Dog and Pangolin were cracking pumpkin-seeds.
Pangolin ate all her kernels, but Dog saved his.
“Why don’t you save the kernels?” Dog asked, and Pangolin fell down dead.
A woman walked by. “How did Pangolin die?”
Dog said, “I asked Pangolin: why don’t you save the kernels?”
When Dog said this, the woman fell down dead.
Dog’s sister walked by. “How did the woman die?”
Dog said, “I told the woman that I asked Pangolin: why don’t you save the kernels?”
When Dog said this, his sister fell down dead.
Terrified by this series of events, Dog never spoke again.
[a Bulu story from Cameroon]
Inspired by: "The Dog and the Pangolin" in Bulu Tales from Kamerun, West Africa (published in Journal of American Folkklore) by Adolph N. Krug, 1912
Notes: You can read the original story online. It has one more link in the chain: after the woman dies, people speak to the dog and they die, and then the dog's sister comes.
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