elf and wife.

"O Bateta, smell this fruit. How likest thou its fragrance?"

"It is beautiful and sweet. O Moon, if it be as wholesome for the body
as it is sweet to smell, my wife will rejoice in it."

Then the Moon peeled the banana and offered it to Bateta, upon which he
boldly ate it, and the flavour was so pleasant that he besought
permission to take one to his wife. When Hanna had tasted it she also
appeared to enjoy it; but she said, "Tell Moon that I need something
else, for I have no strength, and I am thinking that this fruit will not
give to me what I lose by these children."

Bateta went out and prayed to Moon to listen to Hanna's words--which
when he had heard, he said, "It was known to me that this should be,
wherefore look round, Bateta, and tell me what thou seest moving
yonder."

"Why, that is a buffalo."

"Rightly named," replied Moon. "And what follows it?"

"A goat."

"Good again. And what next?"

"An antelope."

"Excellent, O Bateta; and what may the next be?"

"A sheep."

"Sheep it is, truly. Now look up above the trees, and tell me what thou
seest soaring over them."

"I see fowls and pigeons."

"Very well called, indeed," said Moon. "These I give unto thee for
meat. The buffalo is strong and fierce, leave him for thy leisure; but
the goat, sheep, and fowls, shall live near thee, and shall partake of
thy bounty. There are numbers in the woods which will come to thee when
they are filled with their grazing and their pecking. Take any of
them--either goat, sheep, or fowl--bind it, and chop its head off with
thy hatchet. The blood will sink into the soil; the meat underneath the
outer skin is good for food, after being boiled or roasted over the
fire. Haste now, Bateta; it is meat thy wife craves, and she needs
naught else to restore her strength. So prepare instantly and eat."

The Moon floated upward, smiling and benignant, and Bateta hastened to
bind a goat, and made it ready as the Moon had advised. Hanna, after
eating of the meat which was prepared by boiling, soon recovered her
strength, and the children throve, and grew marvellously.

One morning Bateta walked out of his hollowed house, and lo! a change
had come over the earth. Right over the tops of the trees a great globe
of shining, dazzling light looked out from the sky, and blazed white and
bright over all. Things that he had seen dimly before were now more
clearly revealed. By the means of the strang