Leopard cooked his meat. While the pot was on the fire-place, and
before he had eaten, suddenly the Men returned. Tortoise exclaimed,
"The Men of the Town have returned! What shall we do?" For himself,
Tortoise said, "I'm going to hide in the bedroom!" But, Leopard said,
"No! I'm the elder; the bedroom is the place for me." He went into
the bedroom. Tortoise remained in the reception-room, and hid himself
in a pile of the women's cassava leaves.
Soon afterward, the Men also came into that room. And a woman said,
"I left those leaves here when I was cooking. I must throw them into
the back yard." So, she swept the leaves (with Tortoise unseen among
them) in a heap, and threw them out doors.
In the bedroom, where Leopard had hidden, there was a child of this
woman, sick with a skin-disease. The woman called out to her child,
"My child! are you there?" The child replied, "Yes!" The Men in
the entrance-room, observing the pot on the fire, asked the woman,
"While we were away, did you leave a kettle on the fire-place?" The
woman, thinking the pot belonged to someone else who had been cooking,
answered, "No." The Men then directed her, "Make food for us!" So,
she made them food in that pot which Leopard had left, adding other
meat to it.
The child in the bedroom, smelling the odor of cooking, called out,
"Mother! I want to eat!" So, the mother made food for him. And she
took the plate to him, setting it down in the doorway, (but did not
enter the room, and so did not see Leopard).
Leopard took the child's food. The child, in terror, made no
out-cry. Leopard ate up all the food. Then the child began to
weep. The mother, hearing, asked, "Why do you cry?" The child answered,
"For hunger."
She wondered that that plateful had not been sufficient; but, she made
him more food. And she brought it to him into the room, but she did not
see the Leopard; nor did the child tell her. She left the food there,
and went out. The child was about to take the food to eat it, when
Leopard again snatched it away. But, even then, the child, in fear,
did not scream out. And Leopard ate all the food.
Then the child began to weep out aloud. The mother again asked,
"What do you want?" The child answered, "I want food." The mother
wondered much, and, hastening into the bedroom, she saw Leopard. Then
she shouted, "Men! Here's Njâ!" The men came, and they killed Leopard.
All this while, Tortoise remained hidden in the bushes outside;
and he heard all that was happening. He said to himself, "I'm going
to town to tell the children of Njâ that he is dead." So, he went
back to his town. At first, he told only his wife, "Men have killed
Njâ." Then he said, "I must now call the children of Njâ."
So, he called all the people of Leopard. And he said to them, "I
will tell you something; but, don't kill me for my evil news. So,
I tell you, Njâ is dead!" They all laughed in derision, as if it was
not possible, "We will know about that matter tomorrow!"