Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/117

Rh care not to tremble, for when I am shaking the fowls run away."

So Cakide fell upon a device, and lay down, feigning death, and opening wide his mouth so that he might seize the fowls in an instant, they not having time to cry out.

So Cakide did so, and feigned to be dead. The fowls came nearer and nearer, picking corn on the path, and Cakide was very still. As they approached nearer he seized a cock in his mouth, holding it tightly in an instant. It did not cry out.

So he went off with the fowl, and ate it and was filled. He said to himself, "See now, before this I was dying of hunger, but to-day I am full. The fowls are many, and I will now grow fat and grow big."

He finished eating the fowl.

And the owners of the fowls began to wonder that their fowls were disappearing. They spoke about it to their children, who said, "We do not know, we never heard them crying out, and we know not what is eating them up. When they are going in that direction we have seen them flying away. Perhaps there are people who are beating them."

The children further said to the old people, "Lie ye at all the paths yonder, so that ye may see what is doing away with your fowls."

So the old people did so, according to the word of the children.

At length Cakide came, and the people continued hid while he came near to them. Cakide then lay down and appeared as if dead.

The people said, "There goes the evil person who has made away with our fowls."

Cakide heard their words, and ran away, for the people were coming upon him.

Then they took dogs and sent them after him. The dogs ran after him, overtook him, and seized him. Cakide cried greatly.