Then the man who had been in the pot called him and explained what had happened. The moral of this is that it is best for each man to get his own wife.
xix.
The vulture and the green pigeon were friends, and one day some one told the vulture that the pigeon was sick; so the vulture said, “Why did he not send to me?” So he went to see him; but a man said, “You will not find him alive.” Then a doctor divined for the pigeon and told him he must transfer the sickness to his friend when he came. So the pigeon called the vulture and said he was very bad. The vulture flew past and the pigeon gave him a sickness that lasted three years, and all the feathers fell from his head. Then the vulture said: “If you have a friend who is sick, don’t go too close.”
xx.
The leopard was making his farm, and one day begged the animals to come and make heaps for him (for yams); so they got ready and came and made heaps. Presently they had drunk all the water, and some one said: “Who will fetch water?” So the leopard went, and while he was away the tortoise said: “We are fools to work for the leopard who killed our fathers and mothers.” But the others said they did not know. Then the tortoise hid, and the other animals went on working; so the leopard came back and the tortoise spoke from inside the bush: “Waise, it is the leopard who killed our fathers and mothers,” and then he ran away. Then all the animals waved their hoes round their heads and threw them away, saying, “We cannot be friends with leopard, who killed our fathers and mothers.”
xxi.
Aluloxi (chameleon) and Owuwu (? hornbill) were arguing, and each said he was the bigger man; so each contradicted
