98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



row we will pass on our way, and we can find no meat to eat, but 

 as we were coming hither to thee we saw two fine cows/' The 

 king answered, " The cows are mine, and they are not to kill." 

 Spider asked, " Why should not the cows be to kill ? " and the 

 king answered, " They supply me with meat." Then Spider and 

 Kwaku Tse asked the king if he could not give them even a small 

 piece of meat, and the king refused. 



They departed from the king and returned to the house in 

 which they were lodging, and they told the owner of the house 

 of all that they had said to the king, and how the king had re- 

 fused to give them even a small piece of meat. They said to the 

 man : " The king said that his two cows supplied him with beef, 

 and that therefore he could not kill them." Spider said, " My 

 name is Spider, and this man is my namesake Kwaku. Never be- 

 fore have I seen a cow that could supply meat and yet live. I 

 came hither only to pass through and go upon my way, but now 

 I will tarry here and see how it is that these cows can supply 

 the king with meat." The owner of the house answered, " That 

 thou wilt not be able to see, for they do it in the king's private 

 yard." Spider said, " I am he who is called Kwaku Anansi, and 

 anything in this world that I want to see or want to do and that 

 I am not able to see or do, I have not yet found it." He said : 

 " These two cows of the king, I will kill them and I will take 

 their heads. I and my friend will do it; we will each kill one, 

 and as for the heads of the cows, the king will cut them off and 

 give them to us." 



When Spider spake thus the owner of the house marveled 

 greatly to hear such words, and he ran and called his neighbor 

 and said to him, " Come and listen, for there is a great trouble 

 which these strangers who have come to lodge with me are about 

 to bring upon me." When the neighbor came the owner of the 

 house told him, in the presence of Spider, what Spider had said, 

 and Spider gave them a proverb, saying, " If the load on thy 

 head is heavy, and it is something to eat, whilst thou art eating it 

 thou art lightening it." Then Kwaku Tse said : " We have spoken 

 this in thy house ; it is no concern of any one else." 



Then Spider and Kwaku Tse told the owner of the house that 

 they were going out to see if they could not get the heads of the 

 two cows and bring them there. And they departed and went to 

 the king's yard, and it was night time, and they found the place 

 wherein the cows used to sleep. Now they had with them a leaf 

 that, when a person smelled it, it made him sneeze, and they 

 rubbed the leaf upon the noses of the two cows. Then the cows at 

 once looked as if they wanted to sneeze ; they opened their mouths 

 wide open, and Spider and Kwaku Tse turned themselves very 

 small and each of them jumped into the mouth of a cow, and the 



