discovered by
the dog."

"Ah, yes, tell us how a dog could have shown the uses of the palm
oil-nut."

"It is very simple. Bateta coaxed a dog to live with him because he
found that the dog preferred to sit on his haunches and wait for the
bones that his family threw aside after the meal was over, rather than
hunt for himself like other flesh-eating beasts. One day Bateta walked
out into the woods, and his dog followed him. After a long walk Bateta
rested at the foot of the straight tall tree called the palm, and there
were a great many nuts lying on the ground, which perhaps the monkeys or
the wind had thrown down. The dog after smelling them lay down and
began to eat them, and though Bateta was afraid he would hurt himself,
he allowed him to have his own way, and he did not see that they harmed
him at all, but that he seemed as fond as ever of them. By thinking of
this he conceived that they would be no harm to him; and after cooking
them, he found that their fat improved the flavour of his vegetables,
hence the custom came down to us. Indeed, the knowledge of most things
that we know to-day as edibles came down to us through the observation
of animals by our earliest fathers. What those of old knew not was
found out later through stress of hunger, while men were lost in the
bushy wilds."

When at last we rose to retire to our tents and huts, the greater number
of our party felt the sorrowful conviction that the Toad had imparted to
all mankind an incurable taint, and that we poor wayfarers, in
particular, were cursed with an excess of it, in consequence of which
both Toad and tadpole were heartily abused by all.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE GOAT, THE LION, AND THE SERPENT.

Baruti, which translated means "gunpowder," envied Matageza the "piece"
of a dozen gay handkerchiefs, with which he had been rewarded for his
excellent story, and one evening while he served dinner, ventured to
tell me that he also remembered a story that had been told to him when a
child among the Basoko.

"Very well, Baruti," I replied, "we will all meet to-night around the
camp fire as usual, and according to the merits of your story you will
surely be rewarded. If it is better than Matageza's, you shall have a
still finer piece of cloth; if it is not so interesting, you cannot
expect so much."

"All right, sir. Business is business, and nothing for him that can say
nothing."

Soon after the darkness had fallen the captains of t