Congo Folklore Tales: Stories I–VI

VI. The Leopard boils his Mother’s Teeth

One day the Gazelle bought some maize at the market, and while he was
boiling them at home, the Leopard paid him a visit, and asked him:
“Friend Gazelle, what are you boiling in the saucepan?”

The Gazelle replied: “I am boiling my mother’s teeth.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed the Leopard, “let me taste them.” So the Gazelle
gave him some of the cooked maize, and the Leopard ate them, and thought
them so good that he went home and pulled out all his mother’s teeth,
and put them to boil in a saucepan.

The Gazelle, passing the house, called in, and seeing the saucepan on
the fire, asked the Leopard what he was cooking. “I am cooking my
mother’s teeth, but they don’t get soft,” answered the Leopard.

The Gazelle laughingly said: “I meant maize, and you have pulled out and
are boiling all your mother’s teeth.” The Leopard was so angry at what
he had foolishly done, that he drove the Gazelle off and wanted to kill
him, but the Gazelle ran away and hid in a log of wood.

The Leopard, returning from his pursuit of the Gazelle, saw the firewood
and carried it home, and, as he was splitting it, out jumped a fine dog.
The Leopard admired the dog so much that he told his wives never to beat
it.

One day one of the wives pointed her finger at it, and the dog was so
insulted at having a finger pointed at him that he howled so long and
loudly that the Leopard came and killed his wife for insulting his dog;
and thus he killed them one after the other; and when they were all
dead, the dog changed back into a Gazelle, and ran away laughing at the
Leopard for his foolishness in mistaking maize for teeth, and a Gazelle
for a dog.