Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/145

Rh Jack Built" I have condensed them into a phrase. This will be apparent.

The boy's name was Cleopa; but I do not know his tribal name. He was a lad whose voice was just beginning to break. He could neither read nor speak English, and he assured me that he had not gathered any tales except from the Banyanja. I asked him if all his people knew so many tales, and he said no; that they were rather amused at his fondness for them; that some could not tell any stories, and some only one or two, never more than a small number; but that he liked them and had collected them from one and another of the old people. I think he and his own brothers (children of one father and mother) were particularly intelligent. Of those who worked for me one had a good ear for music and sang well; the other had a gift for speech-making.

There was a Man and he had a garden. Every day the Rabbit came and ate his plants. The Man said to him, "Why do you eat my garden? Let it alone!" but the Rabbit came every day and ate there.

Then the Man collected gum from the trees, many baskets full, and he made it into something like a man, and he put the Gum Man in the garden. Then he put some bread beside him and some meat and some beer.

By and bye the Rabbit came to eat in the garden and he saw all these things. He stopped and looked at them all.

He said, "What is all this food?"

Gum Man said nothing.

The Rabbit took the bread and ate it, and said, "Give me the meat!"

Gum Man said nothing.

The Rabbit took the meat and ate it, and said, "Give me the beer!"