The Boy and His Bird

A man caught a bird which he gave to his son. "Keep it in its cage," he said.

The bird sang sadly:

Coo-coo-coo-coo. My brother said: beware the fruit!

But I ate, got caught. I mourn, coo-coo-coo-coo.

Then the boy opened the cage.

The bird escaped.

"Don't come back without it!" shouted the father.

The boy chased the bird to a lake. 

The bird flew across

The boy found a spider. "Spin!" he said, and then he crossed the lake on the spider's thread, caught the bird, and took it home again.

Thereafter he kept the bird in the cage.

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Inspired by: "The Wood Pigeon and the Locust" in Folklore of the Banyanja (published in Folklore) by Madeleine Holland, 1916.
Notes: You can read the original story online. The bird is a wood-pigeon; see photo below. In the original story, the boy shows the bird to his friends and they accompany him at first, but it was easier to tell this very short story without them. The boy also catches a locust when he retrieves the bird; that part of the story is here: The Boy, the Father, and the Locust.

Wood-Pigeon by Andreas Trepte at Wikimedia