One day there was a "big play" at a distant town. Hunger invites Belly to go with him. Before they start, Hunger cooks "plenty chop" and asks Belly to eat. Then Hunger insists that he get on Belly and be carried to the play. Belly refuses, and there is "big, big palaver." In the end Hunger "gets best," and mounts Belly. When they arrive at the play, Belly asks Hunger to get off, but Hunger refuses and holds tight. He even succeeds in creeping inside of Belly. Belly is enraged. To quiet him, Hunger promises to come out if Belly carries him back home. Belly carries Hunger home, and then, tired and faint from carrying him inside, demands that he come out. Hunger laughs, and says, "I have no intention whatever of coming out, and you may surely expect to be reminded every day that I am your constant companion." Thus it happened that Hunger began to live in Belly, and lives there to this day.

28. WHY PEOPLE HAVE NAMES.

Great-Spirit sends his son to earth to see what is here. His son's name is Somebody. Somebody goes about doing evil until he is captured by four old women. People call a meeting to talk the palaver. They decide to put Somebody to death. A little boy proposes, that, before killing him, they ask him the reason of his misconduct. Somebody answers, "I wish to have every man given a name, and to end the practice of calling me and everybody 'Somebody.' Then every deed may be attributed to its doer." The wisdom of this reply gains for Somebody his release, and for every man a

name.

29. WHY ONE GRAIN OF RICE NO LONGER FILLS THE POT. Once one grain of rice covered well with water and cooked afforded a good meal for several persons. At that time Great-Spirit, the ruler of the country, had a wife from the people. One day her numerous relations come to visit her. She decides that one grain in the pot will not suffice for so many, therefore she puts in plenty rice. GreatSpirit sees the pot boiling, and is angry, and sees it is well that her family is at hand, otherwise she would get such a beating for breaking the law of the country, that none would ever recognize her again. One grain would have sufficed to feed all the people. "But since you have broken my law, hereafter, to get enough to eat, everybody must put plenty rice in the pot."

30. THE ORIGIN OF THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.

For a long time after the world was made, plentiful rains came; but there was neither thunder nor lightning. One day Tiegbe (a dove)

is flying about, "taking breeze," when she sees a handsome man "up top." She wishes to have him for her husband; so every day she carries him new rice, fresh fish, and ripe palm-nuts for his "chop." The handsome man eats, but says nothing. His silence vexes Tiegbe, until she provokes him into saying, “Mind, I tell you! Better leave me! If I speak just once, you will run away and never return!" "I am not afraid," answers Tiegbe. That night the winds rage, heavy clouds gather. From "up top" come loud mutterings. The handsome man has begun to speak. He blinks his eyes. When they are open, it is as bright as day; when they are closed, it is black. Peal after peal, terrific crashes, blinding flashes. Tiegbe clings to a tree that groans in the storm. Torrents of rain drench her. "After all," she says, "one could not have such an ill-tempered monster for a husband."-"Quite right you are," says the handsome man. And from that day he has denied himself to women who make visits "up top."

31. DAY AND NIGHT.

Long ago, when our grandfathers first came and "sat down" in this country, there was a bitter and violent dispute going on between Day and Night. Who was the more important, was their dispute. They submitted the question to the people of a town near here. The people decided in favor of Night, hoping that Night would live up to the decision about his importance, and become Day, and light would thereby always be present. The decision angered Day, and he left the country for a distant land. So it was always dark here. The people called Night, and said, "Since it is on your account Day left us, why don't you give us light?" Night tried, but failed. The people went to a country witch-doctor. She told them to send for Rooster, Doodoo,' and Bleto. These three were to seek Day, and tell him that the people had concluded he was much more important than Night, and begged him to come back. The three find Day. Doodoo says, "We come to tell you, Great Lord, that the people now agree that you were in the right." Bleto says, "And we beg you to return at once." Rooster says, "And it is fitting that I announce your coming," and he went up a hill and crowed. The lesson of this tale is, Never undertake work you cannot do.

32. SUN AND MOON.

Once there were two suns and no moon. The suns are jealous of each other, and compete in tests of endurance and strength. Finally Ambitious-Sun decides to trick Rival-Sun, and invites him to go bathing. On the river's bank it is agreed that Ambitious-Sun go upstream,

1 A bird that makes its characteristic call at dawn.

and Rival-Sun downstream; and that Ambitious-Sun jump first into the water, Rival-Sun to follow as soon as he hears the splash. But, instead of jumping into the water, Ambitious-Sun throws in a great rock. Rival-Sun jumps in, and the stream carries away much of his strength and power. Ambitious-Sun says to Rival-Sun, "Henceforth your name shall be Moon. I am now your master, and shall be king of day. You may rule the night." - Beware of the invitation of a jealous rival.

33. KING HUNGER.

"You have spoken well, for true, my friends, of the great kings you have visited; but I will tell you of a king greater than all. His country is not very large; but he has plenty, plenty people to pay his tax." One day a stranger comes, and asks the king how many people he has under him. The king rejoins that it is too late in the day to say, but that he will give an answer the next day. The next day the king takes watch of every person who eats; and at the end of the day he says to the stranger, "All you saw put something in my hand to-day are my subjects. So they do every day."

34. FOX AND ROOSTER.

The fox used to be very much afraid of the rooster. Whenever he heard him crow, he would run to the bush and hide. One day Rooster meets Fox in an open field, and asks Fox why he always runs from him. "Because I am afraid of the flame of fire you carry on your head, Mr. Rooster." "Oh, that is not fire. Come close and look at it!" Fox feels Rooster's comb, and sees that there is not even a bone in it. Fox calls together his comrades, and tells them what he has learned. They decide to go to the farm and prey upon the chickens, as there is no longer any need to fear Rooster. And to this day Fox profits from the foolish confession of Rooster.

35. COCKROACH IN FOWL COUNTRY.

Old Fobei, the paramount chief of the Tungo country, has died without an heir: so all the petty chiefs agree to meet at Bakado and choose a successor. Of all the aspirants, Chief Tamba is thought to have the best chance; but after many days' deliberation, the council chooses Tamba's strongest rival. When asked by his friends the reason of his defeat, Tamba says, "You see, my friends, all the chiefs that come to Bakado were born in the Tungo country, and their fathers and grandfathers. I too was born in the Tungo country, but my father and grandfather came from the Bonno country. Before the council voted, the chiefs talked plenty about making a stranger king

of Tungo, and what they said defeated me. —A cockroach stands no show in a fowl country."

36. PREMATURE.

Bifo takes his son in a canoe to fish, and, that he may learn, lets him do all the fishing. Fishing is poor. As they are about to return to the beach, there is a big bite. "I've got a big one!" cries the boy. The head of a big gripper is seen. The boy cries, "He's mine, he's mine!" The fish jerks, the hook breaks. "I'm vexed too much, I thought so I had him for true," wails the boy. "You should never curse the crocodile, my son, until you have crossed the river."

37. THE WISDOM OF A LITTLE CHILD.

Karmo is anxious to become a wise man. He tells his wife to gather up his things, as he wishes to travel to a country of famous doctors. He stays in this far country in study with the doctors for five years. Ready to return home, he makes up his books and writings into a kingja to carry on his back. Meanwhile a son is born to his wife, and grows up. Karmo reaches home, and hastens to pass through the door of the house to greet his wife; but the kingja on his back keeps him from going through the door (the kingja is higher than the head). The child advises him to take off the kingja in order to come in. The father throws away the kingja, and says, "Even in that far country I was unable to gather all the wisdom from the great doctors. child that I have never seen before can teach me."

38. MOTHER CRAB AND HER CHILDREN.

The

Tapla and Gofa are engaged in a dispute about whether or not to send their children to the day-school just opened in their town. Tapla, as a progressive man, is for the school; Gofa, as a conservative of tribal custom, is against it. "You remind me of Mother Crab," says Tapla. "She had two children, and she took them out for a walk. They had gone a little way, when she said, "Run on ahead, children, and have a good play! I will soon catch you."—"No," said the smaller child, "we came out to walk with you, and do not wish to leave you." Besides," said the larger child, "don't you see, mother, that we are made just like you, and can go no faster than you?"

39. PARABLE OF THE BULLOCK.

The parents of Sagbe and Tarhoh have agreed that when the boy and girl are old enough, they shall marry; and Kape, the father of Sagbe, has to pay over part of the purchase-price. Although Sagbe is but a little more than half grown, he is impatient to get married,

and keeps urging it upon his father. So one day Kape bids the boy help him dress a young bullock he intends to sell as meat in the village.

"When we have finished, I will give you a final answer," says Kape. He tells Sagbe to drive an iron peg as high as he can reach into the tree under which the bullock is tethered. Kape fells the bullock with his axe, and ropes its hind-legs. Then he bids Sagbe lift the carcass and hang it on the peg in the tree. Sagbe can raise the carcass only a few feet. Then Kape seizes the carcass and lightly hangs it on the peg. "Because you are a boy, you are not able to do the work of a man. . . . This is the reason I cannot agree to your marrying.” Sagbe knows now that what his father often says is true, - "Forward boys are not men."

40. THE DEATH-GRIN.

Chief Gobe is known in the country about his town as a rich man; but misfortune overtakes him. Sickness carries off all his cattle and sheep; the rice-crop fails, and famine sets in; his neighbor raids his town, destroys it, and carries off his wife and slaves. Gobe, however, sets about mending his fortune so cheerfully, that he is a wonder to his people. "Thus," says old Yakporo, the village soothsayer, "should every true man meet trouble. When the teeth in a man's mouth protrude so that he seems always to grin, one can never tell when his face wears the death-grin."

41. OPPORTUNITY.

Chief Blamo has just married his twentieth wife, and there is great feasting and rejoicing in his town. He has paid for his wife two "wories," two bullocks, and a goat. His friends chide him for extravagance, and remind him of how he used to buy a wife with a brass kettle and a bolt of cloth or an iron pot. Chief Blamo replies, "Long ago Opportunity made love to a beautiful young woman, who refused him. Opportunity became poor and sick. The young woman failed to hear of this; and one day she made up her mind to marry him, and went to find him. As she crossed the creek near the town where Opportunity lived, she saw an old man setting fish-traps. He was crippled, blind in one eye, and shabby. She took him to be a slave. On arriving in the town, she asked to be directed to the house of Opportunity. The people answered, "The crippled old man with one eye, fishing in the creek you just passed, is Opportunity." With a heavy heart the woman returned home and mourned. . . . "You see, good friends," concludes Chief Blamo, "times are not what they used to be."

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