Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/58

48 Now the tree began to shake, as it had been almost cut through,and the hunter in great terror cried to his dogs at the top of his voice:

 Ya-me-o-ro, Con-ga-mo-ro-to! Ya-me-o-ro, Con-ga-mo ro-to!

but all in vain.

Then he took the second of his magic arrows, and, fitting it to his bow, he shot it down into the ground. At once another palm sprang up, taller and stronger than the first, to which the hunter leaped. And he was not a moment too soon; for the tree he had left tottered from its base and fell with a great crash to the ground.

When the white cows saw the second tree, they were very angry, and rushed at it again with their axes, plying stroke on stroke in their rage and fury, while the hunter kept calling his dogs by name:

and the axes rang louder and louder:

Soon the second tree was ready to fall, and the hunter had to shoot his last arrow into the ground, when a palm taller and larger than either of the others sprang up into the air. Now he saw that unless help came quickly his end was near; for he had no more arrows, and above the din of the axes he called as loud as he was able:

Suddenly he saw the fair stranger approaching, and he called to her to help him, and run back and loose the dogs; but she laughed at him, saying that his dogs could not aid him now; and as she spoke she changed into a white cow herself, and the hunter saw that she was the queen of the herd, who had become a woman only to entrap him. Still the axes kept crying:

 A-phi-bim—Gas-co-ma-bam; A-phi-bim—Gas-co-ma-bam!

and the tree was almost cut through. For the last time the hunter called his dogs to come to his help:

and as he did so he heard a crashing sound in the bushes, and