They told Ntho of their suspicions, and although he did not believe them at first, he took a large stone and went to sit beside his so-called wife. As he pretended to stroke her, he dropped the stone against her. At once she wriggled away from him, and cried out, “Eeeeeh!”
“What hurt you, wife, to make you cry out like that?” Ntho asked, guessing that the stone had fallen on her dog’s tail, hidden underneath her leather apron.
“Oh!” she replied, sidling away from him, “it was nothing but a sudden stomach-ache.” However, Ntho was not satisfied, so on the following day he dug a deep trench beside his hut. Then, into the trench he poured quantities of milk. One by one he made the village women jump across the trench and, sure enough, when Tail-of-a-dog made her leap, down came the dog’s tail and splashed in the milk. The onlookers all saw what had happened. Ntho grabbed the tell-tale “tail”, and pulled the wicked creature into the trench. Quickly the villagers filled in the trench and so buried Tail-ofa-dog so that the country was freed for evermore from the wicked creature.
As the earth swallowed up his false wife, so it returned Ntho’s true bride. Thakane came back to life from her earthly covering, and there was much singing and dancing as the girl was welcomed back to her husband’s home. They lived happily together for ever after.
Narrator: Melesala Khan
HOATITI AND THE GOAT THIEVES
LESOTHO
Hoatiti and his wife had a herd of beautiful goats. They were proud of these valuable animals, but one by one the goats were being killed and eaten. They were sure that Mpungushi, the wicked jackal, was the thief. So Hoatiti’s wife decided to build a new and stronger kraal in which to keep them, with higher, stronger stone walls, so that nothing could break in and harm their precious herd.
All day long she toiled in the hot sun and when night came her work was finished. The new wall was tall and strong. She put the goats inside, closing the entrance firmly, then she and her husband settled down happily for the night. Their troubles must now be over, and they could rest in peace.
However, when she looked out of her hut door next morning, the woman saw, with great annoyance, that the wall was broken and many stones scattered on the ground. To their great surprise though, she and her husband found that the goats were unharmed, and none were missing.
Hoatiti studied the spoor on the ground carefully. “It is definitely the jackal who visited us last night,” he informed his wife. “He is the one who has ruined your hard work.”
“Well,” said the woman with a sigh, “I will build the wall even higher and stronger.” So she began to repair the damaged wall with more, and larger rocks. She finished just as the sun went down and, after putting the goats inside, she said to Hoatiti, “The goats should be safe tonight!” after which she went wearily to bed.
Early the following morning the woman again saw to her anger that, not only were the walls broken down, but to add insult to injury, Mpungushi the jackal was standing on one of the walls, laughing to himself. She called to her husband and he replied, “Wife, bring me my sling. I’ll shoot the impudent creature.”
Now, the jackal knew nothing about slings, and thought that he was perfectly safe at that distance. As he wanted to hear what Hoatiti and his wife were talking about, he pricked his ears forward to listen. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in his side and he raced off to the safety of the veld with all speed.
When he was a good way away, Mpungushi paused to examine himself. Like all jackals, he was most inquisitive. He had not seen the thing that had hurt him, for it had travelled too fast, so he said to himself, “That was very strange. I don’t know what hurt me. It couldn’t have been Hoatiti and his wife for they were far, far away. I must go back tonight and find out what really happened.”
The jackal returned in the light of early dawn, so that when Hoatiti’s wife looked out of her hut, she saw him for the second time, standing upon the broken wall. Again she called her husband, and again he told her to fetch his sling, adding, “This time I’ll kill him.”
Hoatiti chose a larger stone for his sling, took very careful aim and he sent the stone whizzing on its journey. It struck the jackal so hard that he jumped high in the air with a yelp of pain. Then off he rushed into the veld once more crying, “Woaw, woaw, woaw!”
On his headlong flight the jackal met Senonnori, who had never been one of his friends. “Mpungushi, why are you crying?” he asked.
“Crying?” snapped the jackal. “I’m not crying. I’m singing!”
But Senonnori did not believe him, and laughed, “Well, my friend, sing again. I want to hear you better!”
The jackal decided to get even with him later, and changed the subject as an idea came into his crafty head. “Do you know Hoatiti?” he asked pleasantly. Senonnori liked the creatures of the wilds to think that he knew everybody so he replied, “Of course I know him.”
“Are you afraid of him?” asked the jackal.
“Afraid of him?” laughed Senonnori, “why, if I even look at him, he runs away.”
“Splendid!” smirked the jackal. “Then, if you are as brave as all that will you come with me and chase him away? He is annoying me.”
“Certainly, certainly,” replied Senonnori. “Show me where he lives, and I will deal with him.” Mpungushi took Senonnori to the goat kraal and told him to climb the wall if he wanted to see Hoatiti. “He is not expecting you,” he added, “so you will have the advantage. I will hide behind the wall, because he is expecting me!”
Not long after this Hoatiti went to the door of his hut and, seeing another creature on the wall, called for his sling once more.
“Did you hear what that two-legged creature said?” whispered Mpungushi from his hiding place. “No,” answered Senonnori excitedly, “what did he say?”
“He said,” replied the jackal slyly, “what is that beautiful creature standing on the wall? Wife, come and admire him!”
Now, Senonnori was very vain, so he strutted boldly backwards and forwards along the top of the wall to show off his beauty.
Suddenly he felt a violent pain in his side, which made him stop. “What bit me?” he asked in surprise. “I didn’t hear or see anything!” Then another stone hit him and, with a yell of pain he rushed to where the jackal was hiding.
“We will come again tomorrow,” replied the jackal comfortingly, “because I don’t know the answer either. There’s something here that can bite from a distance. We must find out what it is.”
The following day the two animals went again to the goat kraal, and when Senonnori climbed onto the wall, Hoatiti was waiting for him. The stone that came whistling from the sling struck its target with such force that it knocked Senonnori right off the wall, and he scuttled away into the veld crying, “Weee, weee, weed”
The jackal doubled up with laughter, and called after him, “My friend, if you are singing, can’t you sing a bit louder. I can’t hear you properly! Don’t you realise that you can’t beat Hoatiti? He is so clever, that he can bite you from far away!”
However, Senonnori was a brave little creature, and he was also very, very angry. “I will go again tomorrow,” he said, “and I will kill this one who bites from far away.”
True to his words, Senonnori was on the wall as the sun rose the following morning and, when the first stone hit him, he jumped down and bravely attacked Hoatiti. But Hoatiti was prepared for this, and the next stone was fired at such a short range, that it knocked Senonnori head over heels. He was only just able to escape.
“We must kill this creature,” said Hoatiti to his wife, “for this is the one who has been killing our goats.”
Hoatiti and his wife decided to make friends with the jackal, and they offered him a reward of a fat goat if he would help them kill Senonnori. “When this is done,” added Hoatiti to his wife, “we will kill Mpungushi too. In that way we can get rid of both of them.”
The jackal agreed to help, but on one condition. “First you must give me the goat,” he insiste
d, “so that I can use it to bait the trap.”
Hoatiti did not trust the jackal, so he killed the goat and poisoned the flesh, in the hope of killing both of them.
Later in the day Mpungushi went to see Senonnori, and pretended to be most sorry for him. “My friend,” he sympathised, “your wounds have made you ill. I have stolen a goat from Hoatiti. Let’s have a feast together, you and I. Come, I will help you to my hut.”
Senonnori leaned upon the jackal’s shoulder and together they went to Mpungushi’s home, where they sat down under the branches of a tree and built a fire on which to roast the goat. After chatting for a while, the jackal began to make a fuss of Senonnori, stroking his arms and legs, and running his claws through the creature’s hair in a most affectionate manner. Gradually the paw that was stroking Senonnori went higher, and closer to his friend’s neck and, just as Senonnori had decided what a dear, sympathetic friend he was fortunate enough to have, Mpungushi slipped a noose around Senonnori’s neck, and hauled him up to the branch above.
There the treacherous jackal left Senonnori, while he hurried to fetch Hoatiti, shouting, “Come, Hoatiti, I have caught the thief who has been stealing your goats. If you are quick, you can help me to kill him!”
Together Hoatiti and Mpungushi built a big fire, using green branches, so that the thick smoke soon suffocated Senonnori. As soon as he was dead, the jackal invited all his jackal friends – and together they sat down to enjoy their feast of goat flesh.
There is no need to tell you what happened then, for you will remember that Hoatiti had poisoned the meat. Hoatiti and his wife were soon rid of the goat thieves for evermore.
Narrator: Melesala Khan
THE STORY OF FUDWAZANA AND GONGONGO
XHOSA
When this great big world was a very much kinder place than it is today, all the animals lived in friendship. They had no fear of one another. They lived happily together, ruled by the great and noble King of Beasts, Lord Lion.
The natural food of these creatures was vegetables and greens, the same as human beings eat. But because the animals had had no land given to them by the Creator when he divided up the earth, they were forced to live by taking what they could from the cultivated lands of their human neighbours. This was dangerous, and many were caught and killed. The loss of so many of his subjects was a great sorrow to King Lion – so much so that he called a meeting of his people.
Now, the lion was by no means the largest of the creatures of the wilds. Many were very much larger – for instance his Chief Councillor the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tall giraffe and others. He was looked up to for his justness and for his bravery against the humans whose fields they robbed. So because of the praise that his devoted subjects gave him, and also because he had no rival, Lord Lion had grown to think that there was no one on earth so powerful as he.
But when the lion considered that he was the only lord of the earth, he had overlooked Gongongo, a huge monster which ranged the country far beyond the lion’s kingdom. He lived on whatever he could find – even greens, when he could find no flesh. He was so enormous that he did not even chew small animals like sheep and goats, but swallowed them whole. He could easily take three of these little creatures at a time into his enormous belly. And of course he did not attend the meeting which Lord Lion had summoned.
“My subjects!” their king solemnly addressed his people when they all were gathered together.
“Too many animals are being killed as they visit the gardens of our human neighbours. We must cultivate some gardens of our own. Let each animal hoe and till his own small patch, where he can grow the food he needs to eat. Come, let us begin the search for a suitable place.”
There was an excited hum of agreement amongst the animals as they discussed their ruler’s plan. “Why shouldn’t we grow our own crops?” they asked each other. And so the search began. First one piece of land was examined, and then another – until at last they discovered a broad fertile plain far away from any human beings, which pleased them all.
On the following morning the king provided each animal with a hoe and all was bustle and excitement as they dug, scraped and tilled to get their gardens planted.
The land that they had chosen was rich and fertile, and soon grew good crops, so that the animals went happily each day to reap the reward of their labours. Imagine their surprise and anger when they went as usual one day to gather their daily food, and found that the whole area had been laid bare. Not a blade nor a leaf of all that they had planted was to be found, while in the very centre of the field squatted the most enormous creature that any of them had ever seen.
They fled back in terror and told their king of this disaster. So, advising them to remain behind, the lion went to punish the intruder. But when he saw how big it was, and how fierce it looked, Lord Lion realised that this enemy was far too big for him. Instead of fighting him he roared angrily, “Who are you? How dare you trespass on the land that my subjects have chosen to grow their crops? And what right have you to come into my kingdom?”
In a frightful voice the creature bellowed in reply, “’Tis I, Gongongo, the one who swallows buffaloes alive, horns and all. I could swallow you, little lion, without even blinking. As for what I am doing on your land, why, I came here because I was hungry, and who’s going to stop me?”
The lion, in spite of his bravery, gave one terrified look at the dreadful monster, then turned tail and ran for his life. There was dismay among his subjects when they realised that even their highly respected king could do nothing to get rid of this danger.
After an uncomfortable period of silence, Fudwazana the tortoise shuffled forward and said, “My Lord Lion, I will rid you of this wicked monster, if you will provide me with a weapon. Give me a little axe that is small enough to hide beneath my shell; sharpen it well, and you will see that I am telling the truth.”
Although he did not believe that so small a creature could possibly overcome the mighty monster, Lord Lion willingly gave the tortoise a well-sharpened axe. Quite a long time later, for the tortoise can’t walk very fast, Fudwazana reached the field and waddled boldly up to the mountain of flesh. There he stopped and called out, “Who are you whose wretched body is making such a mess of our field?”
The creature replied as he had to the lion, “I am Gongongo, the one who swallows buffaloes with ease, horns and all! Three sheep at once are nothing to me. You, Fudwazana, are so small that I could toss you under my tongue and never think of you again!”
“Well, my friend,” answered the tortoise, “I would be very grateful if you would do just that, because now that you have eaten all our food there is nothing left for us to eat. I would look upon it as a great privilege to live beneath your tongue for then, my lord, I could catch the odd scraps of the food you eat.” Whereupon he waddled his way right up in front of Gongongo’s mouth, and the enormous creature caught him and tossed him under his big yellow tongue.
“Ah!” chuckled Fudwazana to himself as the huge mouth closed over him, “now we will see who has the greater brain!” And pulling the little axe from under his shell, he began to chop at the base of Gongongo’s leathery tongue.
Chop! chop! chop! The enormous creature sat up and shook his head, wondering what troubled him. Again chop! chop! chop! went the little razor-sharp axe, and this time Gongongo gave a thunderous roar of pain that was heard throughout the country. All the animals shivered with fear for they thought their dreaded enemy was coming to attack them. But Fudwazana was not wasting time and as soon as he reached the root of the creature’s tongue, he chopped it right out.
The roars of pain grew fainter and fainter until, as the animals ran forward with shouts of encouragement to the tortoise, the noise ceased altogether, and they realised that Fudwazana had carried out his promise.
When they reached the field they found their enemy dying, and the triumphant tortoise climbing out of its enormous mouth singing loudly,
“’Tis I, ’tis I, the Tortoise, ’t
is I, who has killed Gongongo.”
Needless to say, the animals made a tremendous fuss of the brave Fudwazana. They carried him home with shouts of joy and songs of praise. For ever after they were able to grow their crops in peace and safety. Ever since that day tortoises have been respected by all the creatures of the wilds. They consider they are the wisest as well as the most cunning, brave and persevering animals of them all. Hurray for Tortoises!
Narrator: Thandiwe Mceleni
THE TWINS AND THE CANNIBAL’S FEAST
LESOTHO
Reli and Relinyane were twin boys. Relinyane was clever, small and agile, while his twin brother Reli was clumsy and large and stupid. It was as though a Spirit of Stupidity lived inside him.
It was Relinyane’s task each day to take his father’s cattle out to graze and he used to take Reli with him, to prevent him worrying those at home. As Relinyane left their hut, he took with him a fire-pot with a glowing ember from his mother’s fire.
Each time they arrived at the grazing ground, the small twin sat the large twin beneath a shady tree and built a little fire. Then, telling Reli to watch the cattle and look after the fire, Relinyane went to trap mice and birds to cook for their midday meal. Later, he would have to feed his brother, for he was too stupid to feed himself.
In the evenings, when they took the cattle home, Relinyane would guide Reli to his mother’s hut, then count his father’s cattle before he closed the entrance to the kraal. After this, he fetched their evening meal, and again he had to feed his twin. All this goes to show how much Reli relied upon Relinyane.
One day, when as usual they took the cattle out to pasture, Relinyane forgot to take his little fire pot. This was indeed unfortunate, because he was hungrier than ever that day, and had no wish to eat raw mice. So he made a plan. “Brother,” he said, “don’t leave this place while I am away. I’m going to fetch some fire from the cannibal’s hut across the river. If he sees me and chases me, you will never run fast enough to escape so you must ask the earth to swallow you. Now, say this after me. ‘Earth, earth, please open and swallow me!’” Three times Relinyane made Reli repeat these magic words after him, then he sat Reli down under a tall ironwood tree while he left for the cannibal’s hut, to steal some fire.
The Best of African Folklore Page 11
