“You don’t know how to dive,” laughed the Gazelle.
“Very well,” replied the Leopard, “you dive now and show me the way.”
The Gazelle dived into the water, ran along the bottom of the river, came out near the town, and went quickly and ate up all the boiled pig; and then, returning to the river, came puffing and blowing out of the water at the feet of his friend the Leopard. “There,” said the Gazelle, “that is the way to dive.”
Then they returned together to the town, but when they reached the Leopard’s house they found the saucepan empty. The Leopard felt very much ashamed, because the food had been left in his house. He began to beat his wife for not looking properly after it. Then, turning to the Gazelle, he said: “Uncle Gazelle, I am very much ashamed because the cooked meat has been eaten in my house; let us now buy a goat.”
But the Gazelle said: “You must pay for the goat yourself, for the pig was eaten in your house.”
The Leopard took one of his own goats, and when it was cooked, he said: “This time let us eat first and bathe afterwards.” But the Gazelle objected, and would bathe before eating, so the Leopard agreed, and they went together to the river. The Gazelle played the same trick on the Leopard, and this he did several times, and each time poor Mrs. Leopard received a thrashing, and the Leopard killed another goat.
By and by the Leopard bought a fetish called nkondi, and hid it in his house. When the Gazelle arrived next time he found the door fastened, and on trying to open it the nkondi said: “Oh, you are the rascal who comes to eat my master’s goat, you thief, get away quickly.”
The Gazelle shouted: “Come out and I’ll hit you.”
The nkondi began to abuse him, saying: “Come into the house, if you can, you thin-legged one.”
The Gazelle became so angry that he broke open the door, and hit the nkondi and his hand stuck; he hit him again, and the other hand stuck; he then kicked him and both his legs stuck fast, and he thereupon butted him with his head and that also stuck.