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  was once a monkey which made friends with a shark. There was a great tree, of the sort called mkuyu, which grew near the deep water; half its branches were over the town and half over the sea. The monkey used to go every day and eat the kuyu fruit, and his friend the shark was there under the tree. He used to say, "Throw me some food, my friend;" and he used to throw to him, many days and many months.

Till one day the shark said to the monkey, "You have done me many kindnesses, I should like for us to go to my home, that I may repay you for your kindness." The monkey answered him, "How shall I go? We don't go into the water, we beasts of the land." And he said, "I will carry you; not a drop of water shall get to you." And he said, "Let us go."

They went half the way. And the shark said, "You are my friend, I will tell you the truth." He said, "Tell me." He said, "There, at home, where we are going, our Sultan is very ill, and we have been told that the medicine for him is a monkey's heart." The monkey replied to him, "You did not do well not to tell me there on the spot." The shark said, "How so?"

The monkey considered, and felt, "My life is gone already; now I will tell him a lie, perhaps that may serve me."

The shark asked him, "You have become silent; don't you speak?" He said, "I have nothing to say, because of your not telling me there on the spot, and I might have