A hare, Cherekweny, and an elephant, Peliot, were once great friends and always went for walks together. They lived in a valley that was lush with grass and cool streams and the human beings who lived in a village on the other side of the hill would drive their cattle into this valley to graze. So one day the two friends saw a bull and a cow that had wandered away from the rest of the herd, and so they took stole of them before the shepherds could notice. The hare took the bull and the elephant took the cow.

After some months, the cow had a calf. Now Cherekweny the hare saw this and said to themself: “Why should the elephant have two animals, yet I have only one? I’ll take the calf.”

So hare snatched the calf, and the elephant pretended not to notice what had happened, for Peliot was a gentle soul who did not like to stir unnecessary trouble. Peliot loved the cow so much and took great care of it and in the course of time the cow got pregnant once again and gave birth to twins.

But, once again, Cherekweny’s jealousy rose like bile to their throat. “This is too bad,” said the hare. “Peliot’s animal has had three calves yet mine has had none? Why? What kind of juju are they using to become prosperous while I remain poor with only one animal?”

But this time, as the hare drove off the calves, the elephant saw this and, instead of throwing a tantrum, spoke in a nice and polite voice for they did not want to cause trouble.

“Hi, friend, what are you doing with my calves? You took the first one, and I said nothing, but I can’t let you take these too.”

Now the egret, which follows around cattle to eat the ticks on their backs, had seen everything that had happened, and so solved the mystery for the two friends. “The bull mounts the cow and makes it pregnant,” the egret said. So hare had a claim to the calves as much as elephant did. The two friends, who were juveniles and had never had sexual partners, now understood the greatest mystery of life and it made sense.

“Ha!” Cherekweny said in delight. “The bird is wise. Without the bull your cow would not have had any calves, so all her children belong to me.”

“But your bull can’t produce without my cow,” Peliot the elephant said.

Cherekweny, being a very greedy person, thought for a long time and finally decided upon a trick to take all the cattle.

“Let’s go down to the cave where we discuss the matter,” Cherekweny said.

The cave was at in a large rock and it was a special place. All animals in the valley went there to meditate whenever they were stressed, or to party when they wanted to have fun, or to consult their ancestors whenever they wanted blessings.

“But why can’t we discuss it from here?” Peliot said. “The cave is a long walk away.”

“We were good friends,” Cherekweny said. “Yet these cattle have made us to quarrel. So I say let us go to the cave, we slaughter them, and we have a big feast so that we can renew our friendship.”

Peliot grunted reluctantly. They had grown fond of the cow and liked to keep it as a pet. They liked to stroke it with their trunk and when the cow mowed it sounded like music. But the friendship with Cherekweny was deeper than any liking they had for the cow and so Peliot agreed to the idea of a feast.

So the bull, the cow, and the three calves were driven to the rock with the cave. In prehistoric times the rock was a community kitchen and it had these great cooking stones and a great grill on which they could roast the game. But recently there had been heavy rains that caused the rock to crack and a large part fell off the top and covered the mouth of the cave, leaving only a small hole. Only Cherekweny could enter. So the hare entered inside and started a fire and elephant remained outside and slaughtered the bull first and passed the meat to hare. Then they slaughtered the cow, and finally they slaughtered the three calves.

However, when the elephant tried to follow hare into the cave, their body was too big for the entrance. Cherekweny was comfortable inside, cutting the meat into strips and smoking them so they could eat it for a whole year. They roasted some pieces and munched on them and the juices ran down their chin, but Peliot could not enter the cave to join in on the fun. They pushed their long nose into the cave, sniffing, trying to get to the meat, but the cave was so deep and their trunk could not reach the fireplace.

“Throw me a piece that I might also eat,” Peliot said.

The hare laughed, and said, “Go some distance back and run against the rock with your head, so as to break open the entrance.”

Peliot was really big and trusted their strength, and they imaged they might shift the stone that had fallen over the entrance of the cave. But however much they head-butted the cave entrance they made no impression on the stone. The hare then advised them to go back farther back so as to get a good run in order to strike the stone harder.

The elephant sniffed at the roasting meat and their appetite rose so high. They again pushed their trunk in, sniffing, begging, but hare only laughed. So Peliot went backward a great distance, and then came charging at the rock, running at such speed and strength that the ground trembled as if it were an earthquake and the birds flew off the trees in terror. Peliot again butted the stone, but instead of moving it, they dashed out their brain and fell down dead.

Cherekweny laughed louder and did a little dance as they ate the meat. Then they came out of the cave and sliced up elephant and took the meat into the cave, one chunk at a time, to be smoked and preserved, and for a whole year hare had a lot of meat to feast upon.