Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/111

Rh ing on the other side. He laughed greatly at the owner of the garden, saying, "I have overreached you, by your taking grass to bind me."

The reed-buck passed on, laughing at the man.

He went about among the villages of the people. He went to one village, and lighted upon the men in the cattle- fold. He entered the fold, and sat down.

The men said to him, "We see thee." He replied, saying, "Yes."

They asked him, saying, "Where do you come from?" to which he answered, "I merely wander about, for no purpose."

So he saluted them, bidding them adieu, and went out into the forest. He was afraid of men, and went about in the woods where there were no villages.

In the morning he went on, and came upon some men hoeing their gardens. They had beer with them, and, besides the men in the gardens, there were youths, girls, and young boys.

He sat down.

They saluted him, saying, "We see thee," to which salutation he responded.

Then he took a hoe, and began to hoe in the garden. But it so happened that the hoe-handle was broken.

He exclaimed, "Oh, dear! the handle of the hoe is broken."

But so did he act on purpose, for he was coveting the hoe.

Then he spoke to the owners of the hoe, saying, "The handle of the hoe is broken; give me an axe, and I will go into the wood and form another handle."

They gave him an axe, and he took it, together with the hoe, and went away to cut a stick and to make a handle. He went on, cutting as he went, the owners not knowing