The villagers sent Chameleon to the people at the graves with this message: "When they die, they will return."
But Chameleon was slow.
Later they sent Gecko with this message: "When they die, they won't return."
Gecko ran and delivered the message to the people at the graves.
Chameleon arrived the next day. "When they, they will return," he announced.
"Gecko said they won't return," said the people at the graves. "He arrived first; we believed him."
Chameleon went back to the villagers and told them what happened.
They said, "It is your fault, Chameleon: you should have gone quickly!"
Inspired by: "Mortality, The Chameleon, and the Salamander" in Africana by Duff Macdonald, 1882
Notes: You can read the original story online. Macdonald collected these stories from the Yao people at the Blantyre Mission in Malawi. There are no salamanders in Malawi (African salamanders are found only in a narrow strip along the Mediterranean in the north). Macdonald does not provide the native name for the animal, so I chose the katanga, a kind of gecko. Here is a version about chameleon and salamander.
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