to hunt the Ostriches, so that they must flee along through
the midst of us.' They did so, and as they were many, the Ostriches were
obliged to run along through the midst of them. During this they did not
move, but, remaining always in the same places, called each to the
other: 'Are you there?' and each one answered: 'I am here.' The
Ostriches, hearing this, ran so tremendously that they quite exhausted
their strength, and fell down. Then the Tortoises assembled by and by at
the place where the Ostriches had fallen, and devoured them." There is
also a curious variant[i_16] of the negro story of how Brother Rabbit
escapes from Brother Fox by persuading him to fold his hands and say
grace. In the Hottentot story, the Jackal catches the Cock, and is about
to eat him, when the latter says: "Please pray before you kill me, as
the white man does." The Jackal desires to know how the white man prays.
"He folds his hands in praying," says the Cock. This the Jackal does,
but the Cock tells the Jackal he should also shut his eyes. Whereupon
the Cock flies away.

In his preface, Bleek says that the Hottentot fable of the White Man and
the Snake is clearly of European origin; but this is at least doubtful.
The Man rescues the Snake from beneath a rock, whereupon the Snake
announces her intention of biting her deliverer. The matter is referred
to the Hyena, who says to the Man: "If you were bitten, what would it
matter?" But the Man proposed to consult other wise people before being
bit, and after a while they met the Jackal. The case was laid before
him. The Jackal said he would not believe that the Snake could be
covered by a stone so that she could not rise, unless he saw it with his
two eyes. The Snake submitted to the test, and when she was covered by
the stone the Jackal advised the Man to go away and leave her. Now,
there is not only a variant of this story current among the Southern
negroes (which is given in the present volume), where Brother Rabbit
takes the place of the Man, Brother Wolf the place of the Snake, and
Brother Terrapin the place of the Jackal, but Dr. Couto de Magalhaes[i_17]
gives in modern Tupi a story where the Fox or Opossum finds a Jaguar in
a hole. He helps the Jaguar out, and the latter then threatens to eat
him. The Fox or Opossum proposes to lay the matter before a wise man who
is passing by, with the result that the Jaguar is placed back in the
hole and left there.

With respect to the Tortoise myt