A hunter shot an antelope in the forest. The antelope fell dead, and then the hunter skinned the antelope.
To the hunter's surprise, the skinned antelope jumped up and ran.
"Antelope!" yelled the hunter. "Stop! Come back! Everyone will say you are very foolish to be without your skin. Come back here and get your skin!"
The antelope went back, and then the man shot the antelope again.
The antelope did not jump up anymore.
The hunter got both the skin and the meat.
If by some miracle you escape your enemies, it's foolish to go back there ever again.
[a Bulu story from Cameroon]
Inspired by: "Mvin Antelope Listens to the Voice of Foolishness" in Bulu Folk-Tales (in Journal of American Folklore) by George Schwab, 1922. The Bulu are a people who live in Cameroon.
Notes: You can read the original story online. The author notes that the antelope called "mvin" in the story is a Cephalophus callipygus, or Peters's duiker. The story says that when the man returned to the village he did not eat the meat because he saw it as "something horrible" but I was not quite sure about what that really meant.
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