Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/158

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Folklore of the Banyanja.

eye, lame in one leg, with some teeth missing, laden on one side with corn and one side with honey." He met two men who said, "Have you seen a camel?" He said, "Was it blind of an eye, lame in one leg, with some teeth missing, laden on one side with corn and one side with honey?" They said, "Yes, have you seen it?" He replied, "No, I have not." They said he was a thief and that he had stolen their camel and they took him to be tried. They said, "This man knows all about what our camel is like and what it was carrying; but he says he has not seen it." So the Man said, " I could see by the track on the road that a camel had gone by and the track of one foot was light, so I knew the camel was lame; it only ate the grass on one side of the road, so I knew it was blind; it left little pieces of grass where it grazed, so I knew it had lost some teeth. I knew it had corn and honey on its pack, because there were ants on one side of the road and flies on the other side picking up what had fallen." The people who were trying him did not know what to say. So the Man said, "Wait and see if the camel comes back soon." They waited and by and bye the camel came back. So they said, "All right, we see now that you did not steal it."


The Tiger and the Trap.

There was a Man and he set a snare for catching game. One day he took his child and went to look at it and there was a Tiger caught in the trap. He was afraid and wanted to run away; but the Tiger said, "Don't be afraid, I wont hurt you; only let me go."

The Man said, "No, you will kill me!" but the Tiger said, "I tell you, I will not hurt you at all." Then the Man let it loose. "Now," it said, "I have been in your trap all night ; I have eaten nothing; give me your child to eat." The Man gave it his child and the Tiger ate it. Then he said, " Now I will eat you!" The Man ran away