t.

But there were not quite as many girls as there were men, and one old
bachelor was so slow and clumsy that every girl had been kissed before
he could catch one.

"Never mind," said Lox cheerfully. "You go to the next village and try
again."

So the old bachelor set out, plod, plod, plodding through the woods. But
Lox turned himself into a coon again, and scampered from tree to tree,
and got first to the village. When he told the people the plague was
coming, and they asked how they could avoid it, he said: "When I have
spoken my charm, all the girls must set upon any stranger that comes to
the village, and beat him." Then he flung his arms up and began talking
his gibberish. Presently the old bachelor came up, hot and panting, and
stood close to the handsomest girl he could see, all ready to kiss her
as soon as the charm ended. But as soon as Lox finished, the maidens all
set upon the stranger, and beat him till he ran away into the woods.

Then the people made a great feast for Lox; and when he had eaten his
fill of deer-meat and honey, he marched off to play his tricks somewhere
else. He had not gone very far when he came to the Kulloo's nest. Now
the Kulloo was the biggest of the birds, and when he spread his wings
he made night come at noonday; and he built his nest of the biggest
pine-trees he could find, instead of straws. The Kulloo was away, but
his wife was at home trying to hatch her eggs. Lox was not hungry; but
he turned himself into a serpent, and crept into the nest and under Mrs.
Kulloo's wing, and bit a hole in every egg and ate up the little
Kulloos. When he had done this, he was so heavy and stupid that he
couldn't walk very far before he had to lie down and go to sleep.

Presently the Kulloo came home.

"How are you getting on, my dear?" he said.

"Not very well, I'm afraid," she said. "The eggs seem to get cold, no
matter how close I sit."

"Let me take a turn while you go and stretch your wings," said the
Kulloo. But when he sat down on the empty eggs they all broke with a
great crash.

The Kulloo flew off in a terrible rage to find the wretch who had eaten
up the eggs, and very soon he spied Lox snoring on the grass.

"Now I've caught him," said the Kulloo; "it's Lox, the mischief-maker."

He pounced down, and caught hold of Lox by the hair and carried him a
mile up into the sky, and then let go. Of course, Lox was broken into
pieces when he struck the earth, but he just had time a