Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/44

 Leopard was dead, after the accusation against him by Tortoise for killing the great Goat. The children of Leopard were still young; they had not grown to take their father's power and place. And Tortoise considered himself now a great personage. He said to people, "We three who are left,—I and Njâgu and Ngubu, are of equal power; we eat at the same table, and have the same authority." Every day he made these boasts; and people went to Elephant and Hippopotamus, reporting, "So-and-so says Ekaga." Elephant and Hippopotamus laughed, and disregarded the report, and said, "That's nothing, he's only to be despised."

One day Hippopotamus met Elephant in the forest; salutations were made, "Mbolo!" "Ai, mbolo!" each to the other. Hippopotamus asked Elephant about a new boast that Tortoise had been making, "Have you, or have you not heard?" Elephant answered, "Yes, I have heard. But I look on it with contempt. For, I am Njâgu. I am big. My foot is as big as Ekaga's body. And he says he is equal to me! But, I have not spoken of the matter, and will not speak, unless I hear Ekaga himself make his boast. And then I shall know what I will do." And Hippopotamus also said, "I am doing so too, in silence. I wait to hear Ekaga myself."

Tortoise heard of what Elephant and Hippopotamus had been threatening, and he asked his informant just the exact words that they had used, "They said that they waited to hear you dare to speak to them; and that, in the meanwhile, they despised you."

Tortoise asked, "So! they despise me, do they?" "Yes," was the reply. Then he said, "So! indeed, I will go to them." He told his wife, "Give me my coat to cover my body." He dressed; and started to the forest. He found Elephant lying down; his trunk was eight miles long; his ears as big as a house, and his four feet beyond measure.

Tortoise audaciously called to him, "Mwĕra! I have come! You don't rise to salute me? Mwĕra has come!" Elephant looked, rose up and stared at Tortoise, and indignantly asked, "Ekaga! whom do you call 'Mwĕra'? Tortoise replied, "You! I call you 'Mwĕra.' Are you not, Njâgu?" Elephant, with great wrath, asked, "Ekaga! I