Atondido Stories
He opened the dish and covered himself all over with the soft
sticky honey. Then as the old woman walked under the trees he
lightly sprang out of the basket into the trees. The old woman
did not miss him until she got home and found only part of her
dish of honey in the basket. "Why, I thought I had brought home
a dead monkey in my basket," she said to her children. "Now
there is no monkey here and my dish is only half full of honey.
The monkey must have been playing one of his tricks."
The monkey had, in the meantime, stuck leaves from the
trees into the honey all over his body so that he was completely
disguised. His own mother would never have recognised him.
He looked something like a porcupine; but instead of sharp
quills there were green leaves sticking out all over him. In this
fashion he went to the drinking place and the tiger did not rec-
ognise him. He took a long, deep drink. He was so thirsty and
the water tasted so good that he stayed in the drinking place too
long. The leaves came out of the honey which had held them
and the tiger saw that it was really the monkey. The monkey was
barely able to escape.
He was so badly frightened that he waited and waited a long,
long time before he again went to the drinking place. At last he
got so thirsty that he couldn't wait any longer. He went to the
resin tree and covered himself with resin. Then he stuck leaves
into the resin and again went to the drinking place.
The tiger saw him, but as the tiger expected to see the leaves
come off just as soon as the monkey got into the water, he
thought he would wait and catch him in his bare skin. This time
the leaves did not come off, for the resin held them fast and was
not in the least affected by the water. The tiger thought that it
was not the monkey and that he must have made a mistake. The
monkey drank all he wished and then strolled away leisurely
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