with a pleased expression, which comforted greatly the lonely
pair.

Having watched the ascending Moon until he had reached his place in the
sky, Bateta and Hanna rose and travelled on by the beautiful light which
he gave them, until they came to a very large tree that had fallen. The
thickness of the prostrate trunk was about twice their height. At the
greater end of it there was a hole, into which they could walk without
bending. Feeling a desire for sleep, Bateta laid his fire down outside
near the hollowed entrance, cut up dry fuel, and his wife piled it on
the fire, while the flames grew brighter and lit the interior. Bateta
took Hanna by the hand and entered within the tree, and the two lay down
together. But presently both complained of the hardness of their bed,
and Bateta, after pondering awhile, rose, and going out, plucked some
fresh large leaves of a plant that grew near the fallen tree, and
returned laden with it. He spread it about thickly, and Hanna rolled
herself on it, and laughed gleefully as she said to Bateta that it was
soft and smooth and nice; and opening her arms, she cried, "Come,
Bateta, and rest by my side."

Though this was the first day of their lives, the Moon had so perfected
the unfinished and poor work of the Toad that they were both mature man
and woman. Within a month Hanna bore twins, of whom one was male and
the other female, and they were tiny doubles of Bateta and Hanna, which
so pleased Bateta that he ministered kindly to his wife who, through her
double charge, was prevented from doing anything else.

Thus it was that Bateta, anxious for the comfort of his wife, and for
the nourishment of his children, sought to find choice things, but could
find little to please the dainty taste which his wife had contracted.
Whereupon, looking up to Moon with his hands uplifted, he cried out:

"O Moon, list to thy creature Bateta! My wife lies languishing, and she
has a taste strange to me which I cannot satisfy, and the children that
have been born unto us feed upon her body, and her strength decreases
fast. Come down, O Moon, and show me what fruit or herbs will cure her
longing."

The Moon heard Bateta's voice, and coming out from behind the cloud with
a white, smiling face, said, "It is well, Bateta; lo! I come to help
thee."

When the Moon had approached Bateta, he showed the golden fruit of the
banana--which was the same plant whose leaves had formed the first bed
of hims