to Simpa, without touching anywhere, and when he came down at Simpa he called "Frog," and a frog said "Yaow." The leopard said: "I am the King of the Bush. Every creature is under me. I am the King, I can cut off heads, and yet a little creature like thee is able to race with me, and now thou seekest to beat me."
Then he leaped at once from Simpa to the Sakum River, and when he came there he thought, "Frog is not here," and he did not call the Frog, but said he would first drink some palm wine, because he was tired. And after he had drunk the palm wine he called "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." The Leopard asked, "What! art thou here. Frog?" And the frog again said "Yaow." Then the Leopard made a leap from that place and came to Accra, and called "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." At every place to which he came he met the Frog, because a frog was there before he leaped.
At that time the Frog lived in the bush—he lived there with all the other animals; but now the Leopard said to him, "I am the King of the Bush, and after this I will not keep thee there any more. I will put thee down close to the water side."
That is why ye can hear frogs crying by the water side whereever ye go. The Leopard has driven them out of the bush, because the Frog was the only animal that could race with him.
Another Gold Coast tale is:
HOW SPIDER AND KWAKU TSE KILLED THE KING'S COWS AND TOOK HIS WIVES.
There was a certain king who had two fine cows, and these two cows were in the same town with the king. In this town people often could not get meat to eat, but the king always had meat to eat from the two cows, for they used to void meat every morning.
Now, Spider and Kwaku Tse came to that town as strangers,[1] and when they came the people had no meat to eat; they had nothing but plantains and dokonno;[2] so Spider and Kwaku Tse asked the master of the house in which they lodged, since he had no meat to give them, to show them the house of the king.
Then Spider and Kwaku Tse went to the king, and said to him: "We are strangers who have come to thy town, and to-mor--
- ↑ It should perhaps have been stated before that Spider and his family are able to assume the human form at will. When Spider is in human shape he is small, lean, and hairy, and these peculiarities are shared by his children. In the tale of Spider and the Farmer it is to be understood that Spider goes to the farm in human shape and, when in his own house, escapes from the farmer by becoming a spider again and climbing up among the rafters.
- ↑ Dokonno a kind of boiled maize bread.
