do you two stand before the cow.'

Her husband said, "What has come over her that the cows refuse her ? These are the same cows she always milks." The Mother (of the kraal) said, "What has happened this evening? These are cows which she always milks without assistance. What can have affected her that she comes home as a woman with a lion's nature ?" The elder daughter then said to her Mother, “I shall not milk the cows." With these words she sat down. The Mother said therefore to the Hare, Bring me the bamboos, that I may milk. I do not know what has come over the girl.”

So the Mother herself milked the cows, and when she had done so, the Hare brought the bamboos to the young wife's house, where her husband was, but she (the wife) did not give him (her husband) anything to eat. But when at night time she fell asleep, they saw some of the Lion's hair, which was hanging out where he had slipped on the woman's skin, and they cried, "Verily! this is quite another being. It is for this reason that the cows refused to be milked."

When

Then the people of the kraal began to break up the hut in which the Lion lay asleep. they took off the mats, they said (conjuring them), "If thou art favourably inclined to me, O mat, give the sound 'sawa"" (meaning, making no noise).

To the poles (on which the hut rested) they said, "If thou art favourably inclined to me, O pole, thou must give the sound #gara."*

They addressed also the bamboos and the bed-skins in a similar manner.

Thus gradually and noiselessly they removed the hut and all its contents. Then they took bunches of grass, put them over the Lion, and lighting them, said, “If thou art favourably inclined to me, O fire, thou must flare up, 'boo boo,' before thou comest to the heart.' So the fire flared up when it came towards the heart, and the heart of the Woman jumped upon the ground. The Mother (of the kraal) picked it up, and put it into a calabash.

The Lion, from his place in the fire, said to the Mother (of the kraal), "How nicely I have eaten your daughter." The Woman answered, "You have also now a comfortable place!"

*

Now the Woman took the first milk of as many cows as calved, and put it into the calabash where her daughter's heart was; the calabash increased in size, and in proportion to this the girl grew again inside it.

* Indicates the palatal click, which is sounded by pressing the tip of the tongue, with as flat a surface as possible, against the termination of the palate at the gums, and withdrawing it suddenly and forcibly.

One day, when the Mother (of the kraal) went out to fetch wood, she said to the Hare, "By the time that I come back you must have everything nice and clean." But during her Mother's absence, the girl crept out of the calabash, and put the hut in good order, as she had been used to do in former days, and said to the Hare, "When mother comes back and asks, 'Who has done these things?' you must say, 'I, the Hare, did them."" After she had done all, she hid herself on the stage.*

When the Mother (of the kraal) came home, she said, "Hare, who has done these things? They look just as they used when my daughter did them." The Hare said, "I did the things.' But the Mother would not believe it, and looked at the calabash. Seeing it was empty, she searched the stage and found her daughter. Then she embraced and kissed her, and from that day the girl stayed with her mother, and did everything as she was wont in former times; but she now remained unmarried.

*The stage is that apparatus in the background of the hut (built of mats) opposite the door, upon which the Hottentots hang their bamboos, bags of skins, and other things, and under which the women generally keep their mats.

25. A WOMAN TRANSFORMED INTO A LION.

[A TALE.]

(From Sir James E. Alexander's "Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa," vol. ii. pp. 197, 198.)

ONCE upon a time a certain Hottentot was travelling in company with a Bushwoman, carrying a child on her back. They had proceeded some distance on their journey, when a troop of wild horses appeared, and the Man said to the Woman, "I am hungry; and as I know you can turn yourself into a Lion, do so now, and catch us a wild horse, that we may eat."

The Woman answered, "You will be afraid." "No, no," said the Man; "I am afraid of dying of hunger, but not of you."

Whilst he was yet speaking, hair began to appear at the back of the Woman's neck; her nails gradually assumed the appearance of claws, and her features altered. She sat down the child.

The Man, alarmed at the change, climbed a tree close by. The Woman glared at him fearfully, and going to one side, she threw off her skin petticoat, when

a perfect Lion rushed into the plain. It bounded and crept among the bushes towards the wild horses, and springing on one of them, it fell, and the Lion lapped its blood. The Lion then came back to where the child was crying, and the man called from the tree, "Enough, enough! don't hurt me. Put off your lion's shape, I'll never ask to see this again.”

The Lion looked at him and growled. "I'll remain here till I die," said the Man, "if you don't become a woman again." The mane and tail then began to disappear, the Lion went towards the bush where the skin petticoat lay; it was slipped on, and the woman, in her proper shape, took up the child. The Man descended and partook of the horse's flesh, but never again asked the Woman to catch game for him.