“The new animals have killed my husband,” she said. “Here am I left a widow, with four cold eggs. Now that my breadwinner is killed, I can’t stay at home and sit on the eggs, unless I want to die of hunger. So I left them, to look for some food. When I returned, they were cold and dead. I have come to demand vengeance upon the murderer.”
“What can I say?” said the lion. “There are so many widows in the forest. I myself don’t ask if the animals which I kill, when I am hungry, have wives and children at home.”
“He didn’t do it because he was hungry,” said the widow of the bird of paradise. “He did it only to present his wife with a tuft of feathers for her hair.”
“What’s he to do when his wife asks for it?” said the lion. “It’s no joke falling out with your wife.”
Some of the animals laughed. But most of them shook their heads and thought it a stupid jest, unworthy of the king of beasts.
4
The next day, the animals of the forest spoke of nothing but Two-Legs. They one and all had something to complain of:
“He took my whole nest, the other day, with seventeen new-laid eggs in it,” said the hen.
“There are no fish left in the river,” said the otter. “And one gets bludgeoned into the bargain.”
“One can no longer graze in peace in the meadows,” said the stag.