Page:Where Animals Talk (West African folk lore tales).djvu/53

 that his feet no longer touched the ground; and he fell over on his back, before he had entirely emptied the pond. He was in such great pain, in his swollen belly, that he was helpless, and cried out to passersby, "Please, open a little hole in my body, and let out this water!" But each of the passersby said, "No! I am afraid that after I have helped you, then you will eat me."

At last, among those who passed by, came Crab. Leopard pleaded with him, "Igâmbâ! please! open my skin. Let out this water, so that I may live!" At first. Crab replied as the others, "No! I fear that after I help you, you will eat me." But Leopard begged so piteously that Crab consented, and scratched Leopard's skin with one of his claws. And the water spurted out! It came in so fast a current that it began to sweep Crab away. So Leopard cried out, "Igâmbâ! Please! do not let yourself be taken away! Catch hold on some root or branch!" Crab did so, holding on to a projecting root. When the water had subsided, and Crab was safe, Leopard was able to rise; and he said, "Igâmbâ! you have been kind to me; let me take you home, and I will be good to you; I will cook dinner, so we can eat together." Crab agreed, and they went together.

Leopard began to cook a kind of yam called nkwa, making a pot full of it. (When it is thoroughly cooked, it is soft and sticky.) The yam being finally ready to be eaten, Leopard said, "We do not put this food out on plates, but we bring the entire pot, and every one will help himself from it with his hands." Leopard thereupon began to take out handfuls of the nkwa, and to eat it. Crab tried to do the same, putting a claw into the sticky mass. But its heat burned his tender skin, and, in jerking his claw away, it stuck fast in the nkwa, and broke off. As soon as that happened, Leopard snatched up the claw and ate it. Crab protested, "Ah! Njĕgâ! you are eating my claw!" Said Leopard, "Excuse me! No, I thought it was nkwa." So the dinner went on; Leopard greedily eating, Crab trying in vain to eat, and losing claw after claw, which Leopard in succession promptly ate.

Now, when Leopard had finished eating all the food, Crab's claws were all gone, and he had not been able to eat at all, and was left hungry. So Leopard says to Crab, "Now, as you are so helpless, what must I do for you?" He hoped