Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/146

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Folklore of the Banyanja.

Gum Man said nothing.

The Rabbit took the beer and drank it. Then he said, "Why don't you answer me when I speak to you?"

The Gum Man said nothing.

The Rabbit got angry and said, " All right, if you don't answer me, I'll beat you!"

The Gum Man said nothing, so the Rabbit hit him with one hand.

His hand stuck fast, so he hit him with the other hand. It stuck fast too.

He kicked him with one foot, it stuck fast; he kicked him with the other, and that stuck fast too. Now he could not get away at all.

Now comes the Man, and the Rabbit pretends to be dead. He lies down quite still.

The Man says, "You are dead now!" and gives him to his child to take home and cook for dinner.

While the Boy was taking him home, the Rabbit says, "Why are you taking me to your home?"

The Boy says, "My brother says I must take you home and cook you for dinner!"

The Rabbit says, "No, I am a brother of his, and he said you must cook some dinner for me."

So the Boy cooked the dinner for him, and gave him a fowl to take home with him too.

When the Man came home he said, " Where is the Rabbit I told you to cook for my dinner?"

The Boy says, "No! he said he was your brother and that I must cook dinner and give it to him, so I did so!"


The Magic Head.

A Picanin went to fish. He put bait on his hook, threw it into the river, and he caught a fish and put it in a bag. All that day he fished, but did not catch another so he stopped and said, "I shall not fish any more to-day."