The remaining thirty tales were given me at Batanga; by three adult narrators, all of them civilized men. They spoke them with me alone, or in the presence of one or two silent attendants, sentence by sentence, in their Bapuku dialect of the Benga language. I rapidly made notes in an English translation of their principal words. This was always at night, in order to leave the narrator at that ease which he would naturally feel if he was telling the story to an audience in the street, as he is accustomed to do in the evenings. For that purpose also, I shaded my lamp, using its light only for my pencil; he therefore spoke unrestrainedly. Next morning, with my memory still fresh of the night's story, I filled out the sentences. This set of the tales therefore is more native, in the preservation of its idioms, than any other part. TALE 1 SWINE TALKING Persons Ingowa (Hogs) NOTE Unlike other native legends based on "they say," the native narrator, now more than 40 years ago, gave the name and family name of the man who is stated to have reported that he heard Swine talking with human speech. There was a certain man in the time long ago, by name Bokona, whose family name was Bodikito. He went to the depths of the forest to do some business. When he was about to return in the afternoon to go to his village, he heard in advance of him, a noise of conversation. He thought that perhaps they were people (of whose presence he was not aware; for, there were no villages in that part of the forest). But, when he had approached the spot, he did not see people; but only a herd of Hogs speaking with the voices of people. He was thus perfectly sure that they speak the language of Mankind. TALE 2 CROCODILE Persons Ngando (Crocodile) Two Children, and Towns-People Two children were bathing in a river; and a crocodile came where they were. It seized one, and, grasping it with its teeth, went with it to its hole in the river bank. It did not kill him, but said to him, "I leave you here, and I go straight back to bring the other one who remained." After the crocodile had left, the one thus put into the hole, turning his eyes about, saw it full of living fish (kept on hand by the crocodile as its food-supply). He saw also that there was another opening in the cavity, above, just over his head. Climbing up and jumping through it, he rapidly went straight away to his village. He related all this incident to the people. Then they gladly fired guns, for welcome of the child. When the crocodile reached the bathing-place on its return, it did not see the one whom it had left there; and it was angry. While it was thus angry, the people shot at it with guns, but their shots could not even wound it; and it went back again to its hole to seek for and eat the child whom it had seized.