Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/148

120 When he saw the Koodoo he told him that all the animals wanted tails. The Koodoo said, "Look in that box." There were many boxes. He looked in the one the Koodoo showed him and it was full of eyes. He said, "What is this?" and the Koodoo said, "When anyone sleeps here he takes his eyes out and puts them in that box and he takes them out again when he wants them." The Elephant said, "We only want tails." The Koodoo said, "Very well, go back to your friends and say Mjarre" (the name of a certain kind of tree) "and then the tails will come." The Elephant went back; but on the road he forgot the word. When he came to the animals they said, "What have you seen?" And he said, "I saw a Koodoo, and he told me a word. When I say it your tails will come; but now I have forgotten the word." They said, "Think a little." So he thought and he said, "Treve" (another tree), but no tails came. Then the Eland said, "I will go and ask the Koodoo."

So the Eland went to the house of the Koodoo singing, "Ti, titi, ba tui" etc.

When he spoke to the Koodoo it said, "Ah! Ah! Why do you ask me? Did not the Elephant tell you?" He said, "No. You told him, but he forgot the word on the way home." So the Koodoo told the Eland. The Eland went home; but on the road he forgot the word.

The animals said, "Well, well, what is the word?" but he had forgotten it. Then another animal went; but he forgot it too; all of them went and all forgot it. At last the Tortoise said he would go. The Elephant said, "Ah! Ah! Did not I forget ? I am big and you are too small." The Tortoise said, "All the same I shall not forget." The Elephant said, "Very well, I shall build a big fire, and if you forget I shall throw you in and burn you." The Tortoise went and asked the Koodoo, who told him the word. All the way back he kept saying the name, because he was so afraid of forgetting it. When he reached the