Once upon a time, there lived two friends; the Leopard and the Cheater. There was famine in the land so they both decided to go hunting together. After hunting all day, they couldn’t find any food to eat till very late in the evening when the leopard managed to catch a little rabbit. This made the Cheater very angry as he had not caught anything and was hungry.

O their way home, they got to a very high bridge and the Cheater angrily pushed the Leopard from there and he fell and died instantly. The Cheater traced the Leopard to the bottom of the bridge and after eating the rabbit also ate the Leopard and took the remaining flesh home.


The next day, the cheater took some flesh from the Leopards flesh and made a drum. As he hit the drum, it began to sing :

Oh what a life, what a life
My skin cries out, what a life
We went hunting the Cheater and I
I caught a rabbit very close to the Nile
But jealousy came in, what a life
So my angry friend ……

Whenever it got to the part where the song would finish, the Cheater would stop playing the drum so the Leopard would not finish his story. People loved the song and gathered to watch the talking drum sing. The Cheater soon became the best drummer in the kingdom.
Whenever there was an occasion he would play his drum but never allowed the song to finish. Soon the lion king invited the Cheater to play for him and after he did the king promised to give him his daughter for marriage.

This greatly pleased the Cheater so in his state of joy, he played the drum in the presence of the king and all in the kingdom. He played so well that it excited the king and he began to dance. But when he got to the part where the leopard would finish the song he stopped playing the drum.

This greatly angered the king as he was still dancing. “how dare you stop the music when the king is still dancing?” the king queried the Cheater. “Now play that drum till I stop dancing” the king told him.
He didn’t have any choice so he did as he was commanded and the leopard finished the song;
Oh what a life, what a life
My skin cries out, what a life
We went hunting the Cheater and I
I caught a rabbit very close to the Nile
But jealousy came in, what a life
So my angry friend pushed me down the bridge
He the rabbit and also I, what a life
Then made he a drum with my hide.
“So you killed the Leopard and made this drum with his flesh?” the King said. The Elders took a close look at the drum and confirmed it was made with a leopard’s skin. So the king commanded that the cheater be put in a pit where he later died of hunger.

SOURCE: http://umehoma.com
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