I often recall [began the Alo Man] the days when the animals could talk and the Hyena and the Jackal lived in the same village. One day they were looking up at the clouds.
“They are very thick and white,” said the Jackal. “Can it be possible that they are solid white fat?”
The Jackal waited until one cloud floated quite near the earth, and then he climbed a tree and sprang into the very middle of that cloud.
[That the Jackal should climb a tree did not seem strange to any of the listeners when the Alo Man told the story; all of them had seen a man climb a palm tree for nuts by looping two ropes around the trunk and putting his feet in one and the other by turns, walking up the trunk to the very top.]
“I was right,” said the Jackal; “it is the most delicious white fat.”
Then he ate and ate, until he was so full that he was afraid to try to climb down the tree.
“I am coming down!” cried the Jackal to the Hyena. “Catch me as I fall, or I shall be hurt.”
The Hyena planted her feet firmly in the earth and arched her back, and when the Jackal jumped he landed on her back unhurt.