Once there was a gentleman jaguar and a lady skunk.
Mrs. Skunk had a son, who was baptized by Mr. Jaguar,
so Mrs. Skunk became his compadre. Mr. Jaguar
decided to go looking for food and came to Mrs.
Skunk's house.
"Well,
compadre, what are you looking for? What have you
come here for?" the skunk asked the jaguar.
"Compadre,
what I have come to do is to look for some
food," said Mr. Jaguar.
"Oh,"
said Mrs. Skunk. "I want my godson to come
with me so that he can learn to hunt," said
Mr. Jaguar.
"I
don't think your godson ought to go; he's still very
small and something could happen to him. He better
not go, compadre," said Mrs. Skunk.
But the
little skunk protested:"No, mother, I had better
go. What my godfather says is true. I need to get
some practice, if I'm going to learn to hunt,"
said the little skunk.
"But
if you go, you'll be so far away," said Mrs.
Skunk.
"I'm
going, Come on, let's go." So Mr jaguar
and young son skunk set off on a long walk.
"We're going to where there's a river. That's
where we're going," Mr. Jaguar explained to the
little skunk, his godson.
"When
are we going to get there?" asked the little
skunk.
"We're
getting close. Follow me and you won't get
lost," said Mr. Jaguar. "All
right," answered the little skunk. Finally
they came to the river. "This is where we're
going to eat," said Mr. Jaguar to the little
skunk. "All right," said the little
skunk.
"Come
on over here. I'm going to sharpen my knife,"
said Mr. Jaguar. "All right," said
the little skunk, looking at his godfather. Mr.
Jaguar sharpened his claws, which he called his
"knife." "I sharpened my knife.
Now you're going to be on guard, because I am going
to sleep. When you see them come, wake me up,"
said Mr. Jaguar.
"All
right," said the little skunk, "all right,
godfather."
Then Mr.
Jaguar told him: "Don't shout. Just scratch my
belly when they come. Scratch my belly, so I
won't alarm them. But don't wake me up if just any
little old animals without antlers come along, only
when the one with big antlers gets here. That's when
you'll wake me up."
"All
right," said the little skunk. Then the one with
the big antlers came, and the skunk awakened Mr.
Jaguar. He scratched his belly, and pointed out
the deer to Mr. Jaguar, who attacked the animal with
big antlers. He went after him and seized him.
"Good,
my godson, let's eat. We're going to eat meat,"
said the jaguar. "All right," said
the little skunk. And so they ate and ate.
"Now we're going to take whatever is left
over to your mother," said the jaguar.
"Since we are full, we can take her some.
Your mother will have meat to eat, just as we did.
Yes, we will take some to your mother,"
said the jaguar.
When they
came back to the mother's house, he told the lady:
"Look at the food here. Look, we've brought you
some food, the food that we hunted. Eat your fill of
the meat, compadre," the jaguar said to Mrs.
Skunk.
"All
right," said the skunk, and ate the meat.
"I'm full," she said. "It's good
that you're satisfied. I've seen that you are, so
I'll be leaving now," said Mr. Jaguar to
Mrs. Skunk. And so he left. After the jaguar
left, the little skunk stayed with his mother.
When they
ran out of meat, Mrs. Skunk said to her son:
"Dear, our meat is all gone."
"Yes, the meat is all gone. I better go and get
us some more food," said the little skunk.
"How
can you, son? Do you think you're big enough? You're
very small. Don't you think you'll be
killed?" asked Mrs. Skunk.
"No,
mother, I already know how to hunt, my godfather
taught me how," replied the little skunk.
"I'm leaving now."
He left,
and Mrs. Skunk was very worried. Her son came once
more to the river, the place to which he had
come with his godfather to get the meat.
"This
is how my godfather did it. Why shouldn't I be able
to do the same thing?" said the little skunk.
"This is how you sharpen a knife," said the
little skunk. He sharpened his
"knife." "This is the way my
godfather did it. I'm not going to hunt the little
animals, I'm just going to hunt the one with
the great big antlers. I'm going to hunt one for
myself just like the one I ate with my godfather. I
have my knife here and I'm going to sleep for a
little while."
The little
skunk lay down to sleep, but then he awakened. He was
waiting for the one with the big antlers, and when he
came, he attacked him, thinking he was as strong as
his godfather. But he just hung from the neck
of the one with big antlers. His claws had dug into
his skin. He was hanging from his neck and was
carried far away and fell on his back. He was
left with his mouth wide open.
Since he
had not come home to his mother, she wondered:
"What could have happened to my son? Why hasn't
he come back yet? Something must have happened to
him. I better go and look for him." And so Mrs.
Skunk went as far as the bank of the river. She
was looking everywhere for her son, but couldn't find
him. She began to cry when she found the tracks
where the one with the big antlers had come by
running.
"They
must have come by here," said Mrs. Skunk, and
began to follow the tracks. She came to the place
where her son had been left lying on his back. When
the mother caught sight of him, she noticed that his
teeth were showing and shouted at him: "Son,
what are you laughing at? All your teeth are
showing," she said to him before she had gotten
very close.
When she
did get close she told him: "Give me your hand.
I've come to get you, but you're just laughing
in my face." She put her hand on him, thinking
that he was still alive, but when she noticed that he
was already dead, she began to cry.
