EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. 101 



are the king's slaves, therefore we beg thee to let the matter rest." 

 Spider answered : " Ye are begging us while the filth is still upon 

 us. Ye can not beg us so with empty hands. If the cows have 

 been killed 'twill not be so grave a matter, but if they have died 

 our medicine will be spoiled, therefore we will go with ye and see 

 the cows. When first we came to this town we could get no 

 meat. We went to the king and told him we were strangers and 

 had no meat to eat, and he told us he had no meat to give us." 



While they were still talking by the water side, the son of the 

 man in whose house Spider and Kwaku Tse were lodging came 

 there and saw them with the elders, and he ran home and told his 

 father. Then the father came to see what was the matter, but 

 when he came he did not find the two strangers, for they had 

 already departed with the elders to go to the king's house. Then 

 he went to the king's house, and when he reached there the 

 strangers and the two elders had not yet arrived. When the man 

 came, the king asked him what he came for, and he answered : 

 " Two strangers came to me three days past and lodged in my 

 house. They went out this morning, and after a time one of them 

 returned to me and told me they were going to the water side to 

 wash. Afterward my son came and told me he had seen them at 

 the water side talking with two elders. So I have come hither to 

 learn what the matter is." The king asked : " What strangers 

 are they? Whence do they come?" and the man answered: 

 " King, thou knowest them. They are the two young men who 

 came to thee and asked for meat, because they were strangers." 

 Then tne king said, " Ah ! I know them now." He said : " When 

 thou doest good for a man it is good for thyself.* These young 

 men came and asked me for meat, and I said I had none to give 

 them. Now my cows are dead, and the slaves whom I sent to 

 wash the paunches at the water side have cast them upon the 

 young men. I have sent two elders to go and soothe them, but 

 they have not yet returned." 



While the king was speaking, Spider and Kwaku Tse and the 

 two elders came, and with them the slaves bearing the paunches 

 of the cows, and Spider and Kwaku Tse were still covered with 

 the dirt from the paunches. The king asked the elders: "The 

 place where these slaves cast down the paunches, if any persons 

 were there, could they see them ? " The elders answered that the 

 slaves could not fail to see them. Then the king said, " Then the 

 slaves must have done this thing purposely," and the elders an- 

 swered, " Thou hast said it." Spider said : " If thou art a stranger 

 and thou goest to another country, they treat thee like a stranger, 

 in truth. The slaves, when they saw my small body, they thought 



* A proverb. 



