VI The Leopard Boils His Mother’s Teeth
One day the Gazelle bought some maize at the market, and while he was boiling them at home, the Leopard paid him a visit, and asked him: “Friend Gazelle, what are you boiling in the saucepan?”
The Gazelle replied: “I am boiling my mother’s teeth.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed the Leopard, “let me taste them.” So the Gazelle gave him some of the cooked maize, and the Leopard ate them, and thought them so good that he went home and pulled out all his mother’s teeth, and put them to boil in a saucepan.
The Gazelle, passing the house, called in, and seeing the saucepan on the fire, asked the Leopard what he was cooking. “I am cooking my mother’s teeth, but they don’t get soft,” answered the Leopard.
The Gazelle laughingly said: “I meant maize, and you have pulled out and are boiling all your mother’s teeth.” The Leopard was so angry at what he had foolishly done, that he drove the Gazelle off and wanted to kill him, but the Gazelle ran away and hid in a log of wood.
The Leopard, returning from his pursuit of the Gazelle, saw the firewood and carried it home, and, as he was splitting it, out jumped a fine dog. The Leopard admired the dog so much that he told his wives never to beat it.
One day one of the wives pointed her finger at it, and the dog was so insulted at having a finger pointed at him that he howled so long and loudly that the Leopard came and killed his wife for insulting his dog; and thus he killed them one after the other; and when they were all dead, the dog changed back into a Gazelle, and ran away laughing at the Leopard for his foolishness in mistaking maize for teeth, and a Gazelle for a dog.