Excerpts

When Lord Leopard Fell in Love with the Gazelle

One day the Gazelle disguised herself as a pretty girl. Lord Leopard met this beautiful creature with whom he fell in love and whose hand he asked for. The young girl seemed to agree to the marriage proposal, but placed a few conditions on it:

“I would like to be your wife, but your claws scare me, if you want to get rid of them,” the girl said to the Leopard. The Leopard obeyed his fiancée’s orders and pulled out his claws.

“Satisfied, my sweetheart?” the Leopard asked the girl.

“No, but your teeth scare me. Will you get rid of them?”

“No problem my dear,” answered the Leopard. And without waiting he pulled out all of the teeth from his mouth and broke them.

“My Dove, are you content now?” murmured the Leopard to the girl.

“No, I want to marry you, but your eyes, which resemble two balls of fire, make me tremble with fear, will you get rid of them?” Without beating around the bush, the Leopard gouged and removed his eyes. “Fulfilled, my sweetheart?”

“There is just one condition left, my dear,” answered the girl. “This spotted skin gives me shivers when I see it, will you get rid of it?”

The Leopard, already suffering greatly, accepted his future wife’s final proposition. He peeled off his skin. And while the Leopard was agonizing, he noticed the metamorphosis of the young girl into a Gazelle that was laughing at him. And the Leopard died.


Why the Antelope Remained Wild

One day the Antelope met the Sheep at the place were they usually went to graze on grass. The two began talking. The Sheep asked the Antelope:

“Why don’t you come stay in the village with us?”

The Antelope replied, “Stay in the village where I am hated? But I would risk death.”

“Not at all,” replied the Sheep, “if you stay with us, no one will kill you.”

In the end, the Antelope accepted the Sheep’s proposal to go live in the village. She said, “Let’s go.” The Sheep was happy with the Antelope’s response. They set off for the village. But the Antelope changed her mind a few hundred meters from the village, and said to the Sheep, “Go ahead and I will meet up with you tomorrow.”

The Sheep arrived back at the village and the Antelope returned to the forest. She spent the night at the foot of a palm tree that was not too far from the village. And this place was very dense.

In the morning the owner of the palm tree came to fetch the palm wine. He saw the Antelope tracks and exclaimed, “What a fine Antelope! Where could she have spent the night? She spent the night right in front of my palm tree.”

So he started cleaning his gun and said, “Since it is here that you have chosen to rest, wait, I am going to the village to find some hunters and some dogs to come kill you.”

After having cleaned his gun, the wine tapper tested it to ensure its performance. He slowly loaded his gun and took a shot. The Antelope jumped up from the place where she was hidden. After having run for a long time, the Antelope met up with the Sheep and said to him, “What did I tell you? If I were not careful I would have been dead now! You almost got me killed! With you, it’s over, we will never walk together again. I am a wild animal and you are a domesticated animal.”

Then they parted for good.

From this day on, the Sheep and the Antelope no longer like each other.