The Man and His Hunting Dog

A man and his dog lived together like a family; the man had no wife.

They hunted in the forest, the dog leading the man to the game. "Woof-woof!" the dog would tell the man. "This way!"

Thanks to the dog, the man had meat to eat, and also enough to sell. Eventually he was wealthy enough to get a wife.

Then the man ignored the dog. The man no longer fed the dog; the woman did not feed him either.

So the dog howled, "You've treated me badly, my man!" Then he went into the forest and never returned.

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Inspired by: "The Broken Friendship between the Man and his Dog" in On Another Day: Tales Told among the Nkundo of Zaire by Mabel Ross and Barbara Walker, 1979.
Notes: You can read the original story online. The story was told by a woman, Bolumbu Elakankoi, from Wema near Salonga National Park in the Congo.

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