to show power.

"'Answer correctly, or you pay for it with your life!' thundered
Mahomet. Isa then replied that he had two strange animals in the room.

"'Wrong!' cried Mahomet. 'You shall now be killed. My two beloved
grandchildren are behind those doors!' but when they were flung
open, two filthy boars ran out; Isa had changed the children into
pigs! And so, Piang, no true Mohammedan will eat the flesh of the
wild boar. Beware, lest you ever let a Christian hear this story;
it is not for us to acknowledge that Isa is greater than Mahomet."

Piang was shocked. No wonder his people abstained from the flesh of
the boar.

"Can you tell me what makes the sea rise and fall, and why the tides
rush in and flow out again?" asked Piang.

A smile broke over Ganassi's leathery features.

"In a far distant sea lives a giant crab; when he goes into his
hole, the water is pushed out, and when he comes forth for food, the
water rushes in." It was so simple that Piang laughed heartily. The
mina-bird, startled, squawked an admonition and fluttered to Piang's
lap.

"Where do we go when we die," asked the inquisitive boy.

Ganassi scouted the Christian's belief that heaven is in the
clouds. Were they not in the clouds now?

"When a child is born, the soul enters the body through the
opening left in the skull. This hole soon closes, confining the
spirit within. When death comes to a household in Moroland, have
you not seen the master of the house mount to the roof and remain
there through the night? Well, that is to prevent the evil spirit,
Bal-Bal, from entering. This dread creature sails through the air
like a flying Lemur (monkey), tears the thatch from the roof with
his terrible curved nails, scatters the defenders, and licks up the
body with his forked tongue of fire. The soul of this deceased never
reaches heaven. Your charm, Piang, will ward him off." The boy sat,
mouth open, eyes staring. "A soul is guided to a cave that leads deep
down in the earth, and there, between two gigantic trees, stands
Taliakoo, a giant, who tends the eternal fires. Taliakoo inquires
of the newcomer what he has to say for himself, and to the surprise
of the soul, something within it answers. Conscience, the witness,
replies, and according to the decree of this strange arbiter, the fate
of the soul is decided. If nothing but ill can be said for it, it is
pitched into the fire; if it has been good, it is allowed to pass on
to the abode of the