CHAPTER 4


How the Leopard Got His Spots

In the days when all creatures roamed the golden grassy fields of Africa, the Leopard and the Warrior-Man would hunt the Giraffe and the Zebra, and sometimes other animals, too. The Leopard and the Warrior were so good at hunting that the Giraffe and the Zebra never knew when they were there. They were so worried all the time that they could never sleep.

One day, the Giraffe and the Zebra decided to leave the grassy fields. They went to live in a great forest filled with trees and bushes that cast stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows where they could hide. They lived there safely for many seasons, standing half in the shade and half in the sun. In fact, they stood for so long in the slipperyslidy shadows of the great forest that the Giraffe became spotted and the Zebra became striped. For a very long time they led beautiful lives in the speckly-spickly, uneven shadows of the forest.

However, the Leopard and the Warrior were not having beautiful lives in the tall yellow-green grass fields. They were hungry because there were no more Giraffes and Zebras left to hunt. So they went to visit the Wisest Animal in all of South Africa, the dog-headed barking Baboon.

“Where have the Giraffes and Zebras all gone?” asked the Leopard and the Warrior.

“They have gone to other spots. My advice to you, Leopard, is to go to other spots as soon as you can,” said the Baboon with a wink. And then he said no more.

Puzzled, the Leopard and the Warrior set off in search of other spots. They came to the great, tall forest that was speckled and spotted, and slashed and splashed and hatched and thatched with shadows.

“We are wasting our time here,” said the Leopard. “There is nothing but shadows.”

“Wait a moment,” said the Warrior. “I can smell the Giraffe. I can hear the Giraffe. I just can’t see the Giraffe.”

The Leopard sniffed the shadowy air and listened to the breeze. “I can smell the Zebra. I can hear the Zebra. I just can’t see the Zebra,” he declared.

So they hunted the Giraffe and the Zebra all day. Although they could smell them and hear them, they still couldn’t see them.

Then it grew dark. The Leopard heard something breathing heavily in the starlight. It smelled like the Zebra. It sounded like the Zebra. So he pounced and knocked it down to the ground. It kicked like the Zebra. But he still couldn’t see what it was!

“I am going to sit on your head until morning when I can see you,” the Leopard growled. “Then I will know what you are.”

Just then, the Leopard heard a crash and a scramble. The Warrior called out, “I’ve caught something. It smells like the Giraffe. It sounds like the Giraffe, and it kicks like the Giraffe, but I can’t see it!”

“Sit on its head till morning,” answered the Leopard. “Then we can sort it all out.”

In the morning when the light appeared, the Leopard and the Warrior still couldn’t figure out what they had caught. Neither the Giraffe nor the Zebra looked the way they had when they lived in the tall, high yellow grass fields.

“What kind of creatures are you?” the Leopard growled.

“Let us up,” the Zebra said.

“Then we’ll tell you,” offered the Giraffe.

So the Warrior and the Leopard released the creatures.

“Now watch,” said the Zebra and the Giraffe. “One, two, three!”

At once, the Zebra moved away into the thorn bushes where the shadows were stripy. The Giraffe moved off to some tall trees where the shadows fell on him in blotchy patterns.

“And now where are we?” asked a voice from the shadows.

The Leopard and the Warrior stared and stared. But they could see no signs of the Zebra and the Giraffe.

The Warrior turned to the Leopard and said, “This is a trick worth learning. We will never catch our dinner again unless we hide ourselves in the stripy shadows of the forest.”

At once, the Warrior began to blacken his skin with blackish brown mud.

“What about me?” asked the Leopard.

“I’ll give you spots,” said the Warrior.

He pressed his fingers into the blackish brown mud and smeared it all over the Leopard’s fur coat. Then he stepped back to take a look.

“Now you are a beauty,” said the Warrior. “You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the open rocks and look like a piece of stone. You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves. And you can lie right across the center of a path and look like nothing at all. Think of that and purr!”

From that day on, the Leopard and the Warrior were able to hide and hunt happily in the forest.

And that is how the Leopard got his spots!