How the Leopard Got It's Spots (an African folk tale)

Retold by Forbes Stuart. In this African tale, a tortoise appeals to a hyena for help shaking fruit from a tree, but the mean hyena sticks the tortoise high in the tree instead. Help comes unexpectedly from a leopard...

Leopard

Afraid to move, clinging to the branch, the tortoise stayed up there for hours, while the sun slowly dipped over to the west, lengthening the shadow of the tree. Every time he looked down at the ground far below, he felt dizzy and terrified, but he had to keep his eyes open for he knew that help wouldn't come from the skies. At last, with darkness falling and despair growing, the tortoise saw a leopard padding past the tree and cried for help. The leopard leaped gracefully into the tree and brought the frightened tortoise back to the ground. At his request the leopard shook the branches so that the fruit fell to the ground for the tortoise to eat.

The leopard didn't wait to be thanked and was gliding into the gathering darkness when the tortoise called him back. "Leopard, listen to me before you go. You have been very good to me, and I would like to do something for you in return. If you let me paint black spots all over your tawny coat, you will be admired through out the jungle. Come in the morning when the sun gives us light."

The leopard's dull coat was completely transformed by the black spots that the tortoise painted in with care and artistic skill. And just as the artist had predicted, when the leopard swaggered through the jungle he was followed by the admiring glances of other animals.