In the past, giraffes and antelopes were about the same size. Both had long, fast legs and a beautiful slender neck. Even back then, people collected the sweet sap of the palm tree in a pot at the very top of the trunk. The giraffe and the antelope would also have liked to drink the palm sap, but the pot was too high up.

Once the antelope discovered a pot of palm sap. It tried to stretch out and catch the pot, but it was too small. Then she saw the squirrel hopping around in the palm tree.

"Squirrel," she called, "why don't you come down to me?" When the squirrel was with her, she tied a rope around its belly and then called out: "Watch out, a wild cat is coming!"

Out of sheer fear, the squirrel jumped up onto the palm tree.

When he was up there, the antelope called out. "The wildcat has gone, you can come down again!"

The squirrel, as is his way, jumped down on the other side of the palm tree and the antelope took the rope again. Now she tried to pull the palm tree down with the rope, but soon she didn't have the strength. Then she saw the elephant coming and she called out: "Elephant, you must be too weak to pull this palm tree down."

"I'm the strongest one here," shouted the elephant and pulled on the rope until the palm tree bent almost to the ground. The antelope quickly jumped down and drank the sweet palm sap from the pot. Every day she went there and drank as much as she wanted. 

But one day she realised that the pot was only half full. She thought: "There's a thief drinking my juice at night, I want to catch him. She tied a loop in the rope and waited.

As soon as it was dark, she heard footsteps and soon afterwards loud slurping. The antelope quickly cut the rope and with one swing the palm tree flew upwards, along with the thief. There was a loud shout and soon everyone knew who the thief was, because the giraffe was hanging from the top of the palm tree and wriggling its legs.

"Help me!" she shouted.

The elephant took pity on the giraffe and tried to pull it down, but this made the giraffe's legs very long. The elephant pulled and pulled until the giraffe's neck became very long too. The antelope laughed and said: "It serves you right for stealing from my palm sap!"

The squirrel didn't want to listen to the giraffe's moaning any longer. He climbed onto the palm tree, bit through the rope and the giraffe was free. But what did it look like now? Its legs were very thin and its neck was so long that its head was higher than the trees.

So the giraffe got a long neck and to this day it walks around swaying slightly, like people do when they have drunk too much palm sap.

Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: S. Karig, T. Bodrogi, G. Dubovitz (Übers.), Das Herz der Sterne, Budapest 1972, englische Fassung Lysander Jaenike ©Mutabor Märchenstiftung