Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/381

Rh given some thought to the subject, and notwithstanding the similarity, I agree with them.

"The blacks say there is a very wicked man who has a very long tail living under the ground. He has many wives and children, and laughs at the blacks because they have no tails. They have another tradition that at one time there was no water anywhere on the earth, all the waters being contained in the body of a huge frog, where men and women could not get it. There was a grand council on the subject, and it was ascertained that if the frog could be made to laugh, the waters would run out of his mouth and the drought would be ended.



"Several animals danced and capered before the frog to induce him to laugh, but without success. Then the eel began to wriggle, and at that the frog laughed outright; the waters ran from his mouth, and there was a great flood, in which many people were drowned. The pelican took it upon himself to save the black people. He cut an immense canoe, and went with it among the islands which appeared here and there above the waters, and with this canoe he saved a great many men and women."

"A distinct tradition of the flood," remarked Fred to Frank, as Mr. Watson paused a few moments to consider what he would next say.