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
So Eagle stood up to be examined. Njambi asked him, "How do you
speak? What is your manner of talking?" Eagle began to scream,
"So-o-we! so-o-we! so-o-we!" Njambi said, "Good! Now call me your
wife!" The wife of Eagle came, and Njambi said to her, "You are
the wife of Ngwanyâni, how do you talk?" The wife replied, "I say,
'So-o-we! So-o-we! So-o-we!'" Ra-Njambi said to Eagle, "Indeed! you
and your wife speak the same kind of language." Eagle answered, "Yes;
I and my wife, we speak alike." They were ordered, "Sit you aside."
Then Ra-Njambi directed, "Bring me here Ngozo." And he asked, "Ngozo,
how do you talk? What is your way of speaking?" Parrot squawked,
"I say, 'Ko-do-ko!'" Ra-Njambi ordered, "Well, call me your wife!" She
came; and he asked her, "How do you talk? Talk now!" The wife replied,
"I say, 'Ko-do-ko!'" Njambi asked Parrot, "So! your wife says,
'Ko-do-ko?'" Parrot answered "Yes; my wife and I both say, 'Ko-do-ko.'"
Njambi then ordered, "Call me here, Ugulungu." He came,
and was asked, "And how do you talk?" He shouted, "I say,
'Mbru-kâ-kâ! mbru-kâ-kâ! mbru!'" Njambi told him, "Call me your
wife!" She came, and, when asked, spoke in the same way as her
husband. Njambi dismissed them, "Good! you and your wife say the same
thing. Good!"
So, all the Birds, in succession, were summoned; and they all,
husband and wife, had the same mode of speaking, except one who had
not hitherto been called.
Njambi finally said, "Call Njâgâni here!" The Cock stood up, and
strutted forward. Njambi asked him, "What is your speech? Show
me your mode of talking!" Cock threw up his head, stretched his
throat, and crowed, "Kâ-kâ-re-kââ." Njambi said, "Good! summon
your wife hither." The wife came; and, of her, Njambi asked,
"And, what do you say?" She demurely replied, "My husband told me
that I might talk only if I bore children. So, when I lay an egg,
I say 'Kwa-ka! Kwa-ka!'" Njambi exclaimed, "So! you don't say,
'Kâ-kâ-re-kââ,' like your husband?" She replied, "No, I do not talk
as he."
Then Njambi said to Cock, "For what reason do you not allow your
wife to say, 'Kâ-kâ-re-kââ?'" Cock replied, "I am Njâgâni, I respect
myself. I jeer at all these other birds. Their wives and themselves
speak only in the same way. A visitor, if he comes to their towns,
is not able to know, when one of them speaks, which is husband and
which is wife, because they both speak alike. But I, Njâgâni, as to
my wife, she is unable to speak as I do. I do not allow it. A husband
should be at the head; and in his wife it is not becoming for her to
be equal with him or to talk as well as he does."
Njambi listened to this long speech; and then inquired, "Have you
finished?" Chicken answered, "Yes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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