Now Ningun was worried.
She began to look closely at all the men in that village.
"That one? Definitely not.
This one? Oh never.
The one over there? Not possible!"
And in this way she went through the entire town.
But Saturday,
at the marketplace,
Ningun saw a handsome stranger.
She had never seen this man before.
He was tall, and slim.
He moved so sinuously when he walked.
His muscles rippled under his clothing.
And he was wearing a velvet jacket of green and brown and
gold.
It looked s0000 soft.
Ningun went right up to this stranger. "Handsome stranger.
My name is Ningun.
I'm the most beautiful girl in the village."
The stranger turned away.
But Ningun followed.
"Perhaps you don't understand.
My name is Ningun.
I'm the most beautiful girl in this village.
And I'm available."
The stranger looked at her.
"Who is this girl?" He walked away.
Ningun still followed.
Everywhere he went that day Ningun was right behind him.
Every time he turned she was there.
"Ningun—that's me.
The most beautiful girl in the village.
Still available."
When the day was over Ningun was still right behind that
stranger.
He started to leave the village.
Ningun followed.
At the edge of the village he turned to Ningun.
"Girl, you cannot go home with me.
Go back now.
Before it's too late."
"You are so handsome," said Ningun.
"I will follow you wherever you go." The stranger turned and walked into the forest. Ningun was right behind.
Deep into the forest she followed.
Then suddenly the stranger stopped. le turned.
* * *
And now he was smiling at her.
But Ningun saw ...
the handsome stranger had no teeth!
"Handsome stranger ...
what has happened to your teeth?"
"My teeth are gone
and they won't come back.
And you should go home
before it's too late."
Ningun would not turn back.
"Ohhhh ... you're even more handsome without your
teeth!"
And she followed him deeper into the forest.
After a while the stranger stopped again.
Again he turned.
And Ningun saw ...
the handsome stranger had no arms!
"Handsome stranger, what happened to your arms?"
"My arms are gone
and they won't come back.
My teeth are gone
and they won't come back.
And you should go home
before it's too late."
But Ningun would not give up.
"Ohhhhh ... you're even more handsome without
your arms!"
And she followed him on ... deeper into the forest.
There ... deep ... deep in the forest ... the stranger leaned up
against a huge tree.
"Now I am home," he said.
And he turned to Ningun.
Then Ningun saw ...
the handsome stranger did not have any legs!
"Handsome stranger ...
where are your legs?"
"My legs are gone and they won't come back.
My arms are gone
and they won't come back.
My teeth are gone
and they won't come back.
And you should have gone home
before it was too late."
The handsome stranger turned and began to twine himself
around the huge tree.
His head disappeared behind that tree,
his body followed after,
and when his head reemerged on the other side of the tree ... it was the head of a huge ... snake!
The handsome stranger ... had changed into a boa constrictor!
Ningun had been following a snake!
She turned to run.
But she tripped over the tree's root and fell.
"Aaaaaa" ... the snake-man came slithering out from behind
the tree and began delicately to nibble on her toes!
"Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni
Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni ..."
Poor Ningun began to call for help.
"Ningun-0!
Ningun-0!
Help oh help Ningun-O!"
Here came a hunter down the road carrying his gun.
It was the very hunter she had turned down.
"Hunter hunter save me!
Hunter save Ningun-O!
Save oh save Ningun-O
This awful awful day!"
The hunter looked.
He saw her toes disappearing into the snake's mouth. I le turned away.
* * *
"I don't know Ningun-O,
I don't know Ningun-O,
I won't save Ningun-O
This day or any day."
That snake was swallowing up to her knees.
"Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni
Ni ni ni ...Ningun... ni ni."
"Hunter hunter save me! Hunter save Ningun-O Save oh save Ningun-0 This awful awful day!"
The hunter looked. Her knees were gone. He turned away.
"I don't know Ningun-O, I don't know Ningun-O, I won't save Ningun-O, This day or any day."
That boa was swallowing still.
Up to her waist.
"Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni
Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni."
"Hunter hunter save me!
Hunter save Ningun-O
Save oh save Ningun-O
This awful awful day!"
The hunter looked.
The snake had swallowed Ningun clear up to her waist.
He turned away.
"I don't know Ningun-O
I don't know Ningun-O
I won't save Ningun-O
This day or any day."
That snake kept swallowing.
He had reached up to her neck.
"Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni Ni ni ni Ningun ni ni."
"Hunter hunter save me Save oh save Ningun-O Save oh save Ningun-O This awful awful day."
The hunter looked.
Ningun had disappeared into the snake's body. Only her pretty little head still stuck out. He turned away.
"I don't know Ningun-0, I don't know Ningun-O, I won't save Ningun-O This day or any day."
The snake kept swallowing.
"Ni ni ni Ningun ni
Ni ni ni Ningun
The hunter turned.
Already her chin had disappeared into that snake's mouth.
The hunter felt some pity.
He took his gun.
He shot the snake.
The snake writhed.
It died.
Ningun was still in the snake's body.
The hunter took his knife and sliced it open. He peeled it back and pulled her out.
She was so deformed.
From being in that snake's stomach.
"Oh hunter, you are so handsome. Now I see that you are so handsome. Oh hunter, you are so strong. Now I see that you are so strong.
* * *
Yes. Yes. I will marry you!"
The hunter looked at her.
"You? I would as soon marry a goat as marry you.
You are nothing more than the remains of a snake's
dinner!"
And he left her there.
So it was with all of the men in that village.
Poor Ningun found no man to marry a snake's lunch.
Since that day,
no girl in that village may choose her own
husband.
If a girl wants to marry her father says
"Fine.
You
will marry
this one!"
And that is that.
Tips for Telling
As the snakeman begins to nibble on Ningun's toes, make the -gun of his chant sound like swallowing.
Ni ... ni ... ni ... ningun ... ni ... ni....
Encourage the audience to chant and swallow with you. Experienced audiences can keep up the chant during the entire final portion of the tale, with Ningun's calls and the hunter's retorts playing over the chant. All should be rhythmic.
At the story's end, I point to a specific girl and boy in the audience and deliver the lines. "You ... will marry ... this one!" This evokes shrieks of horror from upper elementary and junior high listeners, especially if you size the group up and choose a couple who have been interacting during the stories.
When I tell "Ningun" I always follow it with a simple recounting of the following true story. Such stories can be told in your own words, without much preparation. Their content and their immediacy carry the story without much help on your part.
A True Story: Teresa Olsen, a kindergarten teacher at the Stillwater Elementary School in Carnation, Washington, told me a true story of a man being eaten by a python. It was related to her during a trip with her missionary mother-in-law to a rural Baole village in the Ivory Coast.
It seems this man was a drunkard. He seldom made it back home after his binges and would be found lying asleep along the roadside next morning. One evening when he was lying in the bushes, passed out as usual, a python discovered him.
It started on his right leg. It swallowed and swallowed and swallowed ... until it had swallowed his entire leg. But when it reached his hip it could go no further. The python could not disgorge the entire leg, so it was stuck there.
In the morning the man awoke in a stupor and tried to get up onto his feet. There was a python on his leg. He screamed for help and people from the village came to the rescue. They slit the snake and peeled it from his leg. But his leg had been inside the snake all night. The snake's stomach had already begun to digest the leg. The skin and the muscles were totally eaten away by the acids of the snake's stomach. The man survived, but he was never able to use that leg again.
The people in this village tell the story to their children to warn them of the dangers of drinking too much. Never drink until you pass out. You never know when a boa will come along and start swallowing your leg.
About the Story
"Ningun" is inspired by a version in One Man, One Wife by T.M. Aluko (Ibadan: Heinemann, 1967), pp. 20-24. In this novel children are told the story late in the evening as they sit on the veranda. "Toro chanted the solo in her beautiful rich treble voice. All the other children joined in the chorus, clapping their hands to the beats of the music. All except young Dele, who was already dreaming of hunters and boas."
This is Motif 15652.1 Marriage to python in human form.
* * *
Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature cites a Kaffir variant and gives marriage-to-serpent-in-human-form variants from India, Greenland, and the Toba people of South America.
Yonjwa Seeks a Bride
Yonjwa went courting.
Yonjwa was the son of a chief.
Son of Lonkundo, that famous hero.
For such a man a bride must be fine.
No skinny little weaklings for Yonjwa.
A large, strong woman he needed for a wife.
Yonjwa traveled far.
Many villages he passed.
Many women he saw.
But all were too weak ... too skinny.
None worthy of a chief's son.
Then one day Yonjwa met a man on the road. This man was covered with oil,
greasy from top to bottom.
"What on earth happened to you?" Yonjwa asked.
"Oh I did a foolish thing.
In this next village down the road there is a girl called
Eyonga.
She is the chief's daughter.
That Eyonga is so strong.
She is large.
She is handsome.
She is beautiful.
Everyone wants to marry Eyonga.
But she won't marry any man.
When a man comes to court her ...
that Eyonga makes him wrestle with her!
If she can throw him down ...
he has lost.
But that's not all.
She makes him wrestle her in a pit of oil.
* * *
Her father is so rich.
He has palm oil plantations.
That oil is expensive.
But her father fills a pit with palm oil. And she wrestles standing in that oil. She rubs that oil all over her body. She is so slippery.
You can't get a grip on her anywhere.
"I tried to throw her.
Look at me.
She threw me down in that oil.
Everyone laughed.
They ran me out of the village.
It was the most foolish thing I ever tried.
What a fool ... to think I could beat that woman."
When Yonjwa heard this he thought, "At last I may have found a woman worthy to be my bride!" Yonjwa went at once to that girl's village.
When he entered he saw a group of girls talking together. All of them were large, and all of them were beautiful.
But one of those girls was larger and more beautiful than the
others.
She was gorgeous!
Yonjwa went right up to her.
"Are you the famous wrestling champion?"
She deigned to look at him.
"I might be."
"Then I have come to marry you."
"Oh is that so.
Well, come back tomorrow and we'll talk about it."
"No. I have come to marry you ... today."
She looked at him more closely, then turned and walked
away.
"Who is this person?" Yonjwa followed her into the village. He went right up to the village elders.
"Sirs, I have come to marry this woman of yours."
"Oh? Well, come back tomorrow, young man, and we
will talk about it."
"No. I have come to marry her today."
"Who is this young man?" they asked.
But to Yonjwa they said, "Her father isn't here."
Yonjwa was bold. "Then fetch him."
They sent for that girl's father and when he came Yonjwa
spoke.
"Sir, I have come to marry your daughter." "Well, come back tomorrow young man. We will talk about it."
"No. I have come to marry her ... today." "Who is this young man?" asked her father. But to Yonjwa he said. "We have a test here." "Get it ready," said Yonjwa.
"I will take the test."
Her father ordered the vat filled with palm oil.
Eyonga jumped into the oil.
She threw palm oil over her shoulders.
She rubbed her face with palm oil.
She was ready.
Yonjwa jumped into the oil.
The oil came up to Eyonga's waist. The oil came up to Yonjwa's waist. She was tall.
Ile was tall.
She was the daughter of a chief. lie was the son of a chief.
She waited.
She watched for her chance.
* * *
Eyonga grabbed Yonjwa around the waist.
She lifted him over her head. "Aaaaaaannngh!"
She threw him into the oil.
Yonjwa jumped up.
Oil was streaming down his face.
He was grinning.
"I like this woman!"
She grabbed him again.
She lifted him over her head.
"AAAAAAANGH!"
She threw him under the oil.
Yonjwa came
up again.
Oil was running from his hair.
He was laughing.
"I've got to have this woman!"
She grabbed him again.
This time Yonjwa was ready for her.
Yonjwa got a hold around Eyonga's neck.
He would not let go.
She twisted this way and that.
She tried to throw him and ... both went down beneath the
oil.
When they came up Yonjwa was still holding on.
He clung to her like a vine to a tree.
Wherever she turned ... there was Yonjwa, hanging fast. Then ... Yonjwa got his footing.
Slowly ... slowly ... he began to push Eyonga down. Down ... down ... until she touched the bottom of the vat. He had thrown her!
Those two leapt up. They were smiling.
Eyonga said, "At last! A man strong enough to be my husband!"
Yonjwa said, "At last! A woman strong enough to be my bride!"
Her father said, "Yes. It is a good match.
Tomorrow I will send eight men to bring back the bride price
from your village."
Yonjwa said
"Eight men?
You had better send eighty men!
This woman is worth a lot of bride price!"
And on the next day Eyonga's father sent eighty men to
Yonjwa's village.
There Yonjwa filled their baskets so full of bride wealth that
they could scarcely stagger home.
Such was the price of a good strong woman in those days.
Tips for Telling
I tell this tale boldly, lifting Yonjwa overhead and straining as I toss him under the oil. He must be very self-confident and sassy to the elders. The girl is just as sassy toward him. I stress the last line, "Such was the price of a good strong woman in those days."
Storyteller Debra Harris-Branham created a chant to go with this tale. She stomps out the rhythm as she chants.
He looked here. He looked there.
He couldn't find the right one ...
any ... where.
The audience claps and chants with Debra. She interjects the chant throughout the story and repeats it with the audience as a coda at the story's end. In Debra's hands it is very effective.
* * *
About the Story
This is a small part of the Congolese epic of Lonkundo and his sons. For more of the adventures of Yonjwa and Eyonga see Jan Knappert, Myths and Legends of the Congo (Nairobi: Heinemann, 1971). Knappert points out that among the Nkundo, the ideal woman is one of strength and stature.
In the tradition of modern feminism I have altered the tale slightly by omitting Knappert's line, "She knew her master and admired him. He helped her up and she declared herself vanquished." In further episodes Eyonga becomes the mother of the Nkundo people.
The Story-Teller's Start-Up Book Page 15
