Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/135

 heart of the dove and she hastily abandoned the nest.

Immediately the squirrel devoured the small eggs, having won his breakfast by his own cunning, and the credulity of the simple and jealous dove.

When she returned to the nest, alas! she sighed with anguish to find it empty and the frail shells scattered in fragments upon the ground beneath! Since then she only repeats in soft and sorrowful accents, ''cuuc-tu-tuzen! cuuc-tu-tuzen'', that is, "The squirrel deceived me, the squirrel deceived me."

The fable concludes by saying that in view of what happened to the dove, the married woman should always be extremely prudent; and that people in general should be on their guard against malignant and cunning mischief-makers, who are ever ready to reach their own ends by cheating unsuspicious people.

A similar fable is that of the owl and the iguana (large lizard), supposed to account for the doleful cry of certain owls that give vent to prolonged O's! at all hours of the night.

In a snug little grotto the mother owl was arranging her feathers and saying to herself. "I shall go when he returns."

Soon her mate was by her side, and she told him