Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/59

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WHERE ANIMALS TALK
53

selves to eat nuts, did not Hunter kill you? And these five days that we have gone, you and I together, and you obeyed my voice, who has died?"

They then replied, "No one! no one! Indeed, you spoke truly. You are justified. Inkula si nyo o'kângâ wa 'Ngângwe. It is so!"


TALE 8

Who Are Crocodile's Relatives?

Persons

Ngando (Crocodile) Sinyama (Beasts)
Sinyani (Birds)

NOTE

An Argument in Evolution—When and How does Life begin?


Crocodile was very old. Finally he died. News of his death spread abroad among the Beasts; and his relatives and friends came to the Mourning. After a proper number of days had passed, the matter of the division of the property was mentioned. At once a quarrel was developed, on the question as to who were his nearest relatives.

The tribe of Birds said, "He is ours and we will be the ones to divide the property." Their claim was disputed, others asking, "On what ground do you claim relationship? You wear feathers; you do not wear plates of armor as he." The Birds replied, "True, he did not wear our feathers. But, you are not to judge by what he put on during his life. Judge by what he was in his life's beginning. Look you! In his beginning, he began with us as an egg. We believe in eggs. His mother bore him as an egg. He is our relative, and we are his heirs."