Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/80

 70 S 07116 Notes 07i East African Folklore.

headman of Kurawa) on this matter, especially with regard to the Hare's reputed cleverness, of which he would not hear. "He! — he has no sense — all his cleverness is just in run- ning ! " " But," I said, " how about all those tales in which he gets the better of the other animals — for instance, when he makes the Lion swallow a hot stone ? " " Oh ! " he said, •'that's not the Hare — that's the gedal" The gedal, it subsequently appeared (though I was not certain of the point till Abarea showed me one on the road to Kurawa), is a jackal. He told me a story which, unfortunately, I could not take down verbatim, but which is somewhat as follows : " The gedal sat in the bara, crying, all by himself The lion passed by and asked him what was the matter. ' My father and mother are dead — I am a poor orphan ! ' 'I will take you with me, do not cry any more.' The lion took him to his village and told him to herd the cattle for him, which he did for some time. One day the lion, having killed a bullock, said he would go and look after the cattle, and desired the gedal to stay at home and cook the beef. He heated a stone in the fire, wrapped it up in a very fat piece of meat, and when the lion came home hungry told him to open his mouth wide, threw the stone down his throat, and so killed him. The hyaena {worabes) then came and asked for a share of the meat. The gedal gave him some bones, telling him to look out, as the lion was asleep ; he thereupon sat down between the hyaena and the dead lion, and asked the former to let him play with his tail. The hyaena, busy with the bones, did not notice that the gedal was tying his tail to the dead lion's, but was roused by a sudden cry, 'Take care, the lion is awake!' He started off at a run, dragging the lion after him, and dived into his burrow, the mouth of which was, of course, blocked by the lion's body. The hyaena, thinking the lion was still alive, did not move for some time, till at last the carcase became decomposed and the tail parted company with it. He then ate up the carrion and came out. Meanwhile the