The Pink Fairy Book, part 34 · page 21 2101She was still standing in the same place when a baboon went by.102‘What are you doing there, panther?’103‘I am listening to my children singing.104It is here that the jackal keeps his school.’105Then the baboon seized a stick, and poked it in the cleft of the rock, exclaiming, ‘Well, then, I should like to see your children!’106The bees flew out in a huge swarm, and made furiously for the panther, whom they attacked on all sides, while the baboon soon climbed up out of the way, crying, as he perched himself on the branch of a tree, ‘I wish you joy of your children!’ while from afar the jackal’s voice was heard exclaiming: ‘Sting, her well! don’t let her go!’107The panther galloped away as if she was mad, and flung herself into the nearest lake, but every time she raised her head, the bees stung her afresh so at last the poor beast was drowned altogether.108The Little Hare109Contes populaires des Bassoutos.110Recueillis et traduits par E. Jacottet.111Paris: Leroux, Editeur.112A long, long way off, in a land where water is very scarce, there lived a man and his wife and several children.113One day the wife said to her husband, ‘I am pining to have the liver of a nyamatsane for my dinner.114If you love me as much as you say you do, you will go out and hunt for a nyamatsane, and will kill it and get its liver.115If not, I shall know that your love is not worth having.’116‘Bake some bread,’ was all her husband answered, ‘then take the crust and put it in this little bag.’117The wife did as she was told, and when she had finished she said to her husband, ‘The bag is all ready and quite full.’118‘Very well,’ said he, ‘and now good-bye; I am going after the nyamatsane.’119But the nyamatsane was not so easy to find as the woman had hoped.120The husband walked on and on and on without ever seeing one, and every now and then he felt so hungry that he was obliged to eat one of the crusts of bread out of his bag.121At last, when he was ready to drop from fatigue, he found himself on the edge of a great marsh, which bordered on one side the country of the nyamatsanes.122But there were no more nyamatsanes here than anywhere else.123They had all gone on a hunting expedition, as their larder was empty, and the only person left at home was their grandmother, who was so feeble she never went out of the house.124Our friend looked on this as a great piece of luck, and made haste to kill her before the others returned, and to take out her liver, after which he dressed himself in her skin as well as he could.125He had scarcely done this when he heard the noise of the nyamatsanes coming back to their grandmother, for they were very fond of her, and never stayed away from her longer than they could help.126They rushed clattering into the hut, exclaiming, ‘We smell human flesh!127Some man is here,’ and began to look about for him; but they only saw their old grandmother, who answered, in a trembling voice, ‘No, my children, no!128What should any man be doing here?’129The nyamatsanes paid no attention to her, and began to open all the cupboards, and peep under all the beds, crying out all the while, ‘A man is here! a man is here!’ but they could find nobody, and at length, tired out with their long day’s hunting, they curled themselves up and fell asleep.1 2← previousThe Pink Fairy Book, part 33next →The Pink Fairy Book, part 35↑ back to The Pink Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/34/page/2/