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85 14 The Man and the Leopard 50 Grebo (Liberia)51 A man once had for his personal friend a leopard. As times became hard and the financial condition of the town more straitened, he moved his little family out on to an elevated tract of land nearly fifteen miles from every neighboring community. Though it seemed at first sight to be a rugged mountains region, there were to be seen many fertile parts dotted here and there with forest and yielding nice rich pastures . Here, all the wild deer and other herbivorous animals were found to repair every morning until midday, the time when they would retire under some large tree to wait until the cool of the day. Having discovered the time of their grazing, the man placed a noose at the mouth of each of their paths. Before dawn, however, a convention was agreed to by the deer that they should all at daylight proceed to the pasture in one great body. The bushbuck was then made the leader. Just before day, early in the morning, they all arose and went to the field. But when they arrived at the entrance to the road where the snare was, the bushbuck got caught. When the others saw the buck kicking and jumping and unable to get out, they all got frightened and ran. When daylight came, the man went to his noose and, on approaching it, found it had caught a large buck. He took it to his wife and charged her that, as he was going for fire, should the leopard come before he got back, or in case she heard him clear his throat and say,“Ku ku!” she should hide the meat, for this was the sign of the leopard’s coming. He then went to the leopard’s house, and the leopard asked him what luck he had had. The man replied, “I got nothing.” But the leopard said, “I shall return with you, if for no other reason than the stroll.” When they reached the man’s residence, the leopard passed quickly to the front premises, where the deer had been imperfectly concealed by the woman, and exclaimed, “Here I have found my buck!” But the man said, “No! This is my buck, I just caught it in my noose.” And he refused to give it up. Finally, they all agreed to have it cooked and the whole eaten together. The bushbuck having now been cooked and dished into a large bowl, they again agreed that before eating each should be tied against a post and that he only should eat who of himself was able to break the string. The leopard was then tightly tied with great cords against a tree, and in spite of all his force and strength the cords still held him firmly lashed to the tree. But the man and his wife, having tied themselves with a thread, soon broke the strings and ate up all the meat. And when the meat had been eaten up, they washed the bowl with pepper and water and then dashed it in the leopard’s face and left him there, tied against the tree. But a rat passing by was hailed by the leopard and entreated to come and loose him. The mother rat consented, and she brought her two children to gnaw the strings. Then the leopard, having been freed, quickly seized her young ones and ate them up. 86 The Man and the Leopard ...

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