The Tale of Kulu the Pangolin and Kawè the Antelope
This is the tale of Kulu the pangolin and Kawè the antelope. In those days, the antelope walked through the bush, mocking every creature and calling them all to a race. She was the swiftest of all the animals and she laughed aloud when she saw another creature running. Now animals of the bush loathe to be laughed at, and they cannot bear pride in another animal. One day the small, slow, horny pangolin, trotting about on his day's work, met Kawè and she derided Kulu saying: "See, this is Kulu, the swift Kulu, Kulu of the long, lithe limbs, Kulu of the quick running."
Kulu did not answer these gibes but said simply to a passing grasshopper, Bafalala: "Some think that they are swift runners, that it would be easy for me to be outrun in a race." Loud laughed Kawè and she cried: "If you think you could run quicker than I, I challenge you, come out and run."
Italala the frog, passing there, heard this and called out to all the bush that there was to be a race between Kawè and Kulu and that a day had been settled for the meeting.
On that day, high upon Monga-na-loba (the Mt. Cameroon of the white man), in a clearing of the forest the two champions met. Kawè, sure of victory, had not prepared herself particu-larly for the contest. But Kulu, the wary, knowing full well that in a normal race he would be beaten, had found a way out. The day before he was to run he had called his brothers to him. From the grassland over the forest, in the perpetual fog, from the crags around the old craters where only lichens and moss grow on the lava and cinders, from the forest itself, under the fallen trees, in the ravines filled by fallen leaves, from the fields where bananas and pawpaws grow, and from the marshes around the coast, in the fever-infected mangrove, where strange fish jump about on the slimy earth and where yellow fever and sleeping sickness reign, all the Kulus came to him as he called. Soon he had over a hundred brothers around him. These he placed at every turning and twisting of the trail along which he was supposed to race from the mountain-top to the sea.
In the clearing the umpires, Mojo the great black rock serpent, and Niao the bee, had chosen Yongoli the chameleon and Euaki the chimpanzee, and sent them down to the sea, to see that the race was fairly run and to name the winner.
Then while Gangazinge the stag-beetle buzzed around the clearing, calling for silence, the signal to start was given by Mosillo the thrush. Down bounded Kawè, while poor Kulu, running as fast as he could, got to the first turning, stopped and hid in the bush. But as Kawè neared the first turning, sure to have already outrun Kulu, what did she see but Kulu, or rather Kulu's first brother, trotting along as fast as he could. Faster ran Kawè, but at every turning Kulu was before her trotting on. At last Kawè, all dripping with sweat, arrived at the coast to see the last of the Kulu brothers trot peaceably to the goal and turning, say to her with a sneer: "Don't you think I run faster than you, my dear madam."Kawè was so furious that she asked for a return match, to be fought up the mountain this time. The match was granted and up bounded Kawè, well decided to win this time. But she ran so swiftly that her heart burst with the strain.
So Kulu defeated Kawè.
Author Unknown