Atondido Stories
hungrily and eagerly. But when he uncovered the first pot there
was no food there; he uncovered the second pot, but there was
no food there; he uncovered all the pots, but not a bit of food
was in any of them. They were all empty, and in the bottom of
each was a great gaping hole. Now it had happened in this way.
When the humped man, the Star-fairy, had given the pots to the
Spider Man, he knew well that the Spider Man would disobey
his orders and that he would open the pots before he reached his
home. He chuckled to himself, for he knew that now he could
take vengeance on the web-weaver who had injured him. So
when the Spider Man had left the pots among the trees, the
humped man used his magic power and made holes in the pots,
and the charm of the food was broken and all the food disap-
peared. When the people saw the empty pots they thought they
had been purposely deceived. The remains of the food and the
smell of stew and of fruit still clung to the pots. They thought the
Spider Man had eaten all the food himself. So in their great hun-
ger and their rage and their disappointment they fell upon him
and beat him and bore him to the ground, while the humped
man with the lamp at his back hiding behind the trees looked on
and laughed in his glee. Then the people split the Spider Man's
arms to the shoulders, and his legs to the thighs, so that he had
eight limbs instead of four. And the humped man—the star-fairy
named Fire-fly—came forth from behind the trees and standing
over the fallen Spider Man he said, "Henceforth because of your
cruelty to the star-people you will always crawl on eight legs,
and you will have a fat round belly because of the water you
have drunk; and sometimes you will live on top of the water. But
you shall always eat only flies and insects. And you will always
spin downwards but never upwards, and you will often try to
get back to the star-country, but you shall always slip down
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