Folktales from Africa Part 3

The other women stopped their work and watched the new wife walk off towards the river. As she disappeared into the thick gra.s.s that grew there, they all laughed.

"At long last that lazy woman is having to work," they said. "Today at least she cannot sit in her doorway and watch us working."

The new wife found the place in the river where water was to be drawn. She filled the calabash with ease and then turned round to begin her walk back. As she walked across the sandbank at the edge of the river, though, she felt the weight of the calabash getting greater and greater. She sensed the sand coming up around her ankles and found that it was more and more difficult to lift her feet. Then she found that her feet were sinking and that no matter what she did she could not free them. She was so light and delicate that the weight of the calabash was pushing her down into the ground, and in the time that it takes a bird to fly from one tree to another she had sunk completely out of sight.

The other women waited for her to return to the house so that they could laugh at her and send her back to the river for more water. After they had waited for some time, they began to feel uneasy.

"Perhaps she has run away," said one of the women.

"She would not do that," another said. "She must be hiding. She is trying to give us a fright."

The senior cousin decided that they should go and find the new wife and so the women all left their work and followed the footprints down to the river bank. They searched and searched all along the river and in the bush beside it, but there was no trace of the new wife. Wailing loudly, they returned to the house wondering what they would be able to tell k.u.malo when he came back the following day.

"We shall say that she was eaten by a lion," suggested one of the women. "That way he will not be able to blame us."

k.u.malo came back to the house early the next morning bringing with him the cattle that he had bought. He was in a good mood after having bought fine cattle, but his smile faded when he saw that his new wife was not in her usual place.

"Where is my beautiful wife?" he asked the women. "She was sitting in her doorway when I left."

The women all looked at the senior cousin, who answered with the lie that she had prepared.

"A lion ate her," she said. "We tried to stop it, but it was too hungry."

k.u.malo looked at his senior cousin.

"You are lying," he said. "A lion would not choose a delicate girl like that. It would rather eat a fat woman like you."

The cousin said nothing, but when k.u.malo shook his fist at her she told the truth.

"We only asked her to do a little work," she whined. "It was not too hard."

k.u.malo did not listen any more. Immediately he ran to a man who lived nearby who knew all about finding people who had been lost. This man listened to k.u.malo's sad story and then told him what to do.

"Go to the side of the river," he said. "Beat this small drum and get a fat woman to jump hard on the ground. That will bring back your beautiful wife."

k.u.malo ran back to his house, the sound of his beating heart loud in his ears. He called the senior cousin to follow him and made his way quickly to the side of the river. There he played the drum, while the senior cousin jumped up and down on the sand. It was hard for her to do this, as she was so fat, but each time she showed signs of slowing down k.u.malo would shout at her and urge her on.

At last they saw the sand parting and the head of the new wife slowly appeared.

"Jump faster!" ordered k.u.malo, and as the senior cousin continued to jump the rest of the new wife was forced up out of the sand.

When the new wife had risen completely out of the sand, k.u.malo went forward and embraced her tenderly. Then he led her back to the place where she used to sit and watch the women working. The senior cousin, ashamed of what they had done, promised they would never ask the new wife to work again. Although he was angry with the other women, k.u.malo forgave them, and that night they all had a feast to celebrate the return of the new wife to her husband.

9

Bad Blood

There was a woman who lived in a village near the end of the land. This woman had two sons, one called Diepe and the other Diepetsana. They were very poor people and they did not have a great deal to eat. Their granary was never more than half full and they wore very shabby clothes. Sometimes they had no clothes at all, and had to wear old rags and leaves to preserve their modesty. It was not easy being that poor.

In the same village there was a young man called Dimo. He was not as poor as these other two, as he had married the daughter of a rich man. He had everything that he needed in this life, including a great deal of food. This food, which was rich and good, had made him quite fat.

This Dimo asked Diepe whether he could come and help him at the cattle post of his wife's parents. There was much to be done there, he said, and they would be looked after well. Because he was poor and had nothing else to do, Diepe agreed to accompany Dimo to this place, which was very far away, and on the edge of the place where n.o.body lived but only wild animals.

During their first evening at the cattle post, Dimo's wife brought water to the hut to wash the hands of the men before they had food. Dimo asked Diepe whose food he would be eating and said that because it belonged to the parents of his wife, it was not right that Diepe should eat it. So Diepe went to bed without any food and his stomach was empty and painful within him.That night, Dimo went outside and killed some sheep which were in a stockade. Then he took the blood of the sheep and put it in a calabash. Back in the hut, while Diepe was fast asleep, Dimo put the sheep blood all over the sleeping man's face. The next morning, when the parents of Dimo's wife went out to look at their animals they found that the sheep had all been killed.

"Who has done this wicked thing?" they asked.

Dimo pointed at Diepe, and said, "His face is covered with sheep blood. Look! That is the person who has done this wicked thing."

The parents then said that Diepe should be killed for having done this, and that happened that afternoon. Dimo was pleased, and when he went back to the place where Diepe's brother lived, he told Diepe's mother that her son was being well looked after in that other place and that now he had come to take Diepetsana to join him. Dietpetsana was very pleased to go with Dimo, although he could tell that there was something wrong. Diepetsana was a traditional doctor and would be very good at sensing such things when he was older. But even now he could tell that there was something wicked planned, and he took with him two very important fly whisks that were good for all sorts of tasks.

They reached the cattle post and Diepetsana saw that there was no sign of his brother. That night he slept in a hut, but before he lay down he set up the fly whisks so that they would see if anybody came in at night. One was placed at the foot of his sleeping mat and another at the top.

In the depths of the night the fly whisk at the top of the sleeping mat sang out: "Who is this entering?"

And the reply came from the fly whisk at the bottom of the sleeping mat: "Isn't it Dimo?"

"What does he have on his hand?" sang the top fly whisk.

And the bottom fly whisk sang "Isn't it blood?"

Dimo was very frightened when this happened and he withdrew from the hut. A few minutes later he Plucked up the courage to enter again, and the same thing happened. And so it went on until the morning, when the parents of Dimo's wife awoke to find their son-in-law outside the hut with a large gourd of sheep's blood and the sheep all dead upon the ground.

They were very angry and killed Dimo on the spot. They were pleased with Diepetsana, though, and they rewarded him handsomely. He was now a rich man and he looked after his mother well, so that she was no longer poor. Their life had changed, although they still felt sad for the loss of Diepe and thought often of their brother and son who had now gone.

10

Two Bad Friends

When an important chief died down in that far part of the country, there were many people who went to see him buried. It was a time of great sorrow, as this chief had ruled over many people for many years and had been the son of one who had served with a very great chief.

Two friends, who liked to play tricks on one another and on other people, decided that they would go to the burial too. They walked past a place where there were many mourners, all sitting under a tree and singing about how sad they were that the chief had died.

"We are very sad too," the two friends said. "We are sad because that great chief was our father."When they heard this, the people under the tree were surprised. They asked the two friends if they were sure that the chief was their father, and they replied that they were.

"You must give us money," one friend said. "You must give us money because we are the sons of the one who has died."

The people knew that they should do this, but they were unwilling to give money to people whom they did not know.

"If you come with us to the grave," they said, "then we shall be able to find out whether you really are the sons of that great chief."

The two friends agreed to do this. There was no reason for them to refuse to go to the grave, and already they were thinking of ways of fooling these people under the tree.

When they reached the grave, there were many people milling about, calling out in sorrow and saying how sad they were that the chief had gone. Even those who had not liked the chief were there, saying that they were more sorry than any others. If the chief had been alive, he would have been pleased to see so many of his enemies shedding so many tears on his death.

The people from under the tree told one of the friends to stand by the side of the grave. He did this, but while he was moving into that position, the other friend hid in a bush which grew near the edge of the grave.

Then one of the people from under the tree called out into the sky.

"Is it true that these men are your sons?"

Everybody was surprised when a voice called out: "They are my sons. And you must give them lots of money."

"The chief himself has spoken to us," the people from under the tree said. "We must do as he says."

The other friend then slipped out of the bush. The voice had been his, of course, but everybody had thought that it had come from the grave.

The two friends stood respectfully by the grave while people walked past and put money into a box which one of the friends had with him. Then, crying loudly to show how sad they were, they walked back to the house of one of them.

"I shall keep the money here until it is counted," said the friend whose house it was. "Then one day you may come and claim your half share."

The next day, the friend returned to the house of the friend who had kept the money. That friend's wife greeted him sadly and told him that his friend was unfortunately very ill and would have to stay in his bed for a long time.

"He will not be able to give you your money," she said. "He is too ill to do that."

"Then I shall wait," said the other friend. "I shall wait by his bedside until he is better."

"That may not be for a few years," said the wife. "He says that he is very ill."

"I can wait that long," said the friend.

The wife could not persuade him to go away and so she had to show him into the friend's room. The ill friend was lying under a blanket, his face covered and only his toes showing at the end.

"I am here to wait," the friend said. "When you are better we shall be able to divide the money that those people gave us."

The friend in bed said nothing.

As the day wore on, it became hotter and hotter. The friend under the blanket began to feel as if he were in an oven, and then, at last, he had to throw the blanket aside to let cool air in.

"I am glad that you are better," his friend said to him. "Now we shall be able to divide the money."

Reluctantly, because he knew that there was nothing else he could do, the friend retrieved the box and gave his friend his share of the money. The friend thanked him and said how pleased he was that his friend had recovered from his illness.

"You are fortunate to get better in two hours rather than two years," he said. "Perhaps it is the good hot air that cured you so quickly."

The friend who had pretended to be ill buried his share of the money in a tin box. Unfortunately for him, the box had a hole in it and when he dug it up the following month the ants had eaten all the money. His wife told him that this is what happened to people who obtained money through tricks.

"The ants like to play tricks too," she said. "It is your own fault for being such a wicked trickster."

The other friend fell into a large hole on his way home from collecting the money. He was unable to get himself out of it and so he was very pleased when he saw some people walking by. These people were the people who had been under the tree.

"Please pull me out," the friend called. "I shall die if I am left down here."

The people from under the tree looked down on the friend and agreed to pull him out. They would only do so, though, if he gave them money. The friend asked how much money they needed and they replied that they would want all his money. In this way the friend in the hole had to give the people from under the tree not only his share of the money he had got by trickery, but also his own money, which he had been carrying with him. In this way, too, the people from under the tree got back exactly that amount which they had given at the burial of the chief. If the chief had been alive to see all this happening he would have said that this was the right outcome.

11

How A Strange Creature Took The Place Of A Girl And Then Fell Into A Hole

The daughter of the chief of some people near Kezi was one of the most beautiful girls in the whole of Matabeleland. The chief knew that there would be no difficulty in getting a good husband for her, but he did not want to leave anything to chance. Calling on a powerful witchdoctor, he asked him to provide charms that would be sure to attract a handsome man to the house.

The witchdoctor told the chief that this was not a difficult thing to do. The best way of attracting a handsome husband was to find a special tree, part of which would have been burned. From the burned part the girl should take a piece of charcoal and then rub this between her palms. If she did this, there would be no difficulty in finding the best possible husband.

The chief was pleased with this advice. He ordered his men to prepare food and water for a journey and then he set off with his daughter in the direction indicated by the witchdoctor.It was harder than he had imagined to find the special tree but eventually they came to a valley where the conditions seemed right for the growth of such a tree. The chief climbed up to the top of a small hill at the entrance to this valley and looked down onto the place where he thought the tree might grow. When he saw it was there, he called out to his daughter and together they walked to the foot of the half-burned, half-green tree. Climbing up into the branches of the burned part, the chief broke off a piece of charcoal and brought it down to his daughter. She rubbed the charcoal between her palms and as she did so she described the sort of husband for whom she longed.

The girl's mother was waiting for them when they arrived home.

"A very handsome young man has arrived," she told them eagerly. "He said that he had lost his way and needed to be given directions to get to the Limpopo River."