Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/111

Rh are the king's slaves, theref ore we beg thee to let the matter rest." Spider answered: "Ye are begging us while the filth is still upon us. Ye can not beg us so with empty hands. If the cows have been killed 'twill not be so grave a matter, but if they have died our medicine will be spoiled, therefore we will go with ye and see the cows. When first we came to this town we could get no meat. We went to the king and told him we were strangers and had no meat to eat, and he told us he had no meat to give us."

While they were still talking by the water side, the son of the man in whose house Spider and Kwaku Tse were lodging came there and saw them with the elders, and he ran home and told his father. Then the father came to see what was the matter, but when he came he did not find the two strangers, for they had already departed with the elders to go to the king's house. Then he went to the king's house, and when he reached there the strangers and the two elders had not yet arrived. When the man came, the king asked him what he came for, and he answered: "Two strangers came to me three days past and lodged in my house. They went out this morning, and after a time one of them returned to me and told me they were going to the water side to wash. Afterward my son came and told me he had seen them at the water side talking with two elders. So I have come hither to learn what the matter is." The king asked: "What strangers are they? Whence do they come?" and the man answered: "King, thou knowest them. They are the two young men who came to thee and asked for meat, because they were strangers." Then the king said, "Ah! I know them now." He said: "When thou doest good for a man it is good for thyself. These young men came and asked me for meat, and I said I had none to give them. Now my cows are dead, and the slaves whom I sent to wash the paunches at the water side have cast them upon the young men. I have sent two elders to go and soothe them, but they have not yet returned."

While the king was speaking. Spider and Kwaku Tse and the two elders came, and with them the slaves bearing the paunches of the cows, and Spider and Kwaku Tse were still covered with the dirt from the paunches. The king asked the elders: "The place where these slaves cast down the paunches, if any persons were there, could they see them?" The elders answered that the slaves could not fail to see them. Then the king said, "Then the slaves must have done this thing purposely," and the elders answered, "Thou hast said it." Spider said: "If thou art a stranger and thou goest to another country, they treat thee like a stranger, in truth. The slaves, when they saw my small body, they thought