Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/150

122 give these messengers your big pot and tell them to go and tell the Chief that your well is dry and so you cannot get on with your work; but that if his people shed tears into the pot it will get full of water immediately and then you can finish your work when they bring it back to you." The Iron Worker said, Very well." He gave the men the pot, and told them to tell that to their Chief. They took the pot to their Chief and told him everything. He said, "I have never heard of this; come and do it." They shed tears into the pot; but the tears sank in and dried up at once and there was no water at all in the pot. The Chief sent them back to the Iron Worker to tell him they could not make the pot full of water by shedding tears into it. So he said, "Very well, how can I finish my work if I have no water?" So he was not killed.

There was a woman and she went to gather wood in the fields. A Tiger came and wanted to eat her; but she said, "Don't eat me; come to-night and eat my child." She went home and took her little boy (he was called Tamballankulilanji) and she put him in a pot without any water and set him on the fire. This was to make him wise. That night the Tiger came. The Mother told it, "Come and wait on the verandah of my Picanin's house, and I will cook his food in my house and then call him to come and get it. When he is coming across you can come and catch him." The Tiger came and waited and the Mother cooked the Picanin's food and then called him. The boy turned himself into a mouse and ran under the door; he ate his food and then ran back under the door. The Tiger did not catch him, so he told the Mother. The Mother