"One good meal deserves another!" said Turtle. "Come to my house
for dinner tomorrow." Turtle fixed a fine dinner at the bottom of the
river. "Come on down and eat!" he said.
Anansi filled his jacket pockets with stones so that he would be
weighted down enough to stay at the river's bottom and eat. "It's
impolite to wear a jacket to dinner!" Turtle said, "Take it off!"
But when greedy Anansi took off his jacket, he floated back up to the
surface of the water and hungrily watched Turtle eat his fill!
Jabu and the Lion (A Traditional Zulu Story)
"Kwasuka sukela..."
There was a young herdboy named Jabu (jah'-boo).
He took great pride in the way in which he cared for
his father's cattle. And his father had many cows over 25! It was quite a task to keep these silly
creatures out of trouble, away from the farmers
mealies (corn) and out of the dangerous roads. Jabu
had some friends who also kept their fathers' cattle,
but none of them had even half the herd Jabu did!
And none of them were as careful as Jabu. It was a
sign of Jabu's father's pride in his boy that he
entrusted such a large herd to such a young boy.
One day as he sat atop a small koppie (hill) watching
the animals feed and braiding long thin strips of
grass into bangles for his sisters, Jabu's friend Sipho
(see'-poh) came running to him. "Have you heard the
news, my friend?" panted Sipho. Before Jabu could
even answer, Sipho rushed on to tell him. "Bhubesi,
the lion, has been seen in these parts. Last night
Bhubesi attacked and killed one of Thabo's (tah'boh) father's cows. The men of the village are
already setting traps for the beast!"
Jabu wasn't surprised by this news. His keen eyes
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