"Let's play hide-and-seek!" said a son to his father.
"Go hide," said the father. "I'll find you later."
The son hid in a peanut-shell.
A chicken swallowed the peanut; a wildcat swallowed the chicken; a snake swallowed the wildcat.
Then the snake slithered into the river and was caught in a fish-trap.
The father couldn't find his son, so he went to check his fish-trap. He found the python, cut it open, found the wildcat, cut it open, found the chicken, cut it open, found the peanut... and inside the peanut was his son!
"Found you!" said the father, smiling.
[a Bakongo story from the Congo]
Inspired by: "The son who tried to outwit his father" in Congo Life and Jungle Stories by John Weeks, 1921.
Notes: You can read the original story online. The story also had a dog in it who swallowed the bush-cat, but I left the dog link in the chain out.
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