A woman went into the forest to seek fish in the streams. Seeing a stream with plenty of fish, she stopped, put her child down on the ground, took her flat basket, went down into the stream, and baled the water out of the stream. When it was dry she picked up the fish.
As she was stooping down to pick up the fish the child cried. An ape, hearing the cry of the child, came and held it in its arms and sang songs to it.
When the woman had finished picking up the fish she rose up to take the child and saw the animal carrying it. The mother wondered. She knew not what to do.
The ape spoke to the mother, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I shall not harm you. I felt pity for your child because it was crying.” And he said to the mother, “Take your child.”
She took the child and went with it into the town, and said to her husband, “While I was picking up fish in the stream, an ape came and nursed the child and sang a song to it.”
Her husband said to her, “That is not true.”
But the wife replied, “Truly, it is not a falsehood. Want until tomorrow, and you will see.”
In the morning the woman took the child and said to her husband, “Come along, let us go.”
The husband took his spear. They walked along until they reached the stream. The wife put the child down and went into the stream, the husband hid himself in the bushes to see what would happen, and in a little while the child began to cry.
The ape, hearing the cry of the child, came and picked it up and sang a song to it. The child seemed to like the song and stopped crying.
When the husband saw this he threw his spear; the ape held out the child (to defend himself) and the spear went into the body of the child.
The ape said, “I felt pity for your child, and you have not killed me, but you have killed your child.”