Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/149

 find him. So, he climbed the Tree again, and gathered his fruits, and went off towards the town of the Beasts. But, he met those Beasts coming; for, they had heard the howls of Dog, and had shouted at him, "He! e. e.! Wait for us! Don't be afraid!"

All those People-of-the-Tree came and gathered about its trunk. They searched; and presently they saw Tortoise. They exclaimed, "So! you are the one who eats for us the fruit of this tree! You shall die!"

They tied him, and took him with them to their town. There they suspended him from the roof of a house, saying, "To-morrow, you will be eaten!" Off at his town, the wife of Tortoise asked Dog, "Where is my husband?" Dog answered, "I think that the Tribes-of-all-the-Beasts have caught him." After a while, Dog, thinking, said to himself, "I remember my word that I said to Kudu, 'If they seize you, I will come to take you.'" So, Dog went and gathered shells of a very large snail named Kâ. He took a large number, pierced each one with a hole, and strung them all on a string. These he placed about his neck; and, as he went along, he wriggled his body, and the shells struck together like little bells. Then said he to himself, "The time is fulfilled for taking away my friend." So, he went rapidly to where the Tribes-of-the-Beasts had a spring for their drinking-water. Those Beasts had sent one of their lads to get water with which to cook Tortoise. The lad came to the spring. Dog jingled the shells; and, the lad ran back to town screaming, "There's some Thing at the spring, which kills!"

Then the Tribes sent a young man stronger than the lad, and said to him, "Go you, and get water at the spring." When the young man came near the spring, Dog jingled the shells, as before. And, the young man fled in fear. So, the people of the town said, "Let us all go to the spring together; for, that Thing can not hurt us all."

So they came to the spring. Dog seeing that all were coming, left the spring, and ran around to their town by another path, to take Tortoise away. Dog found Tortoise suspended by a rope. He bit through the rope, and, with Tortoise on his back, he ran rapidly to their town.

Those of the Tribes who first arrived at the spring, search-