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
Then he said to himself, "Now, let me try to do as my Uncle has told
me." He said, "Ngalo! (a fetish charm) I want this forest here to be
cleared, all of it." (As quickly as I speak here, at once the garden
was finished, like the passing of yesterday.) He said to his mother,
"Take a list of all the plants I have brought; then let us go and
plant them." So, he and his mother went to plant; that very day the
garden was completely finished.
Previously to that, his Uncle had warned him, "When the plants are
sprung up, you will see Kenene (a kind of small bird) coming to eat
them. When they shall arrive, they will be many. Then you take the
Spear; fail not to use the cardomoms with it."
The food increased; and the small birds came in countless
numbers. Savulaka took up the Spear, and threw it at them; and all,
even to the young birds, perished. Then he returned to his mother,
and said, "My mother! go and pick up the sele" (another name of
kenene). She gathered them; leaving many remaining abandoned in the
forest. The village was filled with the sele.
The same thing happened with all other kinds of birds. The same with
every Beast.
Then Elephants came to the garden. The man picked up the Spear and
the cardomoms. When he came to the garden, he lifted up the Spear,
and threw it, and wounded the Elephants. Numbers of Elephants that
were eating in the garden, were killed. They were gathered, and the
whole village was filled with the smell of the rotting meat; so that
hardly any one would come to the village. I am not able to tell you
the abundance of tusks; the mendanda (long ones), and the makubu
(short thick ones), and the begege ("scrivillers," the small ones),
that cannot be counted.
The next morning, other elephants came again. The man took up the
Spear, but he forgot the cardomom-pepper. When he arrived where they
were, he did not wait, but hastily threw the Spear after an elephant,
the leader of the herd, who turned aside, and ran away with the Spear
in its body. The man followed him, but he did not reach him. Then
he returned to his mother; and said to her, "My mother! mash me some
mekima." (Food for a journey.)
In the next morning, the man started on the journey, stepping
quickly as ever, until he came to his Uncle's town. He was about to
pass his Uncle by, not seeing him (a Spirit). The Uncle said to him,
"Stand there!" So he stood. The Uncle directed, "Enter the house!" He
entered, and sat down; and his Uncle said to him, "Did I not tell
you that when you are going to kill an animal, you must not omit the
pepper-grains? Sit down there; wait. Don't you go out. I must go and
take for you your Spear."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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