Page:Folklore1919.djvu/593

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Thirty-Two Folk-Tales of Nigeria.
227

not pay, I kill you; I fine you £5, father of the boy; if you don’t pay, I kill you.” So they paid their fines, and the chief took £5 and gave £5 to the big men of the town. From that time on the chief has told the people with children: “You must not give them all they ask for; but take a whip and flog them.”

Soso, Kukuruku Tribe.

xxix.

The dog and the leopard were of the same family and lived in the same house; each bore five pups and the dog said, “Let us make a fine house and keep the cubs inside.” So they did so and put pups and cubs inside. One night the dog got up and begged a hole in a stone for leave to keep its pups there; so the dog took its pups, and then suggested to the leopard that they should kill their children. So the leopard agreed, and as she was the bigger, she killed her children first.

So they ate one; then it was the turn of the dog. So she said: “The day after to-morrow I go to market and then I kill my pups”; so she went to market and bought salt and palm oil and other necessaries. Then she dug up roots and took banana roots, and cut them up small. Next she told the leopard not to stay at home, for pups smelt strong when they were being cut up. But she cooked the banana roots when the time came and then ran to the water side and washed. Then she called the leopard, who asked why she had gone to wash; so she said that she was dirty after slaughtering the pups, and added that they had no bones and the meat was too sweet. So they ate, and the leopard agreed that the meat was too sweet, and the dog replied that dog meat had to be cooked, or it was not sweet; but leopard had to be eaten raw. Then she went to the hole and suckled her pups. This went on till all the pups were said to be killed.