The Goat Whose Chewing Frightened the Elephant

Overview

The Goat disputes the Elephant’s claim to be the better grazer and proposes a contest lasting through day and night. They ask the Lion to judge. On their way to the grass-field, the Elephant breaks trees and eats their leaves while the smaller Goat continues the challenge. They graze until midnight and then rest on a large bare rock. The Elephant chooses a smooth place, but the Goat lies where the surface is rough. All three sleep, and the Goat continues chewing the cud. When the Lion wakes and hears the chewing, he and the Elephant ask what the Goat can be eating where there is no vegetation. The Goat answers that he is eating the rock and will next eat something delicious.

The answer frightens the Elephant. Even after they graze around the rock and return, the Goat is still ruminating. The Lion decides that people must keep the Goat in town and help supply his food, while the Elephant belongs in the wood because he damages houses and fences and cannot match the Goat’s grazing. The Elephant flees, believing that a creature capable of eating rock might consume him too. He then asks the Leopard to catch the Goat whenever they meet and gives the Goat over to him. The final lines explain the Elephant’s fear and the Leopard’s attacks through that decision. The narrator explicitly describes rumination; eating stone is the Goat’s alarming claim, not an event independently established by the tale.

Origins & earliest records

Part I, Fable IV, collected orally from an unnamed elderly Temne man living at Port-Loko; English translation by C. F. Schlenker, 1861.

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale through its final explanation, printed pp. 61–67, with translation notes and the collection preface.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs

   C. F. Schlenker · 1861

   Part I, Chapter IV, Fable IV: The Elephant and the Goat, pp. 61–67.

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. Primary collected narrative; original English translationA Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs: The Elephant and the GoatResearch access: 2026-10-18

Image credits

The Goat ruminating on the rock; appearance and landscape imagined.

Original narrative illustration; animal form and setting interpreted, not a documentary species or ethnographic image.