XXXVI TORTOISE AND THE COCK

Sacred-Texts African   

p. 75

ONE day Tortoise and Nyanribo felt very hungry, but they could not afford to buy food, and while they were discussing what might be done, Tortoise heard a cock crowing, and it gave him an idea. He went to the cock and said:

 “I have come to warn you. I heard the farmer asking his wife to prepare chicken for dinner to-morrow.”

 At this all the fowls were in great distress and wondered which of them was to be killed.

 Tortoise replied:

 “I heard the farrner’s wife say that she will kill the first of you which she hears crowing or clucking in the morning.”

 Naturally the fowls decided to be absolutely silent.

 Very early in the moming Tortoise went creeping among the fowls and stole all the eggs from the nests, taking them p. 76 one by one to his house; but the cock was afraid to crow and the hens were afraid to cluck, and when the farmer’s wife came to collect the eggs, she found that they had all been stolen.

 At this she flew into a rage, and killed all the fowls instead of one, and while the farmer and his wife had a feast of chicken, Tortoise and Nyanribo invited their friends to a feast of eggs!