He sat on the riverbank and gazed at the little fishes swimming in the water.
“If only I could live in the water,” he thought. “How wonderful life would be.”
So he walked, and he ran, and he strolled, and he hopped, and he lumbered along, until he came to the mountain where Ngai lived.
Ngai was the god of everything and everywhere.
Ngai told the 动物 to live on the land and the fishes to live in the sea.
Ngai told the birds to fly in the air and the ants to live under the ground.
Ngai had told Hippo he was to live on the land and eat grass.
“Please, oh, great Ngai, god of everything and everywhere, I would so much like to live in the rivers and streams,” begged Hippo hopefully, “I would still eat grass.”
“AHA!” thundered the voice of Ngai. “So 你 say. But one 日 你 might, just might, eat a 鱼 to see if it tasted good. And then 你 would eat all my little fishes.”
“Oh, no. I promise I wouldn’t!” 说 Hippo.
“AHA!” thundered the voice of Ngai. “So 你 say. But how can I be sure of that? I 爱情 my little fishes.”
“I would 显示 you,” promised Hippo. “I will let 你 look in my mouth whenever 你 like to see that I am not eating your little fishes.”
“And I will stir up the water with my tail so 你 can see I have not hidden the bones.”
“AHA!” thundered the voice of Ngai. “Then 你 may live in the water, but…”
Hippo waited.
“But 你 must come out of the water at night and eat 草 so that even in the dark I can tell that 你 are not eating my little fishes. Agreed?”
“Agreed!” sang Hippo happily.
And he ran all the way 首页 until he got to the river where he jumped in with a mighty SPLASH!
And he sank like a stone because he couldn’t swim.
But he could hold his breath and run along the bottom which he does to this very day.
And he stirred up the bottom 由 wagging his little tail so that Ngai can see he has not hidden any 鱼 bones.
And now and then, he floats to the 最佳, 返回页首 and opens his huge mouth ever so wide and says, “Look, Ngai. No fishes.”
