and the water was
confined into streams and rivers, pools and lakes, and as the rain fell
it kept the streams and rivers running, and the pools and lakes always
fresh. There was no living thing moving upon the earth, until one day
there sat by one of the pools a large Toad. How long he had lived, or
how he came to exist, is not known; it is suspected, however, that the
water brought him forth out of some virtue that was in it. In the sky
there was only the Moon glowing and shining--on the earth there was but
this one Toad. It is said that they met and conversed together, and
that one day the Moon said to him:

"I have an idea. I propose to make a man and a woman to live on the
fruits of the earth, for I believe that there is rich abundance of food
on it fit for such creatures."

"Nay," said the Toad, "let me make them, for I can make them fitter for
the use of the earth than thou canst, for I belong to the earth, while
thou belongest to the sky."

"Verily," replied the Moon, "thou hast the power to create creatures
which shall have but a brief existence; but if I make them, they will
have something of my own nature; and it is a pity that the creatures of
one's own making should suffer and die. Therefore, O Toad, I propose to
reserve the power of creation for myself, that the creatures may be
endowed with perfection and enduring life."

"Ah, Moon, be not envious of the power which I share with thee, but let
me have my way. I will give them forms such as I have often dreamed of.
The thought is big within me, and I insist upon realising my ideas."

"An thou be so resolved, observe my words, both thou and they shall die.
Thou I shall slay myself and end utterly; and thy creatures can but
follow thee, being of such frail material as thou canst give them."

"Ah, thou art angry now, but I heed thee not. I am resolved that the
creatures to inhabit this earth shall be of my own creating. Attend
thou to thine own empire in the sky."

Then the Moon rose and soared upward, where with his big, shining face
he shone upon all the world.

The Toad grew great with his conception, until it ripened and issued out
in the shape of twin beings, full-grown male and female. These were the
first like our kind that ever trod the earth.

The Moon beheld the event with rage, and left his place in the sky to
punish the Toad, who had infringed the privilege that he had thought to
reserve for himself. He came direct to Toad's poo