48. Raccoon Gets a Deer For Panther

48. RACCOON GETS A DEER FOR PANTHER (64)

(Tuggle collection)

A Panther met a Raccoon and was about to eat him, when the Raccoon said: "I am a little fellow. Do not kill me. It would not do you any good to eat me. Let me find a way for both of us to get plenty to eat."

The Panther agreed, and the Raccoon said: "You make out you are dead. Lie down and stretch out. I will get some rotten wood and stuff it into your eyes, mouth and nose, to look like flyblows. Then I will tell the Deer that you are dead, and get a crowd of them to come and dance around your body. I will sit at your head and beat the drum and sing, and when a big buck comes near I will touch you and you can jump up and cut his throat so that both of us will have plenty to eat."

The Panther lay down and the Raccoon stretched him out and putting the rotten wood into his eyes, nose, and mouth, ran off to tell the Deer of the Panther's death. He met an old Deer and said: "The Panther is dead; come and see him."

But she was very shy, and replied: "If he is dead, let him stay dead."

Soon the Raccoon met a Fawn and told of the Panther's death, and the Fawn came near the Panther's body, looked, and then ran to tell the Deer that their enemy was dead.

A crowd soon gathered, and the Raccoon took his seat at the Panther's head and proposed a dance. He beat his drum and sang a song:

Ching a ching
Ching a ching
Ching a ching, ching.

Then the Deer danced around the dead Panther. By and by a fat buck danced near, and the Raccoon touched the Panther, who jumped up and killed the buck.