SmOKGA FOLKLORE. 389 



III. 

 NWAMPFUNDLA AND THE BuCK. 



After Mr. Hnre had killed the leopard, he went away. Now 

 as he was going down the path, he met a buck, who was walking 

 alowly along, eating here and eating there. 



" Good n)orning, Mr. Buck!" said he. 



" Oh," said the buck, looking up and seeing the hare, " Good 

 morning. What do you want with me? I don't know you." 



" I want yo.u to help me to make some gardens," said the 

 hare. The buck agreed to this plan, and they went and found a 

 good place and made some gardens, clearing the bush and grass 

 away. When the ground was made ready, they planted some 

 beans. 



Now every day they used to go to the gardens, early in the 

 morning to look at tlie gardens, and to see that the wild pigs and 

 the other animals did not come to spoil them. 



Soon the beans began to come up, the little green shoots 

 piercing through the ground. But the buck was greedy, and he 

 did not want to wait until the beans were properly grown; so he 

 used to eat the beans while they were still growing, going back to 

 the garden every night after the hare had gone to his kraal, and 

 eating up the young leaves. 



But the hare did not do this, for the hare was wise. He said. 

 " No, I must wait until the beans are ripe, and then I shall have 

 plenty." 



But just wlien the beans were beginning to get ripe the 

 buck came and stole in the night, and it was not long before iho 

 hare saw what was being done. 



He said to himself: " Ah! there is somebody who comes to 

 my garden and eats up my beans. I do not know who it is. I 

 must keep watch. I must find out who eats my beans." 



So the ne.xt time that he and the buck went to the gardens 

 tngethiT, he showed the buck what had been done, and the buck 

 said : " That is bad; some bad one comes and eats our beans. I 

 ste that that is true, but for myself I do not know who it is." 



■' Well." said the hare, " we must do something, or all our 

 beans will be stolen. It is not the wild pigs, for I do not see 

 their .spoor. We had better come to-morrow and make a pit, and 

 put some sharp stakes in it, so that the thief, when he comes 

 in the night, may fall into the pit and get caught on the sharp 

 points of the stakes. Can't you come and help me in this work? 



'■ Oh, yes!" said the buck. "It is a good plan. I shall 

 he glad to help you, for I myself also want to have some beans." 

 So they went away. Now the hare was very clever; he was the 

 cleverest of all the beasts that are in the bush, so he did not 

 wait for the buck to help him, but he went back to the garden 

 that same night, and dug that pit, and put some sharp stakes in 

 iX Then he went home and went to sleep. 



