“Jump in and get it,” said Ca Matsin, who could not swim, “and we will plant it, and some day we will have some bananas of our own.”  So Ca Boo-Ug swam out and brought the plant to shore.

“Let’s cut it in two,” said Ca Matsin.  “You may have one half and I will take the other, and then we shall each have a tree.”

“All right,” said Ca Boo-Ug; “which half will you take?”

Ca Matsin did not think the roots looked very pretty, and so he chose the upper part.  Ca Boo-Ug knew a thing or two about bananas, so he said nothing, and each took his part and planted it.  Ca Boo-Ug planted his in a rich place in the garden, but Ca Matsin planted his in the ashes in the fireplace, because it was easy, and then, too, he could look at it often and see how pretty it was.

Ca Matsin laughed as he thought how he had cheated Ca Boo-Ug, but soon his part began to wither and die, and he was very angry.

With Ca Boo-Ug it was different.  Before long his tree began to put forth leaves, and soon it had a beautiful bunch of bananas on it.  But he could not climb the tree to get the bananas, so one day he went in search of Ca Matsin, and asked him how his banana-tree was getting along.  When Ca Matsin told him that his tree was dead, Ca Boo-Ug pretended to be very much surprised and sorry, and said:—­

“My tree has a beautiful bunch of bananas on it, but I cannot climb up to get them.  If you will get some of them for me, I will give you half.”

Ca Matsin assented, and climbed the tree.  When he got to the top, he pulled a banana, ate it, and threw the skin down to Ca Boo-Ug.  Then he ate another, and another, throwing the skins down on Ca Boo-Ug’s head.  When he had eaten all he wanted, he jumped out of the tree and ran away to the woods, laughing at Ca Boo-Ug.  Ca Boo-Ug did not say anything, but just sat down and thought what he should do to get even with Ca Matsin.  Finally, he gathered a lot of bamboo sticks and planted them around the tree with the sharp points up, covering them with leaves so that they could not be seen.  Then he sat down and waited.

As soon as Ca Matsin got hungry again, he went around to Ca Boo-Ug’s garden to get some more bananas.  Ca Boo-Ug seemed glad to see him, and when Ca Matsin asked for some bananas, replied:—­

“All right, you may have all you want, but on one condition.  When you jump out of the tree you must not touch those leaves.  You must jump over them.”

As soon as Ca Matsin heard that he must not jump on the leaves, that was just what he wanted to do.  So when he had eaten all the bananas he wanted, he jumped out of the tree on to the leaves as hard as he could jump, and was killed by the sharp bamboo points.

Then Ca Boo-Ug skinned him and cut him up and packed the meat in a jar of brine and hid it in the mud on the bank of the pond.

In the dry season the banana-trees all died and the cocoanut-trees bore no fruit, so a troop of monkeys came to Ca Boo-Ug and asked him if he would give them something to eat.