Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore TalesNassau, Robert Hamill
Philosophy
Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales
Nassau, Robert Hamill
Animals -- Folklore; Tales -- Africa, West
The people there said, "What is it; for the crying?" She told all the
whole affair to them. They inquired, "Food?" She replied, "Yes." They
cooked, and he ate, and finished. They cooked again; and he finished
all, even to the leaves in which the food was wrapped. They said,
"Such a kind of child has never been born before!"
Suddenly, the child Savulaka ceased to be a child; and, as a man,
said to his mother, "My mother! Wash me some mekima (rolls of mashed
boiled plantains)." So, his mother made the mekima.
In the morning, very early, Savulaka starts on a journey. He went
stepping very quickly, on, still with his journey; and, as he went,
he talked to himself. He said, "This thing which has been done to me,
now, what is it?" He still went on with the journey, until, at night,
he lay down in the forest. Early in the morning, he starts again
for his journey. As he was going in the forest he met with a Person
(a brother of his mother, who belonged to a town of the Mekuku). This
Person inquired, "Where are you going to?" (Savulaka was still eating
the mekima, even its leaves going into his mouth.) This Person also
said to him, "Stop at once!" Then he stood still.
The Person said, "I, your Uncle, the brother of your mother, am
the one who is inquiring of you." Savulaka answered him, saying,
"I'm not able to tell you." But presently he did tell all the matter
to him. So, the Uncle said to him, "Come, to my town."
Then both of them returned on the path. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, they are at the town. The Uncle said, "My child, you
are cured!" He put for him a medicine in a syringe, and gave him an
injection. When he withdrew the syringe, here, at once, a net began
to come out quick as ever it could move from the bowels! Then his
Uncle spoke and told him, "It is thy father's wife who put the net
into your bowels."
Food was cooked for him; he began to eat a little as people usually
eat. His Uncle said unto him, "You shall go tomorrow."
On the morrow, early in the morning, his Uncle took all kinds and
sorts of vegetables; and he took also a Spear; and malagetta pepper
("Guinea-grains," a species of cardomom), and handed them to him;
and told him, "When you reach home, you must plant a garden."
The Uncle said to him, "Close your eyes!" He closed his eyes tight. On
opening his eyes, he at once found himself near his home, and his
mother on the path, her form bent stooping down seeking for him. He
then entered their house, and sat down, and his mother greeted him
to her satisfaction.
The mother took food, and boiled it; it was cooked; she removed it
from the fire; she sat the food before Savulaka. And he ate only two
fingers of plantains. His mother began to wonder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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