An Elephant, a Bush Dog, and the Villagers

Once near a village there lived a large and angry elephant, who frightened everyone. The villagers had tried but they had not been able to kill the elephant or drive him away. In fact, they were very often too frightened to leave their houses in case the elephant tried to kill them.

The village head held a meeting in the entrance hall of his compound.

“He who destroys this elephant,” he announced, “will be given a large reward worth many pounds.”

Encouraged by the thought of a large reward, the best hunters in the village dared to go out and shoot at the elephant with their bows and arrows. All failed.

At last a wild dog from the bush thought he would try for the reward. He went to the village head and said that he would kill the elephant.

“If you are successful,” the village head told him, “I will give you good food and a mattress, and let you live in my comfortable house instead of living in the bush. You shall also receive the large reward worth many pounds.”

The wild bush dog said that the villagers would have to clear a stretch of ground twenty miles long and a quarter of a mile wide and that it must be straight. The village head arranged for the work to be done when the elephant was not near the village.

When it had been done, the wild bush dog went to the elephant.

“I should like to have a running race with you,” the wild bush dog said to him.

“What do you mean by that?” the elephant asked.

“I should like to prove,” the wild bush dog replied, “that I am able to run faster than you.”

“Nonsense!” said the elephant.

“Prove it!” said the wild bush dog.

The elephant and the wild bush dog then arranged that they would have a race on the following day.

The wild bush dog left the elephant and went to the other wild bush dogs to ask for their help.

“Why should we?” they asked.

“If the elephant is killed, the village people will go farther away from their houses,” the wild bush dog replied, “and we shall then be able to catch them and eat them ourselves.”

The other wild bush dogs agreed that such words were wise; they said they would give help.

“There are twenty of you here,” said the wild bush dog. “One of you will be the starter; you others will each go to a hiding-place in the grass. You will hide beside the running track which the villagers have been foolish enough to clear. Each will hide one mile apart.”

The next morning each wild dog was in his position. The leader of the wild bush dogs and the elephant joined the starter at one end of the running track.

The starter cried “Go!” The elephant and the wild bush dog started running. After they had gone one mile the waiting wild bush dog quickly took the place of the other, and the exchange was unnoticed by the elephant. After the next mile another wild bush dog took the place of the other, and so on for every mile, and never once did the elephant notice. At the end of the race the mighty elephant was utterly exhausted and he fell down dead.

“Now,” the wild bush dog said, “I shall go and collect my reward.” And he told the other bush dogs that they should watch the paths and the farms, because the villagers would be coming out again and could now be caught.

But when the treacherous wild bush dog reached the village, he found that the village head and all his people had taken advantage of the time when the elephant and the wild bush dogs were racing. They had packed their loads and their food, their goods and all their belongings, and they had fled. They had all run away to a far-distant place.