They set off, the bird flying before them and guiding them. It led them to the big tree in the bush and then began to sing loudly close to the bundle of grass that Zili had hung up. Someone climbed up the tree and untied the bundle. They opened it, and, at once, the men recognized the girl’s face and the bracelets she wore on her wrists and ankles. They seized Zili and bound him. Then, some of them went on to Zili’s village to gather all his relations into one hut. When the others arrived, they threw Zili, still bound, into the hut, and then set fire to it.
So died Zili and his relations.
—Thanga
91
The Child in the Reeds
There was a boy called Hlabakoane, his sister was Thakane, their mother Mahlabakoane, and their father Rahlahakoane. The father and mother looked after the gardens, Thakane stayed at home, and her brother herded cattle.
One day Hlabakoane said, “Thakane, give me some kumonngoe.” That was the name of the incredible tree that gave both parents food in plenty, for when it was chopped by an axe, milk spurted out of it. But the children never ate of it, for it was forbidden them. The boy again said to his sister, “Thakane, give me kumonngoe.” Thakane said, “My brother, it is a tree of which we must not eat, only father and mother eat of it.” He answered: “If that be so, I will not herd. The cattle shall remain in the corral.” Thakane thought about it while her brother stayed in the reed enclosure. Presently she said, “When will you be taking the cattle out?” He said, “I shall not go to herd.”
Now she took an axe and chopped at the kumonngoe. But only a little piece broke off, and when she gave it to him, he refused it. He said it was too small and not enough for an appetite like his. She went back and cut much more from it. Now thick milk poured out in a flood, like a river flowing into the hut. She cried for help, saying, “Hlabakoane, my brother, help me, for kumonngoe is coming out in a flood. It is filling the hut.” In vain they tried to stop the thick milk. Still it poured out, still it flowed.
Presently, the milk ran outside the hut and down the path to the gardens. It was seen there by the father, who said to his wife: “Look, Mahlahakoane, there is kumonngoe coming to the gardens. The children must have done some mischief at home.” The father took the milk in his hand and ate it, the woman took it in her hand and ate it. Then they gathered what was left, threw their hoes away, and ran home to see what had happened.
When they arrived, they said: “Thakane, what have you done that the tree from which your father and mother eat is making its milk flow so to the gardens?” She said, “It is my brother’s fault, not mine. He left the cattle in the corral, refusing to herd, because he said he wanted kumonngoe. He made me give him some of it.”
The father said that now they must go and bring back the sheep from the field. After, he slaughtered and cooked two of the sheep, while the mother ground grain and made bread. Then, the father went to fetch a smith to fasten beautiful rings on his daughter. The smith fastened them on her legs, her arms, and round her neck. When that work was finished, the father took clothes and clothed her, made her a fine petticoat and put it on her.
Now, he called together the men of the court to explain what he intended to do. “I am going to cast Thakane off,” he said. “But how can you do this?” they asked him. “She is your only daughter.” “She has eaten of the forbidden tree,” he answered.
Then the father set out to take Thakane to an ogre to be eaten. When they were just outside their own gardens, there came a steenbok antelope. It asked Rahlabakoane, “Where are you taking this beautiful daughter of yours?” He answered, “You may ask her, she’s old enough.” Thakane said:
I have given to Hlabakoane kumonngoe,
To the herder of our cattle kumonngoe.
I thought our cattle were going to stay in the corral kumonngoe,
And so I gave him my father’s kumonngoe.
Then the steenbok said, “I hope it is you that gets eaten, Rahlabakoane, and that the ogre leaves this child.”
A little later they met with eland antelopes, who also asked: “Where are you taking this beautiful child of yours?” Rahlabakoane said, “You may ask her, she is old enough. She has done me much hurt back at home.” Then the maiden said:
I have given to Hlabakoane kumonngoe,
To the herder of our cattle kumonngoe.
I thought our cattle were going to stay in the corral, kumonngoe,
And so I gave him my father’s kumonngoe.
Then the eland said, “I hope it it you who will die, Rahlabakoane.”
They passed on, sleeping in the open country. Soon they were approached by springbok gazelles, who inquired: “Rahlabakoane, where are you taking this beautiful child of yours?” He said, “You may ask her, she is old enough. She has harmed me much back at home.” Now his daughter said:
I have given to Hlabakoane kumonngoe,
To the herder of our cattle kumonngoe.
I thought our cattle were going to stay in the corral, kumonngoe,
And so I gave him my father’s kumonngoe.
The springbok said, “I hope it is you who gets eaten, Rahlabakoane.”
At last they arrived at the ogre’s village. There, Rahlabakoane saw that the court of Masilo, the ogre’s son, was full of people. It was his father who ate people—as for him, he did not eat them. Rahlabakoane sat down in the court with Thakane. They took a skin and spread it out. The maiden sat on it and her father sat on the ground. The chief, Masilo, asked him, “Rahlabakoane, where are you taking this beautiful child of yours?” He said, “You may ask her, she is old enough.” His daughter said:
I have given to Hlabakoane kumonngoe,
To the herder of our cattle kumonngoe.
I thought our cattle were going to stay in the corral, kumonngoe,
And so I gave him my father’s kumonngoe.
She told her tale in the men’s court where they held their palavers.
Then Masilo, the chief of this tribe of ogres, sent for his court messenger, and pointing at Rahlabakoane and Thakane he said to him: “Take these two to my mother’s courtyard, and tell her to bring the man to my father, for he must pay his respects to him, but to keep the maiden safe.” And so, the mother brought Rahlabakoane to her husband, the cannibal on the mountain. She sent the court messenger ahead to say, “Masilo has told me that I must bring you this man that he may pay his respects to you.” The father of Masilo took Rahlabakoane, put a piece of broken pot on the fire, and threw him down into it. The man was burned, was well roasted, and became meat. The ogre ate him. Then the mother and court messenger went down the mountain and returned to the village.
Soon after that, Masilo took the beautiful Thakane as his wife. He had not yet married, refusing all available maidens, but now he wedded this daughter of Rahlabakoane. After a while she became pregnant and gave birth to a girl. Her mother-in-law said, “Alas, my child, you have suffered to no purpose.” Thakane was silent, for she had heard that when girls were born they were taken to the ogre to be eaten by him. That ogre was as hungry as a grave.
Then they told Masilo that a girl child had been born. He said, “Oo! You must bring her to my father at once. He will take care of her.” Thakane said, “Oh! oh! With us people are never eaten. When they die they are buried. I refuse to give my child.” Her mother-in-law said, “Here no girls are to be born. Only boys are to be born, girls are taken away.” Masilo, her husband, came, and said, “Well, my wife, you must give up this child to my father that he may take care of it.” Again she refused, saying, “If she must die, I’ll drown her myself. I will not allow my child to be eaten by your father, the ogre who ate my father.”
She took her child, went to the river, and sat down near a pool where reeds were growing. She cried, she was afraid to destroy her child. Presently, an old woman came out of the reeds, she came out of the pool, and said, “Why do you cry, woman?” Thakane answered, “I cry on account of my child, because I have to throw it into the water.” The old woman said, “Yes,
at your place no girls are to be born, only boys. Give her to me and I’ll take care of her for you. Name the days when you will come to see your child here in the pool.” The mother gratefully consented, and gave the old woman her child.
Thakane went home, remained there some days, and then went to see her daughter. When she arrived at the pool, she said:
Give me Lilahloane, that I may see her,
Lilahloane who has been cast off by Masilo.
Now, when the old woman brought the child out, the mother saw how much she had grown, and she rejoiced. She stayed with that old woman for a very long time. She stayed and stayed. Then the old woman took the child and went back with her into the water, and the mother returned home.
After many days, Thakane came again to see her child. She visited Lilahloane very often and, in only one year, the girl grew up and became a maiden. Then, the old woman made her go through the initiation ceremony to make her a woman, and so it happened that on a certain day, when Thakane went to the river, she saw that her daughter was now a girl who had just passed through initiation.
Now, a man of the village had come to cut some branches near the river and he saw that maiden. As he looked at her he saw that her style of beauty was like Masilo’s. The man arose and went home. The wife of Masilo also went home. The man told Masilo in secret, saying, “I have seen your child with her mother by the river. It was the child she said she was going to kill.” Masilo said, “It wasn’t drowned in the water?” He said, “No, and now she is a maiden just initiated.” Masilo said, “What can I do?” The man answered, “On the day that your wife says she is going to bathe in the river, go there before her. It is her habit, is it not, to tell you she is going?” Masilo said, “She usually tells me.” The man said, “Go there before her and sit down in the bush, so that when your wife arrives you are already hidden.”
Now, when that day came, Thakane told Masilo, saying, “I am going to bathe.” He let her go, but he went quickly there before her, and sat down in the undergrowth and hid himself. When his wife arrived, she stood by the pool, and said:
Give me Lilahloane, that I may see her,
Lilahloane who has been cast off by Masilo.
The old woman brought the maiden out of the water. When Masilo looked at her, he saw that she must be the child whom her mother had said she was going to drown. He wondered, he wept when he saw that his child was already fullgrown. Presently the old woman said, “I am afraid. It is as if somebody was here spying.” She took the maiden and went back into the water with her. Masilo sneaked away before Thakane and went home by another route.
When Masilo arrived, he went into his hut when it was still noon. He could not stop crying. At dusk he finally spoke to his wife, saying, “I have seen my child where you said you were going to drown her. I have seen that she is already a maiden.” The wife insisted that she did not know what he was talking about. He implored her, saying, “Oh, let me see my child.” She said, “You will tell me to take her to your father to be eaten by him.” He said, “No more will I say that she must be eaten, because she is now grown up.”
Next morning, Thakane went to the old woman, saying: “Masilo saw us. He says that I must come and beg you to give him his daughter that he may see her.” Then the old woman said, “You must give me a thousand head of cattle.” She went home to her husband, and said, “The old woman asks for a thousand head of cattle.” He said, “It is a small matter if it is only a thousand head of cattle. If it were two thousand I would still give them to her, because without her my child would be dead.”
The next day, he sent one of the men of his court with the order that messengers should go to all the people and tell them to bring cattle—a thousand head of cattle came. The cattle went to the water, to that pool with reeds. They came and stood near it. Then Thakane stood up, and said:
Give me Lilahloane, that I may see her,
Lilahloane who has been cast off by Masilo.
Presently, the old woman brought out the maiden. As she began to emerge from the water, the sun ceased to shine, it was darkened, but when she stood completely out of the water, the sun shone again. Masilo saw his child. All the people saw the child of Masilo, already a maiden, where her mother had left her. Then the cattle were thrown into the water, but it was water on the surface only, underneath it was where the tribe of that old woman lived.
They went back to the village. Masilo’s mother said that Thakane should be permitted to go home so that her mother and brother might see her again—as for her father, he was dead. A court messenger was sent to give orders to the people to come with all their cattle to see Thakane off.
Everyone went to escort Thakane. As they were still going on, and were nearing the place on the highroad through which she and her father had passed, they saw that a rock had grown in the middle of the place, blocking it. This rock was her father, Rahlabakoane, whose heart had become a stone. Thakane said to Masilo, “What does that rock mean there in the way, in this place?” Masilo said, “Perhaps you did not notice it when you came through here with your father.” She said, “No, that rock was not there.” They were still walking with the people and the cattle—Thakane was going in front, as it was she who knew the way to her village.
When they arrived at that place near that rock, the rock began to speak, saying:
Rue le, le rue, I shall eat you, Thakane, my child,
You who lead the way. I shall eat the people afterwards.
Now his daughter, realizing what was happening, said, “All right, you may eat the cattle.” She said to Masilo, “It is my father, he has come to lie in ambush for me.” They took many cattle, they gave them to that rock. The rock swallowed all these cattle, opening its huge mouth.
Presently, Rahlabakoane spoke again, saying:
Rue le, le rue, I shall eat you, Thakane, my child,
You who lead the way. I shall eat the people afterwards.
Now they took the rest of the cattle and gave them to him. He swallowed them, too. Then that rock said again:
Rue le, le rue, I shall eat you, Thakane, my child,
You who lead the way. I shall eat the people afterwards.
The daughter said, “You may eat the people too.” She gave him some and her father ate them.
They tried then to pass on, but he stopped them again, saying:
Rue le, le rue, I shall eat you, Thakane, my child,
You who lead the way. I shall eat the people afterwards.
So she took the rest of these unfortunate people and gave them to her father, and all were eaten. There remained only Thakane and Masilo and their two children, Lilahloane and a younger one. As they were trying to pass, the rock blocked the way. It said again:
Rue le, le rue, I shall eat you, Thakane, my child,
You who lead the way. I shall eat the people afterwards.
She gave herself up to her father with her husband and her children. All of them were eaten, they went into her father’s belly. Inside it there was a cavern made of flesh. They found there a young man who was making a hole in the wall of that belly. The other people in there were telling him, “You will bring harm on us,” but he went on hacking out pieces of flesh. He cut and he cut until he finally opened a door out of the belly. And then it died, that rock, it fell down.
Now, people came out of it, many people—the only ones who stayed were the decayed ones the rock had eaten long ago. The people who had just entered it went out as well as many others, and also the cattle still living and walking in the belly of that rock. All these people could now return home.
Then Thakane and Masilo went to her mother’s village. When they arrived it was like a miracle, because her mother and brother had heard nothing about Thakane for such a long time. They sat down, they were happy, they wept for joy. Cattle were slaughtered for a feast. That woman and her husband were well received.
It is the end of the tale.
—Basuto
92
A Woman’s Quest
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br /> Another story is coming. Stop talking and listen.
There was a very handsome young man, very handsome, and he was called Dzerikpana—his public name. Every young lady liked Dzerikpana, wanted him, and fell in love with him, but he was fed up with them all. They did not know Dzerikpana’s birthname, the private one, which was Dzerikpoli. Nor did they know where he came from. One day he told his father, Na, that there were so many girls who loved him that he did not know which one of them to marry. So he devised a trick. He would lie down and Father Na would cover him with a funerary cloth, and tell all the girls that if any of them knew his name, he would marry her. So Na covered him and all the girls in this district were told that their future husband was dead, and if any one of them could weep and call Dze’s private name, then he would wake up from death and marry that girl. Girls from Zongo came, but did not know the right name. Girls from Saa also came, but could not succeed. Girls from Kpagru came to try, but they failed too. Women from Tshere came, but they did not know Dze’s real name either. Good-time girls from Wa also came, but failed. Then one woman, on her way from Kpongu to Busa, said she would go and say Dze’s name and marry him because of his handsomeness.
From Kpongo, she passed by Sukpayiri and walked toward Nayiri. On the way, she saw an old woman taking her bath. The old woman said, “My granddaughter,” and the young woman greeted her in return. And the old woman said, “Come and wash my back for me before you, go.” The young woman agreed and went to wash her back, and when she had finished, she said that she had finished. Then the old woman said, “Granddaughter, it is all right! But at Busa, there is a man whose name is Dzerikpoli.” The young woman thanked her for telling her the name of the handsome young man. From there, she started for Busa and took the road that passes by the old police station and the chief’s farms. On the way to Busa, she started her song:
African Folktales Page 42