Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/173

 took the dish of seeds, and, sitting down, began to shell them. As she shelled, she threw the kernels on the ground, but the shells she put on a plate.

Shortly after the mother had gone, Dog woke from sleep. He rose from his bed, and came out to the room where his wife was, and stood near her, watching her working at the seeds. He stood silent, looking closely, and observed that she was still throwing away the kernels, the good part, and saving the shells on the plate. He spoke to her with his human voice, "No! woman! not so! Do you throw the good parts, to the ground, and the worthless husks onto the plate?"

While he was thus speaking to his wife, she suddenly fell to the ground. And at once she died. He laid hold of her to lift her up. But, behold! she was a corpse.

Soon afterwards, the father and the mother came, having returned from their errands. They found their child a corpse; and they said to Dog, "Mbwa! What is this?" He, with his own language replied, "I cannot tell." But, they insisted, "Tell us the reason!"

So Dog spoke with his human voice, "You, Woman, went to the forest while I was asleep. You, Man, you also went in company of your wife, while I was asleep. When I rose from sleep, I found my wife was cracking ngândâ. She was taking the good kernels to throw on the ground, and was keeping the shells for the plate. And I spoke and told her, 'The good kernels which you are throwing on the ground are to be eaten, not the husks.'"

While he was telling them this, they too, also fell to the ground, and died, apparently without cause.

When the people of the town heard about all this, they said, "This person carries an evil Medicine for killing people. Let him be seized and killed!"

So Dog fled away rapidly into the forest; and he finally reached the hamlet of his mother. His body was scratched and torn by the branches and thorns of the bushes of the forest, in his hasty flight. His mother exclaimed, "Mbwa! What's the matter? Such haste! and your body so disordered!" He replied, using their own language, "No! I won't tell you. I won't speak." But, his mother begged him, "Please! my child! tell me!" So, finally, he spoke, using his strange voice, and said, "My mother! I tell you! Njambo