Where Animals Talk; West African Folk Lore Tales/Part 1/Tale 3.1
Tests of Death—1st Version
Persons
| Njĕgâ (Leopard) | Ntori (Wild-Rat) |
NOTE
It is the proper and most friendly mode, that relatives and friends should hasten to visit their sick, on the very first information, without waiting to be invited or summoned.
Leopard told his head-wife, "Ntori has taken our meat and deceived me in all these ways; I will kill him and eat him."
So he pretended to be sick.
The next day, news was sent to Rat that his Uncle Leopard was sick of a fever.
The following day, word was again sent that he was very sick indeed, and that he wanted a parting word with Rat. Rat sent back a message, "I hear; and I will come tomorrow."
Rat suspected some evil, and did not believe that Leopard was sick. So he went to the forest, and collected all kinds of insects that sting, and tied them into five little bundles.
Next day, word came to him, "Njĕgâ is dead." Rat went quickly, taking the five little bundles with him.
When he reached Leopard's town, he joined the crowd of mourners in the street, and lifted up his voice in wailing. Leopard's head-wife went to him, and said, "Come into the house, and mourn with me, at your Uncle's bed-side." Rat went with her; but he did not take the seat that was offered him, as a near relative, at the supposed dead man's head. He first explained, "After a person is reported dead, it is proper to make five tests to prove whether he is really dead, before we bury him."
So he stood by the bed, at a point safe from Leopard's hands, and opened a bundle, and lifting the shroud, quickly laid the bundle on Leopard's naked body. The insects, infuriated by their imprisonment, flew out and attacked Leopard's body, as it was the object nearest to them, and they were confined under the shroud. Leopard endured, and did not move.
Rat opened a second bundle, and thrust it also on another part of Leopard's body. Leopard could scarcely refrain from wincing.
Rat opened a third, and laid it in the same way on another part. Leopard's face began to twitch with the torture. Rat opening a fourth, used it in the same way; and Leopard in pain began to twist his body; but, when Rat opened the fifth bundle, Leopard could endure the stings no longer. He started up from the bed, holding a dagger he had hidden under the bed-clothing.
But Rat was too agile for him, and ran out before Leopard could fully rise from his supposed death-bed, and escaped to his own place. The mourners fled from the furious insects, and Leopard was left in agony under the poison of their stings.