Once upon a time there was a wolf and a fox. The wolf was the master and the fox the servant.
One day both were grazing their flock in the pasture and, as they were thus grazing, the wolf and the fox wandered off into the plains to dig up some wild onions. The sheep scattered in pasturing and then lay down. Wolf and Fox were in the plains eating wild onions; in this way they lost sight of the sheep. After a while, the wolf said to the fox, “Companion, go and bring back the sheep!”
The fox found the wild onions very much to his taste, but he got up and bound two sheep together, a ram and a ewe, and then returned. Again the wolf and the fox wandered over the plain to dig up wild onions. After a while the wolf again said to the fox, “Go and bring back the sheep once more!”
The fox, however said, “Companion, look, the sheep are pasturing quietly.” Thereupon the wolf himself got up and looked after the sheep, and there he found the two sheep which had been bound to the tree by the fox, a male one and a female one. He grew very angry when he saw what roguish trick the fox had played on him, and when he returned he asked the fox, “Rascal, where are the other sheep?” and he broke off some branches and struck the fox hard. The fox, thereupon, went to look for the sheep, but, as he was crying, he held his arms up to his head.
Then he looked into the distance and saw two cattle, a white one and a black one, and said, “Those cattle there are mine.” And the wolf questioned him, saying, “Where are they? And the fox said, “Was it not you who just beat me so severely?” And the wolf said, “Well, come and beat me now!” Thereupon the fox looked around for branches from a thorny bush, braided them together, and said to the wolf, “Lie down!”
Then he beat him hard, and the wolf’s blood began to trickle down. And the wolf said, “By the blood of my mother! Did I beat you that hard?” So the fox said, “Come, just look at my back; it is all torn up.” So the wolf said, “Go ahead then, beat me!” When he stopped beating him, he looked out into the distance and saw the two cattle. And the fox said, “The black one is mine.” Then they raced toward the two cattle. The wolf seized the white one and the fox seized the black one. The wolf pierced his cow first, the fox pierced his last. The fox’s cow showed fat in the wound, and the wolf’s nothing bot foam. Then the wolf grew angry and said, “The cow that you have given me is emaciated.” And the fox said, “All right then; take mine.” Then both pierced their cows again, the wolf that belonging to the fox, and the fox that belonging to the wolf. And when the wolf pierced the cow, foam once more appeared in the wound, whereas the wound that the fox made showed fat. So the wolf said, “Let us slaughter them together so that we may eat in common.”
As they were slaughtering them, the wolf said to the fox, “now that we have slaughtered a thing of this kind, why, in truth, are we eating? Let us therefore kill our mothers, so that we can grieve for them.” thereupon the fox said, “Yes.” merely out of roguishness. So they arrived, the wolf led his mother into the field and killed her. But the fox led his mother away and seated her in a cave by the road to the spring and then returned. Thereupon they fetched the meat. The wolf sent the fox out and said, “Get out the cooking-pot and go fetch some water.” So the fox took the vessel and went.
On the road he rubbed some meat around his mouth and then went into the cave where his mother was and said, “Mother!” calling her. And the mother said, “Uooo!” answering him. Then he gave her the meat and went to draw water.
Upon his return he went to the village of the wolf, and the wolf was full of grief because he had really killed his mother. But the fox was joyful, because he had not really killed his mother. And so they put the meat on to cook. Then the wolf said, “Fox, go fetch me some water. Take some meat and go; you can eat on your way.” And since his mother was hidden near the road, he eagerly hurried on.
One day the wolf said, “Today I shall go to fetch water.” The fox said, “I beg you, I have an aunt there, and the road is bad, let me fetch water.” Nut the wolf said, “It is my turn to go and fetch water.” The fox was disturbed because the wolf would not yield. Now the wolf took the water pail and went and fetched water, and he had not taken any meat along. On his way he came close to the cave, and the fox’s mother called saying, “Fox, my child, have you abandoned me?” So the wolf stayed still and listened to determine where the voice came from.
Then the fox’s mother called again, saying, “my child, have you abandoned me?” So the wolf realized that the fox had deceived him and had not killed his mother. Then he went to the cave and stabbed the mother with the spear and laid her down in the opening. Then he went to fetch water and came back to the village.
The next morning the wolf sent fox saying, “Go, fetch me some water.” Thereupon the fox took some meat and his pail and started out. When he came close to the cave, he called and looked in, thinking she was asleep. And he said, “Mother, mother!” Then he touched her foot. “The poor creature is not sleeping, she only sleeps on one eye, the other is open.” But the mother did not stir, so he got an ant and placed it on her eye, so that it could bite her and wake her up. But she did not wake up; no, she was dead. Then he went into the cave and looked around. And then he saw the wound; and he sat down and cried very hard.
Thereupon he fetched some water and went home and did not want to return to the water any more. The wolf noticed that the fox had become angry. In the evening, when they set the meat to cook and sat by the fire to warm themselves, the fox was crying very hard. Thereupon the wolf questioned him, saying, “What are you crying about?” And the fox said, “I am bleary-eyed, that is all, perhaps it is the smoke.” Yet, when he had taken his seat there, he continued crying. Then the wolf said, “Yonder is your aunt, your mother, whom I have killed and for whom you are weeping. Is that not so? Now I am bewailing both my mother and your mother, my friend.”
The next day dawned. The wolf went to graze his flock, but the fox stayed in the village. The wolf said to him, “Stay here and cook me a good meal!” Thus it was. The wolf went to graze his flock, and the fox stayed in the village and put meat in the pot to cook. As the meat was cooking, the fox took all of it out, scooped up the fat, gathered together some dung of dogs, cattle, and human beings and some pieces of leather for the pot and departed.
When the wolf came back in the evening from driving his flock, he found that the fox had disappeared. Under the fur blanket the fox had placed an insect and told it, “If the wolf calls, answer!” And the wolf came in and called saying, “There is the aunt.” Thereupon the insect said “Uooo!” and the wolf was very pleased and said, “There is the aunt of yours; just put her in, she is boiling.” He was very pleased.
He stepped up to the pot and took a stick and stirred with it, saying, “The fox has played a roguish trick again, he has eaten all the meat, the fat as well and then he has disappeared.” Then he grew very wroth and took the fur and beat it thinking that the fox was inside. But the fox had gone long ago. He was far away. This the wolf discovered, so he pursued him and stayed on the spoor, till he found him on a rock. At this he was very well pleased, for now he would be able to kill him. He tried to climb up. Hew climbed part way but then slid back. Then he climbed again but again slid back and said, “Fox, how did you climb up?” But the fox had smeared the rock with tallow, and he said, “Yonder is the aunt; take this pebble, and I shall tell you where I climbed up. Take it and let me see!” Then he continued: “Do show me your teeth that I can see whether they are good or bad, whether they are filed out or whether they are not filed out yet.” So the wolf opened his mouth and the fox threw the rock into the wolf’s mouth and broke all his teeth.
Then the fox ran away. The wolf cried out but not turn back; indeed, he did not. He continued his pursuit of him. Now the fox was at a woman’s house in the village, so when the wolf arrived, he said, “Grab that fox.” He went closer and closer and shouted, “Do not let him get away!” But the fox said, “People, you hear what he is saying: “Let him get away!’ ” So the people went away.
Thereupon the wolf went to the lion and said, “Have pity on me and do seize that fox, do not let him get away!” and the fox said again, “Do you hear? There he says it again: ‘Let him get away!’ “
Finally the fox went into a cave and plucked out all his hair. The wolf caught up with him and said, “How this one resembles the fox with his thick tail and his long muzzle!’ But the fox said, “How the man talks! Have I not plucked myself bare as a Hill Damara, and now he says, you resemble the fox!” And so the wolf went away.
[ HERERO ]