d the Lion ran, and jumped into the hole. Then the Cat covered
him with earth and stones until he was dead. But before he died,
the Lion called to the Cat, "Whenever I see your excrement (tai),
I shall eat it." That is why the Cat hides her excrement, because
she is afraid the Lion will come.

Now, the Lion is the dog of the Buso.

How the Lizards got their Markings

One day the Chameleon (palas [132]) and the Monitor-lizard (ibid
[133]) were out in a deep forest together. They thought they would
try scratching each other's backs to make pretty figures on them.

First the Chameleon said to the Monitor-lizard, "You must scratch a
nice pattern on my back."

So the Monitor went to work, and the Chameleon had a fine
scratching. Monitor made a nice, even pattern on his back.

Then Monitor asked Chameleon for a scratching. But no sooner had
Chameleon begun to work on Monitor's back than there came the sound of
a dog barking. A man was hunting in the forest with his dog. The sharp
barks came nearer and nearer to the two lizards; and the Chameleon
got such a scare, that his fingers shook, and the pretty design
he was making went all askew. Then he stopped short and ran away,
leaving the Monitor with a very shabby marking on his back.

This is the reason that the monitor-lizard is not so pretty as the
chameleon.

The Monkey and the Tortoise [134]

One day, when a Tortoise was crawling slowly along by a stream, he
saw a baby-monkey drinking water. Presently the Monkey ran up to the
Tortoise, and said, "Let's go and find something to eat."

Not far from the stream there was a large field full of
banana-trees. They looked up, and saw clusters of ripe fruit.

"That's fine!" said the Monkey, "for I'm hungry and you're hungry
too. You climb first, Tortoise."

Then the Tortoise crawled slowly up the trunk; but he had got up only
a little distance when the Monkey chattered these words, "Roro s'punno,
roro s'punno!" [135] ("Slide down, slide down, Tortoise!")

At once the Tortoise slipped and fell down. Then he started again
to climb the tree; and again the Monkey said, "Roro s'punno!" and
again the Tortoise slipped and fell down. He tried over and over
again; but every time he failed, for the Monkey always said, "Roro
s'punno!" and made him fall. At last he got tired and gave it up,
saying to the Monkey, "Now you try it."

"It's too bad!" said the Monkey, "when we're both so hungry." Then
the Monkey made just thr