Story: The Mad Leopard

 (Leopard: Wiki Commons)

Story. At a small clearing, a gazelle approached a female leopard with something in its mouth. He threw it to the leopard. It was a skinless head.

“For you, in exchange for your husband’s fruitful harvest,” declared the gazelle.

The leopard thanked him and ate the head. As she was eating, the gazelle gave her stares accompanied with a sly smile. When the leopard finished eating the head, the gazelle laughed.

The leopard asked, “Why are you laughing? Also, why were you watching me? I am married, you know?”

“You haven’t noticed? You ate your husband!” said the gazelle. The gazelle cackled.

“No. No. No!” The leopard was in denial. The leopard attempted to spit out an imaginary piece of meat. “How dare you?! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“I should be ashamed?! He was your husband. You should have known.” The gazelle’s goal was finished, so he started to leave.

In anger, the leopard pounced on the gazelle. Both fought, but a passerby came and tried to break up the fight. “Stop fighting! Turn around and go your separate ways!”

The leopard stopped and felt weak after remembering that her husband was dead. Right when the gazelle saw this, he went in for the kill at her neck. However, the passerby was able to push the gazelle slightly, and the gazelle did not kill her. He only severely injured her. The gazelle ran away and the passerby chased after him.

As the gazelle ran away, the leopard cursed, “You’ll never live a happy life!”

The leopard dragged herself to her husband’s bones and wept. “My dear, I apologize for eating you. I didn’t know that it was you. I vow to never eat again.”

The leopard has not eaten for a few days, and her health deteriorated. A rabbit slowly approached the leopard to see if it was still alive. The leopard tried to strike at the rabbit, but the rabbit was quick. The rabbit was surprised the leopard still had strength. He said, “I thought you were dead.”

(Rabbit: Wiki Commons)

“Come here, so I can eat your small figure, even though your gray fluff shows otherwise,” mumbled the leopard, and she swiped at the rabbit again.

The little rabbit dodged the leopard’s every move. It went behind bushes and then showed itself to the leopard. When the leopard swiped at him, he went behind a tree, and appeared again. “Ha! Ha! You’ll never catch me!” The rabbit was so confident, that it accidentally hit an old, fragile tree. A branch fell on the rabbit and killed it.

The leopard saw the blood spatter and imagined the soft skin of the rabbit. She went towards the rabbit’s corpse. As soon as she approached the body, the rabbit’s face turned into her husband’s face.

He said, “Are you going to eat me again? Didn’t you say that you’ll never eat again?”

“Darling, is that you? But I’m so hungry,” pleaded the leopard's wife.

“Fine, but you can’t eat this. Go eat those rocks over there. I’ve tried them and they are so tasty. If you eat them, I’ll accompany you for a few days.”

The leopard proceeded to eat the rocks. At first, she thought that it was strange to be eating rocks. However, after looking at her husband again, she ate a few more rocks until her hunger was satisfied.

Her husband smiled at her and exclaimed, “You are a very good eater! What shall we do today?”

The leopard excitedly told him a list of things she wanted to do.

The next morning, another rabbit was hopping around and searching for her son. “Bobby! Where are you?!” the mother rabbit yelled, “Although you’re a pain and mischievous, I still want you to come home everyday!”

As the mother rabbit neared the leopard’s clearing, she saw blood and a limp, gray ear. Instantly, she had a bad feeling. “Bobby?” She got closer and saw that it was her son. She started crying, but she saw a movement thirty feet behind her son. There was a leopard talking to herself. She held in her tears, bade farewell to her son, and left because she didn’t want to be killed.

Several days later, the mother rabbit, gazelle, and other animals were at a gathering that the gazelle held at his old friend, the leopard’s garden. There, the animals spoke of the crazy leopard who ate her husband and died. At the sound of this, the gazelle gave a smirk. And the animals continued their feast discussing other happenings like the leopard’s situation was just another story.

Author's Note. This story was based on a story from the Congo unit, The Gazelle and the Leopard. In this story, the gazelle and the leopard worked together on a garden. However, the gazelle did a lesser amount of work than the leopard. When the crops were ready to eat, the gazelle secretly had a party. The day after, the leopard found and and set a trap for the thief who stole his crops. An antelope fell in the trap, saying that the gazelle was the leader, but the leopard ate him anyway. When the gazelle found out, he planned with a mob to kill the leopard. The leopard was drawn by the sound of music to the trap and he died. At the end, the gazelle sent the leopard's head to his wife. She ate it and the gazelle told her that it was her husband. And then, this is where I continued in my story. I thought that it would be a new experience to write about a leopard going crazy, and that is what I did. Several stories from the Congo unit were gruesome as well, so I wanted to write a story similar to them. 

Bibliography. The Gazelle and the Leopard from Folklore of Congo by Richard Edward Dennett; link to reading online.

Reading Notes: Stories from Congo, Reading B

Notes. There were a few shape shifting stories in this folklore unit. I can probably use this idea in my story. I liked a few stories from this reading. A lot of them I felt passive towards.

 (Spider and web: Web source)

I did not realize how the story would go in How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi’s Daughter. In the end, Nzambi gave them monetary value of what the daughter was worth. This is peculiar. In stories similar to this, I hear of the father giving it to the person who did the most important job. However, in this story, he gave his daughter to no one. It was something different, but it was nice. If I were to write a story about this, I would write it from the father’s point-of-view. It would show his internal conflict. Also, I would add more to his bond with his daughter. He would be more loving and not want her to get married. Perhaps, he told people to get the thing because he was angry at his daughter, but he did not mean it.

In The Gazelle and The Leopard, it was messed up that the leopard’s wife ate her husband unknowingly. There was much destruction and revenge. The wife cursed the leopard at the end. I could make a story about this. It would briefly tell about the leopard and gazelle’s story first. Then, I would go into depth about the leopard wife turning crazy because she ate her husband. His ghost may haunt her, but in actuality, she becomes crazy and dies. However, the gazelle continues to live a nice life. This would be a good story to write about, because it has some unfairness in it opposed to the many happy stories I write.

I cannot believe that with such logic, the crocodile could be duped by the hen. The common denominator they have are eggs. That is it. The crocodile can actually eat the hen, but when the hen yelled “brother” the crocodile stopped eating her.

Bibliography. Stories from Congo by R. E. Dennett; link to reading online.

Reading Notes: Stories from Congo, Reading A

Notes. In How Wives Restored Their Husband, the third wife knew how to bring her husband back, but why did she and the other wives wait on him to kill food? Perhaps, it was probably their gender roles at the time.

In How Nsassi (Gazelle) Got Married, I was amazed at the dog’s and Nsassi’s forgetfulness. Figuring out the girls’ names in order to marry them was an interesting idea. My grandma has said that people named their girls “Forget it” in my language, so that when boys ask for their names, they’ll say “forget it.” And then, they won’t be able to ‘know’ their name and perhaps forget about them.

The Vanishing Wife was an interesting read, and it was unfortunate. I could write a story about the wife’s background. She could be a fish who fell in love with him, which is why she didn’t want to see a fish’s head. And then in the end, she would return just as Buite’s brother, Swarmi, was talking to Buite. Then, Buite will treat his brother the same way he was treated.

The Wicked Husband was gruesome like the story before it. What they did is surreal. They used the husband as fuel to a fire that dried the wife. It is quite unbelievable. This could be a story that I write. I could go into depth of the song the wife sang, and change some details. 

 (Blades of grass: Web Source)

In Twin Brothers, I liked how the blades of grass could be changed into different objects. I could probably use this idea with another story. Also, I liked how the charm was able to aid him. I loved how the twin brother who didn’t die, Luemba, did not do anything to Mavungu’s, his brother, wife, but instead he had his charm take her out and return her later. As I read, I thought his brother died and would never come back to life, but he saved him! And then, the twist, brother killing each other, was exciting and surprising!

Bibliography. Stories from Congo by R. E. Dennett; link to reading online.