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Overview

Two young animals share the name Kabidibidi in Chatelain’s twenty-fourth tale: a leopard and a goat. Their species qualifications distinguish them throughout. The goat visits the leopard daily because his friend must guard the threshold while his parents work in the fields. When the young leopard tells his father about the friendship, the elder treats the goat as food and instructs his son to invite him into a sack as part of their play. The son ties his visitor inside, but releases him when the goat threatens to soil his father’s sack. They resume playing and the goat leaves.

The father repeats his instructions the following morning, saying the sack can be washed. The goat arrives early, hears this conversation and hides until the elder goes to the fields. When his friend again puts him in the sack, the same concern secures his release despite the father’s warning. The goat then reverses their positions: he invites the young leopard inside, ties the sack and refuses the very requests that previously freed him. He strikes it with a staff and the young leopard dies. The printed plot is reciprocal deception, not a scene in which both friends die or the goat changes species.

The goat hides in the elder leopard’s bed, covers his head and uses a small whining voice to impersonate the son, claiming a headache. He says the bag contains the goat and warns against opening it. The adults prepare the bagged body; the disguised visitor helps remove identifying paws while remaining covered, then receives food outside on the excuse of the room’s heat. From a distance he identifies himself and reveals that the father has eaten his own son. The elder pursues but cannot catch him. The ending gives this betrayal as the origin of Leopard’s hatred of goats; it is the narrated explanation of a particular relationship, not an observation that goats normally behave this way.

Two same-named animal juvenilesDaily friendship visitsRepeated sack confinementGoat reverses trapDisguise by voice and bed coveringEscapes pursuit
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Origins & earliest records

Jelemía dia Sabatelu is the named contributor; Chatelain identifies both dialect and origin as Mbaka. The two same-named juveniles remain one paired profile with their contrasting species and actions explicit. The collector’s character generalizations and comparative revenge examples are not extra episodes.

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Records & interpretation

Complete tale XXIV, The Young Leopard and the Young Goat, bilingual pp. 190–195; English pp. 191, 193, 195. Contributor note XXIV and notes 542–543 p. 297.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Folk-Tales of Angola

    Héli Chatelain, collector, editor and literal English translator; named contributor in origin · 1894

    Complete tale XXIV, The Young Leopard and the Young Goat, bilingual pp. 190–195; English pp. 191, 193, 195. Contributor note XXIV and notes 542–543 p. 297.

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. Collected Ki-mbundu text with facing English translation and contributor notesChatelain 1894 — The Two KabidibidiResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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