A Case Of Tit For Tat

This tale has been adapted from the original for readability:

Spider had his own village, but he did not sleep there. He slept out at his farm-house instead. One day he went out to set traps, and he caught Leopard’s child. Spider took the child away and ate it.

Leopard had been away when Spider carried the child off. When Leopard came back and found the child missing, he began to cry out in the bush, calling and searching. Just then Spider called to his companion, as if nothing was wrong, “Come on, let’s go and play, come on, let’s go and play.”

Leopard heard Spider’s voice and stopped crying. He went quiet and crept closer to the farm-house. Spider did not know Leopard was there. He carried on talking, loud and careless, saying, “We ate something fine today, something really special. Do you know what it reminded me of? It was like that person crying out in the bush over there. That person’s child is what we ate.”

Leopard heard every word.

Spider kept talking until Leopard was close enough for Spider to glimpse him. The moment Spider saw Leopard, he bolted into the farm-house. He was alone inside. Quick as a flash, he built up the fire and grabbed anything that could make a racket, pots, kettles, anything that would clang and boom. He beat them all and raised a dreadful din, shouting as if the place was full of people, so Leopard would think, There are plenty of them in there.

Then Spider called out, loud enough for Leopard to hear, and made it sound as though his wife and children were in the house with him. In that moment, Leopard followed the noise and came in.

But Spider and the family were not sitting about at all. They had scrambled up high, clinging to the roof beams, leaving Leopard down on the ground beneath them. They hung there a little while, hearts thumping, until the youngest child, who was the first to start complaining, said he was tired of hanging.

Spider snapped, “Drop down then. Let Leopard eat you.”

The child let go, fell, and Leopard ate him.

Not long after, the next child said he was tired too.

Spider said, “Drop down now,” and down he went, and Leopard ate him as well.

The third child held on longer. He was older and stronger than the first two, and Spider told him to change hands, to grip a different way and keep himself up. The child managed for a while, then he cried out that he was tired. He dropped, and Leopard ate him.

At last Spider’s wife, Nahker, said she was tired too. Spider scolded her, “Why are you so heavy? Drop down then, you’ll see what trouble you’re bringing.”

Nahker dropped, and Leopard ate her.

Now only Spider was left, hanging above Leopard. He waited until Leopard’s attention was fixed on him, then he tore off a small piece of bark that was stuck to the beam and threw it down. Leopard snatched it and gripped it tight, thinking he had caught Spider at last.

While Leopard wrestled with that bit of bark, sure he had Spider in his hands, Spider slid down quietly, soft as breath. He touched the ground, ran, and hid himself away.

And nobody ever managed to catch Spider, because Spider was clever.