Then Jackal called, “Ihĕli! come here! That person who wastes the lives of the beasts is dead! He’s dead!”
Gazelle said to himself, “I hear! So! Njĕgâ is dead? I go to the mourning!” Gazelle lived in a town distant about three miles. He started on the journey, taking with him his spear and bag; but, he said to himself, “Before I go to the mourning, I will stop on the way at the town of Ekaga.”
He came to the town of Tortoise, and he said to him, “Chum! have you heard the news? That person who kills Beasts and Mankind is dead!” But Tortoise answered, “No! go back to your town! that person is not dead. Go back!” Gazelle said, “No! For, before I go back to my town, I will first go to Njĕgâ’s to see.” So Tortoise said, “If you are determined to go there, I will tell you something.” Gazelle exclaimed, “Yes! Uncle, speak!”
Then Tortoise directed him, “Take ndongo.” Gazelle took some. Tortoise said, “Take also Hako, and take also Nyoi. Tie them all up in a bundle of plantain leaves.” (He told Gazelle to do all these things, as a warning.) And Tortoise added, “You will find Njĕgâ with limbs stretched out like a corpse. Take a machete with you in your hands. When you arrive there, begin to cut down the plantain-stalks. And you must cry out ‘Who killed my Uncle? who killed my uncle?’ If he does not move, then you sit down and watch him.”
So Gazelle went, journeyed and came to that town of mourning. He asked Jackal, “Ibâbâ! This person, how did he die?” Jackal replied, “Yesterday afternoon this person was seized with a fever; and today, he is a corpse.” Gazelle looked at Leopard from a distance, his eyes fixed on him, even while he was slashing down the plantains, as he was told to do. But, Leopard made no sign, though he heard the noise of the plantain-stalk falling to the ground. Presently, Jackal said to Gazelle, “Go near to your Uncle’s bed, and look at the corpse.”
Leopard began in his heart to arrange for a spring, being ready to fight, and thinking, “What time Ihĕli shall be near me, I will kill him.”
Gazelle approached, but carefully stood off a rod distant from the body of Leopard. Then Gazelle drew the bundle of Ants out of his bag, and said to himself, “Is this person, really dead? I will test him!” But, Gazelle stood warily ready to flee at the slightest sign. He quickly opened the bundle of insects; and he joined the three, the Ants, the Bees, and the Pepper, all in one hand; and, standing with care, he threw them at Leopard.
The bundle of leaves, as it struck Leopard, flew open. Being released, the Bees rejoiced, saying, “So! I sting Njĕgâ!” Pepper also was glad, saying, “So! I will make him perspire!” Ants also spitefully exclaimed, “I’ve bitten you!”
The pain of all these made Leopard jump up in wrath; and he leaped toward Gazelle. But he dashed away into the forest, shouting as he disappeared, “I’m not an Ihĕli of the open prairie, but of the forest wilderness!”
So, he fled and came to the town of Tortoise. There he told Tortoise, “You are justified! Njĕgâ indeed is not dead! He was only pretending, in order to kill.”