Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/34

 For, I've wandered into the forest again and again, and have found nothing." Leopard made these remarks to his friend in the dark of the evening. So they sat that night and planned and, after their conversation, they went to lie down in their houses. And they slept their sleep.

Then soon, the daylight broke. And Leopard, carrying out their plan, said to Jackal, "Take up your bedding, and put it out in the open air of the street." Jackal did so. Leopard laid down on that mattress, in accordance with their plan, and stretched out like a corpse lying still, as if he could not move a muscle. He said to Jackal, "Call Ngomba, and let him come to me." So Jackal shouted, "Come! Ngomba, come! That Beast that kills animals is dead! Come!"

So Porcupine came to the mourning, weeping, and wailing, as if he was really sorry for the death of his enemy. He approached near the supposed corpse. And he jeered at it. "This was the person who wasted us people; and this is his body!" Leopard heard this derision. Suddenly he leaped up. And Porcupine went down under his paw, dead. Then Leopard said to his friend Jackal, "Well! cut it up! and let us eat it." And they finished eating it.

On another day, Leopard, again in the street, stretched himself on the bedding. At his direction. Jackal called for Antelope. Antelope came; and Leopard killed him, as he had done to Porcupine.

On another day. Ox was called. And Leopard did to Ox the same as he had done to the others.

On another day. Elephant was called in the same way; and he died in the same way.

In the same way. Leopard killed some of almost all the other beasts one after another, until there were left only two.

Then Jackal said, "Njĕgâ! my friend! there are left, of all the beasts, only two, Ihĕli and Ekaga. But, what can you do with Ihĕli? for, he has many artifices. What, also, can you do against Ekaga? for, he too, has many devices." Leopard replied, "I will do as I usually have done; so, tomorrow, I will lie down again, as if I were a corpse."

That day darkened into night.

And another daylight broke.