LET US TELL another story; let us be off!

“Pull away!”

“Let us be off!”

“Pull away!”

There were two brothers, the Intelligent Man and the Fool, and it was their habit to go out shooting to keep their parents supplied with food. Thus, one day, they went together into the mangroves swamp, just as the tide was going down, to watch for the fish as they nibbled at the roots of the trees. Fool saw a fish, fired at it, and killed it. Intelligent Man fired also, but at nothing, and then ran up to Fool and said, “Fool, have you killed anything?”

“Yes, Intelligent Man, I am a fool, but I killed a fish.”

“Indeed, you are a fool,” answered Intelligent Man, “for when I hit the fish that went your way, so that the fish you think you killed is mine. Here give it to me.”

The fool gave Intelligent Man the fish. Then they went to their town, and Intelligent Man, addressing his father, said, “Father, here is a fish that your son shot, but Fool got nothing.”

The mother prepared and cooked the fish, and the father and Intelligent Man ate it, giving none to Fool.

Then they went again; and Fool fired, and with his first shot killed a big fish.

“Did you hear me fire?” said the Intelligent Man.

“No,” answered Fool.

“No?” returned Intelligent Man. “See, then, the fish I killed.”

“All right,” said Fool, “Take the fish.”

When they reached home they gave the fish to their mother and , after she had cooked it, Smart Man and this father ate it, but gave none to Fool. As they were enjoying the fish, a bone stuck in the father’s throat. Then Intelligent Man called to Fool and bade him go for a doctor.

“No,” said Fool, “I cannot. I felt that something would happen.” And he sang:

“Every day you eat my fish,

You call me, Fool,

And would let me starve.”

“How can you sing,” said Intelligent Man, “when you see that our father is suffering?”

But Fool went on singing:

“You eat and eat unto repletion;

A bone sticks in your throat;

And now your life is near completion,

The bone is still within your throat.

“So you, Intelligent brother, killed the fish,

And gave the fool to eat?

Nay! but now he’s dead perhaps you wish

You’d given the fool to eat.”

While Fool was still singing, the father died. Then the neighbors came and joined the family circle, and asked Fool how it was that he could go on singing now that his father was dead.

And Fool answered them saying, “Our father made us both, one intelligent man, the other a fool. The Fool killed the food, and they ate it, giving none to the Fool. They must not blame him, therefore, if he sings while they suffer. He suffered hunger while they had plenty.”

And when the people had considered the matter, they gave judgment in favor of the Fool, and departed.

The father hied, and so had been justly punished for not having given food to the Fool.

He who eats fish with much oil must suffer from indigestion.

And now I have finished my story.

Tomorrow may you chop palm-kernels.

[ BANKONGO ]