Elephant and Rabbit were friends.
“Let’s grow pumpkins!” Rabbit said.
“I like to eat pumpkins,” said Elephant, “but I don’t know how to grow them.”
“Don’t worry!” said Rabbit. “I’ll teach you how. The secret is to roast the pumpkin-seeds before planting.”
Elephant bought some pumpkin-seeds, roasted them, and planted the roasted seeds in the ground.
Rabbit, however, roasted only a few of his pumpkin-seeds, which he ate, and then he planted the un-roasted seeds in the ground.
When Elephant saw that Rabbit’s garden was full of pumpkins while his own garden was empty, he realized Rabbit had tricked him.
[a Yao story from Malawi]
Inspired by: "The Roasted Seeds" in Africana by Duff Macdonald, 1882.
Notes: You can read the original story online. This is a legend of the Yao people of Malawi. In the next story, Elephant gets his revenge: Elephant Steals Rabbit's Pumpkins.
Haha how stupid that Elephant must be to trust Rabbit!
ReplyDeleteI prefer to take people at their word mate.
DeleteThat's way too dishonest from Rabbit to trick Elephant like that. I thought he was supposed to be mates with Elephant!
ReplyDeleteExactly, I'd never trick any of my mates like that
Delete