This story dates back to a long time ago.
One day a lazy hunter, sitting in the savannah, looks longingly at a herd of springboks. He told himself it was way too hot to stealthily approach it when he saw a female cheetah. With the headwind, she walks slowly towards the herd, until she folds her legs under her body and rushes at lightning speed on a springbok.
The hunter admires his agility.
He discovers that his three cubs are waiting, hidden in the grass, and look at her. Lust takes hold of man. He would like to have such a skilled assistant hunting for him.
A devious idea then springs to his mind.
He knows that cheetahs never attack people and decides to capture the cubs to train them. At sunrise, the cheetah mother leaves her young alone to return to hunting. The hunter waits until she has gone far enough. In addition to being cowardly, he does not want to give the mother the opportunity to defend her young. While the kids play regardless of danger, he sneaks up to them and takes them one by one.
On her return, the mother finds that her cubs are missing.
She calls them whistling like cheetahs do and cries so much that her tears leave marks on her face. For days she searches for her young. It wanders further and further without paying attention to the preys it meets along the way. The cheetah's cries are so intense that an old shaman hears them. She is very wise and knows a lot about animals and has great respect for them. When she finds out what happened, she is very angry. A hunter can only use his strength and skill. Any other method is shameful. The villagers banish the sloth from their community forever. The shaman brings the young cheetahs back to their mother.
But her long tears marked her face forever.
This is how cheetahs still carry the traces of those tears today.
They serve as a warning to hunters ...