, in readiness for the occasion.  After taking\nout quite a mass of it, he returned to the pond, where Miss Crane stood\non one leg, expectant and winking pleasantly.\n\n\"I fear, sister Crane,\" said Terrapin, as he laid his burden down, \"that\nyou will find my old ma tough.  She turned out to be much leaner than I\nanticipated.  There is no more fat on her bones, than there is on my\nback.  But now, fall to, and welcome.  There is plenty there.  I am not\nhungry myself, as I have just finished my dinner.\"\n\nMiss Crane, with her empty stomach, was not fastidious, and stepped out\neagerly to the feast so faithfully provided, and began to tear away at\nwhat Terrapin had brought.  The rubber, however, stretched by the greedy\nCrane, suddenly flew from her foot, and rebounding, struck her in the\nface a smart blow.\n\n\"Oh! oh!\" cried Crane, confused with the blow.  \"Your old ma is most\ntough.\"\n\n\"Yes, she is.  I suspected she would prove a little tough,\" answered\nTerrapin, with a chuckle.  \"But don't be bashful.  Eat away, and\nwelcome.\"\n\nAgain Miss Crane tugged at the rubber to tear it, but the more it was\nstretched, the more severe were the shocks she received, and her left\neye was almost blinded.\n\n\"Well, I never,\" exclaimed Miss Crane.  \"She is too tough altogether.\"\n\n\"Try again,\" cried Terrapin.  \"Try again; little by little, it is said,\na fly eats a cow's tail.  You will get a rare and tender bit in time.\"\n\nMiss Crane thus pressed, did so, and seizing a piece lay back, and drew\non it so hard that when the rubber at last slipped, it bounded back with\nsuch force, that she was sent sprawling to the ground.\n\n\"Why, what is the matter?\" asked Terrapin, pretending to be astonished.\n\"She is tough, I admit; but loh! our family are famous for toughness.\nHowever, the tougher it is, the longer it lasts on the stomach.  Try\nagain, sister Crane; I warrant you will manage it next time.\"\n\n\"Oh, bother your old ma.  Eat her yourself.  I have had enough of that\nkind of meat.\"\n\n\"You give it up, do you?\" cried Terrapin.  \"Well, well, it is a pity to\nthrow good meat away.  Maybe, if I keep it longer it will get tenderer\nby and by.\"\n\nThey thus parted, Terrapin bearing his share of rubber away in one\ndirection, and Miss Crane sadly disgusted, striding grandly off in\nanother, but looking keenly about for something to satisfy her hunger.\n\nWhen she had gone a great distance a parrot flew across her path, and\nperching on a branch near her, cried out, \"Oh, royal bird, say since\nwhen has rubber become the food of the bird-king's family?\"\n\n\"What do you mean, Parrot?\" she asked.\n\n\"Well, I saw you tearing at a piece of rubber just now, and when you\nmarched off Terrapin carried it away, and I heard him say--because he\nhas a habit of speaking his thoughts aloud--Oh, how stupid my sister\nCrane is!  She thinks my ma is dead.  Ho, ho, ho! what a stupid!  And\nall the way he chuckled and laughed as though he was filled with\nplantain wine.\"\n\n\"Is his ma not dead then?\" asked Miss Crane.\n\n\"Dead!  Not a bit of it,\" replied Parrot.  \"I saw old Ma Terrapin but a\nmoment ago as I flew by her tree, waiting for her son, and the cord is\nready for his cry of `Tu-no-no-no.  Ano-no-no.  We-no-no-no!'\"\n\n\"Ah, Parrot, your words are good.  When we know what another is saying\nbehind our backs, we discover the workings of his heart.  The words of\nTerrapin are like the bush that covers the trap.  Good-by, Parrot.  When\nwe next meet, we shall have another story to tell.\"\n\nOn the next day, Terrapin observed Miss Crane approaching his house, and\nhe advanced a little way to meet her.\n\n\"Well, sister Crane, I hope you are all right this morning?\" he asked.\n\n\"Oh yes, so so, brother Terrapin.  But you must excuse me just now; I've\nheard bad news from my family.  A brother and sister of mine are\nsuddenly taken ill, and I am bound to go and visit them,\" answered\nCrane.\n\n\"Ah, Miss Crane, that reminds me of my own brother and sister, who are\nmuch younger than I am, but very soft and tender.  What do you say now\nto making another bargain?\" asked Terrapin with a wink.\n\n\"You are very good, Terrapin.  I will think of it as I go along.  I\nshall be back before noon to-morrow, and we will talk of a trade then.\"\nThey were very civil to one another as they parted.  Terrapin went for\nhis usual walk to the pond, Miss Crane proceeded to visit her family,\nbut muttered:\n\n\"Ha, ha, Terrapin, you are great at a trade; but you will not make\nanother with me in a hurry till our first one is squared.\"\n\nAfter she had gone a little way she turned suddenly round and came back\nto the foot of Terrapin's tree, and cried,\n\n\"Tu-no-no-no.  Ano-no-no-no.  We-no-no-no!\"\n\n\"Ah, that is my child's voice,\" said Ma Terrapin to herself, and let\ndown the cord.\n\nMiss Crane caught hold and climbed up towards the nest.  Ma Terrapin\ncraned her neck out far to welcome her child, but before she could\ndiscover by what means little Terrapin had changed its dress, Miss Crane\nstruck Ma Terrapin with her long sharp bill in the place where the neck\njoins the shoulder, and in a short time Ma Terrapin was as dead as Miss\nCrane's own mother.\n\nThe body was rolled from the nest, and it went falling down, and Miss\nCrane slid quickly after it.\n\nIn a quiet place screened by thick bushes Miss Crane made a great fire,\nwith which Ma Terrapin's thick shell was cracked.  She then scooped out\nthe flesh, and carried it to her own home, and stowed it in a big black\npot.\n\nOn the next day as Miss Crane was standing on one leg by the pond, with\nher head half buried in her feathers, who should come along but\nTerrapin, crying bitterly, and saying, \"Ah, my ma is dead.  My old ma\nhas been killed.  Who will assist me now?\"\n\nMiss Crane affected to be asleep, but heard every word.  When, however,\nTerrapin was near, she woke up suddenly and said, cheerfully,\n\n\"Ah! it is Terrapin, my little brother Terrapin.  How do you do to-day?\"\n\nNow as Terrapin had already slain his mother, according to his own\nconfession, it struck him that it would not do to accuse Miss Crane of\nthe murder, because by doing so he would expose his breach of faith with\nher, but the scent of the roasted flesh of Ma Terrapin came strong just\nthen, and he knew that it was Crane who, discovering his trick, had\nkilled her.\n\nHe managed, however, to reply briskly:\n\n\"Sissy, dear, I am but tolerable.  But how is your family to-day?\"\n\n\"My brother and sister are much improved, Terrapin.  They are both as\nfat as tallow.  By-the-bye, what about that trade you proposed to me?\"\n\n\"I am ready, Miss Crane, for a trade any day.  When shall it be?\"\n\n\"No time so good as the present, and if you jog along to the other end\nof the pond, I will fix my house here, and soon catch up with you.\"\n\nTerrapin professed great delight, and toddled along; but when he had\ngone a little way his bad habit of thinking aloud came on him, and he\nwas heard to say:--\n\n\"My poor ma! my poor ma is dead!  O you wicked Crane!  I know by the\nscent of the meat that you have killed my ma.  What can I do now?\"\n\nMiss Crane knew then that she had been discovered, and she began to\nthink that it was time to remove to another district, for Terrapin had\nmany friends in the woods, such as rabbits, jackals, lions, and\nserpents, and if Terrapin moaned so loud, all the people of the woods\nwould know what she had done, and many would no doubt assist him to\npunish her.  Casting about in her mind for the best place, she\nremembered an extremely tall tree which was not far from Terrapin's\nhouse, a very lofty clean-shafted tree, on the top of which she would be\nsafe from surprise.\n\nThither she hastily removed her belongings, and soon established herself\ncomfortably.  She had also provided herself with a store of strong\nsticks to be used as weapons in case of necessity.\n\nTerrapin meanwhile crawled along, moaning loudly his lamentations.\nSuddenly Rabbit popped out of the woods, and stood in his path.  He soon\nwas made aware of Terrapin's bereavement, and strongly sympathised with\nhim.  Terrapin related the story in such a way that made Miss Crane\nappear to be a murderess, against whom the people of the woods should\ntake vengeance.\n\n\"Then,\" said Rabbit, \"that must be Miss Crane, who is building her house\non the very top of that tall tree near your place.\"\n\n\"Is she?\" asked Terrapin.  \"I did not know that.  She was to have met me\nhere; but I see she knows that she is detected, and is already taking\nmeasures to protect herself.  But, Rabbit, you who are always wise, tell\nme how I may avenge myself?\"\n\n\"There is only one way that I know of,\" answered Rabbit, dubiously.  \"Go\nto the Soko (Gorilla?), but he is a hard dealer who will make you pay\nhandsomely for his help.  Soko is the king of the ape kind.  If you pay\nhim well, he will fasten a cord to Crane's nest, up which you can climb\nwhen she is absent.  Once there, lie quietly, and when she alights seize\nher.\"\n\nThe plan pleased Terrapin immensely, and possessing a comfortable\nproperty upon the loss of his mother, he thought he had sufficient to\npurchase Soko's assistance.\n\nThrough the good offices of Rabbit negotiations were entered into with\nSoko, who agreed for a potful of good nuts, ten bunches of ripe bananas,\none hundred eggs, and sundry other trifles, to hang a stout rattan\nclimber to Crane's nest, long enough to reach the ground.\n\nThe royal bird was soon informed of the conspiracy against her by the\nParrot, who loves to carry tales, and Miss Crane resolved to be absent\nfrom home while Soko was fastening the climber, but commissioned her\nfriend the Parrot to observe the proceedings, and to report to her when\nSoko had completed his task.\n\nSoko performed his part expeditiously.  Terrapin tested the strength of\nthe rattan, and had to confess that Soko had earned his pay, and Rabbit\naccompanied Terrapin and Soko to Terrapin's house to see the Soko\nreceive his commission.\n\nAs they departed Parrot flew to inform Miss Crane, who immediately\nreturned to her house to await her enemy.\n\nNot long after Terrapin came to the foot of Crane's tree and commenced\nto climb up.  He had nearly reached the top when Miss Crane stood up and\ndelivered such a thwacking blow on Terrapin's back that it caused him to\nloose his hold and fall to the ground.  When Terrapin recovered his\nsenses, he heard Miss Crane cry out--\n\n\"Ha! brother Terrapin, that was a nasty fall.  You remember the rubber,\ndon't you?  There is nothing like the advice you gave me.  Try again,\nTerrapin, my brother.  Try again.\"\n\n\"You killed my ma, did you not?\" asked Terrapin.\n\n\"I thought you told me that you had killed her according to agreement.\nThen how can you say that I killed her?\" asked Miss Crane.\n\n\"That was not my ma I gave you.  It was only a lump of rubber.\"\n\n\"Ho, ho!  You confess it then?  Well, we are now quits.  You induced me\nto kill my ma, and as you could not keep your part of the bargain, I\nsaved you the trouble.  My ma was as much to me as your ma was to you.\nWe have both lost our ma's now.  So let us call it even, and be friends\nagain.\"\n\nTerrapin hesitated, but the memory of his ma's loss soon produced the\nold bitterness, and he became as unforgiving as ever.  Miss Crane must,\nhowever, be persuaded that the matter was forgiven, otherwise he would\nnever have the opportunity to avenge his ma's death.\n\n\"All right, Crane,\" he answered; \"but let me come up, and embrace you\nover it, or do you descend and let us shake hands.\"\n\n\"Come up, by all means, Terrapin.  I am always at home to friends,\" said\nMiss Crane.\n\nTerrapin upon this began to climb, but as he was ascending he foolishly\nbegan to think aloud again, and he was heard saying--\n\n\"Oh, yes, sister Crane.  Just wait a little, and you will see.  He, he,\nhe!\"\n\nMiss Crane, who was quietly listening, heard Terrapin's chuckle and\nmuttering, and prepared to receive him properly.  When he was within\nreach, she cried, \"Hold hard, Terrapin,\" and at once proceeded to shower\nmighty blows on his back, then laid the stick on his feet so sharply\nthat, to protect them, he had to withdraw them into his shell, in doing\nwhich he lost his hold and fell to the ground with such force that to\nanything but a terrapin the great fall would have been instantly fatal.\n\n\"Try again, Terrapin; try again, my brother.  Another time and you will\nsucceed,\" cried Miss Crane, mockingly.\n\nTerrapin slowly recovered his faculties from the second fall, and\nexclaimed, \"Ah, Crane, Crane.  If I heed you a second time, call me\nfool.  Yesterday and to-day you triumphed, to-morrow will be my turn.\"\n\n\"_Kwa-le, kwa-le_,\" Miss Crane shrilly cried.  \"My tree will stand\nto-morrow where it stood to-day.  You know the way to it; if not, your\nhate will find it.\"\n\nTerrapin toddled away upon this to seek the Lion, to whom, when he had\nfound him, he pleaded so powerfully that the Lion pitied him greatly,\nand answered, \"I may not help you in this matter, for I was not made to\nclimb trees.  Go you, and tell Jackal your story, and he will be able to\nadvise you.\"\n\nActing on the friendly advice, Terrapin sought out the Jackal, to whom\nhe repeated his lamentable tale.  The Jackal rewarded him with a\nsympathetic sigh, and said, \"Friend Terrapin, my teeth are sharp and my\nfeet are swift, but, though I am so happily endowed, I have no wings to\nfly.  Go and seek Elephant.  His strength is so great that perhaps he\nwill be able to pull the tree down for you.\"\n\nTerrapin proceeded on his way to search out the Elephant, and, after\nmuch patient travel, discovered him brooding under a thick shade.  To\nhim at once Terrapin unburdened his breast of its load of grief, and\nappealed piteously for his assistance.\n\n\"Little Terrapin,\" replied the kindly Elephant, \"your tale is dour.  But\nthough I am strong, there are some things that I cannot do.  Miss\nCrane's house is built on one of the biggest trees of the forest, and it\nwould require two score of elephants to drag it down.  It is wisdom, and\nnot strength, that you need.  Go you and seek Serpent, and he will\nassist you.\"\n\nThence Terrapin went to seek Serpent, and, after long seeking, found him\ncoiled, in many shining folds, in the fork of a sturdy tree.\n\n\"Ah, Serpent,\" he cried, \"you are a kinsman of mine, and I have long\nsought you.  I am in dire distress, my friend,\" and he proceeded to\ninveigh against Miss Crane passionately, and concluded by invoking his\nassistance.\n\n\"Help me this day,\" cried Terrapin, \"and you shall be my father and my\nmother, and all my nearest relations in one.\"\n\n\"It is well,\" replied the Serpent, in his slow, deliberate manner.\n\"Miss Crane shall die, and here I make a pact with you.  There shall be\nno enmity for all future time between your family and mine.  Go now, and\nrest in peace, for the fate of Crane is fixed.\"\n\nIn the darkness of the night Serpent roused himself from his sleep and,\nuncoiling himself, descended the tree and glided noiselessly along the\nground towards Miss Crane's tree.  The tall clean shaft could not arrest\nthose spiring movements, and the Serpent steadily ascended until he\ngained the fork.  Thence, by an almost imperceptible motion, he advanced\ntowards the nest.  Poor Miss Crane was fast asleep, dreaming of the fall\nof Terrapin, while the Serpent folded his extremity around a stout\nbranch and stood up prepared to strike.  Quick as one could wink the\nSerpent flung himself upon the bird-queen, and in a moment she lay\ncrushed and mangled.  Then, seizing her body with his jaws, the Serpent\nslid down the shaft of the tree and sought Terrapin's house, and laid\nher remains before him.  Terrapin was overjoyed, and invited Serpent to\nshare with him the dainty feast which the body of Miss Crane supplied.\n\nFrom that day to this Serpent and Terrapin have remained close friends,\nand neither has ever been known to break the solemn agreement that was\nmade between them on that day that Terrapin solicited the help of\nSerpent against the bird-queen.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER THIRTEEN.\n\nTHE LEGEND OF KIBATTI THE LITTLE WHO CONQUERED ALL THE GREAT ANIMALS.\n\nI have done my very best to translate this story as closely as possible\nin order to give the faithful sense of what was said, yet I despair of\nrendering the little touches and flourishes which Kadu knew so well how\nto give with voice, gesture, and mobile face.\n\n\"Friends and freemen,\" he said, when we were all in listening attitude,\n\"if a son of man knows how to show anger, I need not tell you who are\nexperienced in travel and in the nature of beasts, that the animals of\nthe wilds also know how to show their spite and their passions.\"  The\nlegend of Kibatti runs upon this.\n\nOn a day ages ago the great animals of the world, consisting of the\nelephant, the rhinoceros, the buffalo, the lion, the leopard, and hyena,\nassembled in council in the midst of a forest not far from a village on\nthe frontier of Uganda.  The elephant being acknowledged by general\nconsent as the strongest, presided on the occasion.\n\nWaving his trunk, and trumpeting to enjoin silence, he said: \"Friends,\nwe are gathered together to-day to consider how we may repay in some\nmeasure the injuries daily done to us and our kin by the sons of men.\nNot far from here is situated a village, whence the vicious two-footed\nanimals issue out to make war upon all of us, who possess double the\nnumber of feet they have.  Without warning of hostility or publishing of\ncause, they deliberately leave their conical nests, day by day, with\nfellest intent against any of us whom they may happen to meet during the\nshining of the sun.  Wherefore we are met upon common grounds to devise\nhow we may retaliate upon them the wanton outrages they daily perpetrate\nupon our unfortunate kind.  Personally, I have many injuries to the\nelephants of my tribe to remember, and which I am not likely to forget.\nIt was only a week ago that a promising child of my sister fell into a\ndeep pit, and was impaled on a short stake set in the bottom of it; and\nbut a few days before my youngest brother fell head-foremost into a\nhorribly deep excavation that was dug, and which was artfully concealed\nby leaves and grass, whereby none but those, like myself, experienced in\ntheir guileful arts, could have escaped.  Ye have all, I daresay, been\nsimilarly persecuted, and have deep injuries to revenge.  I wait to hear\nwhat ye propose.  Brother Rhinoceros, thou art the next to me in bigness\nand strength, speak.\"\n\n\"Well, brother Elephant and friends, the words we have heard are true.\nThe son of man is, of all creatures that I know, the most wanton in\noffence against us of the four-footed tribes.  Not a day passes but I\nhear moan and plaint from some sufferer.  Not long ago, a cousin,\nwalking quietly through a wood not far from here, caught his foot in a\nvine that lay across the path, and almost immediately after a hardened\nand pointed stake was precipitated from above deep into the jointure of\nthe neck with the spine, which killed him instantly, of course.  I have,\nby wonderful good luck, escaped thus far, but it may be my fate to fall\nto-morrow through some foul practice.  Wherefore, I think it were well\nthat we set about doing what we decide to do instanter.  I propose that\nearly in the morning, before a glint of sunshine be seen, we set upon\nthe piratical nest and utterly destroy it.  I am so loaded with hate of\nthem, that I could dispose of the half of the rascals myself, before\nthey could recover their wits.  But if any of ye here has a better plan,\nI lend my ears to the hearing of it, my heart to the approval of it, and\nmy strength and fury to the doing of it, without further speech.  I have\nspoken.\"\n\n\"Now, friend Lion,\" said the Elephant, turning solemnly to him, \"it is\nthy turn, and say freely what thy wit conceives in this matter.  Thy\ncourage we all know, and none of us doubt that thy mind is equal to it.\"\n\n\"Truly, friend Elephant, and ye others, the business we are met to\nconsider is pressing.  The sons of men are crafty, and their guile is\nbeyond measure.  The four-footed tribes have much cause of grievance\nagainst me and mine.  However, none can accuse me or my family of having\ntaken undue advantage of those whom we meditate striking.  We always\ngive loud warning, as you all know, and afterwards strike; for if we did\nnot do this, few of even the strongest would escape our vengeance.  But\nthese pestilent, two-footed beasts--by net, trap, falling stake, pit, or\nnoose--are unceasing in their secret malice, and there is no safety in\nthe plain, bush, or rock-fastness against their wiles.  For what I and\nmy kin do there is good motive--that of providing meat for ourselves and\nyoung; but it passes my wit to discover what the son of man can want\nwith all he destroys.  Even our bones--as, for instance, thy long teeth,\nO Elephant--they carry away with them, and even mine.  I have seen the\nyounglings of mankind dangle the teeth of my sister round their necks,\nand my hide appears to be so precious that the king of the village wears\nit over his dirty black loins.  Thy tribe, O Elephant, have not much\ncause of complaint against me, and thou, Rhinoceros, it would tax thy\nmemory to accuse me of aught against thy family.  Brother Leopard will\nhold me and mine guiltless of harm to him; so also must my cousin Hyena.\nFriend Buffalo and our family have sometimes a sharp quarrel, but there\nis no malice in it, I swear.  Whereas the son of man, friends, is the\ncommon enemy of us all--it is either our flesh, or our fur, or our hide,\nor our teeth that he is wanting, and his whole thought is bent upon\ndestruction pure and simple.  If ye would follow me, I would glory in\nleading ye even now against the community, and I give ye my word that\nfew would escape my paw and claw.  However, as our object is to destroy\nall, that none may escape, I agree with my friend Rhinoceros that\nnight-time at its blackest is safest.  Wherefore believe me that I am so\nsharp set for revenge, and I feel so hollow, that nothing but the half\nof all of them will satisfy my thirst for their blood.  I have ended my\nsay.\"\n\n\"Now, friend Leopard, thou hadst better follow thy cousin, and we will\nfeel obliged to thee for the benefit of thy advice,\" said the Elephant.\n\nLeopard gave his tail a quick twirl, and licked his chops and spoke:\n\n\"All that ye, my friends and cousin, have said, I heartily agree and\nbear witness to.  The spite of the son of man towards us is limitless.\nIt is remarkable, too, for its cold-bloodedness and lack of passion.  We\nhave our own quarrels in the woods--as ye all know--and they are sharp\nand quick while they last, but there is no premeditation or malignity in\nwhat we do to one another; but Man, to whom we would rather give a wide\nberth, if possible, pursues each of us as if his existence depended upon\nthe mere slaying, though I observe that he has abundance of fruit, which\nought to satisfy any reasonable being of the ape tribe.  Wherefore, as I\nhave many sharp reasons for retaliation on him for his countless\noffences against me and my kin, I gladly attended this council, and I\nwill go as far as any of ye, and further if I can, to return some of\nthis spite on him and his tribe.  I propose that night at its darkest is\nbest for our plan.  While the human folk are indulging in dreams of\nslaughter of us, I vote that we turn their dreams into action against\nthemselves.  The elephant, and rhinoceros, and buffalo are strong; let\neach lead his tribe to attack, overturn, and trample down their nests.\nWe, with our families, will range round and slaughter every one that\nescapes them.  Those are my words.\"\n\n\"Now, friend Buffalo, what sayest thou?\" demanded the Elephant.  \"Thou\nart a staunch friend and stout foe.  We cannot but listen with respect\nto such an one as thyself.\"\n\n\"Ah, friend Elephant, and ye chiefs of tribes, every sentiment of\nhostility against the vile and spiteful sons of man that ye have\nexpressed finds an echo in my inwards.  If wrong has been done to any\nhere, magnify that wrong tenfold in order that ye may understand the\nintensity of the hate I bear the remorseless destroyers of my kith and\nkin.  Ask me not how I would slay them, my fury is so great that I am\nunfit to devise.  Do ye the devising, and give the method to me.  All I\ncan think of now is the pleasure I shall feel when my horns are warmed\nin the bodies of the base and treacherous creatures who have murdered\nwife, brother, sister, and child of mine, besides a countless number of\nmy kindred by lance and line, spear and snare, sword and stake, trick\nand trap.  I will lead my herd into the midst of the vicious community\nwith a joy that only my hate can match.  That is all I have to say.\"\n\n\"Now, my good friend Hyena.  Thou art the only one left whose sentiments\nare as yet unknown.  Speak, and let us hear wisdom from thee in this\nmatter.\"\n\nThe Hyena uttered a mocking laugh, and said: \"My kind friends and\ncousins: The night suits me well, for I am in my element then.  I may\nsay that I have a large family which is always hungry.  It will be a\nlaughing matter to them indeed to hear of your good purpose.  It has\nbeen long delayed, this signal measure of just vengeance upon those who\nhave outdone in cold cruelty all that generations of the four-footed\ntribe of the fiercest kind have done.  Bird and beast, from the smallest\nto the greatest, have fallen victims to man's lust for destruction.\nTrue, my kind are often indebted to man for bones and refuse, but what\nwe have eaten has been sorely against his good will; and we therefore\nowe him no gratitude.  The young of the human community will be juicy\nmorsels for my tribe, when the signal is given for the attack.  With all\nmy heart I say let it be to-night.  I have said my say.\"\n\nThe Elephant then said: \"Friends, chiefs of the most powerful tribes of\nthe forest, let it be to-night, as ye say.  Let each go and muster his\nforces, and let the attack be in the following manner.  Half-way betwixt\ndawn and midnight I will lead my troop from the Uganda side.  The\nRhinoceros will lead his from the Katonga side.  The Buffalo will range\nhis tribe along that side facing Unyoro.  Behind my troop the Hyena and\nhis families shall follow to finish those who may be but bruised by our\nheavy hoofs.  Let Leopard place his fellows and kin in rear of the\nRhinoceros troop.  Lion and his great tribe are needed in rear of\nBuffalo's forces, for they are apt in their fury to overlook the crafty\nbipeds.  Our object is to make a complete job of it.  The sooner we part\nnow, the fitter each will be for the perfect consummation of his\nlong-deferred revenge.\"\n\nIt was well past midnight when the four-footed forces were gathered\naround the doomed village, and, at the shrill trumpet-note of the King\nElephant, the several chiefs led their respective troops at the charge.\nThe elephants tore on resistlessly, trampling down the doomed cages of\nthe human folk flat and level with the ground.  The rhinoceros and his\nhost pushed on with noses low down, and tossed the human nests as we\nwould kick an empty egg-basket; the buffaloes bellowed in unison, and,\nclosing their eyes, threw themselves upon the huts, and gored everything\nwithin reach of their horns.  Then the fierce carnivora, all excitement\nat the prospect of the bloody feast, roared, snarled, and laughed as\nthey tore the mangled victims piecemeal.  Ah, poor village, and poor\npeople!  In a short time the dreaming souls dreamed no more, but were\ngone past recall into the regions where dreams are unknown--all\nexcepting one clever boy named Kibatti, and his parents, who survived\nthe calamity.  These happened to live in a tiny hut close hidden by a\ngrove of bananas on the edge of the forest, and Kibatti about midnight\nhad been disturbed in his sleep by a pressure on his stomach which woke\nhim, and denied him further sleep.  He therefore sat sorrowing over the\nred embers of his fire, when he heard the hollow tramp of large animals,\nand pricking his ears, he heard trampling in another direction;\nwhereupon his suspicions that something unusual was about to happen grew\non him, so that he woke his parents, and bade them listen to the\nrumbling sounds that could be heard by such experienced hunters all\naround them.\n\n\"Father, come, delay not! make mother rise at once.  This night my sleep\nhas been broken as a warning to me that mischief is brewing.  Let us\nascend the big tree near by and observe.\"\n\n\"Child, you are right,\" said his father, after listening a moment; \"the\ndemons of the wilderness are gathered against the village, for human\nenemies make no such stir as this.  We will ascend the great tree at\nonce.\"\n\nThereupon he drew his wife out.\n\nKibatti wriggled himself through the burrow under the milkweed hedge\ninto the banana-grove, and having gained its deep shadows, raced for the\ngreat tree, closely followed by his parents.  A large vine hung pendant,\nand up this vine Kibatti climbed, his mother after him, the old man\nlast.  Not a moment too soon, for just then the trumpet-note of the King\nElephant was heard, and afterwards such a concert of noises that neither\nKibatti nor his aged father had ever heard the like before.  In the\nstarlight they saw the huge forms of all kinds of furious animals pass\nand repass below them; but clinging closely to the shelter of the giant\nlimbs of the tree, they, from their safe perch, witnessed the dreadful\nending of their friends and relatives.\n\nWhen he fully realised the catastrophe and its completeness, Kibatti\nsuggested to his parents that they should ascend to the very highest\nfork, lest they should be observed in the morning, and on climbing up\nthey found a snug hiding-place far above, hidden all round by the thick,\nfleshy leaves of the tree.  There they remained quiet until morning,\nwhen the boy's restless curiosity became so strong that he resolved to\ngratify it.  Grasping close a great limb of the tree, he descended as\nfar as the lower fork and looked down.  He saw all the huts smashed, and\nthe bones of his tribe white and gleaming, scattered about.  The fences\nwere all levelled, but the elephants, under their leader, were\nre-setting the poles round about.  The lions were pacing watchfully\naround, the rhinoceroses and buffaloes were herded separately, gazing\nupon the elephants, the leopards were lying down under the trees in\nscattered groups, the hyenas were crunching bones, for these last never\nknow when they have eaten enough.\n\nKibatti kept his post all day.  By night the poles fenced the village\nround about as before, and in the dusk he saw the gathering together of\nall the creatures in a circle round the King Elephant, to hear his\nrumbling voice delivering an harangue to the motley allies.  When it was\nended the lions roared, the rhinoceroses snorted, the buffaloes\nbellowed, the hyenas laughed, and the shrill trumpetings of the\nelephants announced that the meeting was over.  What occurred after,\nKibatti did not stay to learn, but climbed aloft to give the news to his\nanxious parents.\n\nSaid he, \"It appears to me, father, that they are going to build the\nvillage up again, for they have already fenced it around even better, as\nI think, than it was before.  Those animals have clever leaders, that is\ncertain, but I am not a man-son if Kibatti does not get the better of\nsome of them.\"\n\n\"Oh, you are clever, my child, that is true,\" said the old man.\n\"Whatever you undertake to do, done it is.  I have found out that long\nago.  If wit will get us out of this place of danger, I have a\nconviction it will be by yours, and not by mine, or by my old woman's.\"\n\n\"I do not purpose to leave the tree just yet, father,\" replied Kibatti.\n\"If we keep quiet, we could not find a safer place than here.  The tree\nis so tall that they cannot hear us talk unless they set their ears to\nlisten at the foot of it, and against all that may happen we must\nprovide ourselves.\"\n\n\"Give your confidence to me, boy, and let me judge of your plan,\" said\nthe father.\n\n\"Well, my idea is this.  To-night they will all start off, some to catch\nthe lesser prey, others to graze and feed.  The leaders, of course, will\nremain behind.  I propose, after getting three or four winks of sleep,\nto go down to the gate and discover how things are.  If possible, I will\ntry and get my net-ropes.  They will be useful for my purpose.  We may\ntrap some game, you know.\"\n\n\"I see, I see, my boy.  That is a good idea.  Shall I help you?\"\n\n\"Not to-night, father, except you keep watch until yonder bright star\nstands overhead.\"\n\nThe old man agreed to keep watch until the star approached the zenith.\nA little after midnight Kibatti was waked, and having given his father\ninjunctions to go to sleep, he descended.  He proceeded straight to his\nhouse, and among the wreckage he found his strong nets and their ropes,\nand his sharp hunting-knife, besides his father's five spears and his\nown quiver.  These weapons he conveyed directly to the tree, and bore\nthem up to the lower fork.  This done, he re-descended the tree and\ncrawled away to a bit of marsh-land not far off, where there was a\ncrane's nest which contained some eggs.  He took these in his hand, and\nwent around through the bushes to the Unyoro Road.  All this had been\ndone very quickly, because, being a hunter, he knew the neighbourhood\nwell, and while watching the animals in the village, his mind had been\nbusy forming his plans.  Now when he came to the Unyoro Road, he stood\nstraight up and strode rapidly in the direction of the village which had\nbeen that of his tribe.  Arriving near it he crawled up to the gate and\nlooked in, then traced the fence all around until he came back to the\nsame gate.\n\nKibatti now stood up and hailed the animals, crying loud,\n\n\"Hullo, hullo there!  Are ye all asleep?  Will ye not let a poor\nbenighted stranger in?  The night is cold, and I am hungry.\"\n\nKing Buffalo, who was on guard, trotted up to the gate, and looking out\nsaw a small boy who was naked, except for a scant robe which depended\nfrom his shoulders.\n\n\"Who art thou?\" demanded the buffalo in his gruffest voice.\n\nKibatti answered in the thin voice of a fatherless and starving orphan.\n\n\"It is I, Kibatti the Little, from Unyoro.\"\n\n\"What dost thou want?\"\n\n\"Only a little fire to roast my eggs, and a place to sleep.  I am a\nforest-boy, and live alone in Unyoro.  My parents are both dead, and I\nhave no home.  If you will give me work I will stay with you; for then I\nshall have plenty to eat.  If not, let me sleep here to-night, and in\nthe morning I will go.\"\n\n\"What work canst thou do?\"\n\n\"Not much, but I can fetch water and fuel.\"\n\n\"Wait a minute, I will see if our people will let thee in.\"\n\nThe buffalo moved away and woke up the rhinoceros, the elephant, the\nlion, the leopard, and hyena, and told them that there was a little\nforest-boy seeking a night's lodging.  At first the general belief was,\nthat he belonged to the tribe which had owned the village, but the\nbuffalo denied that this boy could have known of the country, as he had\ncome boldly up to the gate from the Unyoro road; besides, was it likely\nthat a small boy, knowing what had happened, would ever have come back\nwhen those who had destroyed the village were in possession of it?  This\nlast remark settled the matter.  King Elephant said,\n\n\"As thou wilt, Buffalo.  Even if the matter were otherwise, a small boy\ncan do no harm.  Let him in.  We will give him plenty of work.\"\n\nKing Buffalo opened the gate and allowed Kibatti to enter, and\nintroduced him to his friends, King Elephant and the rest, all of whom\nsmiled as they saw his slender and small form, the only human amongst\nthem.  Buffalo took very kindly to his protege and showed him around,\nwhile Kibatti amused him with his innocent unsophisticated prattle,\nwhich convinced the kingly bovine that little Kibatti was indeed a\nwild-wood waif.\n\n\"And where do you all sleep?\" asked Kibatti of Buffalo.\n\n\"I sleep here, near the gate, King Elephant rests near that big tree.\nKing Lion prefers lying near that great log there, Brother Rhinoceros\nthrows himself down on the edge of the banana-grove, Leopard curls\nhimself near the fence, and Hyena snores stupidly near his pile of\nbones.\"\n\nAfter a little while Buffalo lay down near the gate for a little rest.\nKibatti stretched himself near him, but not to sleep.  His eyes were\nquite open, and he soon saw Buffalo's nose rest upon the ground and his\nhead sway from side to side.  Kibatti then untied a cord, and stealthily\npassing it round the four legs of the buffalo, drew the other end round\nthe neck in a slip noose without waking him.  He then crawled off\ntowards the elephant, and tied his four legs together, gently tightening\nthe slip noose, and fastening the rope three or four times running\nround, and brought them all together.  To the rhinoceros he did the\nsame.  He then went out of the gate and brought his bundle of nets.  He\ntook one up, fastened one end to the fence, and drawing it lightly like\na curtain over the form of the sleeping lion, just hung it on splinters\nand projections of the fence.  In like manner he secured a net over the\nleopard, and another over the hyena.  All this did clever little Kibatti\nwithout waking any of them.  He then stole out of the gate a second\ntime, and made his way to the tree where his parents were sleeping.\n\n\"Come, father,\" he said, \"the kings of the herds are trapped and netted.\nBring down mother to the lower fork, and come, do you hasten with me\nwith a bundle of spears, two bows, and quivers full of arrows, for we\nmust finish the game before morning.\"\n\nCompletely armed with spears and arrows, Kibatti led his father to the\ngate, and stealthily entered the fenced enclosure, and they stood over\nthe still-sleeping buffalo.  Kibatti gave his father a sharp-pointed\nspear, and gently laying his finger on the vital spot, between neck and\nhead, showed him where to strike.  The father lifted his right arm high\nup, and with one stroke severed the spinal cord.  A shiver passed\nthrough King Buffalo's body, and he rolled over stone dead.\n\nThen Kibatti and his father approached King Lion, who lay lengthways\nnear the log by the fence, with his side exposed.  Kibatti pointed to\nhis own left side behind the shoulder-blade, and father and son drew\ntheir bows and drove two arrows into Lion's heart, who sprang up and\nthrew himself like a ball into the net, which closed round him taut, and\nhe presently lay still and lifeless.  In the same manner father and son\ndespatched Leopard and Hyena.  There then only remained Rhinoceros and\nElephant.\n\nThey chose to attack the first-named beast, who was still lying down on\nhis side, unconscious of the tragic fate of his confederates.\n\nKibatti pointed to the enemy's fore-shoulder and touched his father with\nhis finger two inches below the shoulder-blade.  His father understood,\nand launched his spear straight into the body with such force that the\nblade was buried.  King Rhinoceros, feeling the iron in his vitals,\nsnorted and struggled to stand, but in doing so tightened the cords, and\nfell back rolling half over.  Kibatti drew his bow and buried an arrow\nclose to his father's buried spear.  Meantime, King Elephant had taken\nthe alarm, and, struggling with his bonds, had capsized himself on the\nground.\n\nKibatti gave vent to a war whoop and cried:\n\n\"Never mind, father, let the rhinoceros die.  Let us away to the\nelephant while he is helpless.\"\n\nThey sprang to the prostrate beast, and they shot their arrows first to\nevery vital point exposed, and then launched their spears with such good\neffect that before long the last of the kings of the beasts had ended\nhis life.\n\nKibatti and his father then flew to where the old woman crouched in the\nfork of the tree, and taking her with them, they left the ruined\nvillage, and sought a home in another district, where, because of the\nterrible revenge they had taken on the forest lords, they were held by\ntheir fellow-creatures all their lives in great esteem.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FOURTEEN.\n\nTHE PARTNERSHIP OF RABBIT AND ELEPHANT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.\n\nIn 1876, while we were travelling towards the Albert Edward Nyanza,\nSabadu and Bujomba and others of our Waganda escort would join us at our\nevening fire, and when they found what entertainment was to be had, they\nreadily yielded to the invitation to contribute their share to it.\nBesides, Sabadu was unequalled in the art of story-telling: he was\nfluent and humorous, while his mimicry of the characters he described\nkept everybody's interest on the alert.  To the Rabbit of course he gave\na wee thin voice, to the Elephant he gave a deep bass, to the Buffalo a\nhollow mooing.  When he attempted the Lion, the veins of his temple and\nneck were dreadfully distended as he made the effort; but when he\nmimicked the Dog, one almost expected a little terrier-like dog to trot\nup to the fire, so perfect was his yaup-yaup.\n\nEvery one agreed as Sabadu began his story that his manner, even his\nstyle of sitting and smoothing his face, the pose of his head, betrayed\nthe man of practice.  The following is his story:--\n\nIn Willimesi, Uganda, a Rabbit and an Elephant, coming from different\ndirections, met on a road one day, and being old friends, stopped to\ngreet one another, and chat about the weather and the crops, and to\nexchange opinions on the state of trade.  Finally the Rabbit proposed\nthat the Elephant should join him in a partnership to make a little\ntrading expedition to the Watusi shepherds, \"because,\" said he, \"I hear\nthere are some good chances to make profit among them.  Cloth, I am\ntold, is very scarce there, and I think we might find a good bargain\nawaiting us.\"  The Elephant was nothing loth, and closed with the offer\nof his little friend, and a couple of bales of assorted goods were\nprepared for the journey.\n\nThey set out on particularly good terms with each other, and Rabbit, who\nhad a good store of experiences, amused the Elephant greatly.  By-and-by\nthe pair of friends arrived at a river, and the Elephant, to whom the\nwater was agreeable, stepped in to cross it, but halted on hearing\nRabbit exclaim:\n\n\"Why, Elephant, you surely are not going to cross without me?  Are we\nnot partners?\"\n\n\"Of course we are partners, but I did not agree to carry you or your\npack.  Why don't you step right in?  The water is not deep, it scarcely\ncovers my feet.\"\n\n\"But, you stupid fellow, can you not see that what will scarcely cover\nyour feet is more than enough to drown me, and I can't swim a bit; and,\nbesides, if I get my fur wet I shall catch the ague, and how ever am I\nto carry my pack across?\"\n\n\"Well, I cannot help that.  It was you who proposed to take the journey,\nand I thought a wise fellow like you would have known that there were\nrivers running across the road, and that you knew what to do.  If you\ncannot travel, then good-bye.  I cannot stop here all day,\" and the\nElephant walked on across to the other side.\n\n\"Surly rascal,\" muttered Rabbit.  \"All right, my big friend, I will pay\nyou for it some time.\"\n\nNot far off, however, Rabbit found a log, and after placing his pack on\nit, he paddled himself over, and reached the other bank safely; but to\nhis grief he discovered that his bale had been wetted and damaged.\n\nRabbit wiped the water up as much as possible, and resumed the journey\nwith the Elephant, who had looked carelessly on the efforts of his\nfriend to cross the river.\n\nFortunately for Rabbit, the latter part of the journey did not present\nsuch difficulties, and they arrived in due time among the Watusi\nshepherds.\n\nNow at a trade Elephant was not to be compared with Rabbit, for he could\nnot talk so pleasantly as Rabbit, and he was not at all sociable.\nRabbit went among the women, and laughed and joked with them, and said\nso many funny things, that they were delighted with him, and when at\nlast the trade question was cautiously touched upon, a chief's wife was\nso kind to him, that she gave a mighty fine cow in exchange for his\nlittle bale of cloth.  Elephant, on the other hand, went among the men,\nand simply told them that he had come to buy cattle with cloth.  The\nWatusi shepherds, not liking his appearance or his manner, said they had\nno cattle to sell, but if he cared to have it, they would give a\nyear-old heifer for his bale.  Though Elephant's bale was a most weighty\none, and many times more valuable than Rabbit's, yet as he was so gruff\nand ugly, he was at last obliged to be satisfied with the little heifer.\n\nJust as they had left the Watusi to begin their return journey, Elephant\nsaid to Rabbit, \"Now mind, should we meet anyone on the road, and we are\nasked whose cattle these are, I wish you to oblige me by saying that\nthey are mine, because I should not like people to believe that I am not\nas good a trader us yourself.  They will also be afraid to touch them if\nthey know they belong to me; whereas, if they hear that they belong to\nyou, every fellow will think he has as good a right to them as yourself,\nand you dare not defend your property.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" replied Rabbit, \"I quite understand.\"\n\nIn a little while, as Rabbit and Elephant drove their cattle along, they\nmet many people coming from market who stopped and admired them, and\nsaid, \"Ah, what a fine cow is that! to whom does it belong?\"\n\n\"It belongs to me,\" answered the thin voice of Rabbit.  \"The little one\nbelongs to Elephant.\"\n\n\"Very fine indeed.  A good cow that,\" replied the people, and passed on.\n\nVexed and annoyed, Elephant cried angrily to Rabbit, \"Why did you not\nanswer as I told you?  Now mind, do as I tell you at the next meeting\nwith strangers.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" answered Rabbit, \"I will try and remember.\"\n\nBy-and-by they met another party going home with fowls and palm wine,\nwho, when they came up, said, \"Ah that is a fine beast, and in prime\norder.  Whose is it?\"\n\n\"It is mine,\" quickly replied Rabbit, \"and the little scabby heifer\nbelongs to Elephant.\"\n\nThis answer enraged Elephant, who said, \"What an obstinate little fool\nyou are.  Did you not hear me ask you to say it was mine?  Now,\nremember, you are to say so next time, or I leave you to find your own\nway home, because I know you are a horrible little coward.\"\n\n\"Very well, I'll do it next time,\" replied Rabbit in a meek voice.\n\nIn a short time they met another crowd, which stopped when opposite to\nthem, and the people said, \"Really, that is an exceedingly fine cow.  To\nwhich of you does it belong?\"\n\n\"It is mine.  I bought it from the Watusi,\" replied Rabbit.\n\nThe Elephant was so angry this time, that he broke away from Rabbit, and\ndrove his little heifer by another road, and to Lion, and Hyena, and\nBuffalo, and Leopard, whom he met, he said what a fine fat cow was being\ndriven by cowardly little Rabbit along the other road.  He did this out\nof mere spite, hoping that some one of them would be tempted to take it\nby force from Rabbit.\n\nBut Rabbit was wise, and had seen the spite in Elephant's face as he\nwent off, and was sure that he would play him some unkind trick; and, as\nnight was falling and his home was far, and he knew that there were many\nvagabonds lying in wait to rob poor travellers, he reflected that if his\nwit failed to save him he would be in great danger.\n\nTrue enough, it was not long before a big blustering lion rose from the\nside of the road, and cried out, \"Hello, you there.  Where are you going\nwith that cow?  Come, speak out.\"\n\n\"Ah, is that you, Lion?  I am taking it to Mugassa (the deity), who is\nabout to give a feast to all his friends, and he told me particularly to\ninvite you to share it, if I should meet you.\"\n\n\"Eh?  What?  To Mugassa?  Oh, well, I am proud to have met you, Rabbit.\nAs I am not otherwise engaged I will accompany you, because everyone\nconsiders it an honour to wait upon Mugassa.\"\n\nThey proceeded a little further, and a bouncing buffalo came up and\nbellowed fiercely.  \"You, Rabbit, stop,\" said he.  \"Where are you taking\nthat cow to?\"\n\n\"I am taking it to Mugassa, don't you know.  How would a little fellow\nlike me have the courage to go so far from home if it were not that I am\non service for Mugassa?  I am charged also to tell you, Buffalo, that if\nyou like to join in the feast Mugassa is about to give, he will be glad\nto have you as a guest.\"\n\n\"Oh, well, that is good news indeed.  I will come along now, Rabbit, and\nam very glad to have met you.  How do you do, Lion?\"\n\nA short distance off the party met a huge rogue elephant, who stood in\nthe middle of the road, and demanded to know where the cow was being\ntaken, in a tone which required a quick answer.\n\n\"Now, Elephant, get out of the way.  This cow is being taken to Mugassa,\nwho will be angry with you if I am delayed.  Have you not heard of the\nfeast he is about to give?  By the bye, as you are one of the guests,\nyou might as well help me to drive this cow, and let me get on your\nback, for I am dreadfully tired.\"\n\n\"Why, that's grand,\" said the Elephant, \"I shall be delighted to feast\nwith Mugassa, and--come get on my back.  I will carry you with pleasure.\nAnd, Rabbit,\" whispered Elephant, as he lifted him by his trunk, \"don't\nforget to speak a good word for me to Mugassa.\"\n\nSoon a leopard and then a hyena were met, but seeing such a powerful\ncrowd behind the cow, they affected great civility, and were invited to\naccompany Rabbit's party to Mugassa's feast.\n\nIt was quite dark by the time they arrived at Rabbit's village.  At the\ngate stood two dogs, who were Rabbit's chums, and they barked furiously;\nbut hearing their friend's voice, they came up and welcomed Rabbit.\n\nThe party halted, and Rabbit, after reaching the ground, whispered to\nDogs how affairs stood, and Dogs wagged their tails approvingly, and\nyauped with fun as they heard of Rabbit's wit.  It did not take long for\nDogs to understand what was required of them, and one of them bounded\noff to the village, and after a short time returned with a pretended\nmessage from the great Mugassa.\n\n\"Well, my friends, do you hear what Mugassa says?\" cried Rabbit, with a\nvoice of importance.\n\n\"Dogs are to lay mats inside the village by the gate, and the cow is to\nbe killed, and the meat prepared nicely and laid on the mats.  And when\nthat is done, Mugassa himself will come and give each his portion.  He\nsays that you are all very welcome.\n\n\"Now listen to me before I go in to Mugassa, and I will show you how you\ncan all help to hurry the feast, for I am sure you are all anxious to\nbegin.\n\n\"You, Hyena, you must kill the cow, and dress the meat, and Dogs will\ncarry it in and lay it on the mats; but remember, if a bit is touched\nbefore Mugassa commands, we are all ruined.\n\n\"You, Elephant, you take this brass hatchet of Mugassa's, and split wood\nnicely for the hearth.\n\n\"Buffalo, you go and find a wood with a smooth bark and which burns\nwell, and bring it to Elephant.\n\n\"Leopard, you go to the banana plantation, and watch for the falling\nleaf and catch it with your eyelids, in order that we may have proper\nplates.\n\n\"Lion, my friend, do you go and fill this pot from the spring, and bring\nwater that Mugassa may wash his hands.\"\n\nHaving issued his instructions, Rabbit went strutting into the village;\nbut after he had gone a little way he darted aside, and passing through\na side door, went out and came creeping up towards an ant-hill.  On the\ntop was a tuft of grass, and from his hiding-place he commanded a view\nof the gate, and of all who might come near it.\n\nNow Buffalo could only find one log with smooth bark, and Dogs shouted\nout to Buffalo that one log was not enough to roast or to boil the meat,\nand he returned to hunt up some more.\n\nElephant struck the log with his brass hatchet, which was broken at the\nfirst blow, and there was nothing else with which to cut the wood.\n\nLeopard watched and watched for falling leaves, but failed to see any.\n\nLion's pot had a hole in the bottom, and he could never keep it full,\nthough he tried ever so many times.\n\nMeanwhile Hyena having killed the cow and dressed the meat beautifully,\nsaid to Dogs, \"Now, my friends, the meat is ready.  What shall I do?\"\n\n\"You can help us carry the meat in, and lay it on the mats, if you like,\nfor Mugassa must see it before anybody can touch it.\"\n\n\"Ah, but I feel extremely hungry, and my mouth waters so that I am sick\nwith longing.  May we not go shares and eat a little bit?  It looks very\nnice and fat,\" whined the Hyena.\n\n\"Ah, no, we should not dare do such a thing.  We have long ago left the\nwoods, and its habits, and are unfit for anything but human society; but\nif you were allowed to eat any, you could fly into the woods, and we\nshould have all the blame.  No, no, come, help us carry it inside.  You\nwill not have to wait long.\"\n\nThe Hyena was obliged to obey, but contrived to hide in the grass some\nof the tripe.  Rabbit, from behind his tuft of grass, saw it all, and\nwinked in the dark.\n\nWhen the meat was in, Dogs said, \"It is all right now.  Just stay\noutside until the other fellows arrive.\"\n\nHyena retired, and when he was outside of the gate searched for his\ntripe, and lay down quietly to enjoy it, but as he was about to bite it,\nRabbit screamed, \"Ah, you thief, Hyena.  You thief, I see you.  Stop\nthief, Mugassa is coming.\"\n\nThese cries so alarmed Hyena that he dropped his tripe, and fled away as\nfast as his legs could carry him, and the others, Buffalo, Elephant,\nLion, and Leopard, tired out with waiting, and hearing these alarming\ncries, also ran away, leaving Rabbit and his dog friends in quiet\npossession.  They carried the tripe into the village, and closed the\ngate and barred it, after which they laughed loud and long, Rabbit\nrolling on the ground over and over with the fun of it all.\n\nMy friends, Rabbit was the smallest of all, but by his wisdom he was\nmore than a match for two Elephants, Buffalo, Leopard, Lion, Hyena, and\nall.  And even his friends, the Dogs, had to confess that Rabbit's wit\ncould not be matched.  That is my tale.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER FIFTEEN.\n\nTHE ADVENTURES OF SARUTI.\n\n\"I have a poor memory for legends,\" said Bujomba, one night, while we\nwere in camp at Benga: \"but I remember what a young Mtongole (colonel)\nnamed Saruti related to Mtesa after his return from an expedition to the\nfrontier of Unyoro.  What a head that man had, and such eyes!  Mtesa was\never fond of a good story, and loved to question those whom he sent to\ndistant countries, until you might say that there was nothing left in a\nman worth hearing after he had done with him.  But Saruti did not need\nany questioning.  He talked on and on without stopping, until Mtesa\ncould not sit up longer for sheer weariness.  These are among the things\nhe said that he had witnessed on his journey.  You must not ask me if I\nbelieve all that he said.  All I can say is that they might have\nhappened, or been seen by many men, but I never could quite understand\nhow it was that Saruti alone was so lucky as to see all the things he\ntalked about.  Anyhow, he was very amusing, and Mtesa laughed heartily\nmany times as he listened to him.\"\n\nKabaka, I think my charms which my father suspended round my neck must\nbe very powerful.  I am always in luck.  I hear good stones on my\njourney, I see strange things which no one else seems to have come\nacross.  Now on this last journey, by the time I reached Singo, I came\nto a little village, and as I was drinking banana wine with the chief,\nhe told me that there were two lions near his village who had a band of\nhyenas to serve as soldiers under them.  They used to send them out in\npairs, sometimes to one district, and sometimes to another, to purvey\nfood for them.  If the peasants showed fight, they went back and\nreported to their masters, and the lions brought all their soldiers with\nthem, who bothered them so that they were glad to leave a fat bullock\ntied to a tree as tribute.  Then the lions would take the bullock and\ngive orders that the peasant who paid his tribute should be left in\npeace.  The chief declared this to be a fact, having had repeated proof\nof it.\n\nAt the next place, which is Mbagwe, the man Buvaiya, who is in charge,\ntold me that when he went a short time before to pay his respects to the\nMuzimu (the oracle) of the district, he met about thirty _kokorwa_ on\nthe road, hunting close together for snakes, and that as soon as they\nsaw him, they charged at him, and would have killed him had he not run\nup a tree.  He tells me that though they are not much bigger than\nrabbits, they are very savage, and make travelling alone very dangerous.\nI think they must be some kind of small dogs.  Perhaps the old men of\nthe court may be better able to tell you what they are.\n\nAt the next village of Ngondo a smart boy named Rutuana was brought to\nme, who was said to have been lately playing with a young friend of the\nsame age at long stick and little stick (tip-cat?).  His friend hit the\nlittle stick, and sent it a great way, and Rutuana had to fetch it from\nthe long grass.  While searching for it, one of those big serpents which\nswallow goats and calves caught him, and coiled itself around him.\nThough he screamed out for help, Rutuana laid his stick across his\nchest, and clutching hold of each end with a hand, held fast to it until\nhelp came.  His friend ran up a tree, and only helped him by screaming.\nAs the serpent could not break the boy's hold of the stick, he was\nunable to crush his ribs, because his outstretched arms protected them;\nbut when he was nearly exhausted the villagers came out with spears and\nshields.  These fellows, however, were so stupid that they did not know\nhow to kill the serpent until Rutuana shouted to them: \"Quick! draw your\nbows and shoot him through the neck.\"  A man stepped forward then, and\nwhen close to him pierced his throat with the arrow, and as the serpent\nuncoiled himself to attack the men, Rutuana fell down.  The serpent was\nsoon speared, and the boy was carried home.  I think that boy will\nbecome a great warrior.\n\nAt the next village the peasants were much disturbed by a multitude of\nsnakes which had collected there for some reason.  They had seen several\nlong black snakes which had taken lodging in the anthills.  These had\nalready killed five cows, and lately had taken to attacking the\ntravellers along the road that leads by the anthills, when an Arab,\nnamed Massoudi, hearing of their trouble, undertook to kill them.  He\nhad some slaves with him, and he clothed their legs with buffalo hide,\nand placed cooking-pots on their heads, and told them to go among the\nanthills.  When the snakes came out of their holes he shot them one by\none.  Among the reptiles he killed were three kinds of serpents which\npossessed horns.  The peasants skinned them, and made bags of them to\npreserve their charms.  One kind of horned snake, very thick and short,\nis said to lay eggs as large as those of fowls.  The _mubarasassa_,\nwhich is of a greyish colour, is also said to be able to kill elephants.\n\nI then went to Kyengi, beyond Singo, and the peasants, on coming to\ngossip with me, rather upset me with terrible stories of the mischief\ndone by a big black leopard.  It seems that he had first killed a woman,\nand had carried the body into the bush; and another time had killed two\nmen while they were setting their nets for some small ground game.  Then\na native hunter, under promise of reward from the chief, set out with\ntwo spears to kill him.  He did not succeed, but he said that he saw a\nstrange sight.  As he was following the track of the leopard, he\nsuddenly came to a little jungle, with an open space in the middle.  A\nlarge wild sow, followed by her litter of little pigs, was rooting\nabout, and grunting as pigs do, when he saw the monstrous black leopard\ncrawl towards one of the pigs.  Then there was a shrill squeal from a\npiggie, and the mother, looking up, discovered its danger, at which it\nfuriously charged the leopard, clashing her tusks and foaming at the\nmouth.  The leopard turned sharp round, and sprang up a tree.  The sow\ntried to jump up after it, but being unable to reach her enemy in that\nway, she set about working hard at the roots.  While she was busy about\nit the peasant ran back to obtain a net and assistants, and to get his\nhunting-dog.  When he returned, the sow was still digging away at the\nbottom of the tree, and had made a great hole all round it.  The pigs,\nfrightened at seeing so many men, trotted away into the bush, and the\nhunter and his friends prepared to catch the leopard.  They pegged the\nnet all about the tree, then let loose the dog, and urged him towards\nthe net.  As he touched the net, the hunters made a great noise, and\nshouted, at which the leopard bounded from the tree, and with one\nscratch of his paw ripped the dog open, sprang over the net, tapped one\nof the men on the shoulder, and was running away, when he received a\nwound in the shoulder, and stopped to bite the spear.  The hunters\ncontinued to worry him, until at last, covered with blood, he lay down\nand died.\n\nOne day's journey beyond Kyengi, I came to the thorn-fenced village of\nsome Watusi shepherds, who, it seems, had suffered much from a pair of\nlion cubs, which were very fierce.  The headman's little boy was looking\nafter some calves when the cubs came and quietly stalked him through the\ngrass, and caught him.  The headman took it so much to heart, that as\nsoon as he heard the news he went straight back to his village and\nhanged himself to a rafter.  The Watusi love their families very much,\nbut it seems to be a custom with these herdsmen that if a man takes his\nown life, the body cannot be buried, and though he was a headman, they\ncarried it to the jungle, and after leaving it for the vultures, they\nreturned and set fire to his hut, and burnt it to the ground.  When they\nhad done that, the Watusi collected together and had a long hunt after\nthe young lions, but as yet they have not been able to find them.\n\nWhen the sun was half-way up the sky, I came from Kyengi to some\npeasants, who lived near a forest which is affected by the man-monkeys\ncalled nzike (gorilla?).  I was told by them that the nzike know how to\nsmoke and make fire just as we do.  It is a custom among the natives,\nwhen they see smoke issuing through the trees, for them to say, \"Behold,\nthe nzike is cooking his food.\"  I asked them if it were true that the\nnzike carried off women to live with them, but they all told me that it\nwas untrue, though the old men sometimes tell such stories to frighten\nthe women, and keep them at home out of danger.  Knowing that I was on\nthe king's business, they did not dare tell me their fables.\n\nBy asking them all sorts of questions, I was shown to a very old man\nwith a white beard, with whom I obtained much amusement.  It appears he\nis a great man at riddles, and he asked me a great many.\n\nOne was, \"What is it that always goes straight ahead, and never looks\nback?\"\n\nI tried hard to answer him, but when finally he announced that it was a\nriver, I felt very foolish.\n\nHe then asked me, \"What is it that is bone outside and meat within?\"\n\nThe people laughed, and mocked me.  Then he said that it was an egg,\nwhich was very true.\n\nAnother question he gave me was, \"What is it that looks both ways when\nyou pass it?\"\n\nSome said one thing, and some said another, and at last he answered that\nit was grass.\n\nThen he asked me, \"What good thing was it which a man eats, and which he\nconstantly fastens his eyes upon while he eats, and after eating, throws\na half away?\"  I thought and considered, but I never knew what it was\nuntil he told me that it was a roasted ear of Indian corn.\n\nThat old man was a very wise one, and among some of his sayings was that\n\"When people dream much, the old moon must be dying.\"\n\nHe also said that \"When the old moon is dying, the hunter need never\nleave home to seek game, because it is well known that he would meet\nnothing.\"\n\nAnd he further added, that at that time the potter need not try to bake\nany pots, because the clay would be sure to be rotten.\n\nSome other things which he said made me think a little of their meaning.\n\nHe said, \"When people have provisions in their huts, they do not say,\nLet us go into another man's house and rob him.\"\n\nHe also said, \"When you see a crook-back, you do not ask him to stand\nstraight, nor an old man to join the dance, nor the man who is in pain,\nto laugh.\"\n\nAnd what he said about the traveller is very true.  The man who clings\nto his own hearth does not tickle our ears, like him who sees many\nlands, and hears new stories.\n\nThe next day I stopped at a village near the little lake of Kitesa's\ncalled Mtukura.  The chief in charge loved talking so much, that he soon\nmade me as well acquainted with the affairs of his family as though he\ncourted my sister.  His people are accustomed to eat frogs and rats, and\nfrom the noise in the reeds, and the rustling and squealings in the roof\nof the hut I slept in, I think there is little fear of famine in that\nvillage.  Nor are they averse, they tell me, to iguanas and those vile\nfeeders, the hyenas.\n\nIt is a common belief in the country that it was Naraki, a wife of Uni,\na sultan of Unyoro, who made that lake.  While passing through, she was\nvery thirsty, and cried out to her Muzimu (spirit), the Muzimu which\nattends the kings of Unyoro, and which is most potent.  And all at once\nthere was a hissing flight of firestones (meteorites) in the air, and\nimmediately after, there was a fall of a monstrously large one, which\nstruck the ground close to her, and made a great hole, out of which the\nwater spurted and continued leaping up until a lake was formed, and\nburied the fountain out of sight, and the rising waters formed a river,\nwhich has run north from the lake ever since into the Kafu.\n\nClose by this lake is a dark grove, sacred to Muzingeh, the king of the\nbirds.  It is said that he has only one eye, but once a year he visits\nthe grove, and after building his house, he commands all the birds from\nthe Nyanzas and the groves, to come and see him and pay their homage.\nFor half a moon the birds, great and small, may be seen following him\nabout along the shores of the lake, like so many guards around a king;\nand before night they are seen returning in the same manner to the\ngrove.  The parrots' cries tell the natives when they come, and no one\nwould care to miss the sight, and the glad excitement among the\nfeathered tribe.  But there is one bird, called the Kirurumu, that\nrefuses to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Muzingeh.  The other birds\nhave tried often to induce him to associate with the Muzingeh; but\nKirurumu always answers that a beautiful creature like himself, with\ngold and blue feathers, and such a pretty crest, was never meant to be\nseen in the company of an ugly bird that possesses only one eye.\n\nOn the other side of Lake Mtukura is a forest where Dungu, the king of\nthe animals, lives.  It is to Dungu that all the hunters pray when they\nset out to seek for game.  He builds first a small hut, and after\npropitiating him with a small piece of flesh, he asks Dungu that he may\nbe successful.  Then Dungu enters into the hunter's head, if he is\npleased with the offering, and the cunning of the man becomes great; his\nnerves stiffen, and his bowels are strengthened, and the game is\nsecured.  When Dungu wishes a man to succeed in the hunt, it is useless\nfor the buffalo to spurn the earth and moo, or for the leopard to cover\nhimself with sand in his rage--the spear of the hunter drinks his blood.\nBut the hunter must not forget to pay the tribute to the deity, lest he\nbe killed on the way home.\n\nThe friendly chief insisted that I should become his blood-fellow, and\nstay with him a couple of days.  The witch-doctor, a man of great\ninfluence in the country, was asked to unite us.  He took a sharp little\nknife, and made a gash in the skin of my right leg, just above the knee,\nand did the same to the chief, and then rubbed his blood over my wound,\nand my blood over his, and we became brothers.  Among his gifts was this\nbeautiful shield, which I beg Mtesa, my Kabaka, to accept, because I\nhave seen none so beautiful, and it is too good for a colonel whose only\nhope and wish is to serve his king.\n\nI am glad that I rested there, because I saw a most wonderful sight\ntowards evening.  As we were seated under the bananas, we heard a big\nhe-goat's bleat, and by the sound of it we knew that it was neither for\nfun nor for love.  It was a tone of anger and fear.  Almost at the same\ntime, one of the boys rushed up to us, and his face had really turned\ngrey from fear, and he cried, \"There is a lion in the goat-pen, and the\nbig he-goat is fighting with him.\"  They had forgotten to tell me about\nthis famous goat, which was called Kasuju, after some great man who had\nbeen renowned in war, and he certainly was worth speaking about, and\nKasuju was well known round about for his wonderful strength and\nfighting qualities.  When we got near the pen with our spears and\nshields, the he-goat was butting the lion--who was young, for he had no\nmane--as he might have butted a pert young nanny-goat, and baaing with\nas full a note as that of a buffalo calf.  It appears that Kasuju saw\nthe destroyer creeping towards one of his wives, and dashing at his\nflank knocked him down.  As we looked on from the outside, we saw that\nKasuju was holding his own very well, and we thought that we would not\ncheck the fight, but prepare ourselves to have a good cast at the lion\nas he attempted to leave.  The lion was getting roused up, and we saw\nthe spring he made: but Kasuju nimbly stepped aside and gave him such a\nstroke that it sounded like a drum.  Then Kasuju trotted away in front\nof his trembling wives, and as the lion came up, we watched him draw his\nears back as he raised himself on his hind feet like a warrior.  The\nlion advanced to him, and he likewise rose as though he would wrestle\nwith him, when Kasuju shot into his throat with so true and fair a\nstroke, that drove one of his horns deep into the throat.  It was then\nthe lion's claws began to work, and with every scratch poor Kasuju's\nhide was torn dreadfully, but he kept his horn in the wound, and pushed\nhome, and made the wound large.  Then the lion sprang free, and the\nblood spurted all over Kasuju.  Blinded with his torn and hanging scalp,\nand weakened with his wounds, he staggered about, pounding blindly at\nhis enemy, until the lion gave him one mighty stroke with its paw, and\nsent him headlong, and then seized him by the neck and shook him, and we\nheard the cruel crunch as the fangs met.  But it was the last effort of\nthe lion, for just as Kasuju was lifeless, the lion rolled over him,\ndead also.  Had my friend told me this story, I should not have believed\nhim, but as I saw it with my own eyes, I am bound to believe it.  We\nburied Kasuju honourably in a grave, as we would bury a brave man; but\nthe lion we skinned, and I have got his fur with the ragged hole in the\nthroat.\n\nThe singular fight we had witnessed, furnished us all with much matter\nfor talk about lions, and it brought into the mind of one of them a\nstory of a crocodile and lion fight which had happened some time before\nin the night.  Lake Mtukura swarms with crocodiles, and situated as it\nis in a region of game they must be fat with prey.  One night a\nfull-grown lion with a fine mane came to cool his dry throat in the\nlake, and was quaffing water, when he felt his nose seized by something\nthat rose up from below.\n\nFrom the traces of the struggle by the water's edge, it must have been a\nterrible one.  The crocodile's long claws had left deep marks, showing\nhow he must have been lifted out of the water, and flung forcibly down;\nbut in the morning both lion and crocodile were found dead, the\ncrocodile's throat wide open with a broad gash, but his teeth still\nfastened in the lion's nose.\n\nSaruti had not half finished his stories when he felt, by seeing Mtesa\nyawn, that though his adventures were very interesting, and he was quite\nready to continue, yet it would be to his advantage to dock his tongue\nfor the time being.  So he said, \"Kabaka, the wise old man whom I met,\ntold me one thing I had nearly forgotten to say.  He said, `I know you\nare a servant of the king, and if ever you want the king's face to\nsoften to you and his hand to open with gifts, compare yourself to the\nlid of a cooking-pot, which, though the pot may be full of fragrant\nstew, receives naught but the vapour, and the king who is wise will\nunderstand and will be pleased with his servant.'\"\n\n\"Very well said indeed, Saruti,\" cried Mtesa, laughing.  \"I understand.\nThe lid must share with the pot this time.  Steward,\" he said, turning\nto Kauta, \"see that six head of cattle be driven to Saruti's\ncattle-pen;\" and Saruti twiyanzied (thanked with prostrations) so often\nthat his head swam.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER SIXTEEN.\n\nTHE BOY KINNENEH AND THE GORILLA.\n\nIt is in such stories as the Fable of the Rabbit, the Leopard and the\nGoat, the Dog and the little Chicken, the Leopard, the Sheep and the\nDove, the Crane, the Leopard and the Sheep, the Rabbit and the Lion, the\nCow and the Lion, the Lion and his mane, the Rabbit and the Leopard, and\nthe boy Kinneneh and the Gorilla, that Kadu, our accomplished relator of\nlegends, shone.  It is not with a wish to be unkind to Kadu that I say\nhe showed only too well that according to him cunning was to be\npreferred to strength.  Perhaps he was right, though cunning is a word\nin much discredit with us nowadays, because we are accustomed to ally it\nwith deception and fraud, but we will put the best possible construction\non it out of admiration for and gratitude to Kadu, and claim that his\ncunning, which was the moral of most of his stories, was a kind of\nillegitimate wisdom, or a permissible artfulness.  None of us, at least,\nbut sympathised with Kadu's dumb heroes when, by a little pleasant cheat\nor sly stratagem, the bullying buffalo got the worst of an encounter\nwith the sharp-witted rabbit, or when the dog got the better of his sour\nmistress the leopardess, or when rabbit put to shame the surly elephant,\nor when Kibatti conquered the kings of the animal tribes.  The legend of\nKinneneh and the Gorilla was another story which evidently was meant by\nKadu and the unknown ancient of Uganda who invented it to illustrate\nthat cunning is mightier than strength.  He told it in this wise:\n\nIn the early days of Uganda, there was a small village situate on the\nother side of the Katonga, in Buddu, and its people had planted bananas\nand plantains which in time grew to be quite a large grove, and produced\nabundant and very fine fruit.  From a grove of bananas when its fruit is\nripe there comes a very pleasant odour, and when a puff of wind blows\nover it, and bears the fragrance towards you, I know of nothing so well\ncalculated to excite the appetite, unless it be the smell of roasted\nmeat.  Anyhow, such must have been the feeling of a mighty big gorilla,\nwho one day, while roaming about alone in the woods searching for nuts\nto eat, stopped suddenly and stood up and sniffed for some time, with\nhis nose well out in the direction of the village.  After awhile he\nshook his head and fell on all fours again to resume his search for\nfood.  Again there came with a whiff of wind a strong smell of ripe\nbananas, and he stood on his feet once more, and with his nose shot out\nthus he drew in a greedy breath and then struck himself over the\nstomach, and said:\n\n\"I thought it was so.  There are bananas that way, and I must get some.\"\n\nDown he fell on all fours, and put out his arms with long stretches,\njust as a fisherman draws in a heavy net, and is eager to prevent the\nescape of the fish.\n\nIn a little while he came to the edge of the grove, and stood and looked\ngloatingly on the beautiful fruit hanging in great bunches.  Presently\nhe saw something move.  It was a woman bent double over a basket, and\npacking the fruit neatly in it, so that she could carry a large quantity\nat one journey.\n\nThe gorilla did not stay long thinking, but crawled up secretly to her;\nand then with open arms rushed forward and seized her.  Before the woman\ncould utter her alarm he had lifted her and her basket and trotted away\nwith them into the deepest bush.  On reaching his den he flung the woman\non the ground, as you would fling dead meat, and bringing the banana\nbasket close to him, his two legs hugging it close to his round paunch,\nhe began to gorge himself, muttering while he peeled the fruit strange\nsounds.  By-and-by the woman came to her senses, but instead of keeping\nquiet, she screamed and tried to run away.  If it were not for that\nmovement and noise, she perhaps might have been able to creep away\nunseen, but animals of all kinds never like to be disturbed while\neating, so Gorilla gave one roar of rage, and gave her such a squeeze\nthat the breath was clean driven out of her.  When she was still he fell\nto again, and tore the peeling off the bananas, and tossed one after\nanother down his wide throat, until there was not one of the fruit left\nin the basket, and the big paunch was swollen to twice its first size.\nThen, after laying his paw on the body to see if there was any life left\nin it, he climbed up to his nest above, and curled himself into a ball\nfor a sleep.\n\nWhen he woke he shook himself and yawned, and looking below he saw the\nbody of the woman, and her empty basket, and he remembered what had\nhappened.  He descended the tree, lifted the body and let it fall, then\ntook up the basket, looked inside and outside of it, raked over the\npeelings of the bananas, but could not find anything left to eat.\n\nHe began to think, scratching the fur on his head, on his sides, and his\npaunch, picking up one thing and then another in an absent-minded way.\nAnd then he appeared to have made up a plan.\n\nWhatever it was, this is what he did.  It was still early morning, and\nas there was no sign of a sun, it was cold, and human beings must have\nbeen finishing their last sleep.  He got up and went straight for the\nplantation.  On the edge of the banana-grove he heard a cock crow; he\nstopped and listened to it; he became angry.\n\n\"Some one,\" he said to himself, \"is stealing my bananas,\" and with that\nhe marched in the direction where the cock was crowing.\n\nHe came to the open place in front of the village, and saw several tall\nhouses much larger than his own nest; and while he was looking at them,\nthe door of one of them was opened, and a man came out.  He crept\ntowards him, and before he could cry out the gorilla had squeezed him\nuntil his ribs had cracked, and he was dead; he flung him down, and\nentered into the hut.  He there saw a woman, who was blowing a fire on\nthe hearth, and he took hold of her and squeezed her until there was no\nlife left in her body.  There were three children inside, and a bed on\nthe floor.  He treated them also in the same way, and they were all\ndead.  Then he went into another house, and slew all the people in it,\none with a squeeze, another with a squeeze and a bite with his great\nteeth, and there was not one left alive.  In this way he entered into\nfive houses and killed all the people in them, but in the sixth house\nlived the boy Kinneneh and his old mother.\n\nKinneneh had fancied that he heard an unusual sound, and he had stood\ninside with his eyes close to a chink in the reed door for some time\nwhen he saw something that resembled what might be said to be half\nanimal and half man.  He walked like a man, but had the fur of a beast.\nHis arms were long, and his body was twice the breadth and thickness of\na full-grown man.  He did not know what it was, and when he saw it go\ninto his neighbours' houses, and heard those strange sounds, he grew\nafraid, and turned and woke his mother, saying,\n\n\"Mother, wake up! there is a strange big beast in our village killing\nour people.  So wake up quickly and follow me.\"\n\n\"But whither shall we fly, my son?\" she whispered anxiously.\n\n\"Up to the loft, and lie low in the darkest place,\" replied Kinneneh,\nand he set her the example and assisted his mother.\n\nNow those Uganda houses are not low-roofed like these of Congo-land, but\nare very high, as high as a tree, and they rise to a point, and near the\ntop there is a loft where we stow our nets, and pots, and where our\nspear-shafts and bows are kept to season, and where our corn is kept to\ndry, and green bananas are stored to ripen.  It was in this dark lofty\nplace that Kinneneh hid himself and his mother, and waited in silence.\n\nIn a short time the gorilla put his head into their house and listened,\nand stepping inside he stood awhile, and looked searchingly around.  He\ncould see no one and heard nothing stir.  He peered under the bed-grass,\ninto the black pots and baskets, but there was no living being to be\nfound.\n\n\"Ha, ha,\" he cried, thumping his chest like a man when he has got the\nbig head.  \"I am the boss of this place now, and the tallest of these\nhuman nests shall be my own, and I shall feast every day on ripe bananas\nand plantains, and there is no one who can molest me--ha, ha!\"\n\n\"Ha, ha!\" echoed a shrill, piping voice after his great bass.\n\nThe gorilla looked around once more, among the pots, and the baskets,\nbut finding nothing walked out.  Kinneneh, after awhile skipped down the\nladder and watched between the open cane-work of the door, and saw him\nenter the banana-grove, and waited there until he returned with a mighty\nload of the fruit.  He then saw him go out again into the grove, and\nbidding his mother lie still and patient, Kinneneh slipped out and\nascended into the loft of the house chosen by the gorilla for his nest,\nwhere he hid himself and waited.\n\nPresently the gorilla returned with another load of the fruit, and,\nsquatting on his haunches, commenced to peel the fruit, and fill his\nthroat and mouth with it, mumbling and chuckling, and saying,\n\n\"Ha, ha!  This is grand!  Plenty of bananas to eat, and all--all my own.\nNone to say, `Give me some,' but all my very own.  Ho, ho!  I shall\nfeast every day.  Ha, ha!\"\n\n\"Ha, ha,\" echoed the piping voice again.\n\nThe gorilla stopped eating and made an ugly frown as he listened.  Then\nhe said:\n\n\"That is the second time I have heard a thin voice saying, `Ha, ha!'  If\nI only knew who he was that cried `Ha, ha!'  I would squeeze him, and\nsqueeze him until he cried, `Ugh, ugh!'\"\n\n\"Ugh, ugh!\" echoed the little voice again.\n\nThe gorilla leaped to his feet and rummaged around the pots and the\nbaskets, took hold of the bodies one after another and dashed them\nagainst the floor, then went to every house and searched, but could not\ndiscover who it was that mocked him.\n\nIn a short time he returned and ate a pile of bananas that would have\nsatisfied twenty men, and afterwards he went out, saying to himself that\nit would be a good thing to fill the nest with food, as it was a bore to\nleave the warm nest each time he felt a desire to eat.\n\nNo sooner had he departed than Kinneneh slipped down, and carried every\nbunch that had been left away to his own house, where they were stowed\nin the loft for his mother, and after enjoining his mother to remain\nstill, he waited, peering through the chinks of the door.\n\nHe soon saw Gorilla bearing a pile of bunches that would have required\nten men to carry, and after flinging them into the chief's house, return\nto the plantation for another supply.  While Gorilla was tearing down\nthe plants and plucking at the bunches, Kinneneh was actively engaged in\ntransferring what he brought into the loft by his mother's side.\nGorilla made many trips in this manner, and brought in great heaps, but\nsomehow his stock appeared to be very small.  At last his strength was\nexhausted, and feeling that he could do no more that day, he commenced\nto feed on what he had last brought, promising to himself that he would\ndo better in the morning.\n\nAt dawn the gorilla hastened out to obtain a supply of fruit for his\nbreakfast, and Kinneneh took advantage of his absence to hide himself\noverhead.\n\nHe was not long in his place before Gorilla came in with a huge lot of\nripe fruit, and after making himself comfortable on his haunches with a\ngreat bunch before him he rocked himself to and fro, saying while he\nmunched:\n\n\"Ha, ha!  Now I have plenty again, and I shall eat it all myself.  Ha,\nha!\"\n\n\"Ha, ha,\" echoed a thin voice again, so close and clear it seemed to\nhim, that leaping up he made sure to catch it.  As there appeared to be\nno one in the house, he rushed out raging, champing his teeth, and\nsearched the other houses, but meantime Kinneneh carried the bananas to\nthe loft of the gorilla's house, and covered them with bark-cloth.\n\nIn a short time Gorilla returned furious and disappointed, and sat down\nto finish the breakfast he had only begun, but on putting out his hands\nhe found only the withered peelings of yesterday's bananas.  He looked\nand rummaged about, but there was positively nothing left to eat.  He\nwas now terribly hungry and angry, and he bounded out to obtain another\nsupply, which he brought in and flung on the floor, saying,\n\n\"Ha, ha!  I will now eat the whole at once--all to myself, and that\nother thing which says, `Ha, ha!' after me, I will hunt and mash him\nlike this,\" and he seized a ripe banana and squeezed it with his paw\nwith so much force that the pulp was squirted all over him.  \"Ha, ha!\"\nhe cried.\n\n\"Ha, ha!\" mocked the shrill voice, so clear that it appeared to come\nfrom behind his ear.\n\nThis was too much to bear; Gorilla bounded up and vented a roar of rage.\nHe tossed the pots, the baskets, the bodies, and bed-grass about--\nbellowing so loudly and funnily in his fury that Kinneneh, away up in\nthe loft, could scarcely forbear imitating him.  But the mocker could\nnot be found, and Gorilla roared loudly in the open place before the\nvillage, and tore in and out of each house, looking for him.\n\nKinneneh descended swiftly from his hiding-place, and bore every banana\ninto the loft as before.\n\nGorilla hastened to the plantation again, and so angry was he that he\nuprooted the banana-stalks by the root, and snapped off the clusters\nwith one stroke of his great dog-teeth, and having got together a large\nstock, he bore it in his arms to the house.\n\n\"There,\" said he, \"ha, ha!  Now I shall eat in comfort and have a long\nsleep afterwards, and if that fellow who mocks me comes near--ah!  I\nwould\"--and he crushed a big bunch in his arms and cried, \"ha, ha!\"\n\n\"Ha, ha!  Ha, ha!\" cried the mocking voice; and again it seemed to be at\nthe back of his head.  Whereupon Gorilla flung his arms behind in the\nhope of catching him, but there was nothing but his own back, which\nsounded like a damp drum with the stroke.\n\n\"Ha, ha!  Ha, ha!\" repeated the voice, at which Gorilla shot out of the\ndoor, and raced round the house, thinking that the owner was flying\nbefore him, but he never could overtake the flyer.  Then he went around\noutside of the other houses, and flew round and round the village, but\nhe could discover naught.  But meanwhile Kinneneh had borne all the\nstock of bananas up into the loft above, and when Gorilla returned there\nwas not one banana of all the great pile he had brought left on the\nfloor.\n\nWhen, after he was certain that there was not a single bit of a banana\nleft for him to eat, he scratched his sides and his legs, and putting\nhis hand on the top of his head, he uttered a great cry just like a\ngreat, stupid child, but the crying did not fill his tummy.  No, he must\nhave bananas for that--and he rose up after awhile and went to procure\nsome more fruit.\n\nBut when he had brought a great pile of it and had sat down with his\nnice-smelling bunch before him, he would exclaim, \"Ha, ha!  Now--now I\nshall eat and be satisfied.  I shall fill myself with the sweet fruit,\nand then lie down and sleep.  Ha, ha!\"\n\nThen instantly the mocking voice would cry out after him, \"Ha, ha!\" and\nsometimes it sounded close to his ears, and then behind his head,\nsometimes it appeared to come from under the bananas and sometimes from\nthe doorway:--that Gorilla would roar in fury, and he would grind his\nteeth just like two grinding-stones, and chatter to himself, and race\nabout the village, trying to discover whence the voice came, but in his\nabsence the fruit would be swept away by his invisible enemy, and when\nhe would come in to finish his meal, lo! there were only blackened and\nstained banana peelings--the refuse of his first feast.\n\nGorilla would then cry like a whipped child, and would go again into the\nplantation, to bring some more fruit into the house, but when he\nreturned with it he would always boast of what he was going to do, and\ncry out \"Ha, ha!\" and instantly his unseen enemy would mock him and cry\n\"Ha, ha!\" and he would start up raving and screaming in rage, and search\nfor him, and in his absence his bananas would be whisked away.  And\nGorilla's hunger grew on him, until his paunch became like an empty\nsack, and what with his hunger and grief and rage, and furious raving\nand racing about, his strength was at last quite exhausted, and the end\nof him was that on the fifth day he fell from weakness across the\nthreshold of the chief's house, which he had chosen to make his nest,\nand there died.\n\nWhen the people of the next village heard of how Kinneneh, a little boy,\nhad conquered the man-killing gorilla, they brought him and his mother\naway, and they gave him a fine new house and a plantation, and male and\nfemale slaves to tend it, and when their old king died, and the period\nof mourning for him was over, they elected wise Kinneneh to be king over\nthem.\n\n\"Ah, friends,\" said Safeni to his companions, after Kadu had concluded\nhis story, \"there is no doubt that the cunning of a son of man prevails\nover the strongest brute, and it is well for us, Mashallah! that it\nshould be so; for if the elephant, or the lion, or the gorilla possessed\nbut cunning equal to their strength, what would become of us!\"\n\nAnd each man retired to his hut, congratulating himself that he was born\na man-child, and not a thick, muddle-headed beast.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER SEVENTEEN.\n\nTHE CITY OF THE ELEPHANTS.\n\n\"Master,\" said Kassim, one of the Basoko boys, \"Baruti's tales have\nbrought back from among forgotten things a legend I once knew very well.\nAh, I wish I could remember more, but little by little the stories that\nI used to hear in my childhood from my mother and the old woman who\nwould come and sit with her, will perhaps return again into the mind.  I\nshould never have thought of this that I am about to repeat to you now\nhad it not been that Baruti's legends seem to recall as though they were\nbut yesterday the days that came and went uncounted in our Basoko\nvillage.  This legend is about the City of the Elephants that one of my\ncountrymen and his wife came across in the far past time, in the manner\nthat I shall tell you.\"\n\nA Bungandu man named Dudu, and his wife Salimba, were one day seeking in\nthe forest a long way from the town for a proper redwood-tree, out of\nwhich they could make a wooden mortar wherein they could pound their\nmanioc.  They saw several trees of this kind as they proceeded, but\nafter examining one, and then another, they would appear to be\ndissatisfied, and say, \"Perhaps if we went a little further we might\nfind a still better tree for our purpose.\"\n\nAnd so Dudu and Salimba proceeded further and further into the tall and\nthick woods, and ever before them there appeared to be still finer trees\nwhich would after all be unsuited for their purpose, being too soft, or\ntoo hard, or hollow, or too old, or of another kind than the useful\nredwood.  They strayed in this manner very far.  In the forest where\nthere is no path or track, it is not easy to tell which direction one\ncame from, and as they had walked round many trees, they were too\nconfused to know which way they ought to turn homeward.  When Dudu said\nhe was sure that his course was the right one for home, Salimba was as\nsure that the opposite was the true way.  They agreed to walk in the\ndirection Dudu wished, and after a long time spent on it, they gave it\nup and tried another, but neither took them any nearer home.\n\nThe night overtook them and they slept at the foot of a tree.  The next\nday they wandered still farther from their town, and they became anxious\nand hungry.  As one cannot see many yards off on any side in the forest,\nan animal hears the coming step long before the hunter gets a chance to\nuse his weapon.  Therefore, though they heard the rustle of the flying\nantelope, or wild pig as it rushed away, it only served to make their\nanxiety greater.  And the second day passed, and when night came upon\nthem they were still hungrier.\n\nTowards the middle of the third day, they came into an open place by a\npool frequented by Kiboko (hippo), and there was a margin of grass round\nabout it, and as they came in view of it, both, at the same time,\nsighted a grazing buffalo.\n\nDudu bade his wife stand behind a tree while he chose two of his best\nand sharpest arrows, and after a careful look at his bow-string, he\ncrept up to the buffalo, and drove an arrow home as far as the guiding\nleaf, which nearly buried it in the body.  While the beast looked around\nand started from the twinge within, Dudu shot his second arrow into his\nwindpipe, and it fell to the ground quite choked.  Now here was water to\ndrink and food to eat, and after cutting a load of meat they chose a\nthick bush-clump a little distance from the pool, made a fire, and,\nafter satisfying their hunger, slept in content.  The fourth day they\nstopped and roasted a meat provision that would last many days, because\nthey knew that luck is not constant in the woods.\n\nOn the fifth they travelled, and for three days more they wandered.\nThey then met a young lion who, at the sight of them, boldly advanced,\nbut Dudu sighted his bow, and sent an arrow into his chest which\nsickened him of the fight, and he turned and fled.\n\nA few days afterwards, Dudu saw an elephant standing close to them\nbehind a high bush, and whispered to his wife:\n\n\"Ah, now, we have a chance to get meat enough for a month.\"\n\n\"But,\" said Salimba, \"why should you wish to kill him, when we have\nenough meat still with us?  Do not hurt him.  Ah, what a fine back he\nhas, and how strong he is.  Perhaps he would carry us home.\"\n\n\"How could an elephant understand our wishes?\" asked Dudu.\n\n\"Talk to him anyhow, perhaps he will be clever enough to understand what\nwe want.\"\n\nDudu laughed at his wife's simplicity, but to please her he said,\n\"Elephant, we have lost our way; will you carry us and take us home, and\nwe shall be your friends for ever.\"\n\nThe Elephant ceased waving his trunk, and nodding to himself, and\nturning to them said--\n\n\"If you come near to me and take hold of my ears, you may get on my\nback, and I will carry you safely.\"\n\nWhen the Elephant spoke, Dudu fell back from surprise, and looked at him\nas though he had not heard aright, but Salimba advanced with all\nconfidence, and laid hold of one of his ears, and pulled herself up on\nto his back.  When she was seated, she cried out, \"Come, Dudu, what are\nyou looking at?  Did you not hear him say he would carry you?\"\n\nSeeing his wife smiling and comfortable on the Elephant's back, Dudu\nbecame a little braver and moved forward slowly, when the Elephant spoke\nagain, \"Come, Dudu, be not afraid.  Follow your wife, and do as she did,\nand then I will travel home with you quickly.\"\n\nDudu then put aside his fears, and his surprise, and seizing the\nElephant's ear, he ascended and seated himself by his wife on the\nElephant's back.\n\nWithout another word the Elephant moved on rapidly, and the motion\nseemed to Dudu and Salimba most delightful.  Whenever any overhanging\nbranch was in the way, the Elephant wrenched it off, or bent it and\npassed on.  No creek, stream, gulley, or river, stopped him, he seemed\nto know exactly the way he should go, as if the road he was travelling\nwas well known to him.\n\nWhen it was getting dark he stopped and asked his friends if they would\nnot like to rest for the night, and finding that they so wished it, he\nstopped at a nice place by the side of the river, and they slid to the\nground, Dudu first, and Salimba last.  He then broke dead branches for\nthem, out of which they made a fire, and the Elephant stayed by them, as\nthough he was their slave.\n\nHearing their talk, he understood that they would like to have something\nbetter than dried meat to eat, and he said to them, \"I am glad to know\nyour wishes, for I think I can help you.  Bide here a little, and I will\ngo and search.\"\n\nAbout the middle of the night he returned to them with something white\nin his trunk, and a young antelope in front of him.  The white thing was\na great manioc root, which he dropped into Salimba's lap.\n\n\"There, Salimba,\" he said, \"there is food for you, eat your fill and\nsleep in peace, for I will watch over you.\"\n\nDudu and Salimba had seen many strange things that day, but they were\nboth still more astonished at the kindly and intelligent care which\ntheir friend the Elephant took of them.  While they roasted their fresh\nmeat over the flame, and the manioc root was baking under the heap of\nhot embers, the Elephant dug with his tusks for the juicy roots of his\nfavourite trees round about their camp, and munched away contentedly.\n\nThe next morning, all three, after a bathe in the river, set out on\ntheir journey more familiar with one another, and in a happier mood.\n\nAbout noon, while they were resting during the heat of the day, two\nlions came near to roar at them, but when Dudu was drawing his bow at\none of them, the Elephant said:\n\n\"You leave them to me; I will make them run pretty quick,\" saying which\nhe tore off a great bough of a tree, and nourishing this with his trunk,\nhe trotted on the double quick towards them, and used it so heartily\nthat they both skurried away with their bellies to the ground, and their\nhides shrinking and quivering out of fear of the great rod.\n\nIn the afternoon the Elephant and his human friends set off again, and\nsome time after they came to a wide and deep river.  He begged his\nfriends to descend while he tried to find out the shallowest part.  It\ntook him some time to do this; but, having discovered a ford where the\nwater was not quite over his back, he returned to them, and urged them\nto mount him as he wished to reach home before dark.\n\nAs the Elephant was about to enter the river, he said to Dudu, \"I see\nsome hunters of your own kind creeping up towards us.  Perhaps they are\nyour kinsmen.  Talk to them, and let us see whether they be friends or\nfoes.\"\n\nDudu hailed them, but they gave no answer, and, as they approached\nnearer, they were seen to prepare to cast their spears, so the Elephant\nsaid, \"I see that they are not your friends; therefore, as I cross the\nriver, do you look out for them, and keep them at a distance.  If they\ncome to the other side of the river, I shall know how to deal with\nthem.\"\n\nThey got to the opposite bank safely; but, as they were landing, Dudu\nand Salimba noticed that their pursuers had discovered a canoe, and that\nthey were pulling hard after them.  But the Elephant soon after landing\ncame to a broad path smoothed by much travel, over which he took them at\na quick pace, so fast, indeed, that the pursuers had to run to be able\nto keep up with them.  Dudu, every now and then let fly an arrow at the\nhunters, which kept them at a safe distance.\n\nTowards night they came to the City of the Elephants, which was very\nlarge and fit to shelter such a multitude as they now saw.  Their\nelephant did not linger, however, but took his friends at the same quick\npace until they came to a mighty elephant that was much larger than any\nother, and his ivories were gleaming white and curled up, and\nexceedingly long.  Before him Dudu and Salimba were told by their friend\nto descend and salaam, and he told his lord how he had found them lost\nin the woods, and how for the sake of the kindly words of the woman he\nhad befriended them, and assisted them to the city of his tribe.  When\nthe King Elephant heard all this he was much pleased, and said to Dudu\nand Salimba that they were welcome to his city, and how they should not\nwant for anything, as long as they would be pleased to stay with them,\nbut as for the hunters who had dared to chase them, he would give orders\nat once.  Accordingly he gave a signal, and ten active young elephants\ndashed out of the city, and in a short time not one of the hunters was\nleft alive, though one of them had leaped into the river, thinking that\nhe could escape in that manner.  But then you know that an elephant is\nas much at home in a river, as a Kiboko [a hippopotamus], so that the\nlast man was soon caught and was drowned.\n\nDudu and Salimba, however, on account of Salimba's kind heart in\npreventing her husband wounding the elephant, were made free of the\nplace, and their friend took them with him to many families, and the big\npa's and ma's told their little babies all about them and their habits,\nand said that, though most of the human kind were very stupid and\nwicked, Dudu and Salimba were very good, and putting their trunks into\ntheir ears they whispered that Salimba was the better of the two.  Then\nthe little elephants gathered about them and trotted by their side and\naround them and diverted them with their antics, their races, their\nwrestlings, and other trials of strength, but when they became familiar\nand somewhat rude in their rough play, their elephant friend would\nadmonish them, and if that did not suffice, he would switch them\nsoundly.\n\nThe City of the Elephants was a spacious and well-trodden glade in the\nmidst of a thick forest, and as it was entered one saw how wisely the\nelephant families had arranged their manner of life.  For without, the\ntrees stood as thick as water-reeds, and the bush or underwood was like\nan old hedge of milkweed knitted together by thorny vines and snaky\nclimbers into which the human hunter might not even poke his nose\nwithout hurt.  Well, the burly elephants had, by much uprooting, created\ndeep hollows, or recesses, wherein a family of two and more might snugly\nrest, and not even a dart of sunshine might reach them.  Round about the\ngreat glade the dark leafy arches ran, and Dudu and his wife saw that\nthe elephant families were numerous--for by one sweeping look they could\ntell that there were more elephants than there are human beings in a\ngoodly village.  In some of the recesses there was a row of six and more\nelephants; in another the parents stood head to head, and their\nchildren, big and little, clung close to their parents' sides; in\nanother a family stood with heads turned towards the entrance, and so on\nall around--while under a big tree in the middle there was quite a\ngathering of big fellows, as though they were holding a serious palaver;\nunder another tree one seemed to be on the outlook; another paced slowly\nfrom side to side; another plucked at this branch or at that; another\nappeared to be heaving a tree, or sharpening a blunted ivory; others\nseemed appointed to uproot the sprouts, lest the glade might become\nchoked with underwood.  Near the entrance on both sides were a brave\ncompany of them, faces turned outward, swinging their trunks, napping\ntheir ears, rubbing against each other, or who with pate against pate\nseemed to be drowsily considering something.  There was a continual\ncoming in and a going out, singly, or in small companies.  The roads\nthat ran through the glade were like a network, clean and smooth, while\nthat which went towards the king's place was so wide that twenty men\nmight walk abreast.  At the far end the king stood under his own tree,\nwith his family under the arches behind him.\n\nThis was the City of the Elephants as Dudu and Salimba saw it.  I ought\nto say that the outlets of it were many.  One went straight through the\nwoods in a line up river, at the other end it ran in a line following\nthe river downward; one went to a lakelet, where juicy plants and reeds\nthrove like corn in a man's fields, and where the elephants rejoiced in\nits cool water, and washed themselves and infants; another went to an\nancient clearing where the plantain and manioc grew wild, and wherein\nmore than two human tribes might find food for countless seasons.\n\nThen said their friend to Dudu and Salimba--\"Now that I have shown you\nour manner of life, it is for you to ease your longing for awhile and\nrest with us.  When you yearn for home, go tell our king, and he will\nsend you with credit to your kindred.\"\n\nThen Dudu and his wife resolved to stay, and eat, and they stayed a\nwhole season, not only unhurt, but tenderly cared for, with never a\nhungry hour or uneasy night.  But at last Salimba's heart remembered her\nchildren, and kinfolk, and her own warm house and village pleasures, and\non hinting of these memories to her husband, he said that after all\nthere was no place like Bungandu.  He remembered his long pipe, and the\ntalk-house, the stool-making, shaft-polishing, bow-fitting, and the\nlittle tinkering jobs, the wine-trough, and the merry drinking bouts,\nand he wept softly as he thought of them.\n\nThey thus agreed that it was time for them to travel homeward, and\ntogether they sought the elephant king, and frankly told him of their\nstate.\n\n\"My friends,\" he replied, \"be no longer sad, but haste to depart.  With\nthe morning's dawn guides shall take you to Bungandu with such gifts as\nshall make you welcome to your folk.  And when you come to them, say to\nthem that the elephant king desires lasting peace and friendship with\nthem.  On our side we shall not injure their plantations, neither a\nplantain, nor a manioc root belonging to them; and on your side dig no\npits for our unwary youngsters, nor hang the barbed iron aloft, nor\nplant the poisoned stake in the path, so we shall escape hurt and be\nunprovoked.\"  And Dudu put his hand on the king's trunk as the pledge of\ngood faith.\n\nIn the morning, four elephants, as bearers of the gifts from the king--\nbales of bark-cloth, and showy mats, and soft hides and other things--\nand two fighting elephants besides their old friend, stood by the\nentrance to the city, and when the king elephant came up he lifted\nSalimba first on the back of her old companion, and then placed Dudu by\nher side, and at a parting wave the company moved on.\n\nIn ten days they reached the edge of the plantation of Bungandu, and the\nleader halted.  The bales were set down on the ground, and then their\nfriend asked of Dudu and his wife--\n\n\"Know you where you are?\"\n\n\"We do,\" they answered.\n\n\"Is this Bungandu?\" he asked.\n\n\"This is Bungandu,\" they replied.\n\n\"Then here we part, that we may not alarm your friends.  Go now your\nway, and we go our way.  Go tell your folk how the elephants treat their\nfriends, and let there be peace for ever between us.\"\n\nThe elephants turned away, and Dudu and Salimba, after hiding their\nwealth in the underwood, went arm in arm into the village of Bungandu.\nWhen their friends saw them, they greeted them as we would greet our\nfriends whom we have long believed to be dead, but who come back smiling\nand rejoicing to us.  When the people heard their story they greatly\nwondered and doubted, but when Dudu and Salimba took them to the place\nof parting and showed them the hoof prints of seven elephants on the\nroad, and the bales that they had hidden in the underwood, they believed\ntheir story.  And they made it a rule from that day that no man of the\ntribe ever should lift a spear, or draw a bow, or dig a pit, or plant\nthe poisoned stake in the path, or hang the barbed iron aloft, to do\nhurt to an elephant.  And as a proof that I have but told the truth go\nask the Bungandu, and they will say why none of their race will ever\nseek to hurt the elephant, and it will be the same as I have told you.\nThat is my story.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER EIGHTEEN.\n\nTHE SEARCH FOR THE HOME OF THE SUN.\n\nWe had a man named Kanga with us in 1883, which name seems to have been\nbestowed on him by some Islamised resident of Nyangwe by reason of some\nfancied suggestion made by some of his facial marks to the spots on a\nguinea-fowl.  Kanga had not spoken as yet by the evening fire, but had\nbeen an amused listener.  When the other tale-tellers were seen sporting\ntheir gay robes on the Sunday, it may have inspired him to make an\neffort to gain one for himself; anyhow, he surprised us one night by\nsaying that he knew of a tale which perhaps we would like to hear.  As\nKanga's tribe was the Wasongora-Meno on the right bank of the Lualaba,\nbetween Nyangwe and Stanley Falls, the mere mention of a tale from that\nregion was sufficient to kindle my interest.\n\nAfter a few suitable compliments to Kanga, which were clearly much\nappreciated, he spoke as follows:\n\nMaster and friends.  We have an old phrase among us which is very\ncommon.  It is said that he who waits and waits for his turn, may wait\ntoo long, and lose his chance.  My tongue is not nimble like some, and\nmy words do not flow like the deep river.  I am rather like the brook\nwhich is fretted by the stones in its bed, and I hope after this\nexplanation you will not be too impatient with me.\n\nMy tale is about King Masama and his tribe, the Balira, who dwelt far in\nthe inmost region, behind (east) us, who throng the banks of the great\nriver.  They were formerly very numerous, and many of them came to live\namong us, but one day King Masama and the rest of the tribe left their\ncountry and went eastward, and they have never been heard of since, but\nthose who chose to stay with us explained their disappearance in this\nway.\n\nA woman, one cold night, after making up her fire on the hearth, went to\nsleep.  In the middle of the night the fire had spread, and spread, and\nbegan to lick up the litter on the floor, and from the litter it crept\nto her bed of dry banana-leaves, and in a little time shot up into\nflames.  When the woman and her husband were at last awakened by the\nheat, the flames had already mounted into the roof, and were burning\nfuriously.  Soon they broke through the top and leaped up into the\nnight, and a gust of wind came and carried the long flames like a stream\nof fire towards the neighbouring huts, and in a short time the fire had\ncaught hold of every house, and the village was entirely burned.  It was\nsoon known that besides burning up their houses and much property,\nseveral old people and infants had been destroyed by the fire, and the\npeople were horror-struck and angry.\n\nThen one voice said, \"We all know in whose house the fire began, and the\nowner of it must make our losses good to us.\"\n\nThe woman's husband heard this, and was alarmed, and guiltily fled into\nthe woods.\n\nIn the morning a council of the elders was held, and it was agreed that\nthe man in whose house the fire commenced should be made to pay for his\ncarelessness, and they forthwith searched for him.  But when they sought\nfor him he could not be found.  Then all the young warriors who were\ncunning in wood-craft, girded and armed themselves, and searched for the\ntrail, and when one of them had found it, he cried out, and the others\ngathered themselves about him and took it up, and when many eyes were\nset upon it, the trail could not be lost.\n\nThey soon came up to the man, for he was seated under a tree, bitterly\nweeping.\n\nWithout a word they took hold of him by the arms and bore him along with\nthem, and brought him before the village fathers.  He was not a common\nman by any means.  He was known as one of Masama's principal men, and\none whose advice had been often followed.\n\n\"Oh,\" said everybody, \"he is a rich man, and well able to pay; yet, if\nhe gives all he has got, it will not be equal to our loss.\"\n\nThe fathers talked a long time over the matter, and at last decided that\nto save his forfeited life he should freely turn over to them all his\nproperty.  And he did so.  His plantation of bananas and plantains, his\nplots of beans, yams, manioc, potatoes, ground-nuts, his slaves, spears,\nshields, knives, paddles and canoes.  When he had given up all, the\nhearts of the people became softened towards him, and they forgave him\nthe rest.\n\nAfter the elder's property had been equally divided among the sufferers\nby the fire, the people gained new courage, and set about rebuilding\ntheir homes, and before long they had a new village, and they had made\nthemselves as comfortable as ever.\n\nThen King Masama made a law, a very severe law--to the effect that, in\nfuture, no fire should be lit in the houses during the day or night; and\nthe people, who were now much alarmed about fire, with one heart agreed\nto keep the law.  But it was soon felt that the cure for the evil was as\ncruel as the fire had been.  For the houses had been thatched with green\nbanana-leaves, the timbers were green and wet with their sap, the floor\nwas damp and cold, the air was deadly, and the people began to suffer\nfrom joint aches, and their knees were stiff, and the pains travelled\nfrom one place to another through their bodies.  The village was filled\nwith groaning.\n\nMasama suffered more than all, for he was old.  He shivered night and\nday, and his teeth chattered sometimes so that he could not talk, and\nafter that his head would burn, and the hot sweat would pour from him,\nso that he knew no rest.\n\nThen the king gathered his chiefs and principal men together, and said:\n\n\"Oh, my people, this is unendurable, for life is with me now but one\ncontinuous ague.  Let us leave this country, for it is bewitched, and if\nI stay longer there will be nothing left of me.  Lo, my joints are\nstiffened with my disease, and my muscles are withering.  The only time\nI feel a little ease is when I lie on the hot ashes without the house,\nbut when the rains fall I must needs withdraw indoors, and there I find\nno comfort, for the mould spreads everywhere.  Let us hence at once to\nseek a warmer clime.  Behold whence the sun issues daily in the morning,\nhot and glowing; there, where his home is, must be warmth, and we shall\nneed no fire.  What say you?\"\n\nMasama's words revived their drooping spirits.  They looked towards the\nsun as they saw him mount the sky, and felt his cheering glow on their\nnaked breasts and shoulders, and they cried with one accord: \"Let us\nhence, and seek the place whence he comes.\"\n\nAnd the people got ready and piled their belongings in the canoes, and\non a certain day they left their village and ascended their broad river,\nthe Lira.  Day after day they paddled up the stream, and we heard of\nthem from the Bafanya as they passed by their country, and the Bafanya\nheard of them for a long distance up--from the next tribe--the Bamoru--\nand the Bamoru heard about them arriving near the Mountain Land beyond.\n\nNot until a long time afterwards did we hear what became of Masama and\nhis people.\n\nIt was said that the Balira, when the river had become shallow and\nsmall, left their canoes and travelled by land among little hills, and\nafter winding in and out amongst them they came to the foot of the tall\nmountain which stands like a grandsire amongst the smaller mountains.\nUp the sides of the big mountain they straggled, the stronger and more\nactive of them ahead, and as the days passed, they saw that the world\nwas cold and dark until the sun showed himself over the edge of the big\nmountain, when the day became more agreeable, for the heat pierced into\ntheir very marrows, and made their hearts rejoice.  The greater the heat\nbecame, the more certain were they that they were drawing near the home\nof the sun.  And so they pressed on and on, day after day, winding along\none side of the mountain, and then turning to wind again still higher.\nEach day, as they advanced towards the top, the heat became greater and\ngreater.  Between them and the sun there was now not the smallest shrub\nor leaf, and it became so fiercely hot that finally not a drop of sweat\nwas left in their bodies.  One day, when not a cloud was in the sky, and\nthe world was all below them--far down like a great buffalo hide--the\nsun came out over the rim of the mountain like a ball of fire, and the\nnearest of them to the top were dried like a leaf over a flame, and\nthose who were behind were amazed at its burning force, and felt, as he\nsailed over their heads, that it was too late for them to escape.  Their\nskins began to shrivel up and crackle, and fall off, and none of those\nwho were high up on the mountain side were left alive.  But a few of\nthose who were nearest the bottom, and the forest belts, managed to take\nshelter, and remaining there until night, they took advantage of the\ndarkness, when the sun sleeps, to fly from the home of the sun.  Except\na few poor old people and toddling children, there was none left of the\nonce populous tribe of the Balira.\n\nThat is my story.  We who live by the great river have taken the lesson,\nwhich the end of this tribe has been to us, close to our hearts, and it\nis this.  Kings who insist that their wills should be followed, and\nnever care to take counsel with their people, are as little to be heeded\nas children who babble of what they cannot know, and therefore in our\nvillages we have many elders who take all matters from the chief and\nturn them over in their minds, and when they are agreed, they give the\ndoing of them to the chief, who can act only as the elders decree.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER NINETEEN.\n\nA HOSPITABLE GORILLA.\n\n\"Sir,\" said Baruti, after we had all gathered around the evening fire,\nand were waiting expectant for the usual story, \"Kassim's tale about the\nCity of the Elephants and the peace that was entered into between the\nelephants and the Bungandu has reminded me of what happened between a\ntribe living on the banks of the little Black River above the Basoko,\nand a Gorilla.\"\n\n\"Wallahi, but these Basoko boys beat everybody for telling stories,\"\nexclaimed a Zanzibari.  \"I wonder, however, whether they invent them, or\nthey really have heard them from their old folk, as they say they did.\"\n\n\"We heard them, of course,\" replied Baruti, with an indignant look; \"for\nhow could Kassim or I imagine such things?  I heard something each day\nalmost from the elders, or the old women of the tribe.  My mother also\ntold me some, and my big brother told me others.  At our village\ntalk-house, scarcely a day passed but we heard of some strange thing\nwhich had happened in old times.  It is this custom of meeting around\nthe master's fire, and the legends that we hear, that reminds us of what\nwe formerly heard, and by thinking and thinking over them the words come\nback anew to us.\"\n\n\"But do you think these things of which you talk are true?\" the\nZanzibari asked.\n\n\"True!\" he echoed.  \"Who am I that I should say, This thing is true, and\nthat is false!  I but repeat what my betters said.  I do not speak of\nwhat I saw, but of what I heard, and the master's words to us were: `Try\nand remember what was said to you in your villages by the ancients among\nyour people, and if you will tell it to me properly, I will give you a\nnice cloth.'  Well, when our old men were in good-humour, and smoked\ntheir long pipes, and the pot of wine was by their side, and we asked\nthem to tell us somewhat about the days when they were young, they would\nsay, `Listen to this now,' and they would tell us of what happened long\nago.  It is the things of long ago that we remember best, because they\nwere so strange that they clung on the mind, and would not altogether be\nforgotten.  If there is aught unpleasing in them, it is not our fault,\nfor we but repeat the words that entered into our ears.\"\n\n\"That will do, Baruti; go on with your story; and you, Baraka, let your\ntongue sleep,\" cried Zaidi.\n\n\"I but asked a question.  Ho! how impatient you fellows are!\"\n\n\"Nay, this is but chatter--we shall never hear the story at this rate.\nHyah!  Barikallah!  [Hurry on, in God's name!]  Baruti.\"\n\nWell (began Baruti), this tribe dwelt on the banks of the Black River\njust above Basoko town, and at that time of the far past the thick\nforest round about them was haunted by many monstrous animals; big apes,\nchimpanzees, gorillas and such creatures, which are not often seen\nnowadays.  Not far from the village, in a darksome spot where the\nbranches met overhead and formed a thick screen, and the lower wood\nhedged it closely round about so that a tortoise could scarcely\npenetrate it, there lived the Father of the Gorillas.  He had housed\nhimself in the fork of one of the tallest trees, and many men had seen\nthe nest as they passed by, but none as yet had seen the owner.\n\nBut one day a fisherman in search of rattans to make his nets, wandered\nfar into the woods, and in trying to recover the direction home struck\nthe Black River high up.  As he stood wondering whether this was the\nblack stream that flowed past his village, he saw, a little to the right\nof him, an immense gorilla, who on account of the long dark fur on his\nchest appeared to be bigger than he really was.  A cold sweat caused by\nhis great fear began to come out of the man, and his knees trembled so\nthat he could hardly stand, but when he perceived that the gorilla did\nnot move, but continued eating his bananas, he became comforted a\nlittle, and his senses came back.  He turned his head around, in order\nto see the clearest way for a run; but as he was about to start, he saw\nthat the gorilla's eyes were fixed on him.  Then the gorilla broke out\ninto speech and said:\n\n\"Come to me, and let me look at thee.\"\n\nThe fisherman's fear came back to him, but he did as he was told, and\nwhen he thought he was near enough, he stood still.\n\nThen the gorilla said:\n\n\"If thou art kin to me, thou art safe from harm; if not, thou canst not\npass.  How many fingers hast thou?\" he asked.\n\n\"Four,\" the fisherman answered, and he held a hand up with its back\ntowards the gorilla, and his thumb was folded in on the palm so that it\ncould not be seen by the beast.\n\n\"Ay--true indeed.  Why, thou must be a kinsman of ours, though thy fur\nis somewhat scanty.  Sit down and take thy share of this food, and eat.\"\n\nThe fisherman sat down, and broke off bananas from the stalk and ate\nheartily.\n\n\"Now mind,\" said the gorilla, \"thou hast eaten food with me.  Shouldst\nthou ever meet in thy wanderings any of my brothers, thou must be kind\nto them in memory of this day.  Our tribe has no quarrel with any of\nthine, and thy tribe must have none against any of mine.  I live alone\nfar down this river, and thy tribe lives further still.  Mind our\npassword, `_Tu-wheli, Tu-wheli_.'  By that we know who is friendly and\nwho is against us.\"\n\nThe fisherman departed, and speeding on his way reached his village\nsafely; but he kept secret what he had seen and met that day.\n\nSome little time after, the tribe resolved to have a grand hunt around\ntheir village, to scare the beasts of the forest away; for in some\nthings they resemble us.  If we leave a district undisturbed for a moon\nor so, the animals think that we have either departed the country or are\nafraid of them.  The apes and the elephants are the worst in that\nrespect, and always lead the way, pressing on our heels, and often\nsending their scouts ahead to report, or as a hint to us that we are\nlingering too long.\n\nThe people loaded themselves with their great nets, and first chose the\ndistrict where the Gorilla Father lived.  They set their nets around a\nwide space, and then the beaters were directed to make a large sweep and\ndrive all the game towards the nets, and here and there where the\nnetting was weak, the hunters stood behind a thick bush, their heavy\nspears ready for the fling.\n\nWell, it just happened that at that very time the Father of the Gorillas\nwas holding forth to his kinsmen, and the first they knew of the hunt,\nand that a multitude of men were in the woods, was when they heard the\nhorrid yells of the beaters, the sound of horns, the jingle of iron, and\nthe all-round swish of bushes.\n\nThe fisherman, like the rest of his friends, was well armed, and he was\nas keen as the others for the hunt, but soon after he heard the cries of\nthe beaters, he saw a large gorilla rushing out of the bushes, and knew\nhim instantly for his friend, and he cried out \"_Tu-wheli!  Tu-wheli_!\"\nAt the sound of it the gorilla led his kinsmen towards him, and passed\nthe word to those behind, saying, \"Ah, this is our friend.  Do not hurt\nhim.\"\n\nThe gorillas passed in a long line of mighty fellows, close by the\nfisherman, and as they heard the voice of their father, they only\nwhispered to him, \"_Tu-wheli, Tu-wheli_,\" but the last of all was a big,\nsour-faced gorilla, who, when he saw that the pass was only guarded by\none man, made a rush at him.  His roar of rage was heard by the father,\nand turning back he knew that his human brother was in danger, and he\ncried out to those nearest to part them, \"The man is our brother;\" but\nas the fierce gorilla was deaf to words, the father loped back to them,\nand slew him, and then hastened away as the hunters were pressing up.\n\nThese, when they came up and observed that the fisherman's spear was\nstill in his hand, and not painted with blood, were furious, and they\nagreed together that he should not have a share of the meat, \"For,\" said\nthey, \"he must have been in a league against us.\"  Neither did he obtain\nany share of the spoil.\n\nA few days after this the fisherman was proceeding through a part of the\nforest, and a gorilla met him in the path, and said:\n\n\"Stay, I seem to know thee.  Art thou not our brother?\"\n\n\"_Tu-wheli, Tu-wheli_!\" he cried.\n\n\"Ah, it is true, follow me;\" and they went together to the gorilla's\nnesting-tree, where the fisherman was feasted on ripe bananas, berries,\nand nuts, and juicy roots, and he was shown which roots and berries were\nsweet, and which were bitter, and so great was the variety of food he\nsaw, that he came to know that though lost in the forest a wise man need\nnot starve.\n\nWhen the fisherman returned to his village he called the elders\ntogether, and he laid the whole story of his adventures before his\npeople, and when the elders heard that the berries and roots, nuts, and\nmushrooms in the forest, of which they had hitherto been afraid, were\nsweet and wholesome, they exclaimed with one voice, that the gorillas\nhad proved themselves true friends, and had given them much useful\nknowledge; and it was agreed among them that in future the gorillas\nshould be reckoned among those, against whom it would not be lawful to\nraise their spears.\n\nEver since the tribes on the Black River avoid harming the gorilla, and\nall his kind big and little; neither will any of the gorilla trespass on\ntheir plantations, or molest any of the people.","title":"My Dark Companions and Their Strange Stories","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":60817}