LION, JACKAL AND WOLF

The story why Gamm, the lion, wanted to kill the jackal, is a very old one. Like the first human being, Gamm had only a mouth. He came to live with the people on earth.

And the people said to one another: "Just look at lion.... He has only a mouth."
Jackal said: "Wait, I'll fix him."
Jackal took a red-hot bent axe, crept up to lion where he lay sleeping, and chopped him where the other place should be. Lion jumped high into the air. When he stood on his feet again he saw Jackal running away, and shouted: "You.... This is your last day!" And he bounded across the grass in pursuit of jackal. Only a small distance separated the two, and jackal plunged into an antbear hole.

Lion sent for Wolf.
"Go and fetch my assegai," he commanded, "I want to kill jackal in this hole."
Wolf went, but came back and said: "Uncle Lion... I cannot find your assegai."
Lion shouted: "You no-good fathead! Come and guard this hole, I will fetch the assegai myself"

Jackal heard all this.
When Lion was out of earshot he poked his head out of the hole. Wolf tried to grab him, but jackal opened his eyes wide and frightened Wolf.
Wolf shivered, moved his body and staggered to one side.
Jackal jumped past him and fled into the bush.

Lion returned with the assegai and asked: "Wolf, is jackal still here?"
Wolf was in such a state of nerves that he could hardly speak.
Lion spat, stuck his assegai down the hole, and stabbed about in the dark.

When the assegai told him that jackal was no longer in the hole he looked backwards through his hind legs.
But wolf was no longer behind him.
And Lion thought: "Wait; there is a sore spot on my body. My hind legs do not tread firmly when I run. I shall have to outwit Wolf in some other way."
Without pulling out the assegai or looking round, he said: "Brother wolf... this is a very deep hole. Let us go back and fetch a piece of fat biltong with which to entice Jackal."

They walked away and came to where a big omumborumbonga tree grew. There, on a scaffolding, they saw Xau leisurely tying all the fattest pieces of biltong together. Lion shouted: "Come down, you tramp!"
But Xau replied: "No thanks, it's nice up here."
Wolf plucked up courage and said: "King Lion... let us make a big fire. Then I'll climb up and push him down."
They made a big fire, but when wolf climbed up to Xau, it was he who was pushed down. And he fell right into the fire which he had made for another. And the lion turned him over and over with the assegai, and then he pulled him out of the fire and threw him on the ground.

Then he stamped his forefeet flat, threw him aside, and shouted.
"You stupid idiot, from now on your tracks will always lie on the by-paths!"
And to this day wolf's tracks are always to be found on the roads.