Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/108

100 The coney answered and said, "Nay, I am not desirous of going with you."

But the people said, "You must go and exercise your skill on behalf of your mother-in-law."

The coney replied, "I am very tired."

The people said, "Nonsense! Let us go and watch with your mother-in-law." So he went with them.

They went on and came to the garden, and saw that the footprints were like those of the coney. They said, "Who was treading here? It was thou, coney."

The coney denied, saying, "It was not I."

The people said, "Why do you deny it, seeing that the footprints are the same as your own?"

The coney answered, "I came upon dogs eating the millet, and I drove them out."

Then there started forth one of the girls and affirmed, saying, "It was thyself who ate our mother's millet. Why do you deny it? At home we asked thee, saying, 'How art thou so full, coney?' But thou denied, saying, 'I am full with honey.' Thou merely deniest it, but thou didst eat our millet."

All the people said, "Bad son-in-law, it is so; but go thou and drive out the wild cats that are living in our tree yonder, where we wish to eat fruit."

So the coney went away, saying, "As for me, when I arrive at the tree, how shall I drive out the wild cats, for they are very fierce?" So he went on, weeping.

At length he arrived at the tree, and considered how he might catch the young wild cats.

He shouted to the young cats, Hear, ye young cats! Here is honey; send out your father and mother that they may eat." Thus did the coney, thinking that it was a kind of poison which, if they ate it, would kill them.

So the old cats with their young ones came out of the tree. They said, "Here is the honey which the coney has given us." So they ate of the tree (poison), but they came not upon the fruit.