Long tales are carried on in this way. One effect sought after is to bring together words similar in form, but differing in meaning, as if we were to catch up the last word of our sentences thus:— Come forward, shew thys_elf_! _Elf_ dost thou call me, vile pretender? In this form of literature we meet with plays upon words—an unusual phenomenon in unwritten languages. In the conundrums proper (L. 1) we met with only one case of a play on words. We are asked, “What is the girl that decks herself?” The word for “deck” happens also to mean “shine,” and the answer is “the moon”. Having now spoken of the forms in which this literature has been handed down we shall say something of its matter or contents. A great part of it consists of fables regarding the lower animals where the characteristics of these animals are brought out. The rabbit is the clever hero of all the tales, much as the fox is in European tales. The hyena (litunu) is celebrated for its greediness. The litunu is a large carrion eater, which stands, we think, rather higher than the lion. In one tale the hyena is always begging food from the lion. The lion makes a buck climb a tree, so that its shadow is reflected in the water; this reflection is pointed out to the hyena, who at once casts himself into the river. The following may stand for an example of their tales:—There was once a hyena and a leopard. They went a journey, and the hyena picked up a tortoise, and told the leopard, saying, “See, I have picked up my[5] tortoise”. The leopard said, “Give it me that I may see it”. He gave it him, then the leopard threw the tortoise away. One day they heard that the tortoise was a doctor. Then the hyena and the leopard arranged to go to the tortoise, and beg medicine for hunting. They went, they found the tortoise, and said, “We have come for medicine for hunting”. The tortoise gave the leopard beautiful spots, and the hyena ugly spots, because the hyena had wished to eat the tortoise; then he gave them horns of medicine, and said to them, “If you find meat that died of itself you must not eat it”. Then the hyena and the leopard went to hunt. On the path they found an animal that had died of itself. The hyena said, “Leopard, my friend, behold an animal that has died of itself”. But the leopard said, “Come, let us go away”. The hyena said, “Pshaw! we must not eat meat that died of itself?” Then the leopard said to the hyena, “That doctor said to us, should you find meat that died of itself, you must not eat it”. The hyena said “Pshaw! not quite!” The leopard went to the bush, but the hyena returned to the doctor, and said, “Tortoise, I have found meat that died of itself. Is it a transgression to look at it?” The tortoise said, “No, it is not a transgression”.