The Superiority of a Man Twenty-five Years Old

Once upon a time a handsome lion and a striped hyena were close friends. One day the lion said to the hyena, “Of all living creatures, which do you dread the most?”

“It is the wild bull I fear,” replied the hyena. “He breaks branches of trees, tramples on ant hills and roars with such a frightening voice that all his enemies tremble.”

The hyena asked the lion which of all living creatures he feared the most.

“More than all and certainly more than a wild bull,” replied the lion, “I fear a man who is twenty-five years old.”

“What nonsense,” exclaimed the hyena. “I will readily defeat twenty-five men each aged twenty-five if you will overcome even one wild bull.”

“We shall meet this evening,” said the lion, “and we shall see.”

That evening the hyena came to meet the lion whom he found busy washing his handsome mane. The two friends greeted each other.

“I hope you have not forgotten our agreement,” said the hyena. “As for me, I am a creature of my words. They are as strong to me as my own bones.”

“Our agreement is not forgotten,” the lion replied. “Choose a wild bull and I will overcome him.”

The lion and the hyena hid themselves by a path. Soon several bush cows appeared and near them a wild bull breaking branches off trees, trampling on ant hills and roaring very loudly. The hyena pointed to the bull and he trembled as he said to the lion, “Try to defeat that one.”

The lion sprang at the wild bull. There was a short fight. The lion easily won: he and the hyena ate the defeated bull for dinner.

The next evening the lion and the hyena went to the same path and hid themselves. Soon a man twenty-five years old appeared. He had a big stick in one hand and some food in a bowl in the other.

“Try to defeat that one,” said the lion.

The hyena rushed at the man but the man paid very little attention and walked calmly on, saying, “Hyena, be more careful. You are raising dust and it is settling on my food.”

The hyena rushed at the man again and again; the man paid little attention, only reproving him for raising so much dust. The lion laughed at the hyena.

When the hyena rushed at the man for a third time, the man became impatient. He hit the hyena with his stick so hard on the head that the top of the stick broke off and hit the lion in the eye.

“Hyena, what did I tell you?” cried the lion as he ran away.

After the hyena recovered from the blow he had received on his head he joined the lion, who was still rubbing his eye.

The two friends decided that in future they would not attack men and certainly never a man twenty-five years old.