The Young Rabbit and the Cow

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Hare Who Earned a Cow" which is a Baganda story from Rosetta Baskerville's The Flame Tree and Other Folklore Stories from Uganda. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions.

Rabbit at Pxfuel

 

The Young Rabbit and the Cow

Once upon a time there was a large family of rabbits who lived together in a beautiful forest glade. One day their old king said, "I want to make a feast before I die, but I have no meat. If only someone would give me a cow! If I had a cow, I would kill it and give you all a great feast, my children." 

One young rabbit exclaimed, "Your wish is my command, O King! I will find a cow for the feast." 

The other rabbits all laughed at him, "How will you find a cow?" they said. "You are only a little rabbit! Even if you did get a cow, you have have to bring it here through the forest, and all the big animals be lying in wait. They would take the cow from you, and there would be nothing you could do about it."

But the young rabbit said, "Just you wait and see! I have a plan to get a cow and bring it back here, but I will need your help: if you will do as I ask, then we will all enjoy the king's feast together."

Still laughing, the other rabbits agreed to do whatever the young rabbit told them, and he ordered them to build a big hut with a high fence all around it. "While you build the hut and the fence, I will go look for something special to put in the hut!" The little rabbit then bounded away into the forest.

When he returned, he was carrying a hollow log which was full of bees. The rabbit had sealed the log shut tight, which made the bees very angry. They were very big bumble bees, and as they buzzed angrily, bzzz bzzzzz BZZZZZ BZZZZZZZZ , it was like the noise of a whole crowd of people, even though they were only bees inside a log. The rabbit took this log and placed it inside the hut.

Next, he traveled beyond the forest to the valley where the humans herded their cattle. He hopped up boldly to the chief cowherd and said to him, "I come with a message from my king! He is planning a great feast, and he requires from you the bigger and most beautiful cow in your herd. Give me the cow! If you do not, then he will declare war, and you will all be killed."

The cowherds all laughed at the rabbit's words because they did not fear the rabbit or his king. "You are most amusing, little rabbit!" said the chief cowherd. "And yes, you shall have your cow, but you must earn it. Stay with us for a week, and every evening when we return here to our camp you must tell us tales of the forest and sing songs for us, entertaining us every night for a week. If you do that, I will give you your cow."

The rabbit was delighted with the cowherd's proposal, and every evening when the sunset had faded and the soft shadows lay on the hills, the cowherds would all settle round the fire and listen to the stories which the rabbit told them, and they learned from him the songs of the forest. For a whole week the rabbit stayed with the cowherds. Then the chief cowherd said, "You have truly earned your reward, rabbit! Choose your cow and take it to your king." 

The rabbit chose a beautiful cow with long sharp horns, and he set off for the forest, driving the cow ahead of him with a long reed. 

Just as the other rabbits had warned him, the big animals of the forest wanted to take the rabbit's cow away from him. The first animal he met was the hyena. 

"You there, Rabbit! Give me that cow," snarled the hyena, "or else!"

"Hello there, Hyena!" replied the rabbit, unconcerned. "I was just on my way to your house. My king wishes you to attend him at once, at his new house in the forest. Perhaps you have seen it? it has a tall fence around it. He wishes to honor you with a great feast!" 

Flattered by the rabbit's words and enticed by the promise of a feast, the hyena squealed with delight and followed the rabbit. 

As the hyena and the rabbit journeyed through the forest they next met the lion. "You there, Rabbit and Hyena! Give me that cow," roared the lion, "or else!"

The rabbit explained about the king and the feast. "I was just on my way to invited you to be one of the guests of honor!" he said. The lion grunted with satisfaction and followed the rabbit and the hyena.

Next they met the buffalo. "You there, Rabbit and Hyena and Lion! Give me that cow," bellowed the buffalo, "or else!"

The rabbit explained about the king and the feast. "I was just on my way to invited you to be one of the guests of honor!" he said. The buffalo snorted with pleasure and followed the rabbit, the hyena and the lion.

Next they met the leopard. "You there, Rabbit and Hyena and Lion and Buffalo! Give me that cow," growled the leopard, "or else!"

The rabbit explained about the king and the feast. "I was just on my way to invited you to be one of the guests of honor!" he said. The leopard purred with approval and followed the rabbit, the hyena, the lion, and the buffalo.

After a while, they came to the new hut that the rabbits had built in the forest, the one with a high fence all around it.

"Wait here," said the rabbit to his guests, "until I call you," and he drove the cow inside the fence. Then rabbit went into the hut and began beating the hollow log with his reed so that all the bumble bees buzzed together even more angrily than before: BZZZZZ BZZZZZZZZ BZZZZZZZZZZZ. The animals waiting outside the fence crouched down in fear for they thought there was a crowd of people inside the fence and, even though they were big animals, they were afraid of people, especially crowds of people.

Meanwhile, the other rabbits were also frightened when they saw the big animals so near. "What have you done?" they said to the little rabbit. "Why have you brought them here? The leopard will tear us to pieces while the buffalo tramples us with his hooves, then the lion will eat us, and the hyena will get the scraps." 

But the little rabbit was unconcerned and said calmly, "Just bring me a basket and an axe and a big carving knife and a little pruning knife," he said, and the rabbits brought the things he asked for. The the little rabbit appointed another rabbit to keep hitting the hollow log with the reed. "Keep hitting it," he said, "and when you hear me yell, hit it even harder!"

Then the little rabbit took the basket, the axe, the big knife and the little knife and went back out to where the animals were waiting, still trembling at the sound they heard coming from inside the fence. The bees were buzzing even more loudly, and the animals were growing even more frightened.

"Don't worry, my friends!" said the rabbit. "Those are just all the people who have come to the feast and who are impatient for the food to be served. You will all get plenty to eat, I promise; you just need to do a favor for my king before the feast can begin."

Then the little rabbit turned to the lion and gave him the basket. "You must bring water for the cooking pot in this basket," he said. "Take it to the stream and bring it back full.

Next he turned to the buffalo. "Take this axe," he said, "and go chop firewood, but it must not come from a tree. You must chop firewood from a rock."

Then he gave the leopard the little pruning knife and said, "Go into the forest and use this to cut some bamboo. But make sure it comes from a bamboo that has no joint! The king needs a long straight bamboo without a single joint in it." 

Last of all, he gave the big carving knife to the hyena and said, "You have the honor of butchering the cow and then skinning it with the royal knife. But be careful: if you taste so much as a drop of blood, you will be executed."

So the animals went away, wanting to complete their tasks as quickly as possible so that the feasting could begin.

The lion ran to the stream and dipped the basket into the water, but every time he pulled the basket out, the water poured through all the holes. Oh no! The lion was scared, thinking he had failed the king of the rabbits, so he dropped the basket and ran away. 

The buffalo found a big rock and tried to chop firewood from it using the axe, but when he hit the rock with the axe, the blade broke in two! Oh no! The buffalo was scared, thinking he had failed the king of the rabbits, so he dropped the axe and ran away. 

The leopard searched through the forest looking everywhere for a bamboo that had no joint. She traveled for miles and miles, and then she realized the sun was setting. Oh no: she would never find what she was looking for in the dark! The leopard was scared, thinking she had failed the king of the rabbits, so she dropped the pruning knife and ran away. 

Meanwhile the hyena began her task. First she butchered the cow, and then she began to skin it, wielding the knife with great skill. After she had been at work for a while, she found it hard to grip the knife as her paws were covered in blood. She then put down the knife and licked her paws to clean them. Then, having tasted the blood, the hyena could not resist: she began tearing into the flesh of the cow. 

The little rabbit, who was hiding nearby, saw what the hyena was doing and shouted loudly, "The hyena is eating the king's meat! Come quickly, everyone! THE HYENA IS EATING THE KING'S MEAT!" As the little rabbit shouted, his comrade beat the hollow log even harder, and the bees buzzed as loudly as an army of warriors. The hyena thought the people were coming out to kill her, so she dropped the knife and ran away, and she did not stop running until she was miles and miles and miles away.

Then the rabbits made a great feast for their old king, and they also chose the clever young rabbit to be the new king and rule the rabbits. In preparing the feast, the little rabbit showed that he not only had wisdom but that he was also calm in the face of danger, just as every king should be.

The Friendship of the Cat and the Rat

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Cat and the Rat" which is a Swahili story from  Zanzibar in Jephson's Stories Told in an African Forest, as reportedly told by "Osmani," who was the personal servant of Captain Robert Nelson. The animals here have their Swahili names: pania (panya) is Swahili for mouse or rat, and paka is Swahili for cat. The illustration are by Walter W. Buckley. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions. 

The Friendship of the Cat and the Rat

Once upon a time, long ago, Paka the cat and Pania the rat lived together as friends on the island of Kwale, one of those small islands which is stretched like a string of beads to the south of Zanzibar. These small islands were seldom visited by human beings, who lived on the larger islands like Pemba or on Zanzibar itself.

So it was there on the small island of Kwale that Paka the cat and Pania the rat dwelt together, alone but united in friendship. They lived in a dry, sandy cave in the rocks, and they slept in warm, comfortable beds made of dry leaves and grass. It was a pleasant life, and they had plenty of food to eat. The cat caught birds in the trees, and the rat lived upon nuts and the roots of the manioc plant which grew wild all over the island.

Now after they had lived together many years on their tiny island, the rat one day said, "Let us leave this island, my dear Paka, and go to the island of Zanzibar where the humans live. I am tired of the life here alone; I want to go and see how the children of men live."

"I would gladly go with you, Pania," answered the cat, "but between us and Zanzibar rolls the deep salt sea. How shall we cross over? The tide runs strong, and it's too far for us to swim."

"We can build a boat!" answered the rat. "We just need to dig up a big manioc root and then we can scoop it out and make into a canoe."

"Excellent!" said the cat. "I like this plan."

"And I already have my eye on the manioc root we can use," said the rat, who then led the cat to a very large manioc root which they then dug up together. Then, they set to work scooping out the canoe. It was hard work: the rat used his sharp teeth to gnaw at the root while the cat scratched with his long claws until finally, after several days, the canoe was ready.

"It doesn't look very strong," said the cat doubtfully. "Do you really think it will take us all the way to Zanzibar?"

"Have no fear!" said the rat, "We will just need to make some oars to paddle with, and we'll get to Zanzibar safe and sound, I'm sure of it."

So they made two paddles, one for the cat and one for the rat, and then they pushed the manioc canoe into the water, setting off on their voyage to Zanzibar.

They moved along quite quickly at first, but then the tide began to turn against them, and they still had a long way to go.

The rat, who was actually quite a lazy creature, got tired of paddling, and he was also hungry. He lay down his paddle and began eating pieces of their manioc canoe. As the cat sitting in front, he didn't see what the rat was doing and jus tkept on paddling and paddling and paddling until he was quite out of breath. When he turned around to say something to the rat, he saw that his companion was no longer paddling and was instead greedily eating the bottom of their boat.

"What are you doing?" shrieked the cat. "Here I am paddling, while you are trying to drown us. Stop that! You're going to eat through the boat and the water will come pouring in."

"Don't worry!" said the rat. "I only just now lay down my paddle, and I nibbled only the tiniest bit of manioc. I was out of breath and hungry, but I'm fine now. I'm ready to keep going!" 

The rat's calm tone and charming smile made the cat feel ashamed for having gotten angry. "My apologies," he said. "I was feeling tired also, but I'm also ready to keep going." Then each took up their paddles, the cat rowing in front and the rat behind.

The cat was paddling as hard as he could, yet the canoe did not seem to be moving at all, and when he turned around he saw the rat was not paddling but was gnawing at the bottom of the boat again.

"You are lazy and you are a liar!' shouted the cat. "You are making me do all the work, which is bad enough, and you are also going to get us killed. Stop eating the boat! If you make a hole there, we're both going to drown."

"I'm sorry!" said the rat. "Truly, I apologize! I won't eat more of the boat." He then picked up his paddle and began rowing vigorously, and the cat turned around and also rowed as hard as he could.

So they rowed on together for a while, but the canoe was still little more than half-way to Zanzibar and again the rat's greediness overwhelmed him. Once more he started nibbling on the boat and by now the bottom was so thin that it cracked open and water began pouring in. The canoe was sinking!

With a shriek of fright and fury, the cat tried to grab the rat, but then the canoe broke in two and sank. Both the cat and the rat found themselves in the water.

"You wretched creature!" spluttered the cat as he rose to the surface and swam towards the rat. "You have eaten the boat, so now I will revenge myself by eating you."

"Wait!" gasped the rat. "You cannot eat me here! The salt water will get down your throat and make you sick to your stomach. Let's just swim to the nearest little island and you can eat me there."

"Very well," agreed the cat. "I see a little island there to the west. You swim on, and I will swim behind to see that you do not escape."

So on they swam until they reached the shore of the island, which appeared to be even smaller than the island that had previously been their home.

"Now," cried the cat, as they scrambled up on the beach, "now I will make a meal of you as a punishment for your greediness and treachery."

"But wait!" replied the rat, desperately trying to think of a way to escape the angry cat. "Don't be in such a hurry! Why the rush? Let me shake off all the salt water; otherwise, I'll be too salty to eat. Meanwhile, you can rest here in the sun and let your fur dry off. You'll enjoy your meal much more after you've had a chance to get dry and get well rested after our swim."

The cat was indeed dripping wet, so he agreed to wait before eating the rat and then stretched himself out in the sun to dry. Exhausted by the day's events, he soon fell asleep and began to snore.

Meanwhile the rat, pretending to dry himself, began scratching a hole in the ground as fast as he could, thinking if he could just dig it deep enough he might be able to escape the cat.

Awakened by the sound of the rat digging, the cat opened one eye and asked what he was doing. 

"I'm just getting a good foothold so I can shake off all the salt water," replied the rat. "I'll be ready soon. Just go back to sleep, and then when you wake up from your nap you can eat me."

The rat went on digging in the ground, and every now and then he peeped around to make sure the cat was still napping, until at last he had made quite a deep hole. Just as he paused on the edge of the hole to take a breath, the cat sprang on him and shouted, "I'm ready, Rat! Our friendship is over and I'm going to eat you for my supper!"

But the rat just managed to disappear into the hole before the cat was able to grab him.

And that is how the enmity of the cat and the rat began. Since that time, all the cats are at war with all the rats and mice everywhere. So whenever you see a cat prowling round, you can be sure that cat is looking for a rat. Every cat-mother tells her kittens the story of Pania the rat and Paka the cat, and thus the hunting of the rats by the cats carries on forever.

The Lion Who Became a Woman

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Lion Who Took a Woman's Shape" which is a Khoekhoe story from Bleek's Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions.

Tanzanian Lion by Aurelio Arias at Wikimedia

The Lion Who Became a Woman

Some mothers and their daughters went out to seek herbs to use for cooking food. On their way home the mothers sat down and said to their daughters, "We must taste the herbs you have gathered." Each daughter offered her mother herbs from their baskets, herbs were all good, except for what one young woman had gathered. "Those herbs are no good for cooking!" her mother told her, and the other women agreed. "Empty your basket," the other women told her, "and go back to find herbs that taste good." 

So the young woman threw away what she had gathered and went back to find the herbs that were good for cooking.

After she filled her basket a second time, she went back to rejoin her mother and the other women, but they were gone, and she could not find them. Not sure what to do, she went down to the river, and there she saw the the Rabbit drinking water from a cup. "Please, Rabbit," she said, "give me some water to drink. I'm thirsty!"

"No!" said the Rabbit. "This cup belongs to me and to my Uncle Lion. Only he and I may drink from this cup."

"But I am so thirsty," the woman replied. "Please, Rabbit, give me some water to drink."

Again the Rabbit refused.

Then the woman grabbed the cup and drank from it. 

"You'll be sorry!' shouted the Rabbit, and he ran home to tell his uncle the Lion what the woman had done. 

The woman was not frightened by the Rabbit's words, and continued drinking water from the cup until she had quenched her thirst. Then she put the cup down and began the long walk back to her village.

After learning from the Rabbit what the woman had done, the Lion came running down to the river. He then sniffed out the woman's trail and chased her. When she turned around and saw the Lion coming after her, the woman sang this song:

My mother, she would not eat my herbs,

Herbs of the field, food from the field.

Hoo-hoo-hoooooo!

When the Lion at last caught up with the woman, they chased each other around a shrub. When he saw that the woman was wearing many beads and bracelets, the Lion said, "Let me try on your beads! Let me try on your bracelets!"

The woman gave to loan her beads and bracelets to the Lion, but afterwards he refused to give them back. So they chased each other around the shrub again until the Lion fell down. The woman jumped on him and pinned him to the earth.

Groaning, the Lion sang out the words of a magical spell:

Aunt, oh my Aunt! It is morning, and time to rise;

Pray, rise from me, Aunt, oh my Aunt!

The woman then rose from the Lion, and again they chased each other around the shrub, until the woman fell down, and the Lion jumped on her, pinning her to the earth.

Groaning, the woman also sang out the words of a magical spell:

Uncle, oh my Uncle! It is morning, and time to rise;

Pray, rise from me, Uncle, oh my Uncle!

The spell compelled him to rise and again they chased each other until the Lion fell down a second time. When the woman pinned him, the Lion sang again:

Aunt, oh my Aunt! It is morning, and time to rise;

Pray, rise from me, Aunt, oh my Aunt!

They rose again and hunted after each other. The woman fell down a second time, the Lion pinned her, and she sang:

Uncle, oh my Uncle! It is morning, and time to rise;

Pray, rise from me, Uncle, oh my Uncle!

But this time the Lion replied:

Hey! Is it morning?

Ha! Is it morning, and time to rise?

Then the Lion ate the woman, being careful to leave her skin intact. Then he took the skin and put it on, and then he put on her dress and her beads and her bracelets, so that the Lion looked just like a woman, and then he went to her family's homestead.

When this counterfeit-woman arrived, her little sister saw her and cried out, "My sister, pour me some milk in my little cup."

But the woman replied, "My sister, I will not pour you any milk."

Then the little girl went to their mother and said, "Mama, pour me some milk in my little cup!"

The mother replied, "Go to your sister, and let her pour the milk for you."

So the little girl went back to her sister and said, "My sister, pour me some milk."

Again, the counterfeit-woman refused. "No," she told her sister, "I will not."

Then the mother said to the little girl, "I sent your sister alone to gather herbs, and I'm not sure what might have happened to her out there. Go to the Rabbit. He will pour you some milk."

The girl went to the Rabbit who poured milk for her in her little cup. Then, when her sister saw the cup of milk, she said, "You have milk! Come and share it with me."

The little child then went to her sister, offering her the cup of milk, they both drank from the cup.

As they were doing this, some milk splashed on the little girl's hand, and the counterfeit-woman licked up the milk with her tongue, the roughness of her tongue, which was a lion's tongue, drew blood. Then she eagerly licked up the blood too.

Crying, the little girl went to her mother and said, "Mother, my sister's tongue scraped my skin so that I was bleeding, and then she drank the blood."

"Your sister is acting like a lion," said the mother, "but I do not know how that happened. She went away and then came back with the spirit of a lion inside her."

Then the cowherds brought in the cows for the evening, and the counterfeit-woman cleaned the pails, preparing to milk the cows as she did every day. But when she approached the cows with a rope to tie them, the cows refused to let her near them.

The Rabbit asked, "Why can't you get near the cows?"

"Leave me alone!" she shouted at the Rabbit. "You do what you want; just leave me alone."

Then the husband of the counterfeit-woman asked his mother-in-law, "What has come over your daughter that the cows refuse to go near her? These are the same cows she always milks."

"I do not know," the mother answered. "Something happened today. She has come home like a lion, and not like my daughter."

The counterfeit-woman then said to her mother, "I cannot milk the cows," and having said this, she sat down.

Then the mother said to the Rabbit, "Bring me the buckets and I will milk the cows. I do not know what is wrong with my daughter."

So the mother herself milked the cows, and when she had done so, the Rabbit brought the buckets to the counterfeit-woman's house. The woman took the milk from him, but she would not give her husband anything to eat.

When night came, she lay down to sleep, and then her husband saw some of the Lion's fur which had slipped out from under the woman's skin that the Lion was wearing. "Oh, this is why the cows would not go near her!" the husband said to himself. Then he brought his mother-in-law to see what he had seen, and then she then told everyone what to do.

"We must remove the hut here without waking the Lion," she said, and so they used magic. 

When they took away the mat walls of the hut, they sang: 

Mats, oh Mats, do us this favor: 

come away making the noise-that-is-no-noise.

Likewise when they took down the poles, they sang: 

Poles, oh Poles, do us this favor: 

come away making the noise-that-is-no-noise.

Then when they rolled up the bed-skins, they sang: 

Bed-skins, oh Bed-skins, do us this favor: 

come away making the noise-that-is-no-noise.

In this way the people removed the hut and all its contents, leaving the Lion there on the ground, still sleeping.

Next they took handfuls of grass, put the grass around the Lion, and then lit the grass on fire, singing:

Fire, oh Fire, do us this favor: 

Flare up and subside before you burn the heart! 

Do not burn the heart, oh Fire!

So the fire flared up around the Lion but did not burn the heart inside him. Feeling the heat of the flames, the woman's heart jumped out, falling onto the ground, and the woman's mother reached out and grabbed the heart, putting it inside a calabash.

As the fire burned hotter and hotter, the Lion shrieked from inside the flames, "I ate your daughter! She was delicious! I ate her all up!"

Then the mother shouted back at the Lion, "I lit a fire! It's burning hot! The fire will burn you all up!"

When the fire died down, there was nothing but ashes left of the Lion. The Rabbit came and took the ashes; no one knows what he did with them.

Meanwhile, the mother nursed her daughter's heart inside the calabash. Each time a cow gave birth to a calf, she took the cow's first milk and poured it into the calabash. The calabash grew bigger and bigger as the woman's daughter grew again inside it.

One day, when the mother went out to fetch wood, she said to the Rabbit, "By the time that I come back, I expect you to have have everything in the hut here nice and clean."

But during her mother's absence, the girl emerged from the calabash and cleaned everything in the hut, putting it all in order just as she knew her mother liked it. Then she told the Rabbit, "When mother comes back and asks who cleaned the hut, you must say: I, Rabbit, I cleaned the hut."

After that, she hid herself in the hut where no one could see her.

When the mother came home, she said, "Rabbit, who cleaned the hut? Everything has been done just as my daughter used to do it."

"I, Rabbit, I cleaned the hut!" replied the Rabbit.

But the mother didn't believe him. She looked in the calabash: it was empty! Then she knew her daughter must be somewhere there in the hut. She looked and looked until at last she found her.

"My daughter!" she exclaimed, and she hugged her daughter and kissed her. From then on, the woman stayed always with her mother, and she did everything that she used to do, although she remained unmarried; the woman who had become a lion did not return to her husband again after that.

The Lion and Mr. Hunger

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Lion and Mr. Hunger" which is a Swahili story from Zanzibar in Jephson's Stories Told in an African Forest. The illustrations are by Walter W. Buckley. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions.

The Lion and Mr. Hunger

There once lived a Lion who was the strongest and fiercest lion who had ever lived, and all the animals feared him. When he roared it was as if the thunder shook the earth, and the creatures of the forest all bowed down before him for he was their king. Even the strongest among them — Elephant and Rhino, Leopard, Buffalo, Hyena —all acknowledged him as their chief and did his bidding in obedience and fear. The Lion dwelt in a dark cave under the shadow of a great rock, and all around this palace you could see the skulls and bones of his enemies who had come from distant lands to test their strength against his.

When the Lion stood before his cave tossing his tawny mane, gnashing those terrible teeth, and lashing his tail, he was a sight to make the bravest tremble in fear! And at night, when his fearful roar boomed across the country all around and echoed among the rocks, the prowling Hyena would slink away in fear, and the Antelope would spring from his mossy bed by the stream and run across the plain in fear for his life.

The young warrior princes of the neighboring kingdoms had all come to do battle with the Lion, for he was known to the humans as well. The bards sang of the Lion's overwhelming strength and of the bloody battles the Lion had fought there at the mouth of his dark cave. As with the animals, so too with the human warriors: one after another the Lion had killed them all so that his palace had become a charnel house, strewn with the bones of his enemies, human and animal alike. As he defeated all enemies who came against him, the Lion cried out for all to hear, "Behold! I am the chief of all the land, and there is no one as strong and as great as I am!"

Not far from the Lion's cave there was a large rabbit warren, and in that warren there lived a brave and clever Rabbit. You might be surprised to learn that the Rabbit had no fear of his neighbor the Lion; this was because the Rabbit was so small and weak that the Lion took no notice of him. Just the opposite in fact: the Lion tolerated the little creature and the two of them enjoyed a certain familiarity.

So it happened that one morning, when the Rabbit was out for a stroll, he ran into the Lion and said to him as usual, "Good morning to you, Sir Lion!"

"Good mor-R-R-R-R-ning, Rabbit," purred the Lion in reply. "I see you are admiring my appearance. As well you should! Did you ever see anyone as great and as strong as I am?"

Then the Lion pawed the ground, making the dust fly, and he roared so loudly that the Rabbit had to put his paws over his long ears.

"It is true beyond doubt, Sir Lion!" answered the Rabbit. "You are great, and you are strong. Although I do happen to know one person who is even stronger than you."

"Ugh!" shouted the Lion. "UGH! What are you talking about? Who is he? Tell me his name! Where does he live? Show him to me! Take me there and I will tear him to pieces and grind his bones into powder." Then the Lion struck the ground angrily with his huge paws, making the whole countryside shake.

"His name is Mr. Hunger," replied the Rabbit, "and he is no stranger to these parts; I'm surprised you have not met him before. If you can wait until tomorrow, I will take you to a place where you will be sure to find him."

"Yes!" yelled the Lion, seething with anger. "I can wait until tomorrow. I will spend the day today meditating on my greatness, preparing myself to defeat this enemy as I have defeated all my other enemies. Come to me tomorrow morning and I will allow you to escort me to the home of Mr. Hunger, and then you'll see: I will grind Mr. Hunger's bones into powder before your very eyes."

"I am sure you will, O King!" said the Rabbit enthusiastically, whereupon he bowed to the Lion and then scampered away, softly laughing to himself because, of course, things were all going exactly as the Rabbit had planned. He would just need the help of his fellow Rabbits to carry it out.

As the Lion stomped the ground and continue to roar, thinking about the enemy he would face the next day, the other Rabbits trembled in their warren, wondering what new trouble was in store for them, but the Rabbit assured them that this was all part of the plan. "The moment has come at last!" he told them. "We can finally rid ourselves of this Lion, but we will need to work quickly to get everything ready in time. I have promised the Lion that I will bring him to the home of Mr. Hunger tomorrow. That gives us today only to prepare to get the place ready. Will you all help me and do exactly as I tell you?"

"We will!" cried all the Rabbits together. "Just show us what to do!"

The Rabbit smiled. "I knew I could depend upon you," he said. "Now, let's get to work," and then  the Rabbit assigned specific tasks to his family and friends.

Some of them he sent into the forest to chop down tress. 

Others were assigned the task of carrying the logs to the future home of Mr. Hunger.

And the rest were given the job of digging a trench so that the logs could be put into place there, creating an enclosure from which the Lion could not escape. The logs were tall enough that the Lion could not jump over them, and they were placed closely enough together that he would not be able to squeeze through. The house they were building was, in fact, a cage.

They worked hard all day, filled with energy and enthusiasm, carrying out the tasks assigned to them. By nightfall, they had set all the logs in place, creating an enclosure with only one narrow gate leading in and out, and the latch for the gate was on the outside only.

That night they went to bed, eager to see what would happen the next day, confident that the plan would succeed.

Early the next morning the Rabbit went to the Lion's cave, where he found the Lion eager to do battle with Mr. Hunger.

"Good morning, Sir Lion," said the Rabbit happily. "Are you ready for your fight with Mr. Hunger?"

"Ready? I am always ready!" growled the Lion. "I've been thinking of nothing else all night. Where is he? Show him to me without delay!" As he spoke, the Lion was grinding his teeth in a frenzy of expectation and rage.

"Well then, just follow me," said the Rabbit. "We don't have far to go."

The Lion, still growling and grinding his teeth, followed the Rabbit, who led him to the entrance of the enclosure they had built the day before.

"He's just inside there," said the Rabbit. "I told him you were coming." The Rabbit then showed the Lion the open gate. 

With a mighty bound the Lion leaped through the entrance, and the Rabbit immediately closed the gate after him.

The Lion then searched the enclosure, but he found no one there. He then roared angrily, "Where is Mr. Hunger? You told me I would find him here."

"Oh, don't worry!" said the Rabbit. "He'll be there soon. You don't have to find him; he'll find you, I promise."

"Tell him to hurry!" roared the Lion as he looked through the bars at the Rabbit hopping away into the bushes. Once the Rabbit was out of view, the Lion then lay down on the ground, flexing his muscles and impatiently waiting for his enemy to appear.

As time passed, the Lion grew frustrated and tried to jump over the wall of logs, but the wall was too high. He tried to climb over, but he could not make it to the top. Finally he tried to squeeze through the wooden bars, but he could not get out that way either. He had no choice but to stay there and wait.

Two days later, the Rabbit returned. "Sir Lion!" he called. "Sir Lion! Are you there? Have you seen any signs of Mr. Hunger yet?"

"Not yet," roared the Lion feebly, "but I am ready for him when he comes. Tell him to come quickly, coward that he is! I'm going to tear him to pieces and grind his bones into powder as soon as I see him."

"He'll be here soon, I'm sure," said the Rabbit. "It won't be long!" When the Lion said nothing in reply, the Rabbit smiled and then trotted away.

Two more days passed before the Rabbit returned. This time when he peered through the wooden bars, he saw the Lion stretched out on the ground, motionless. His skin was hanging in folds over his ribs, and his head lolled between his paws in the dust.

"Have you seen Mr. Hunger yet?" asked the Rabbit.

"Oh," moaned the Lion, "is that you, Rabbit? Oh, I've never felt like this before. My strength is gone. I can's stand up. Some invisible enemy has brought me down. How did this happen?"

"Ah!" said the Rabbit triumphantly. "That is Mr. Hunger. Didn't I warn you that he was stronger than you? Now you can see that i was right."

The Rabbit's words made the Lion angry, but when he tried to stand up, he fell back down and then breathed his last breath. The Lion was dead.

The news spread quickly among all the animals of the land. The dreaded Lion was dead! Someone had killed the Lion!

Rabbit opened the gate, and the creatures gathered around the body of their dead king. "Who killed him?" they all asked in excitement. "Was it some warrior from among the animals? Or was it a human hero?"

"No animal warrior did this, and no human hero," replied the Rabbit. "It was Mr. Hunger who brought the Lion down at last, here in Mr. Hunger's house."

Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear

I thought I would also start including some African American stories that have clear African story elements, so here's "How Brother Rabbit Saved Brother B'ar's Life" from Uncle Remus and the Little Boy by Joel Chandler Harris, which features the popular motifs of "pulling on the root" and "propping up the rock." I've removed the Uncle Remus frame material and modified the eye-dialect, as well as making other changes. You can compare Harris's version in this PDF. 

---

(image source)

Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear

This story starts when Brer Bear was all riled up and chasing Brer Rabbit, and Brer Rabbit was running, headed right for a hollow tree where he could hide from Brer Bear, but before Brer Rabbit got inside that hollow tree, Brer Bear caught him by the behind leg and held him, he held him tight.

(image source)

Brer Rabbit was struggling to get inside that hollow tree, and Brer Bear was pulling with all his might, and then Brer Rabbit got himself braced himself against the inside of the tree, and there he stayed no matter how hard Brer Bear pulled.

Then Brer Rabbit stuck his head way up inside the tree and started laughing, his laugh echoing all around inside the tree there, and then he said, "You think you got me, don't you? Well, you ain't got me, not even close! You can pull and you can tug but you are pulling and tugging on a root of this here tree, and it's not going anywhere except right into the ground."

"That's no root!" growled Brer Bear. "I've got your leg!"

Brer Rabbit laughed. "You are surely a fool, Brer Bear, not able to tell the difference between the root of a tree and the leg of a rabbit. I'll prove it to you. Go get yourself a rock and bang on it. If it's my leg, you know I'll shout, but a root's got nothing to say. Go ahead, find yourself a nice big rock and try."

Brer Bear let go and  turned round to look for a nice big rock, and as soon as he let go, Brer Rabbit pulled himself all inside the hollow. Meanwhile, Brer Bear grabbed a rock but when he turned back around to start banging with it, there wasn't anything to bang on. No leg, no root, nothing to bang. "Where'd that root go, Brer Rabbit?" he asked.

Brer Rabbit, he just laughed from inside the tree and said, "Well now, I didn't think you were ever coming back, and the more I looked at that root, the more I thought it might whittle down to make a nice toothbrush, so I broke it off to take home to my old woman. She'll like it fine for her toothbrush."

"And she's welcome to it!" Brer Bear said, feeling sure Brer Rabbit had tricked him somehow. "Give her my regards, and I'll be leaving you now." Of course, Brer Bear wasn't really leaving. He was just going to go hide, waiting for Brer Rabbit to come out of that tree.

Time went by, and Brer Rabbit sure wanted to come out of that hollow tree and go home, but he suspected Brer Bear was lying in wait there for him. So he crept out real slow, and then he looked all round, and then he made a dash for the open, but sure enough old Brer Bear was right there just as Brer Rabbit suspected, and when Brer Rabbit made his dash, Brer Bear made one too, and he was so quick about it that Brer Rabbit had to run under a hanging rock to keep Brer Bear from snatching him. So Brer Rabbit ran right under that rock, and Brer Bear was reaching and grabbing, and Brer Rabbit was mighty afraid Brer Bear was going to get him after all, so he shouted, ""Look out there, Brer Bear! I feel this rock falling down! It's gonna crush me, and it's gonna crush your paw too. I'll be dead, and you'll be trapped, and what good is that going to do us? You and your temper is going to be the ruin of us both!"

Brer Rabbit paused for dramatic effect, and Brer Bear, he didn't say anything. 

Then Brer Rabbit shouted, "Oh no! It's a-coming down right on me! Don't you feel it sinking down, Brer Bear? I've led a good life and I don't mind ending my life right here and now, but I'd feel bad if you got squashed flat as a pancake just because you're trying to get hold of me here."

Brer Rabbit paused again, and Brer Bear, he didn't say anything.

Then Brer Rabbit started up shouting again. "Hey there, Brer Bear, are you listening to me? I've got an idea. I've got a fine idea. Why don't you run get a pole to hold the rock up with? That's just what we need. Go get a pole, prop up the rock, and then you'll be able to grab me safe and sound. But hurry! Hurry, Brer Bear! This rock is coming down for sure."

(image source)

And so Brer Bear, thinking that was a good idea, he ran off for to get a pole to prop up the rock with.

But when he came back, Brer Rabbit was gone, long gone, and the rock was standing there strong. It wasn't falling down after all. But Brer Bear put the pole in there and propped it up, just in case. That was the thing about Brer Rabbit: you could never be a hundred percent sure whether he was telling truth or lies, or maybe some of both.

The Baboon's Judgment

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Judgment of the Baboon" which is a Khoekhoe (Nama) story from Bleek's Reynard the fox in South Africa. See the PDF of the original. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions.

Wikimedia

The Baboon's Judgment

 

Someone had chewed the tailor's clothes!

The tailor thought Mouse looked guilty. "Did you chew my clothes, Mouse?" asked the angry tailor.

"I did not!" protested Mouse. "Cat is the guilty one."

Cat blamed Dog, Dog blamed Wood, Wood blamed Fire, who blamed Water, who blamed Elephant, who blamed Ant. 

The tailor wasn't sure what to do, so he went to Baboon. "Someone has chewed my clothes! I blamed Mouse, but Mouse blamed Cat who blamed Dog who blamed Wood who blamed Fire, and Fire blamed Water, Water blamed Elephant, and Elephant blamed Ant. You, Baboon, must be the judge. Summon all the suspects here and find the criminal. I demand satisfaction!"

Baboon called all the suspects to come to court for the trial. 

After hearing all the evidence, Baboon didn't know which suspect to punish, so he decided that they should all punish each other.

"Cat, bite Mouse!" Baboon shouted.

Cat bit Mouse, and then Baboon shouted, "Dog, chase Cat!" 

Dog chased Cat, and then Baboon shouted, "Wood, beat Dog!" 

Wood beat Dog, and then Baboon shouted, "Fire, burn Wood!" 

Fire burnt Wood, and then Baboon shouted, "Water, extinguish Fire!" 

Water extinguished Fire, and then Baboon shouted,  "Elephant, drink Water!" 

Elephant drank Water, and then Baboon shouted, "Ant, sting Elephant!" 

Ant stung Elephant.

There was no one left to shout at, so Baboon squashed Ant under his foot.

Then he turned to the tailor and asked. "Are you satisfied now?"

"I suppose so," said tailor. "You've punished every single suspect, so, yes: I'm satisfied."

But there's been trouble ever since Baboon's foolish judgment: Ant keeps stinging Elephant, Elephant keeps drinking Water, Water keeps extinguishing Fire, Fire keeps burning Wood, Wood keeps beating Dog, Dog keeps chasing Cat, and Cat keeps biting Mouse... and everybody keeps squashing Ant.

As for Baboon, he used to walk on two legs like a person, but now he walks on four legs like the other animals, all because of his foolish judgment.

The Frog and the Young Woman

This is my version of a public domain story: "Story of the Frog" which is a Baganda story from Baskerville's The Flame Tree and Other Folklore Stories from Uganda. See the PDF of the original. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions.

Frog by PhotoChemPA at Wikimedia

 

The Frog and the Young Woman

If a frog comes into a house in Uganda, a boy will not chase the frog back outside. Instead, he goes and finds a married man and tells that man to drive the frog outside. That is the custom, and here is the reason why.

Long ago there was a widow who had a beautiful daughter. Next to the house where they lived was a beautiful banana grove.

One day, the young woman saw a frog in the road. The poor frog was panting in the sun because it was high noon and there was no shade. She could see that the frog was growing weaker by the minute, so she went and picked the frog up and carried him into the banana grove, gently placing him down in a pool of water. The frog soon revived and began to splash about happily in the water.

The next day as the young woman was peeling bananas in the kitchen, she heard a sound at the door, a rather odd sound; she wasn't sure who or what it could be. She went to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog. He croaked loudly, and then he spoke to her. "Good morning!" he said. "I have come to thank you for saving my life. Perhaps someday I may be able to repay your kindness." 

The young woman smiled at this polite little frog, and the two of them became great friends. The frog came to the kitchen every day and told her stories about the animals. She enjoyed hearing about all their adventures and listening to the animal gossip.

Then one day the frog noticed that his friend looked very sad. "What's wrong?" he asked her. "You can tell me, whatever it is."

The young woman sighed. "My guardians are arranging for my marriage, and there are four men who want to marry me, but I do not know which to choose. I'm scared and sad because I don't know what to do." 

The frog smiled. "Oh, that is not a difficult problem. Cheer up, and I will give you some advice. You should choose the man who has a kind heart; a kind heart is worth more than flocks or herds or the power of a great chief."

"But how will I know which of my suitors is the one with the kind heart?" she asked.

"I can help with that," said the frog. "I know that you have a kind heart because you saved my life. I will help you to discover which man who is kind to animals, just as you are. I am sure that if he is kind to animals he will be kind to you."

So after she and the frog made a plan, the young woman went to her guardians and said, "In order to choose my husband, I need the four suitors to come one by one on the same day, and I will make my choice." Her guardians consented, and they arranged a day when the suitors would make their visits.

When that day came, the woman's guardians laid freshly cut grass down in the house, and the girl dressed herself in a beautiful barkcloth. Then she went and sat on a new mat, while three old women of her tribe sat near her to see that everything was done properly and in order. 

As the first suitor approached, the frog hopped right out in front of him and croaked loudly. The man angrily kicked the frog away angrily and went into the house, whereupon the girl refused him at once, as she had seen the way that he treated the frog. The second suitor and also the third treated the frog roughly, and the woman was beginning to lose hope.

But when the fourth suitor arrived and the frog croaked at him, the man smiled and said, "Blessings upon you, frog." Then, the man carefully stepped around the frog as he made his way to the porch.

After the man had greeted the old women, he then greeted the young woman, and said. "I saw a frog along the path and he croaked very loudly. I hope the sound does not bother you...?"

"Not at all," replied the woman. "I like frogs."

"Oh, that's good," said the man. "I like frogs too."

Then the two of them burst out laughing, which was not at all a proper thing to do, so the old women told them to hush their laughter, which they did, smiling at each other happily. The young woman chose that man to be her husband, and they lived happily ever after.

Which is why, even now, an unmarried man will not drive a frog away, just in case it might harm his marriage prospects.

The Mother, Her Daughter, and the Melon

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Metamorphosis of a Maiden" which is a Sotho story from Casalis's The Basutos. See the PDF of the original, which also contains the music and lyrics for the story's songs. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions.

The Mother, Her Daughter, and the Melon

There was once a young woman who lived with her mother. "Go harvest a melon," her mother said to her one day, and so she went into their melon-field and harvested a melon.

This young woman had some admirers. When they heard her mother tell her to go to the melon-field, they waited on the roadside for her to return. When she came near them they praised her beauty. Because the men's words pleased her, she gave them the melon and returned home empty-handed.

When she told her mother what had happened, her mother was furious. "You wretched daughter!" the mother shouted. "I curse you and your green eyes, as green s those of a crocodile." 

While her mother yelled at her, the woman raised her eyes to heaven and sang to her favorite star in the sky: 

Star, little star!

My admirers waited for me there by the roadside. 

I took the fruit and gave it them. 

Star, little star! 

My mother waited for me here at home.

I had no fruit to give, so she curses me.

She says I have green eyes, 

As green as those of the crocodile.

Oh, my star, my little star!”

This song made the mother even more angry, she beat her poor daughter to death. Then she ground her body into powder, which she threw away into the desert land.

The winds of the desert then arose and carried away the dust, casting it into a lake. 

A crocodile collected the dust and used that dust to fashion a beautiful woman who lived with him at the bottom of the lake. 

From time to time, the woman rose to the surface of the lake, calling to her sister, singing the story to her her misfortunes in a plaintive voice:

Your mother, O my sister,

Ground me into dust and cast me to the winds;

The crocodile gathered up my dust.

The crocodile gave me a human form again;

The crocodile has made me what I am.

Gambian Crocodile by Kevin Walsh at Flickr

Here is the musical transcription from the story PDF: 

The Elephant, the Rabbit, and the Lion

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Little Hare" which is a Sotho story from Eugene Arnaud Casalis's The Basutos. See the PDF of the original; you will find musical transcriptions in the PDF for the song of the Rabbit. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions. The Sotho word "nyamatsane" refers to the bontebok antelope, but that is not made clear in the story; instead, the creature is presented as a formidable monster.

Rabbit by Bennilover at Flickr

The Elephant, the Rabbit, and the Lion

People tell many stories about creatures called Niamatsane, mysterious monsters: there are many stories about the Niamatsane, but only a few have seen the creature and lived to tell the tale.

There was once a woman who desired to eat the liver of the Niamatsane, but when she told her husband this, he shouted at her, "You are insane! The flesh of that monster is not good to eat. What's more, no one can ever catch the Niamatsane because it can cover three days' journey in a single bound."

The woman, however, persisted, swearing that she would die if she did not eat the liver of the Niamatsane. Her husband, fearing for her life, went hunting. After many days, he saw a herd of Niamatsanes in the distance; even from far away, he could see them glowing like live coals in the darkness. He chased them day and night, until at last one day he found them fast asleep in the sunshine. The man approached, cast a powerful spell upon them to keep them sleeping, and then he killed the biggest Niamatsane of the herd, cutting out its liver to take home to his wife.

The woman devoured the liver with great pleasure, but then she felt a terrible burning fire in her stomach. "I'm on fire inside!" she shouted. "I need water, please. Give me water to drink!" But nothing could quench her thirst. She drank all the water in the house. She drained the well dry. She ran to a nearby lake and drank all the water in the lake. She was still burning inside! Then she ran to an even bigger lake, gulped down all the water there, and then lay stretched on the ground, unable to move. 

The next day the Elephant, King of the Beasts, came to drink at the lake and saw that it was dry. He summoned the Rabbit, his messenger, and said to him, "Rabbit, you are my swiftest runner! I need you to run all the way around our great lake and see if you can discover who drank all my water."

The Rabbit set off as swift as the wind, and returned just as quickly. "O King," he said, "I found a woman on the other side of the lake who drank all the water," and then Rabbit repeated to the Elephant the woman's story.

With a loud trumpet, the Elephant assembled the animals — the Lion, the Hyena, the Leopard, the Rhino, the Buffalo, the various Antelopes — and all the animals, great and small, came to the council. They ran, they leaped, they danced about their King, making the desert ground shake. In a chorus they all repeated together, "The human dared to drink the water of our King! She drank the Elephant's water!"

The Elephant called the Hyena and said to him, "Hyena, you have the sharpest teeth! Go find the woman and pierce her stomach to release the water of the lake."

"Alas, O King, I cannot do that," replied the Hyena. "It is broad daylight, and you know that I do not attack people in plain sight like this."

Then the Elephant called the Lion and said to him, "Lion, you have the sharpest claws! Go find the woman and slash her stomach to release the water of the lake." 

"Alas, O King, I cannot do that," replied the Lion. "The woman has not attacked me, and you know that I do not attack people unless they attack me first."

Meanwhile, the animals continued to run, leap and dance, making the desert ground shake even harder. In a chorus they all repeated together, "No one will bring back the water of our King! No one will bring back the Elephant's water!"

The Elephant then called the Ostrich and said to her, "Ostrich, you are able to kick more violently than any other animal. Go find this woman and kick her stomach to release the water of the lake."

The Ostrich raised no objections and quickly ran to where the woman was still lying on the ground beside the empty lake. As soon as he caught sight of her, the Ostrich turned, leaning to one side and spreading his wings to the wind, and then he turned again, raising a great cloud of dust. Confident the woman could not see him coming, the Ostrich then ran right up to her and gave her stomach a mighty kick. It worked! She vomited up all the water, sending a great fountain of water rising up into the air which then came crashing down in a torrent, filling up the lake.

All the animals again began to dance around their King, repeating, "The water of our King has come back to us! The Elephant's water has returned!"

"Let the water settle for three days," proclaimed the Elephant. "That is my royal command! Let no one drink from the lake today, tomorrow, or the next day. Then, on the fourth day, we shall drink."

The animals obeyed, and lay down to sleep for the night, not daring to touch the water of the lake until the appointed time.

The Rabbit, however, rose up in the night and drank from the lake. To put the blame on another animal, he took some mud and smeared it on the lips and the knees of the Jerboa that was sleeping at his side. 

In the morning the animals saw that the water in the lake had gone down. Together they exclaimed, "Who dared to drink the water of our King? Who dared to drink the Elephant's water?"

"Look!" shouted the Rabbit. "Don't you see? The Jerboa did it! His knees are covered with mud because he kneeled down to reach the water, and he drank so much that the mud of the lake stuck to his lips."

All the animals rose up and danced around their King, saying, "The Jerboa must die! He drank the water of our King; he drank the Elephant's water."

So the Elephant condemned the Jerboa to death and he was executed.

The Rabbit then took the shin-bone of the Jerboa and made it into a flute. Then the Rabbit began to play and sing, "Tuh! Tuh! Tuh! I made a tiny flute from the tiny leg of the Jerboa! Look at the flute! Listen to my song! O Little Rabbit, how clever you are! O Jerboa, you were the Rabbit's fool, you were, you were the Rabbit's fool!"

The animals heard the Rabbit and realized that he had made fools of them all, so they set out in pursuit, but the Rabbit managed to escape and hide.

After a while the Rabbit emerged from his hiding place and went to see the Lion. "O Great One," the Rabbit said to the Lion, "you are looking very thin. Because the animals all fear you, they run when they see you, and it is very hard to catch them. If you make an alliance with me, I will make make it easy for you to capture the other animals."

"I believe you, Rabbit," said the Lion. "If you do what you promise, I will be your ally."

The Rabbit then told the Lion to clear a large patch of ground and to erect a strong fence all around it. Then he told the Lion to dig a large hole in the center of the enclosure.

When the Lion had accomplished these tasks, the Rabbit said, "Now you get in the hole. I'll fill in the first around you so that only your jaw will be sticking out. Keep your mouth open so that your teeth will be clearly visible."

Again, the Lion did exactly what the Rabbit commanded, and the Rabbit filled the hole with dirt all around the Lion. Then the Rabbit went into the desert and called, "Animals! All you animals! Come and see! It's a miracle! There is a jaw that has grown up from out of the earth!"

The animals came rushing from all directions to see this prodigy. First came the Gnus, who ran into the enclosure, tossing their heads and shouting, "Oh yes! It's a miracle! There are teeth growing up out of the earth!” Then came the Quaggas, who are even more foolish than the Gnus, and they began to shout, "A miracle! A prodigy!" Then even the timid Antelopes entered the enclosure wanting to see the teeth that were growing out of the ground.

The Monkey also came, carrying his son on his back. He ran straight to the hole and gently moved away some of the dirt around the teeth, whereupon he noticed the gleam of the Lion's eye. "What is this thing?" he shrieked. "Son, hold on; we must run away from this danger as quickly as we can." And so the Monkey ran and leaped over the fence, making his escape.

Before the other animals could react, the Rabbit slammed the gate to the fence shut. "Now, Lion!" he shouted.

And with a roar, the Lion rose up, shaking dirt in all directions, and he slaughtered the Gnus and Quaggas and Antelope, all the foolish animals who had come to see the prodigy of the teeth that grew from the ground. 

This alliance of the Rabbit and the Lion did not last long, however. Because he was the stronger of the two, the Lion continually abused the Rabbit, and the Rabbit vowed that he would be avenged.

"O Great One," the Rabbit said sweetly to the Lion, "I notice that we both suffer from the rain and from the hail. I think we should build a hut where we can take shelter."

"If you want to build a hut, build it!" said the Lion, yawning. "But as for myself, I'm going to take a nap." The Lion then curled up and went to sleep.

The Rabbit then gathered stakes and reeds and began building the hut. As he worked, he wove the Lion's tail into the walls of the hut. As the hut took shape around the sleeping Lion, the Rabbit smiled to himself, knowing that the hut would soon become the Lion's cage, a cage from which he would never escape.

When the Lion awoke, he roared with rage. "What have you done, Rabbit? Get me out of here!"

The Rabbit listened to the Lion's words, but he said nothing.

"I'm hungry, Rabbit!" roared the Lion. "I'm thirsty! Help me!"

The the Rabbit did not come to the Lion's aid. Instead, the Rabbit just waited.

Day after day, the Lion's roars grew weaker and weaker, until finally the Lion roared no more.

The Lion was dead.

The Rabbit then went to the hut and stripped off the Lion's skin. Next, he sewed the Lion's skin into a disguise that he could wear: the Rabbit now looked exactly like the Lion, and he roared, "Feed me, you animals! Feed me, or else I will feed on you!"

The animals rushed to appease the Lion's demands, kneeling before him and offering him food and drink. "Please accept our humble offerings," they said, and the Rabbit smiled inside his disguise, eating the food and drinking the drinks that the animals offered.

In time, the Rabbit because so confident in his powers that he set aside the disguise and roared,  "Feed me, you animals! Feed me, or else I will feed on you! I am the Rabbit, the Great One, the Mighty!" 

When the animals saw it was Rabbit, they joined together to attack him. "That's Rabbit!" they shouted. "The murderer of the Jerboa! The inventor of the teeth in the ground! The servant who made his master die of thirst and starvation! The Rabbit now deserves to die!"

The Rabbit ran, but the animals did not stop chasing him. Finally, in order to secure some small peace and quiet, the Rabbit resorted to cutting off one of his own ears. "I am not the Rabbit you seek," he insisted. "Look! One ear, one ear only!" So the animals searched for the Rabbit elsewhere, while the Rabbit lived forever with the shame of having only one ear.

The Rabbit's Song

The Fox and the Hyena

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Fox and the Hyena" which is a Tswana story from Tom Brown's Among the Bantu Nomads. See the PDF of the original. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions. I'm honestly doubtful whether this story was actually told about a fox (although there is a tiny South African fox); I suspect it was told of a jackal, so I might change this to jackal later.

South African Cape Fox

The Fox and the Hyena

"Come, my friend," Fox said to Hyena, "and I’ll show you where we can find food." Fox then led Hyena to a sheepfold where a farmer had penned his sheep for the night. They prowled around until they found a crack they could slip through, and thus they crept inside the sheepfold and began to devour the sheep.

As he ate, Fox occasionally returned to the crack, checking to make sure that his stomach had not gotten too fat. When his stomach was so full that he could barely slip through the crack, Fox stopped eating and crept back out through the crack, leaving Hyena behind.

Hyena, meanwhile, didn't stop eating. Hyena ate and ate and ate, killing and eating one sheep after another. Then, when it was near dawn, Hyena realized he should leave, but his stomach was too fat to fit through the crack. 

When the farmer arrived, he found Hyena there, along with the remains of his flock. The farmer beat Hyena and beat him and beat him; Hyena barely escaped with his life.

When Hyena next saw his friend Fox, he shouted, "You traitor! You left me there alone to face the farmer."

Fox, however, pretended that he also had been beaten. "Look!" he said. "I'm still limping. The farmer beat me too! I'm so weak that I can barely walk. If you are truly my friend, you will carry me."

Feeling sorry for Fox, who did appear to be in worse shape than he was, Hyena knelt down so Fox could climb up on his back.

Then, as soon as Fox made himself comfortable, he started to sing, making fun of Hyena. "Oh look, oh look!" he shouted. "The dead one carries the living, the weak one carries the strong; I am Fox, who ate the sheep and made my escape!"

The Hyena reared up and threw Fox off his back. Then Fox ran, and Hyena ran after him, intent on getting his revenge.

Seeing an overhanging rock, Fox ran under the rock and reached up his paws. Hyena ran under the rock too.

"Help!" shouted Fox. "The rock is going to fall down and crush us. Lift up your paws, Hyena! Help me hold up the rock!"

So Hyena lifted his paws up against the rock, just as Fox had done.

"I know you want to punish me," said Fox, "and that's only fair. But we must hold up this rock together or else it will crush us both. You can beat me afterwards, but first we must somehow get out of this predicament."

"But what can we do?" yowled Hyena. "I don't want to be crushed by the rock."

"I've got an idea," said Fox. "I'll go find a strong pole that we can prop under the rock. You stay here, and I'll be back with a pole as quick as I can."

Fox then ran off, leaving Hyena all alone.

Shortly afterwards, the Baboons who lived there came and found Hyena.

"What are you doing here in our house?" they asked.

"I'm holding up the roof," said Hyena, "and my arms are so tired. Please come help me! Fox will be back soon, but I need your help!"

"You fool!" said the Baboons. "Nothing is falling down here. Go away and get out of our house before we beat you!"

Hyena carefully lowered his paws and saw that the rock was not falling after all. Then, with a yelp, he ran away as fast as he could because he didn't want the Baboons to beat him.

Now even more angry at Fox, Hyena picked up his trail and found Fox standing next to a beehive, holding a piece of honeycomb in his hand and staring at it intently.

"I've got you at last!" shouted Hyena. "And now you are doing to die because of all the wicked deeds you have done."

"No doubt, no doubt," said Fox. "I am very wicked and I do not expect to escape my punishment. But today is Sunday, you know, and the choir is singing in there, and I'm reading this book. Can you hear the choir? Come closer and listen."

Hyena approached the beehive and pressed his ear against it. "Oh yes!" Hyena said excitedly. "I can hear the choir singing! It's beautiful!"

"Yes, it is," said Fox. "And the words written here in this book are beautiful too."

Hyena stared at the honeycomb. "I've never seen a book before," he admitted.

"Oh," said Fox, "then you should certainly get a book of your own. Just reach inside there and pull out a book, and then you can read the beautiful words too. Today is a day for singing and for reading; you can always kill me tomorrow."

Hyena eagerly reached inside the beehive, but when he did so, the bees came flying out in a swarm and stung Hyena in the eyes.

Fox ran away, laughing.

Hyena never got his revenge.

The Rabbit and His Hoe

This is my version of a public domain story: "The Hare's Hoe" which is a Tsonga story from Henri Junod's The Life of a South African Tribe. See the PDF of the original. I have followed the original word by word while also feeling free to make my own changes and additions. 

Scrub Hare by Bernard Dupont at Flickr

The Rabbit and His Hoe

One day the Rabbit said to the Antelope, "Let's plant peas in a garden! Then we will have peas to eat." 

"I don't like peas," said the Antelope. "I prefer wild beans." 

So the Rabbit planted peas in his own garden by himself. When the peas began to sprout, he watched them carefully. 

Then Rabbit noticed that they were disappearing: each morning there were fewer sprouts than the day before.

To find out who the thief was, he hid in the garden and who did he catch but the Antelope digging up his peas! 

"Aha!" said Rabbit. "You said you preferred wild beans, but I knew you were lying. You are a liar, and you are a thief. Pay the fine!"

Antelope gave Rabbit the hoe that she had been using to dig in Rabbit's garden, and then she ran away.

Rabbit then went for a walk and he met some women who were digging clay with sticks; they wanted to use the clay to make pots. He said to them, "Sticks are not good for digging clay. Don't you have a hoe?"

"No," said the women, "we don't have a hoe."

"Well, then," said Rabbit, "you can take this hoe. I'll come back to collect it later on."

But when Rabbit came back later that day, he found only a broken hoe; the last woman who had used the hoe for digging clay had snapped it in two. When he saw the broken hoe, Rabbit sang:

Clay-diggers, give back my hoe, my friends!

Give me my hoe that the Antelope gave me,

The Antelope who paid  for my peas.

Because the women did not have a hoe they could give Rabbit, they gave him one of their pots.

Rabbit then continued down the road where he met some men who were harvesting honey from a bee hive. They were trying to harvest the honey in a piece of tree-bark. He said to them, "Tree-bark is not good for harvesting honey. Don't you have a pot?"

"No," said the men, "we don't have a pot."

"Well, then," said Rabbit, "you can take this pot. I'll come back to collect it later on."

But when Rabbit came back later that day, he found only a broken pot; the last man who had used the pot for harvesting honey had dropped the pot and it broke. When he saw the broken pot, Rabbit sang:

Honey-harvesters, give me back my pot, my friends!

My pot that the Clay-diggers gave me,

The Clay-diggers who paid for my hoe,

My hoe that the Antelope gave me,

The Antelope who paid  for my peas.

Unable to give back Rabbit's pot, the men took some of their honey and gave it to him.

Then Rabbit came to a village, and there he saw women pounding maize flour. He said to them, "Don't you have any honey to mix with your flour?" 

"Well, then," said Rabbit, "you can use some of my honey, but don't use all of it. I'll come back to collect what's left later on."

But when Rabbit came back later that day, he found they had used all the honey; there wasn't any left. When he saw the honey was all gone, Rabbit sang:

Pestle-pounders, give me back my honey, my friends!

The honey that the Honey-harvesters gave me,

The Honey-harvesters who paid for my pot,

My pot that the Clay-diggers gave me,

The Clay-diggers who paid for my hoe,

My hoe that the Antelope gave me,

The Antelope who paid for my peas.

The women took some of their sweet dough and gave it to him.

Rabbit went on and met some boys herding goats. 

"Don't you have anything to eat?" Rabbit asked. "You look very hungry."

"No," they replied, "we don't have any food at all."

So Rabbit gave them the sweet dough and said, "You can eat this! But don't eat it all; leave some for me."

But when Rabbit came back later that day, he found they had eaten every single bite; the dough was all gone. When Rabbit saw the dough was all gone, he sang:

Goat-herds, give me back my dough, my friends!

The dough that the Pestle-pounders gave me,

The Pestle-pounders who paid for my honey,

The honey that the Honey-harvesters gave me,

The Honey-harvesters who paid for my pot,

My pot that the Clay-diggers gave me,

The Clay-diggers who paid for my hoe,

My hoe that the Antelope gave me,

The Antelope who paid for my peas.

The goat-herds took a goat and gave it to Rabbit.

Then Rabbit met some young men tending the oxen. "You look even more hungry than the goat-herds," he said to them. "Don't you have anything to eat?"

"No," the cow-herds told Rabbit, "we don't have anything to eat."

So Rabbit gave them the goat and said, "You can kill this goat and eat it! But don't eat it all; leave some meat for me."

But when Rabbit came back later that day, he found they had eaten every last piece of meat; there was nothing left for Rabbit. When Rabbit saw the meat was all gone, he sang:

Cow-herds, give me back my goat

The goat that the Goat-herds gave me,

The Goat-herds who paid for my dough,

The dough that the Pestle-pounders gave me,

The Pestle-pounders who paid for my honey,

The honey that the Honey-harvesters gave me,

The Honey-harvesters who paid for my pot,

My pot that the Clay-diggers gave me,

The Clay-diggers who paid for my hoe,

My hoe that the Antelope gave me,

The Antelope who paid for my peas.

So the cow-herds gave Rabbit an ox. Rabbit continued on his way until he met some people who were tilling the fields of a rich man; the rich man was going to pay them with beer.

"You look even more hungry than the cow-herds," Rabbit said to them. "Don't you have anything to eat?"

"No," the tillers said to Rabbit, "we don't have anything to eat."

So Rabbit gave them the ox and said, "You can kill this ox and eat it! But don't eat it all; leave some meat for me."

But when Rabbit came back later that day, he found they had eaten every last piece of meat; there was nothing left for Rabbit. When Rabbit saw the meat was all gone, he sang:

Workers-for-beer, give me back my ox, my friends!

The ox that the Cow-herds gave me,

The Cow-herds who paid for my goat

The goat that the Goat-herds gave me,

The Goat-herds who paid for my dough,

The dough that the Pestle-pounders gave me,

The Pestle-pounders who paid for my honey,

The honey that the Honey-harvesters gave me,

The Honey-harvesters who paid for my pot,

My pot that the Clay-diggers gave me,

The Clay-diggers who paid for my hoe,

My hoe that the Antelope gave me,

The Antelope who paid for my peas.

But the men were angry at Rabbit; they did not like Rabbit's song at all. They seized Rabbit and beat him.

Then, when Rabbit was knocked unconscious, they thought he was dead, and they threw him away by the side of the road.

But Rabbit was not dead. When he regained his senses, he climbed up a tree, which was right next to where the workers were drinking their beer; no one noticed him there and, when he reached the top of the tree, Rabbit used magic to send all the beer into the ground so that it disappeared. He also made all the water in all the wells disappear so that there was nothing at all to drin. The little ones cried for water and there was none! The men and the women searched everywhere for water, but they couldn't find any. Even the rivers were all dried up! The little ones died, and so did both women and men; only a few survived.

The survivors went to Rabbit and they said to him, "My Lord, we ask for water. We beg you; we are dying of thirst."

Then Rabbit said to them, "Do you see that reed? That tall reed over there?"

The people saw the reed and nodded.

Then Rabbit said, "Pull up this reed; pull it up by the roots."

The people tried to pull up the reed, but they could not; even the strongest among them tried to pull up the reed and failed.

Then Rabbit hopped over to the reed. With a single finger he grabbed the reed and pulled it out of the ground, and then water flowed from the ground, clear and strong, and beer also flowed, pooling into a pond.

Then Rabbit said, "Give me five old women."

The people obeyed, and then Rabbit drowned the five old women in the pond. 

Then the people gave Rabbit a parcel of land, and Rabbit became the chief of that land; he ruled over the land and everything in it.