Note 9 — FOLK-TALES AND SONGS

This is a tale of the olden days when men could understand the talk of animals. Apfuho and the tiger went across a river to hollow out vats from a log on the other side. When they had finished their vats and the time came to return, the tiger asked Apfuho the best way to carry his vat across the river. Apfuho told him to carry it rim upwards,9 and the tiger did as Apfuho told him. But Apfuho carried his own vat upside down and was able to cross the river, while the tiger, try as he would, could not cross the river with his vat rim upwards. Apfuho called out, “I will pull you out,” but instead of doing so he threw stones into the tiger’s vat and pushed him away from land with a forked stick so that he was washed right downstream. Then Apfuho went along to see if the tiger was drowned or not, and found him lower down by the water’s edge. When the tiger saw Apfuho he cried, “Here is my enemy,” and tried to devour him. But Apfuho espied a hornets’ nest by the water and said, “The men of the ‘morung’ have set me to watch the ‘morung’ drum, father tiger, and see that no stranger beats it.” Then the tiger said, “May I beat it and see what it is like?” and Apfuho replied, “I will ask the men of the ‘morung.’ You stay here, and if they say you may beat it, I will shout and tell you.” So he went a long way off and shouted back, “They say you may beat it.” Then when the tiger hit the hornets’ nest all the hornets attacked and stung him,10 and he ran and ran until he fell down a cliff and was killed.