Story 162 - The Leopard And The Calf

IN a certain country, while cattle are coming along eating and eating food, a Leopard having been hidden and been there looking out seized a small Calf out of them, and at first ate an ear.

Then the Calf says,

“I am insufficient for food for you. When I have become big you can eat me, therefore let me go,”

he said to the Leopard.

At that time the Leopard having said,

“It is good,”

allowed the Calf to go.

In a little time, having seen that the Calf has become big the Leopard came to eat him. Thereupon' the Bull (the grown-up calf) says to the Leopard,

“You cannot eat me in that way. Go to the jungle, and breaking a large creeper^[1] come [back with it],”

he said.

Then when the Leopard brought a creeper the Bull said to the Leopard,

“Tie an end round your waist^[2] and the other end tie on my neck,”

he said.

The Bull having dropped heated dung while the Leopard was doing thus, began to run in all directions [after they were tied together].

When he is running thus the Leopard says to the Bull [as he was jolted about],

Bale — di — no — kae — kota       While young—not—having—eaten thee
Ma — ata — modakan—kota           On my—part—I—did—foolishly.
Gassa — gassa — no—duwa           Jolting,—jolting—me,—don’t—run,
Periya — kan—kota                        O thou—great—short—eared—one.

The Leopard having been much wounded in this way, died.

The Bull went near his master’s son; he unfastened the Bull.

North-western Province.

 

Note:

In Tales of ike Punjab (Mrs. F. A. Steel), p. 70, a lamb escaped from several animals that wanted to eat it by telling them to wait until it grew fatter. In the end it was eaten by a jackal.

In Folh-Tales from Tibet (O’Connor), p. 43, a wolf that was about to eat a young wild ass was persuaded by it to wait a few months until it became fatter. When the time came for meeting it, the wolf was joined by a fox and a hare, to which it promised to give a share of the meat. The hare’s suggestion that to avoid the loss of the blood the ass should be strangled was adopted, the fox borrowed a rope from a shepherd, the hare put slip-knots over the necks of each of the animals, and holding the end of the rope itself gave the word for all to pull. When they did so the wolf and fox were strangled, and the ass escaped.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

 In a variant it is termed a Kaburussa creeper, perhaps the same as the Habalossa creeper in No. 94.

[2]:

 In the variant both ends were tied on the animals’ necks.