That’s the way Mappo chattered, not so much to make fun of the bad tiger, as to warn the other monkeys in the woods that the bad striped animal was near, and that there was danger in the jungle.

“Chatter-chatter-chat!  Bur-r-r-r-r!  Whe-e-e-e-e!  Zir-r-r-r!” chattered the other monkeys, far off in the jungle, as they heard Mappo’s warning.  The woods were filled with the sound they made.

“Well, I might as well go away,” thought the tiger.  “They will all be on the lookout for me now.  I’ll have to wait until after dark to catch a monkey, or something else to eat.  Bur-r-r-r-r-r!  But I’m hungry!”

So the tiger slunk away, and I guess no one else in the woods felt sorry that he had not caught Mappo.  They were all glad the monkey boy had gotten away, and Mappo was especially glad, on his own account.

“Ha!  That was a good trick of yours—­to throw the empty cocoanut shell at the tiger, Mappo,” said an old grandfather monkey, high in a tree.  Mappo had told his friends, the other monkeys, what had happened.

“Yes, indeed it was,” said an uncle monkey.  “Mappo is a smart boy to think of such a trick.”

This made Mappo feel pretty proud of himself.

“Do you know where my papa and mamma are?” he asked.

“They went off over toward the banana grove,” said the grandfather monkey.  “Be careful of the tiger if you follow them.”

“I will,” promised Mappo.  But the tiger had slunk away now, so Mappo thought it would be safe to travel through the jungle, especially if he kept up in the trees, and did not go down on the ground.

Off Mappo started after his folks, who had gone on, thinking to catch up to him.

Mappo had not gone very far before he came to a place in the woods where he saw something very strange.  It was strange and also nice, for, down on the ground, were a number of pieces of white cocoanut.

“Well, that’s good!” thought Mappo.  “Cocoanut already shelled to eat.  I wonder who could have left that there for me.  Maybe my papa or mamma did, knowing I would come this way.  Yes, that must be it.  They are very kind to me.  I’ll go down and get some of that sweet cocoanut.”

Now Mappo was not a very wise little monkey.  He had not lived long enough to know all the dangers of the jungle.  There were dangers from tigers and other wild beasts.

Some of those dangers Mappo knew about, and he also knew how to keep out of their way.  But there were other dangers from men—­from hunters—­and these Mappo did not know so well.  For, as yet, he had never seen a man—­a human being.  Mappo had only lived in the jungle where men very seldom came, and those men were brown or black men.

But men knew monkeys were in the woods, and men wanted the monkeys for circuses, for menageries and for hand-organs.  That is the reason men try to catch monkeys.

Mappo looked all around the forest from the top of the tree where he had come to rest.  He saw no signs of danger.  He saw only white pieces of cocoanut on the ground.