loo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the cow, and chopped the side and cut the heart down, and the 

 cow died. And Spider did the same in his cow, and both cows 

 were dead. 



When the king came and saw that his cows were dead, he 

 ordered his people to go and bring the medicine man who had phys- 

 icked the cows, and when the medicine man came he said that if 

 the king would allow it he would rip open the cows' bellies. The 

 king consented, and they ripped open the cows, and the medicine 

 man said that something had struck the cows a blow in the side 

 and that that was the cause of their death. The king asked the 

 medicine man if the cows were still good to eat, and the medicine 

 man said that they were. Then the king said : " When thou camest 

 first to the cows thou didst say that they had eaten a bad leaf. 

 How, then, can their flesh now be good to eat ?" The medicine 

 man answered that at first he thought the cows had eaten a bad 

 leaf and were sick therefrom, but now he found that a blow had 

 been struck them, and therefore the flesh would be good to eat. 

 He said that the people must cut up the cows and carry the 

 paunches to the water side and wash them. 



Then the king had the cows cut up, and he ordered two of his 

 slaves to carry the paunches to the water side ; and when they 

 went there they threw them down in the water. When the 

 paunches fell into the water Spider and Kwaku Tse broke forth 

 from their hiding places and changed themselves at once, and 

 looked up at the two slaves and cried unto them : " See how ye 

 have acted to us ! see how ye have acted to us ! We were bathing 

 here in this water and ye came and cast cows' paunches upon us.'^ 



The two slaves were frightened, and they left the paunches 

 and ran away and returned to the king and told him : " When 

 we carried the cow paunches to the stream and cast them into the 

 water, two men arose and said we had cast the cow paunches up- 

 on them. The king asked, " And did ye throw the paunches upon 

 them ? " The slaves answered : " We saw them not ; but when 

 they jumped up before us they were covered with the filth from 

 the cow paunches." The king asked, " How deep was the place ? " 

 and the slaves answered that it was about the depth of a man's 

 knees. Then the king said, " If it were only of that depth ye 

 must have seen the men when ye cast in the cow paunches." 



The king called two elders and sent them to the water side to 

 see the two men, and when the elders came they found Spider and 

 his friend covered with filth and the cow paunches in the water. 

 Spider said to them : " That which these two slaves have done to 

 us, if we were not strangers here in the town, we would deal with 

 them for it. We asked if we might come here and wash before 

 we came here." The elders said, " This is the place where we 

 always are used to wash. The slaves have done wrong, but they 



