One day the animals made a kraal and inside it they hid their most precious possession, a large pot of fat.
They told the rock rabbit, or dassie, that he must stand guard, and off they went.
By and by, who should come along, but the inkalimeva.
The dassie, who was a lazy little creature, had already fallen asleep, so the inkalimeva went in and ate up all the fat.
As he went out, he flicked a pebble at the dassie and woke him up. The dassie started up crying, 'The fat belonging to all the animals has been eaten by the inkalimeva!'
The animals rushed up and were so angry about loosingtheir fat, that they killed the dassie.
When they had accumulated more fat, they set the muishond, or skunk, to guard the gate.
This time the inkalimeva brought with him a pot of honey (which the muishond loves!), and while the foolish guard was licking and guzzling the honey, the inkalimeva slipped in and devoured all the fat. Then he threw a stone at the muishond which made it look up. The muishond gave a cry of horror. The fat belonging to all the animals had been eaten by the inkalimeva!
Again the animals were very angry at loosing their precious fat, and the unfortunate muishond was soon beaten to death.
In vain the animals set new guards — the duiker, the blue buck, and the porcupine. Each in turn was outwitted by the inkalimeva.
At last they chose the hare to be guard. 'Oh no,' said the hare, 'the dassie is dead, the muishond is dead, the blue buck is dead, the duiker is dead, and so is the porcupine. Do you think I am tired of life?'
They continued to coax and promise him that they would not kill him, and so he agreed.
When the animals had gone, he lay down, but only pretended to be asleep. Soon, up crept the inkalimeva and into the kraal he went, and started to lick the fat.
'Hi! shouted the hare, 'Leave the fat alone.'
The inkalimeva realized that he should make friends with this wakeful fellow and in a little while, they were chatting and playing games.
'You could tie my tail to anything and I could always escape,' boasted the hare.
'You could do that with mine too, I have a fine tail,' responded the inkalimeva.
'Let us see then,' said the hare. The inkalimeva agreed, and in a moment the hare had tied him fast.
When he saw the inkalimeva could not escape, the hare took his club and killed him.
He then took the inkalimeva's tail, which was delicious, and ate it all, except for a little bit which he could not manage.
This he hid in the kraal fence.
Then he called loudly: 'The fat belonging to the animals has been eaten by the inkalimeva.'
The anxious animals came running, but how relieved they were when they saw the fat safe and the inkalimeva lying dead.
They asked the hare for the tail, which by rights belonged to the chief.
The hare replied, 'The one I killed did not have any tail.'
'How can there be an inkalimeva without a tail?' they said in disbelief.
They began to search and at length found the piece of tail in the fence.
When the chief heard that the hare had eaten his royal portion he was very angry. 'Bring him to me,' he ordered. 'So that I could punish him!'
But by this time the hare was long gone!