The next day when the leopardess came there was no cub left to give her. She tried to get in the house, but the door was too small. She sat down in front to watch. Then Hlakanyana went out through the hole he had made in the ground behind. The leopardess saw him and ran after him. He went under a big rock, and cried out loudly for help, saying the rock was falling.
The leopardess said: “What is that you are saying?”
Hlakanyana replied: “Do you not see that this rock is falling? Just hold it up while I get a prop and put under it.”
The leopardess went to hold the rock up, and Hlakanyana did not return. He just ran away from that place.
Hlakanyana came to the village of the animals. The animals had trees that bore fruit. There was one tree that belonged to the chief of the animals only. This tree was a very good one, bearing much fruit on it. One day when [[114]]all the animals were assembled, Hlakanyana asked them the name of the tree of the chief. They did not know the name of that tree. Then Hlakanyana sent a monkey to the chief to ask the name of the tree. The chief told the monkey. As the monkey was returning, he struck his foot against a stone and fell down, which caused him to forget the name of the tree.
In the night when all were sleeping, Hlakanyana went up the tree of the chief and ate all the fruit of it. He took a branch of the tree and fastened it to one of the monkeys. In the morning when the animals awoke and found that the tree of the chief was finished in the night, they asked each other: “What became of the fruit of the chiefs tree? What became of the fruit of the tree of the chief?”
Hlakanyana looked at the monkey with the branch on him, and said: “It is eaten by the monkey, it is eaten by the monkey; look at the branch on him.”
The monkey denied, and said: “I don’t know anything about it. I never ate the fruit of the tree of the chief.”
Hlakanyana said: “Let us make a plan to [[115]]find out who ate the fruit of the tree of the chief.”
All the animals agreed to this.