, "let us decide in this way which of us will have
it. Let each of us go away, and whoever is _first_ here in the morning
shall have the right to the spring." "Let it be so," said the turtle,
"I'm off to the briny sea; you go away to the village."

The turtle was back from the sea, up the river, and at the spring,
very early in the morning. The fowl thought there was no need to
hurry, as she could with _one_ bound on her wings be at the rock; and
so she roosted till the sun was rising, and then flew over to the
rock, but there was the turtle before her! "You are there, I see,"
said the fowl. "Yes, I am," replied the turtle, "and the spring is
mine." And hence the proverb applied to the lazy and the late: "Here
comes the fowl, the turtle is before you!"

7. Here is another of these fabulous stories:--There were three
friends, a rat, a snipe, and a crab. They thought they would like to
look about them on the sea, and so decided to build a canoe and go out
on a short cruise. They did so, and when the canoe was ready off they
went. The snipe pulled the first paddle, the crab the second, and the
rat steered. A squall came on, and the canoe upset. The snipe flew to
the shore, the crab sank and escaped to the bottom, and the rat swam.
The rat was soon fatigued, but an octopus came along, and from it the
rat implored help. "Come on my back," said the octopus. The rat was
only too happy to do so. By-and-by the octopus said: "How heavy you
are! my back is getting painful." "Yes," said the rat, "I drank too
much salt water when I was swimming there; but bear it a little
longer, we shall soon be at the shore."

When the octopus reached the shore off ran the rat into the bush. The
octopus felt the pain still, however, and now discovered that the rat
had been gnawing at the back of its neck. The octopus was enraged,
called all his friends among the owls to assemble, and begged them to
pursue and destroy the rat. They did so, caught it, killed it, and ate
it, but there was hardly a morsel for each, they were so many. And
hence the proverb in exhorting not to return evil for good:--"Do not
be like the rat with the octopus, evil will overtake you if you do."

8. Here is a story of Toa and Pale, or Hero and Helper.

The King of Fiji was a savage cannibal, and the people were melting
away under him. Toa and Pale were brothers, they wished to escape
being killed for the oven, and so fled to the bush and became trees.
It was only the d