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The Gazelle kills the Flies and Mosquitoes, and outwits the Leopard
The Leopard, once upon a time, went cutting the palm-tree for wine, and started a palm-wine booth in a place infested with mosquitoes and biting flies of various kinds; and he made a law that any one who brushed the flies and mosquitoes off their bodies while in his booth should at once be killed.
The Antelope called at the booth one day and asked for a drink of palm-wine; but no sooner had he begun to drink it than the mosquitoes and flies so swarmed round him and irritated him with their bites, that in brushing them off he killed many of them. When the Leopard saw that, he became very angry, and said: “I made a law that whoever came to drink in my booth should not brush the flies and mosquitoes away. You have broken my law, and killed many of my insects, so now you must die,” and he jumped on the Antelope and killed him. In this way the Leopard killed many of the animals.
One morning the Gazelle said to himself: “I must visit my Uncle Leopard, and ask him for a drink of his palm-wine.” So he started for the booth, and on his arrival the Leopard greeted him, saying: “How do you do, Uncle Gazelle?”
“I am quite well,” replied the Gazelle.
“Where are you going?” asked the Leopard.
“Oh, I came to have a drink of your palm-wine,” said the Gazelle.
They at once sat down and began to drink together, but very soon the flies and mosquitoes came about the Gazelle and sorely worried him; but the Gazelle remembered the Leopard’s law, and wondered how he could drive the flies away and not break the law of the booth. After thinking a little while, he told the Leopard about a fight that had taken place a few days before. He said: “The other day we went to fight, and we were all wounded, some in the head,” and he rubbed his hands over his head and face, “some in the arms,” and he brushed his hands down his arms, “some in the legs,” and he passed his hands down his legs, and so over the whole of his body until he had either driven the flies and mosquitoes away, or had killed them; but he said, as he slapped his sides: “not one of us was killed.”
In a short time he was again covered with mosquitoes and flies, and again he told the Leopard of the great fight, and as he did so he brushed off the irritating flies. The Leopard glared at him, and as he sprang on him he cried in rage: “You are breaking my law and killing my insects.”
But as the Gazelle darted away he shouted: “Oh no, I was only telling you where the people were wounded.”