Then Parrot said to Chicken, "Chum! I'm going to make an engagement for marriage." So, he prepared his journey. And he asked Chicken, "Chum! give me now thy fine dress!" (For the occasion.) Chicken, said, "Very good!" and he handed his tail feathers to him. Thereupon, Parrot went on his marriage journey. When he came home again, he said to himself, "These feathers become me. I will not return them to Kuba." So, when Chicken said to him, "Return me my clothes," he replied, "I will not return them!" Chicken, seeing that Parrot was retaining the feathers, said sarcastically, "Accept your clothing!" Thereupon, Parrot, pretending to be wronged, said, "Fellow! why do you put me to shame? I did not say that I would take your clothing altogether, only that we should exchange clothes." At night, then, Parrot took all his family, and they flew up in the air away. At once, he decided to stay there, and did not come to live on the ground again. Chicken was left remaining with Mankind in the town. Whenever Chicken began to call to Parrot up in the treetops, asking for his clothes, Parrot only screamed back "wâ! wâ!" That was a mode of speech by which to mock at Chicken. TALE 30 THE STORY OF A PANIC Persons Edubu (Adder) Ikingi (Fly) Ko (Wild-Rat) Ngomba (Porcupine) Njâku (Elephant) Ngubu (Hippopotamus) Nyati (Ox) Bejaka (Fishes) Ngando (Crocodile) NOTE Native Africans after bathing, rub more or less of some oil, either native palm, or foreign pomade, on their bodies. In the Dry Seasons, when the rivers are low, fish are caught by building dams across the streams, and then bailing out the water from the enclosed spaces. Observe flies, as carriers of disease. Adder went to bathe. He returned, and anointed himself with nyimba oil (oil of bamboo-palm nuts), and then climbed out on to a branch of a cayenne-pepper bush. Fly came and settled upon Adder's back. Adder, being annoyed, drove Fly away. Then Fly said to Adder, in anger, "Know you not that it is I who cause even Njâku, with his big tusks, to rot? And that I can cause Nyati and Ngubu to rot? And I can cause Mankind to rot! Then how much more you, this Thing who has only ribs and ribs!" When Adder heard this, he was alarmed, and he entered into the hole of Wild-Rat. Wild-Rat asked him, "Chum Adder! where do you come from in such haste?" He answered, "I have seen a Being which does not hesitate to cause Beasts and even Mankind to rot. Therefore, I am fled, by reason of fear of Ikingi." Whereupon Wild-Rat, frightened, arose, and entered hastily into the town of Porcupine. Porcupine, alarmed, asked Wild-Rat, "What is it?" He answered, "I'm afraid of Ikingi; Edubu says that it is he who causes both Mankind and Beasts to rot."