145. The Lizard and the Chameleon

Chameleon and Lizard were brothers.
One day when the brothers were playing together, Chameleon said, "How nice it is to be alive!"
"It's nice to be alive," agreed Lizard, "but not so much when your eyes are all big and bulging. Your eyes are the ugliest I've ever seen!"
"At least I'm not a dirty brown color. I've never seen such an ugly color!"
They argued back and forth until finally a human came to see what the shouting was about. Lizard hid in his hole, Chameleon climbed up a tree, and they have not spoken to each other since.
[a story from Madagascar]



Inspired by: "The Chameleon and the Lizard" in Oratory, Songs, Legends, and Folktales of the Malagasy (published in Folklore) by James Sibree, Jr., 1883.
Notes: You can read the original story online.

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