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Overview

Leopard bets his life that Antelope cannot find him, and loses. Instead of honouring the wager, he demands that Antelope hide in turn. Exhausted from searching, Leopard gathers nonje nuts and takes them home. When one is cracked, a beautiful dog jumps out.

Each of Leopard's four wives mistreats the dog, and the last kills it. As it dies it becomes a beautiful maiden, and Leopard wants to marry her. She requires him first to kill his wives, then to remove his claws, eyes, ears, feet and finally his teeth. Driven by desire, he complies and grows steadily weaker.

As Leopard lies dying, she turns back into Antelope and reveals that the transformations were how she defeated his attempt to evade the wager. The tale closes by explaining the hostility between leopard and antelope.

Hides inside a nonje nutTakes dog, maiden and antelope formsUses marriage conditions to destroy an opponentEnforces a wager the opponent tried to evadeEnding explains enmity between leopard and antelope
01

Origins & earliest records

Recorded by R. E. Dennett and published in Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort (French Congo), 1898, as tale XV. The publication is the earliest attestation inspected, not a date of oral origin.

02

Records & interpretation

Tale XV, The Antelope and the Leopard, pp. 71–73, read from the Internet Archive OCR text; bibliographic details confirmed through Internet Archive metadata.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort (French Congo)

    R. E. Dennett; introduction and appendices by Mary H. Kingsley · 1898

    Selected bibliography; XV, pp.71–73. Published in London for the Folk-Lore Society by David Nutt, 1898.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Digitized public-domain book (OCR text)Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort (French Congo) — full OCR textResearch access: 2026-10-07
  2. Catalogue metadataInternet Archive metadata for cu31924006487999Research access: 2026-10-07

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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