Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales
John Stuart Mill · en
Then they each went to their own camping-place, to spread the meat
on their arala, and to cook their dinner. But, all the while that
Rat was spreading bones and bowels on his orala, he was vexed; for,
there was very little meat on those bones; while Leopard's people's
arala were full of meat, and savory portions were simmering on their
fires tied in bundles (agewu) of plantain leaves. At the noon meal,
Leopard sat down with his family, and Rat with his. But Rat had only
poor food; while Leopard and his people were rejoicing with rich meat.
The second day was very much the same as the first. It was Rat who
did most of the hunting. With him it was, ku! (bang!), and some beast
was down; and, ku! and some other beast was down. Whenever Rat fired,
Leopard would shout out, "Ntori! child! what have you got?" And it was
Rat who would shout in reply, "Nyare" (ox), or "Njâku" (elephant),
or "Nkambi!" (antelope), or whatever the game might be. And it was
Leopard who offensively patronized him, saying, "That is a good boy,
Tata! (Little Father); bring it here to your Uncle." Then Rat and
all the servants would carry the carcass to Leopard. So that day,
the cutting and dividing was just like the first day; Leopard claiming
and taking the best, and leaving the skeleton and scraggy pieces and
the bowels for Rat.
After that second day's hunt, Rat was tired of this way of dividing,
in which he got only the worthless pieces. So he decided to get back
some of Leopard's meat by artifice, for his own table, even if he
had to take it from Leopard's orala itself. He began to devise what
he should do. As he was out walking, he came to a brook in which were
sunken logs of hard heavy wood. They had lain there a long time, and
were black with outside decay. With his machete in hand, he dived;
and remaining under the water, he scraped the logs till he had removed
the dark outside, and exposed the white inner wood. He kept on at
the job scraping and scraping until the logs appeared white like
ivory. Then he went back to Leopard's camp, and, with pretence of
excitement, exclaimed, "Mwe Njegâ! I think we will be going to be
rich. You don't know what I've found! Such a big ivory-tusk hidden
in the water! I think we better leave off hunting meat, and go to
get this fine ivory." Leopard replied, "Good! come on!"
The next day, they first arranged their fires so that the smoke-drying
of their meat might continue during their absence; and then started
for the ivory. They all prepared themselves, for diving, by taking
off their good clothing, and wearing only a small loin-cloth. Their
entire companies went, men, women, and children, leaving not a single
person in the camps.
Leopard says, "You, Ntori, go first, as you know where the place
is." Rat says, "Good! come on!" And they went on their way.