bring it here to your Uncle." Then Rat and all the servants would carry the carcass to Leopard. So that day, the cutting and dividing was just like the first day; Leopard claiming and taking the best, and leaving the skeleton and scraggy pieces and the bowels for Rat.
After that second day's hunt, Rat was tired of this way of dividing, in which he got only the worthless pieces. So he decided to get back some of Leopard's meat by artifice, for his own table, even if he had to take it from Leopard's orala itself. He began to devise what he should do. As he was out walking, he came to a brook in which were sunken logs of hard heavy wood. They had lain there a long time, and were black with outside decay. With his machete in hand, he dived; and remaining under the water, he scraped the logs till he had removed the dark outside, and exposed the white inner wood. He kept on at the job scraping and scraping until the logs appeared white like ivory. Then he went back to Leopard's camp, and, with pretence of excitement, exclaimed, "Mwe Njĕgâ! I think we will be going to be rich. You don't know what I've found! Such a big ivory-tusk hidden in the water! I think we better leave off hunting meat, and go to get this fine ivory." Leopard replied, "Good! come on!"
The next day, they first arranged their fires so that the smoke-drying of their meat might continue during their absence; and then started for the ivory. They all prepared themselves, for diving, by taking off their good clothing, and wearing only a small loin-cloth. Their entire companies went, men, women, and children, leaving not a single person in the camps.
Leopard says, "You, Ntori, go first, as you know where the place is." Rat says, "Good! come on!" And they went on their way.
Arrived at the brook, Rat says, "You all come on, and dive." Leopard asks, "My son! is it still there?" Rat, pointing, answers, "Yes! my ivory is there." Leopard, looking down in the water says, "I see no ivory!" Rat, still pointing, replies, "There! Those white things! Don't you see them?" Leopard says, "I never saw ivory look like logs." Rat answered, "No? But this is a new kind. I assure you they are ivory! I have been down there, and I
