that it was a hyena, as I was looking through the little window; I was glad, because I did not open the door for her quickly. I had a little talk with her, and when she heard me she ran away and went into the forest. His mother said to him, You are my good child; she kissed him, saying to him, For this reason, my child, when you are grown up, if any one gives you good advice, you must always listen to it. It is finished.

24. A conversation between three persons whose names were Kusa, Kwania and Gaba.

These three persons were sitting together at the same place, and began to drink smoke. Kusa was a man of property; Kwania had not much property; Gaba was a poor man, but a man of good sense and wit. He said, What do you think? Shall we go to make war and catch slaves? Kusa said to Kwania, But how will you go to war without officers? Kwania answered to Kusa, I shall go to the king, and say to him, Oh king! let a blessing rest upon your name; I want something of you which I know you will give me, said Kusa. But Kwania listening to him said, Go, do what you wish. Thus Kusa went to the king and told him all he wished. But the king said, I shall not give you an answer to-day; go, and come back again. When he went to his house, he told his two friends that the king said so-and-so; I do not think he will give me now what I want. During all this time, therefore, Gaba did not say anything. He fixed his eyes upon them like a hyæna looks upon a goat. Kusa and Kwania, If you will listen to my conversation, I will give you some advice which I suppose you will not like, because I am a poor man. And Gaba began his conversation in this way by a parable: When you sow your corn and it begins to spring up it looks like grass, from joint to joint it grows up; but as for you, you want to eat the corn before it has started from the ground. What is the meaning of the word you say, Gaba? I cannot understand it; perhaps, if you explain to us your parable we shall know what you mean. Kusa said to Gaba, My parable, therefore, is this. You Kusa are a stranger in this country, and you are a man of property, but you do not wish to follow the

road of truth; and I told you before, you want to eat the corn before it is grown up, that is, you wish to take upon yourself to go to the king, and to speak to the king; but he will not give you the thing you want; because you imagine, being a man of property, he will pay respect to you; and besides this you are a proud man. Shut your mouth, said Kusa to Gaba, before he had finished his conversation; you are a poor man, you do not know how to read or to write, and do you get up to preach to me before my face? You are a man without modesty. I am doing a work of favour to you; but do wait until I have finished my observation. Reading and writing are acquired by attention. I do not know reading or writing like you; but if you will listen to what I am going to tell you, you will not be in a hurry to go to the king again. Tell me whatever you like to say, said Kusa to Gaba. My advice is this, Gaba began to say, If you want to get anything from the king, you must address yourself first of all to the great people who are about the king; and they, seeing that your affair is good, will tell it to the king. In this way spoke Gaba to Kusa. It is finished.

25. The School boys and their Father.

There were two boys in the house of their father. Their father sent them to school, and said to them, My boys, when you have gone to school, you must learn well; whatsoever the master of the school tells you, you must do. They replied, Very good. They went and learned very well, and came home at the proper time.

One day as they were going to school a certain boy came who wanted to fight with them; he came and told them words which they did not like. The elder boy answered and said to him; Our father has not sent us to fight; he did not tell us to throw stones at other boys, our companions; he did not tell us to use bad language to people older than ourselves; all he said was, Go, and learn well in the school; that was all he said to us.

The other boy said to them, Be off, ye cowards! They said to him, Whether we be cowards or not, is no concern of yours. They went to school, and learned and came home. When they

had slept in the house, and the day began to dawn, they left. They were going to school; but they were not going. When they saw some other boys their companions playing, they followed them, and played with them until the evening. When they came back to the house, and their father saw them, he said to them, Did you go to school to-day, or did you not go? They did not answer him. He said, I know you did not go, because I see your countenances fallen. One of the boys said to him, It is true, we did not go to school to-day; we only went and played. Their father said to them: I am glad because you have told me the truth. If you had not told me the truth to-day, and if I had gone and asked the schoolmaster, and he had told me that you had not been, I should have punished you; but now I shall not beat you, because you have told the truth.

This is it; it is finished.

26. Wonderful things exhibited in a School.

To-day when I went to the school of a certain man, to see what they were going to show to the school children, I saw three things very wonderful. The first was a pig which had six legs, four behind its tail near to the ribs and two legs in front, and one of his legs a very large one on the middle of his nose, and his tongue was like that of a fish. The second was a cat with seven legs. And the third was a bird with four legs and four wings. But when they had shown these things I left, wishing to go home; when I left, the master of the school sent a girl after me to say, that I should not leave until all the school children were leaving; but I did not wish to return; still she wished me to go to the school, and so I went back again, and sat down in the same place where I was sitting before. The master of the school stood in a raised place and spoke to the parents of the children and then to the children. He said, that they should not swear like some other children were doing. But they replied, As regards us, we, who have been taught better, we cannot do so; we cannot use such language, and may God teach us still more. When he finished his address they sang; when they finished their song we all knelt down to pray. On perceiving one boy playing,

he said to him, Be quiet. The boy did not move again until prayers were over. When the prayers were over, they began giving their hats and cloaks to the school children. Every child, on seeing his or her hat, stretched out his hands; but no one was allowed to say, That is my hat, give it to me; they had only to stretch out their hands for it. Boy or girl, after they had given them their things, departed. Every girl laid hold on the garment of her friend; they saluted their teachers ù eft. After they had left, the school master said to me, I wanted you to see how we do these things, that when you go back to your own country you may do the same. You may build a church and a school like these. I said, Oh if I get but a hut it will be sufficient. It is finished.

To-day I went to the school, that I might hear something about the thing which they call comet. He, they say, if he shall touch this world, he will burn it up. But they also said that many had come before this, and gone away again, and had not burnt the world.

27.

Conversation between the stars.

Have you never seen a star rising and going to speak to his friend? I have never before heard of such a thing in this world, namely, that a star should go and converse with his friend. The star rises and goes to another star, his companion, and when he has stayed there a little time, the other star gets up and goes to the place where his companion came from, that is what is meant by their conversation.

28. The work of the sun.

This is the work of the sun which I know.

When the sun

has come out she gives light to the whole world; she makes every one to know the work he is to do. If he does not finish it quickly, the sun will set, and the evening fog will cover the earth, and then night will come. When night has put the whole world in a state of darkness, the moon and the stars will give a little light to the world, so that you are able to see a little as to whither you are going. And the people will go to sleep, resting

themselves during the night. The labouring man is thinking of his work. When the sky begins to dawn the fog is covering the world like smoke; you cannot see anything at a distance, not even anything that is near; and it fills all the land with dew. When the sun comes out she licks up the dew. When the rainy season comes there is much rain; clouds are gathering and become thick, then they melt like hail, and rain falls down upon the ground. When people see rain coming down they rejoice, because of food. Farmers go and sow their seed. When they have sown it, it grows up until it is ripe, and then they cut it and hide it. Cows eat the green grass, until the cold weather comes. When the cold season has come you do not want to move away from the fire. Neither the fire nor the cold are nice. When you move away from the fire you feel the cold; when you come too near to the fire it burns you. In this way you have trouble until the dry season comes again. With the return of the dry season every one feels glad; because there is no cold, and no dirt in the streets. The trees are in leaves; whatever you look at is nice. If you wish to travel to another place, travelling is pleasant. In this way the world changes. This is finished.

29. Taking a walk (Sanhiska).

One day I went out to drink the air. I saw a bird, a beautiful one, singing very sweetly, and amusing herself; sitting now on this branch of a tree, now on another, continuing her song. I sat down looking at it. A certain boy came in the field and saw the bird, the beautiful one. He stooped down, took up a stone, wishing to throw it at the bird. When I saw it, I said to the boy, Why do you want to throw a stone at this very beautiful bird? Do you not hear how sweetly it is singing? Do not hurt it; because you yourself would not like it, if any one should hurt you. When he heard me speaking to him in this way, he threw away the stone, and went away running. On my returning to the town, I met with boys and girls going to drink the air; they were plucking fruit from trees, and running about on the road. Some of them pulled up grass, some took blooms from