It once happened that a leopard and a dog were very great friends; the leopard was, however, the owner of the house in which they lived; the dog was treated more as a servant than a friend by the leopard. When the rainy season began, the leopard said to the dog, “Let us go and…

One day a cobra fell down a deep crack in the ground and couldn’t get out. A man passed by, and heard a strangled voice calling: “Help! Save me!” The man peered down the crack, and immediately jumped back in alarm. The cobra is man’s great enemy. The cobra said: “Please, pull me out!” Still…

Long, long ago, the man-in-the-moon and his wife Atai, had a quarrel which led to very strange results. These two were the royalty of the skies once the sun had gone down. The man you all know, he looked then as he does now. Sometimes he was smiling, sometimes he looked grim. His wife was…

There was once a herd of elephants who went to gather honey to take to their in-laws.  As they were walking along, they came upon Hare who was just about to cross the river. She said to one of them: “Father, please help me get across the river.” The elephant agreed to this request and…

The goat and his mother lived alone in their village. He said to her, “I have here a magic-medicine to make one strong in wrestling. There is no one who can overcome me, or cast me down; I can overcome any other person.” The other beasts heard of this boast; and they took up the…

Once upon a time there was some trouble between a leopard and a hare. The leopard had cheated the hare of his goat. As the leopard could not find the means to repay the hare, the leopard asked the hare to go with him to visit some kinsfolk on an island where he might obtain…

In the beginning of the world the king called the people together to be given their tasks. He sent out messengers for them. He sent the dove to call the moon, and the bat to call the sun. Each messenger was given a certain time to go and return, so that they might all arrive…

Long, long ago, Giraffe did not have the long, elegant neck that he has now. In those days his neck was short and squat, resembling Rhinoceros’s powerful neck. It was a time of drought and famine. The waterholes had dried up, the land had been scorched by the sun and the grazing was threadbare. The…

One day the hare, feeling hungry, went to look for food. Now, although he was full of mischief, the hare was also very lazy, and whenever he could conveniently do so, he took life easily and let others toil while he benefited from their labours. After aimlessly wandering about the bush, hoping that he could…

Once upon a time when the world had just been made and there was only one kind of banana, but very many kinds of monkeys, there was a little old woman who had a big garden full of banana trees. It was very difficult for the old woman to gather the bananas herself, so she…

The hyena’s home was near a river, and he owned a little canoe of which he was exceedingly proud. Most hyenas are very greedy and this one was no exception. He also happened to be very hungry, for he had not eaten for several days. So early in the morning he climbed into his canoe…