Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/171

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Folklore of the Banyanja.
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said, "No, I only say I shot him in the eye." The Hare would not eat any food, because he said his eye was sore. The Man ate it all. Then the Hare played a tom-tom and the Man sang, "I shot him in the eye," and the Hare sang, "I ate up all the food." Then they went back to the garden but the Man said he would not work any more with the Hare.


Mampara.

Once there was a Man and he made a trap for game. He had never learned how to do it before and no game was caught. He went and asked a brother why he could not catch game. The brother said, "Because you have not put any medicine on the posts of the trap." This medicine is made from herbs which are cooked. He went to another brother and asked for some medicine. The brother said, "No." He went and got medicine, put it on the trap and caught some game. As he was going home he saw some other traps on the road; they were the traps of the brother who would not give him medicine. He put his game into the traps to see if they would catch it, and they did. Then he wanted to take it out, but the brother came and said, "No, it is mine; it is caught in my trap." He told the brother that he had put it there himself; but the brother would not let him have it, and took it away. For this reason one calls a fool a "Mampara," that is, one who does not know how to keep the game which he has caught.


The Picanin who would laugh.

Once a Man went and lived in another country, and then he came back to fetch his younger brother. His brother said, "All right, we shall start to-morrow." Next morning they started. The elder brother said, "Do not laugh at anything strange you see, for there are many