Inside the elephant the Pygmies lay, one next to the other, fast asleep.
SEVENTEEN: The Leopard in the Pit
On the homeward trip Nomusa kept watching for interesting birds and animals. She could never have too many stories to tell Themba and Umpondo and the other little brothers and sisters.
When they were about a day’s journey from the kraals, the party rested on a flat-topped hill. Looking down on the valley, Nomusa beheld a wonderful sight. A number of lions, lionesses, and cubs lay among the tall grasses. The older animals seemed to be drowsing in the sun, but the cubs refused to stay quiet. Like kittens they played together, tumbling about, nipping each other’s ears and tails.
How gentle they looked, Nomusa thought, even harmless. But she was glad to know they were far below her and the other hunters.
A small antelope appeared, a short distance away, the lions ignored it; this was not the time for hunting. But the lionesses growled, and their tails began to switch. The cubs looked at the antelope, and back at their mothers. The lionesses rushed forward with low growls, encouraging their frolicking cubs to come along.
“Look!” said Damasi, who sat watching beside Nomusa. “I think the lionesses are going to use the little antelope to teach the cubs how to hunt!”
A lioness kept the antelope at bay, while the cubs worried it. Sometimes the mother let the antelope run away, in order to see if the cubs could catch it by themselves. When they could not, she ran it down herself and pinned it to the ground; then she left the animal to the cubs.
One cub did not know what to do and ran wildly about the antelope, nipping its tail playfully. The mother rushed at her cub and smacked him with her paw as if to tell him to behave like a lion and not like a baby.