Leopard saw the bodies of many wild animals drying in the house. Tortoise said to him, “Carry the meat, and let us go!” But, Leopard said, “No! I’m staying here, and will cook some meat here.” Tortoise objected, “No! take the meat and let us go. For, here are great Men who kill us people.”
However, Leopard insisted, “No! first let me eat.” So, Tortoise said, “Very well! I’ll carry away my share; for, I’m going.” But Leopard still insisted, “No! wait for me.” So, Tortoise yielded, and waited for him in the house.
Leopard cooked his meat. While the pot was on the fire-place, and before he had eaten, suddenly the Men returned. Tortoise exclaimed, “The Men of the Town have returned! What shall we do?” For himself, Tortoise said, “I’m going to hide in the bedroom!” But, Leopard said, “No! I’m the elder; the bedroom is the place for me.” He went into the bedroom. Tortoise remained in the reception-room, and hid himself in a pile of the women’s cassava leaves.
Soon afterward, the Men also came into that room. And a woman said, “I left those leaves here when I was cooking. I must throw them into the back yard.” So, she swept the leaves (with Tortoise unseen among them) in a heap, and threw them out doors.
In the bedroom, where Leopard had hidden, there was a child of this woman, sick with a skin-disease. The woman called out to her child, “My child! are you there?” The child replied, “Yes!” The Men in the entrance-room, observing the pot on the fire, asked the woman, “While we were away, did you leave a kettle on the fire-place?” The woman, thinking the pot belonged to someone else who had been cooking, answered, “No.” The Men then directed her, “Make food for us!” So, she made them food in that pot which Leopard had left, adding other meat to it.
The child in the bedroom, smelling the odor of cooking, called out, “Mother! I want to eat!” So, the mother made food for him. And she took the plate to him, setting it down in the doorway, (but did not enter the room, and so did not see Leopard).
Leopard took the child’s food. The child, in terror, made no out-cry. Leopard ate up all the food. Then the child began to weep. The mother, hearing, asked, “Why do you cry?” The child answered, “For hunger.”
She wondered that that plateful had not been sufficient; but, she made him more food. And she brought it to him into the room, but she did not see the Leopard; nor did the child tell her. She left the food there, and went out. The child was about to take the food to eat it, when Leopard again snatched it away. But, even then, the child, in fear, did not scream out. And Leopard ate all the food.
Then the child began to weep out aloud. The mother again asked, “What do you want?” The child answered, “I want food.” The mother wondered much, and, hastening into the bedroom, she saw Leopard. Then she shouted, “Men! Here’s Njâ!” The men came, and they killed Leopard.
All this while, Tortoise remained hidden in the bushes outside; and he heard all that was happening. He said to himself, “I’m going to town to tell the children of Njâ that he is dead.” So, he went back to his town. At first, he told only his wife, “Men have killed Njâ.” Then he said, “I must now call the children of Njâ.”