Leopard replies, "Yes, you do not lie. People say truly that Njegâ is bad. But, look you, Ntori, I, Njegâ, am an evil one: but my badness comes from other animals. Because, when I go out to visit, there is no one who salutes me. When anyone sees me, he flees with fear. But, for what does he fear me? I have not vexed him. So, I pursue the one that fears me. I want to ask him, 'Why do you fear me?' But, when I pursue it, it goes on fleeing more rapidly. So, I become angry, wrath rises in my heart, and if I overtake it, I kill it on the spot. One reason why I am bad is that. If the animals would speak to me properly, and did not flee from me, then, Ntori, I would not kill them. See! you, Ntori, have I seized you?" Rat replied, "No." Then Leopard said, "Then, Ntori, come near to this table, that we may talk well." Rat, because of his subtlety and caution, when he took the chair given him on his arrival, had placed it near the door. Leopard repeated, "Come near to the table." Rat excused himself, "Never mind; I am comfortable here; and I came here today to tell you that it is not well for a person to be without friends; and, I, Ntori, I say to you, let us be friends." Leopard said, "Very good!" But now, even after this compact of friendship, Rat told falsehoods about Leopard; who, not knowing this, often had conversations with him, and would confide to him all the thoughts of his heart. For example, Leopard would tell to Rat, "Tomorrow I am going to hunt Ngowa, and next day I will go to hunt Nkambi," or whatever the animal was. And Rat, at night, would go to Hog or to Antelope or the other animal, and say, "Give me pay, and I will tell you a secret." They would lay down to him his price. And then he would tell them, "Be careful tomorrow. I heard that Njegâ was coming to kill you." The same night, Rat would secretly return to his own house, and lie down as if he had not been out. Then, next day, when Leopard would go out hunting, the Animals were prepared and full of caution, to watch his coming. There was none of them that he could find; they were all hidden. Leopard thus often went to the forest, and came back empty-handed. There was no meat for him to eat, and he had to eat only leaves of the trees. He said to himself, "I will not sit down and look for explanation to come to me. I will myself find out the reason of this. For, I, Njegâ, I should eat flesh and drink blood; and here I have come down to eating the food of goats, grass and leaves." So, in the morning, Leopard went to the great doctor Ra-Marânge, and said, "I have come to you, I, Njegâ. For these five or six months I have been unable to kill an animal. But, cause me to know the reason of this." Ra-Marânge took his looking-glass and his harp, and struck the harp, and looked at the glass. Then he laughed aloud, "Ke, ke, ke--"