Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/110

100 the cow, and chopped the side and cut the heart down, and the cow died. And Spider did the same in his cow, and both cows were dead.

When the king came and saw that his cows were dead, he ordered his people to go and bring the medicine man who had physicked the cows, and when the medicine man came he said that if the king would allow it he would rip open the cows' bellies. The king consented, and they ripped open the cows, and the medicine man said that something had struck the cows a blow in the side and that that was the cause of their death. The king asked the medicine man if the cows were still good to eat, and the medicine man said that they were. Then the king said: "When thou camest first to the cows thou didst say that they had eaten a bad leaf. How, then, can their flesh now be good to eat?" The medicine man answered that at first he thought the cows had eaten a bad leaf and were sick therefrom, but now he found that a blow had been struck them, and therefore the flesh would be good to eat. He said that the people must cut up the cows and carry the paunches to the water side and wash them.

Then the king had the cows cut up, and he ordered two of his slaves to carry the paunches to the water side; and when they went there they threw them down in the water. When the paunches fell into the water Spider and Kwaku Tse broke forth from their hiding places and changed themselves at once, and looked up at the two slaves and cried unto them: "See how ye have acted to us! see how ye have acted to us! We were bathing here in this water and ye came and cast cows paunches upon us."

The two slaves were frightened, and they left the paunches and ran away and returned to the king and told him: "When we carried the cow paunches to the stream and cast them into the water, two men arose and said we had cast the cow paunches upon them. The king asked, "And did ye throw the paunches upon them?" The slaves answered: "We saw them not; but when they jumped up before us they were covered with the filth from the cow paunches." The king asked, "How deep was the place?" and the slaves answered that it was about the depth of a man's knees. Then the king said, "If it were only of that depth ye must have seen the men when ye cast in the cow paunches."

The king called two elders and sent them to the water side to see the two men, and when the elders came they found Spider and his friend covered with filth and the cow paunches in the water. Spider said to them: "That which these two slaves have done to us, if we were not strangers here in the town, we would deal with them for it. We asked if we might come here and wash before we came here." The elders said, "This is the place where we always are used to wash. The slaves have done wrong, but they