Why we live in reed-thatched houses

Formerly the rat tied up us men at a breadfruit and the reed-bird came to us saying,

"We shall stay together in the reeds,"

but the rat said,

"No, we shall stay in a hole in the ground with them."

And the men pulled down the breadfruit till it nearly snapped, and the rope which tied them broke. The rat was vexed, took an areca nut, and pelted it into the eye of the reed-bird so that it now has a red eye. The reed-bird then drew out the mid-rib of a Dracaena, and speared the rat, and it stuck and became its tail. Afterwards the reed-bird took men into the reeds to stay with it, and the rat crawled in and stayed in the ground hole.