Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/42

 from inside. In the Goat's interior was a house, full of meat; and they entered it. Leopard wondered at its size; and Tortoise told him, "Cut where you please, but not from the heart, lest the Goat die." And they began to take meat. Leopard, with greediness, coveting the forbidden heart, went with knife near to it.

Tortoise exclaimed, "There! there! be careful." But Leopard, though he had enough other flesh, longed for the heart, and was not satisfied. He again approached with the knife near it: and Tortoise warned and protested. These very prohibitions caused Leopard to have his own way, and his greediness overcame him. He cut the heart: and the Goat fell dying.

Tortoise exclaimed, "Eh! Njĕgâ! I told you not to touch the heart! Because of this matter I will inform on you." And he added, "Since it is so, let us go."

But Leopard said, "Goat's mouth is shut. How shall we get out? Let us hide in this house." And he asked, "Where will you hide?" Tortoise replied, "In the stomach." Leopard said, "Stomach! It is the very thing for me, Njĕgâ, myself!" So Ekaga consented, "Well! take it! I will hide in the gall-bladder." So they hid, each in his place.

Soon, as they listened, they heard voices shouting, "The Goat is dead! A fearful thing! The Goat is dead!"

That news spread, and all who had been accustomed to get flesh there, came to see what was the matter. They all said that, as the Goat was dead, it was best to cut and divide him. They slit open the belly, and said, "Lay aside this big stomach; it is good; but throw away the bitter gall-sac." They looked for the heart; but there was none! A child, to whom had been handed the gall-bladder to throw it away, was flinging it into some bushes. As he did so, out jumped something from among the bushes; and the child asked, "Who are you?" The thing replied, pretending to be vexed, "I am Ekaga; I come here with the others to get meat, and you, just as I arrived, throw that dirty thing in my face!" The other people pacified him, "Do not get angry. Excuse the child. He did not see you. You shall have your share."

Then Tortoise called out, "Silence! silence! silence!"

They all stood ready to listen, and he said, "Do not cut up the Goat till we first know who killed it. That stomach