First the Chameleon said to the Monitor-lizard, “You must scratch a nice pattern on my back.”

So the Monitor went to work, and the Chameleon had a fine scratching.  Monitor made a nice, even pattern on his back.

Then Monitor asked Chameleon for a scratching.  But no sooner had Chameleon begun to work on Monitor’s back than there came the sound of a dog barking.  A man was hunting in the forest with his dog.  The sharp barks came nearer and nearer to the two lizards; and the Chameleon got such a scare, that his fingers shook, and the pretty design he was making went all askew.  Then he stopped short and ran away, leaving the Monitor with a very shabby marking on his back.

This is the reason that the monitor-lizard is not so pretty as the chameleon.

The Monkey and the Tortoise [134]

One day, when a Tortoise was crawling slowly along by a stream, he saw a baby-monkey drinking water.  Presently the Monkey ran up to the Tortoise, and said, “Let’s go and find something to eat.”

Not far from the stream there was a large field full of banana-trees.  They looked up, and saw clusters of ripe fruit.

“That’s fine!” said the Monkey, “for I’m hungry and you’re hungry too.  You climb first, Tortoise.”

Then the Tortoise crawled slowly up the trunk; but he had got up only a little distance when the Monkey chattered these words, “Roro s’punno, roro s’punno!” [135] ("Slide down, slide down, Tortoise!”)

At once the Tortoise slipped and fell down.  Then he started again to climb the tree; and again the Monkey said, “Roro s’punno!” and again the Tortoise slipped and fell down.  He tried over and over again; but every time he failed, for the Monkey always said, “Roro s’punno!” and made him fall.  At last he got tired and gave it up, saying to the Monkey, “Now you try it.”

“It’s too bad!” said the Monkey, “when we’re both so hungry.”  Then the Monkey made just three jumps, and reached the ripe fruit.  “Wait till I taste and see if they’re sweet,” he cried to the Tortoise, while he began to eat bananas as fast as he could.

“Give me some,” begged the Tortoise.

“All right!” shouted the Monkey; “but I forgot to notice whether it was sweet.”  And he kept on eating, until more than half of the fruit was gone.

“Drop down just one to me!” pleaded the Tortoise.

“Yes, in a minute,” mumbled the Monkey.

At last, when but three bananas were left on the tree, the Monkey called, “Look up! shut your eyes” (Langag-ka! pudung-nu yan matanu [136]).

The Tortoise did so.  The Monkey then told him to open his mouth, and he obeyed.  Then the Monkey said, “I’ll peel this one piece of banana for you” (Luitan-ko ’ni sebad abok saging [137]).

Now, the Monkey was sitting on a banana-leaf, directly over the Tortoise; but, instead of banana, he dropped his excrement into the Tortoise’s mouth.  The Tortoise screamed with rage; but the Monkey jumped up and down, laughing at him.  Then he went on eating the remainder of the bananas.