Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/211

 going to lay hold of the heart. But Tortoise said, "No!" Leopard cut and cut, and was going on to the heart. Tortoise again said to him, "Not so!" They went on cutting. Finally Leopard laid hold of the heart! The Goat at once made a great outcry, "Ma-a! Mba-a!" and died instantly.

The people of the town that was near by, heard, and they said, "The Mbodi! what has happened to it? Young men! go ye! Hasten ye! for, that Mbodi is crying!" They went, and discovered the body of the Goat stretched out. They went back to the town and told the people that, "The Mbodi is dead!"

While this was going on, as soon as Tortoise inside the body knew that the Goat was dying, he began to seek for a hiding-place. He said, "I am for the stomach!" Leopard said, "No! that is the hiding-place of the elder one" (himself). Then Tortoise said, "I will go and hide in the bowels." Leopard said, "That also is the hiding place of the elder." Then Tortoise said, "Well! I'm going to hide in the fountain of the water of the belly" (the urinary bladder). Leopard said, "Yes! that is the share of the younger." Tortoise thrust himself in there. Leopard jumped into the stomach.

When the people came, they discovered the Goat lying flat, and they said, "Tie ye it!" (to carry it away). Others said, "No! let it be butchered here." They all said, "Yes!" And they cut it in pieces. They took out the entire stomach, and laid it aside. They took that fountain, and flung it out in the bushes.

Concealed by the bushes. Tortoise crawled out of the sac, and, pretending to be displeased, called out, "Who dashed that dirty water in my face, as I was coming here, seeking for my fungi here in the forest?" They apologized, saying. "Chum! we did not know you were in those bushes. But, come, and join us." So, he went there; and he, in pretence, exclaimed, "What thing can so suddenly have killed Friend-Creator his Mbodi there? Alas! But, Imĕ! what a large stomach that is! Would you say that it was not it that killed Mbodi? Let us send some children to pierce that stomach. But ye! when ye shall go to pierce it, first bring spears, then jab the spears through it. I have not seen such a stomach as that!"