, ate it, and threw the skin down to Ca Boo-Ug. Then
he ate another, and another, throwing the skins down on Ca Boo-Ug's
head. When he had eaten all he wanted, he jumped out of the tree and
ran away to the woods, laughing at Ca Boo-Ug. Ca Boo-Ug did not say
anything, but just sat down and thought what he should do to get even
with Ca Matsin. Finally, he gathered a lot of bamboo sticks and planted
them around the tree with the sharp points up, covering them with
leaves so that they could not be seen. Then he sat down and waited.
As soon as Ca Matsin got hungry again, he went around to Ca Boo-Ug's
garden to get some more bananas. Ca Boo-Ug seemed glad to see him,
and when Ca Matsin asked for some bananas, replied:--
"All right, you may have all you want, but on one condition. When
you jump out of the tree you must not touch those leaves. You must
jump over them."
As soon as Ca Matsin heard that he must not jump on the leaves, that
was just what he wanted to do. So when he had eaten all the bananas
he wanted, he jumped out of the tree on to the leaves as hard as he
could jump, and was killed by the sharp bamboo points.
Then Ca Boo-Ug skinned him and cut him up and packed the meat in a
jar of brine and hid it in the mud on the bank of the pond.
In the dry season the banana-trees all died and the cocoanut-trees
bore no fruit, so a troop of monkeys came to Ca Boo-Ug and asked him
if he would give them something to eat.
"Yes, I have some nice meat in a jar which I will give you, but if
I do, you must promise to eat it with your eyes shut."
They were very hungry, so they gave the required promise, and Ca
Boo-Ug gave them the meat. All kept their eyes shut except one,
a little baby, and like all babies, he was very curious and wanted
to see what was going on. So he opened one eye and peeped at a bone
which he had in his hand, then he called out:--
"Oh, see what I have found! Here is the little finger of my brother,
Ca Matsin!"
Then all the monkeys looked, and when they found that Ca Boo-Ug had
killed a member of their tribe they were very angry, and looked for
Ca Boo-Ug, in order to kill him. But they could not find him, for
as soon as he saw what had happened he had hidden under a piece of
cocoanut shell which was lying on the ground.
The chief monkey sat upon the cocoanut shell, while he was planning
with his companions how they should catch Ca Boo-Ug, but of
course he did not know where he was, so he cal
|