Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/153

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Folklore of the Banyanja.
125

further bank and said, "Let me pull against one of you, and the one that falls down is to be eaten by the other." He made the one Cub take hold of his hands and pull and the Cub fell down and he ate it. The Lion came on the opposite bank and said, "Lift up the Cubs; I want to count them." The Hare lifted up the first and then the second and then he lifted up the first again. The Lion said, "All right; that's all," and went away. Then the Hare made the other Cub pull against him; when he fell down himself he said, "That was not fair; I had not taken hold properly." They pulled again and when the Cub fell over he killed and ate it. The Lion came again and said, "Lift up the Cubs again; I want to count them." The Hare lifted the same one up three times, and the Lion said, "All right; that's all," and went away. Then the Hare pulled against the third Cub, killed it and ate it and when the Lion came back he did not answer him; he ran far away and hid himself

Afterwards the Hare got tired of hiding for fear of the Lion, so he went out one day and found a number of Monkeys spinning tops. He said, "Why don't you sing when you spin tops?" They said, "What shall we sing?" He said, "Sing:

'We have killed the Cubs of the Lion!'"

They said, "Yes, that is nice," and they sang it. The Hare went to the Lion and said, "I have heard the Monkeys singing that they have killed your children." Then he told the Lion to get into a bundle of thatch, which he tied loosely, and he carried him to the place where the Monkeys were. Then he said to the Monkeys, "Let us spin tops." So they brought out the tops and the Monkeys sang:

"We have killed the Cubs of the Lion" (twice).

The Hare sang:

"Have you listened to my bundle?"

They sang again:

"We have killed the Cubs of the Lion" (twice).