"The hunter denied this grave charge, and accused the baby of upsetting the proper order of things by bathing himself on the very day he was born.
"After much discussion they submitted the case to a chief of a neighbouring town. When he had listened to their wrangling, he said: ‘My mouth is locked up in that room, and my wives have taken the key with them to the farms.’
"‘Oh,’ they rejoined, ‘you, by talking when your mouth is fastened up in another room, have destroyed our country, for whoever heard of such a wonder before?’
"After much debate away they went to find some one to settle the matter for them, and by and by they met a man who climbed palm-trees to tap them for palm-wine, and they put the case to him, each accusing the other of disarranging the proper order of earthly ways.
"When they had finished the palm climber said: ‘I fell one day from the top of a palm-tree and broke to pieces, and then I went into the town to procure men to carry all my pieces back to my house.’ They thereupon fell on him, accusing him of spoiling the country by his wonderful feat. They are still arguing out the matter and cannot agree as to which is worthy of the greatest blame."
At the conclusion each actor in this tale of wonders had his staunch adherents among the little crowd of listeners. Some contended that the baby had performed the most wonderful feat, and was therefore to be greatly blamed. Others stood by the hunter, for “whoever before had heard of shooting mosquitoes?”
“Did you ever hear of a man talking with his mouth locked up in another room?” aggressively asked a backer of that wonder.
“You are all wrong,” shouted a big fellow with a loud voice, “the man who broke to pieces and yet went for carriers to convey the pieces into his town did something that surpassed all the other marvellous deeds.”
Feeling ran high, words were bandied about, innuendoes respecting the sad lack of sense that some folk exhibited were freely exchanged; but during a lull in the throwing of wordy missiles, Bakula said: “I heard a riddle the other day to which you cannot give me the answer.”
“What is it?” asked several, and the noisy discussion on the wonders ceased at once, and all eyes turned on Bakula.