FAIRY TALES FROM BRAZIL
hammock, wiped the blood on the goat, and went to sleep.
Early the next morning the host discovered that one of his lambs was missing. He hastened to the room where the tiger and the goat were sleeping and accused the tiger of having killed the lamb. The tiger looked up at him with an innocent expression and asked, "Do you see any blood on me?" There was no blood on the tiger, but the host looked into the next hammock and saw the goat all covered with blood. "I know now who killed my fattest lamb," he said, arid he gave the goat such a beating that the poor goat barely escaped with his life. From that day to this when one speaks of a person who has been easily imposed upon he calls him "the goat."
Things happened very differently with
[98]
