The James T. Callow Folklore Archive

Wild Rat Hunting

One day there was an African guy, who lived in the city. One day
he went to the village for the holidays to visit his three cousin.
His cousins went and stole a neighbor's hunting dog. They went deep
into the bush. They decided to hunt rat. They found an entrance to a
rat hole. This particular rat had three exits. The dog was placed
to guard one hole and two of the cousins were on the other holes.
They proceeded to poke in the hole to get the rat to come out. The
rat jumped out of the hole where the dog was. When it jumped out,
the dog ran one way and the rat went the other way. The four cousins
called the dog to go after the rat. The rat ran up a tree out of the
reach of the boys and the dog. The cousins got angry with the dog
and continued their hunt grudgedly. They found another rat entrance
and this time the rat bit the dog and the dog began running crazily
and screaming, causing the boys to lose another rat. After about
four hours of hunting the boys spotted a big squirrel and once again
the squirrel escaped the dog. The boys were extremely mad and
decided to do something about it. They climbed half way up bamboo
trees (in case the dog tried to bite anyone) while the one who knew
the dog called it as if he was going to reward it. The guy whipped
the dog really good with a large bamboo branch. The dog began to run
around in great pain. The cousin whipped the dog three times. Once
for every catch they lost. Following this incident, the cousin from
the city abandoned the hunt and returned home disgusted. After about
ten hours of hunting they went home with three big rats. This ten
hours according to standards was too long for only three rats. As
tradition goes, the dog was given the insides of the rats to make
sure he stays a good hunting dog.

Submitter comment: Do not generalize this story to all Africans. All Africans do
not eat rat. Rats in the jungle are different from house rats, which
are not edible.

Date learned: 08-00-1980