Topic: African Mythology

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER VIII

TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES

W E FIND, all over Africa, more or less, the notion of
beings which cannot be explained either as ghosts or
personified Nature-powers and which perhaps may be most ap-
propriately called “ Haunting Demons.” Not all of those
can be properly described as monsters, though many have
more or less monstrous characteristics. Some are, no doubt,
nightmare-phantoms originating in the horror of lonely places:
the dark recesses of the forest, the poisonous swamp, the blaz-
ing heat of noon over the sandy scrub. But even here the line
is very difficult to draw. Klamroth, 1 for instance, after making
a very careful study of the spirits or demons extant in Uza-
ramo, came to the conclusion that many, if not all of them,
such as Mwenembago, the “ Lord of the Forest,” were ghosts
who had taken to haunting the wilds. On the other hand,
Aziza, the Hunter’s God or Forest Demon of the Ewe,' 2 is
clearly (if we may say so), an intensified chimpanzee.

The Pokomo describe a being which haunts the forests of
the Tana and the open bush-steppe bordering on them, to
which they give the name of Ngojama . 3 It has the shape of a
man, but with a claw (“ an iron nail,” said my informant) in
the palm of his hand, which he strikes into people if he catches
them. He then drinks their blood. This creature has by
some Europeans been supposed to be an anthropoid ape 4 —
no species of which has hitherto been recorded from East
Africa. I think he is more likely to be purely mythological.

From a Musanye at Magarini (in the Malindi district), I
learnt that the ngojama , though something like a human being,


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243

has a tail, like certain Masai “ devils.” 5 A man of the nar-
rator’s tribe, long ago, came to grief through mistaken kindness
to a ngojama. He came across him in the bush, wandering
about and eating raw meat: he took him in hand, taught
him to make fire and to cook, and had to some extent civilized
him, when suddenly, one day, the ngojama reverted to type,
turned on his benefactor and ate him.

The Nama Hottentots of the Kalahari tell of queer and
monstrous shapes haunting the scrub and the sand-dunes: the
Aigamuchab 8 who have eyes on their feet — on the top of the
instep — instead of the usual place. They walk upright, their
eyes looking up to the sky; if they want to know what is going
on around them, they progress on hands and knees, holding
up one foot, so that the eye looks backwards. They hunt men
as if they were zebras, and tear them to pieces with their
terrible, pointed teeth, which are as long as a man’s finger.
These cannibals are not solitary, like the ngojama. , but live in
villages, with their wives and children. There are stories of
people straying into an Aigamuchab village and escaping with
difficulty. Another mythical tribe of the same sort are the
“ Bush- jumpers,” Hai-uriJ who progress through the scrub by
jumping over the clumps of bush instead of going round them.

Another denizen of the Pokomo forest is the Kitunusi , who
seems to be related in some degree to the Giryama Kaisumba-
kazi , who, again, has points of contact with the “Little
People ” discussed in our next chapter. The Katsumbakazi
is said to be of very low stature ; 8 so is one kind of Kitunusi
(there are two) 9 — according to my Pokomo informant’s indi-
cation, he stands about two feet six. The other is of normal
human height, but does not appear so, as it is his habit to move
about in a sitting position. Thinking he must be some primi-
tive kind of cul-de-jatte , I enquired whether he was devoid
of legs, but was assured that he had them. He is greatly
feared, for those who meet him are apt to be seized with severe


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illness and perhaps lose the use of their limbs. But in old
times people sometimes wrestled with him, and, if they could
succeed in tearing off a piece of the kaniki waist-cloth which is
his usual wear, their fortunes were made. A man would put
away this bit of rag in the covered basket in which he kept his
choicest possessions, and he would somehow or other (my in-
formant did not enter into particulars) become rich.

Here is a link with the Chiruwi , 0 who haunts the woods in
Nyasaland, and to whom we shall presently return. The Swa-
hili of the coast seem to be acquainted with the Kitunusi but
to have a different conception of him . 11 He lives in the sea,
and is dreaded by fishermen. He is variously described as “ a
large fish which devours men who are bathing or diving in the
sea,” or as the spirit possessing such a fish — as Krapf quaintly
says, “ the natives believe that a ghost or Satan sits in the fish
and instigates him ” (without the fish’s knowledge, we are else-
where informed) “ to swallow a man.”

This might suggest that the Pokomo Kitunusi is really a
water-sprite, like the Zulu Tokolotshe or Hill} 2, This would
not be surprising, when we remember how the River Tana is
bound up with the life of this tribe, and how much of their
time they pass either on or in the water; but I have met with
nothing to support this notion. On the contrary, the Kitunusi
seemed rather to haunt the sandy scrub away from the river.

The Chiruwi just mentioned belongs to a very numerous
family, who figure in the mythology of other continents besides
Africa and who might be called “ half-men,” as they are
usually more or less human in shape. Their body is split
longitudinally: — they have only one eye, one ear, one arm
and one leg — only in one instance do we find an obscure
mention 13 of a person divided transversely. They may be
malevolent or the reverse: a Nyanja tale 14 relates how, some
children being cut off by a river in spate, they were carried
across by a “ big bird, with one wing, one eye, and one leg.”




PLATE XXIV


Masks used in initiation ceremonies by the Bap-
ende. Probably intended, in the first instance, to
represent the spirits of the dead. After photographs
by E. Torday.






TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES 245

Chiruwi ( Chitowi of the Yao) 15 is a being of this class, who
haunts the forest, carrying an axe of the ornamental kind which
is borne before chiefs. Some say that one side of him is made
of wax, others that it is missing altogether, and “ he is invis-
ible if viewed from the off-side.” If any one meets the
Chiruwi , the latter says: “ Since you have met with me, let us
fight together.” They then wrestle, the odds being on
Chiruwi , who is “ very strong,” and, if the man is overcome, he
“ returns no more to his village.” If, however, he is able to
hold out, till he throws Chiruwi down, the latter shows him all
the valuable medicinal herbs in the bush, and he becomes a
great doctor. The Baila of the Middle Zambezi 16 have a simi-
lar belief, but their Sechobochobo is of kindlier mould, “ he
brings good luck to those who see him, he takes people and
shows them trees in the forest which can serve as medicine ” —
without any preliminary conflict.

The Subiya 17 also have their Sikulokobuzuka ( <c the man
with the wax leg”). A certain man named Mashambwa was
looking for honey in the forest, when he heard Sikulokobuzuka
singing, but did not at first see him. He heard a honey-guide
calling, followed him to the tree where the bees had their nest,
lit his torch, climbed the tree and took the honey. He had
scarcely done so when he saw Sikulokobuzuka coming. He
came down with his wooden bowl of honey, and the goblin
immediately demanded it of him. Mashambwa refused, and
the other challenged him to wrestle. They struggled for a
long time, and Mashambwa, finding his opponent very strong,
and despairing of victory as long as they were on the grass, into
which Sikulokobuzuka, could hook his foot, pulled him off on to
the sand and threw him down. He then said to him : “ Shall I
kill you? ” The other replied: “ Don’t kill me, master 5 I will
get you the medicine with which you can bewitch people to
death.” “ I don’t want that medicine — is there no other? ”
“ There is another — one to get plenty of meat.” “ I want that


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


246

one.” So Sikulokobuzuka went to look for it and showed him
all the medicines good for getting supplies of food, and also
that which gains a man the favour of his chief. Then
they parted. Mashambwa lost his way and wandered
about till evening, when he once more met the wax>-
legged man. The latter guided him home to his village
and left him, telling him on no account to speak to any
one. So Mashambwa went into his hut and sat down on
the ground, and when his friends addressed him, he never
answered; and at last they said to each other: “ He has
seen Sikulokobuzuka .” Then he fell ill and remained so
for a year, never speaking throughout that time. At the end
of the year, he began to recover, and one day, seeing some
vultures hovering over a distant spot in the bush (this seems
to have been a sign that his probation was over), he said:
“ Look! those are my vultures! ” and sent some men off to the
place. They found a buck freshly killed by a lion, and thence-
forth Mashambwa never wanted for food or any other nec-
essaries.

These half-men can scarcely be classed as ogres; but there
are various tribes of ogres having only one arm and one leg,
while others, though in various ways monstrous and abnormal , 18
have not this peculiarity. The Basuto call the former class
of beings “ Matebele ” 19 — probably from having come to
look on their dreaded enemies, the Zulu tribe of that name, as
something scarcely human. The tale of Ntotwatsana relates
how, while a chief’s daughter was out herding the cattle on
the summer pastures, a whirlwind caught her up and carried
her to a village of the Matebele “ who had but one leg, one
arm, one ear and one eye.” They married her to the son of
their chief, and, to prevent her escape, buried a pair of magic
horns in her hut. One night, she tried to run away, but the
horns cried out:


TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES


247

“ U— u-u— e! it is Ntotwatsana, who was carried away by a whirlwind
in the pastures,

When she was herding the cattle of her father, of Sekwae! ”

Then the Matebele came running up and caught her.

As time went on, she had two children, twin girls, who were
like their mother, with the usual number of limbs. Years
passed, and one day the maidens went to the spring to fetch
water, and found there a warrior with his men. He called to
them and asked: “ Whose children are you? ”

“ We are the children of the Rough-hided One.”

“Who is your mother? ”

“ She is Ntotwatsana.”

“ Whose child is she? ”

“ We do not know — she has told us that she was carried
away by a whirlwind in the pastures.”

So he said: “Alas! they are the daughters of my younger
sister.”

Then some of his men drew water for them, while others
cut reeds and trimmed them neatly with their knives. Their
uncle said to them: “ When you get home, ask your mother
to go and get you some bread, and, when she is gone, hide the
reeds under the skin she sits on.”

So they went home, put down their water-pitchers, and
began to cry, telling their mother, who was sitting outside the
hut, that they were very hungry and asking her to get them
something to eat. She got up to fetch them some bread, and
as soon as her back was turned, they slipped the bundle of
reeds under her rug. When she came back, she sat down on
the reeds and crushed them: the girls began to cry again, and
when their mother found out what was the matter, she said
she would send a young man to get other reeds for them. As
they had been instructed, they acted like spoilt children, and
insisted that no reeds would do unless their mother picked them
herself. So she went to the spring and of course found her


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248

brother there, whom she recognised at once, and who asked her
when she would come home. She explained that she was un-
able to come, on account of the horns, and he said: “ If you are
wise, warm some water, and when it is boiling pour it into
the horns, then stop up their openings with dregs of beer, and
lay some stones on top of them, and when it is midnight, take
your two children and come here.”

She did as directed, and at midnight called her daughters,
and they went down to the reed-bed by the spring, taking with
them a black sheep. The horns tried to give warning, but,
being choked could only produce a sound “ U-u-^u ” — which
the villagers took for the barking of the dogs. They had
gained a considerable start before the horns succeeded in clear-
ing their throats and cried:

“ U-u-u-e! it is Ntotwatsana, who was carried away by a whirlwind
in the pastures,

When herding the cattle of her father, of Sekwae! ”

The Matebele started in pursuit, hopping on their one leg.
It was beginning to dawn, and they were drawing near to the
travellers, when the sheep lifted up its voice and sang:

“ You may as well turn back, for you have no part nor lot in us.” 20

The Matebele stood still in astonishment, gazing at the
sheep, which then began to dance, raising its tail and dig-
ging its hoofs into the ground. When Ntotwatsana and her
companions had again got the start of their pursuers, the
sheep disappeared and, by some magical means, overtook its
friends.

“The Matebele departed, running as in a race; they ran
wildly through the open country, one before the other. They
arrived near Ntotwatsana. The sheep sang and danced again,
then disappeared. When the Matebele departed, they said:
‘By our Chief Magoma! we will go, even if we were to arrive


TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES


249

at Ntotwatsana’s village ; that little sheep, we must simply
pass it, even if it dances and sings so nicely.’ They went on.”

However, when the incident was repeated, they grew weary
and gave up the pursuit. Selo-se-Magoma, the Rough-hided
One, went home sadj but the brother and sister reached their
village in safety and found every one mourning Ntotwatsana
as dead. So the story ends happily.

A favourite character in the tales of the Zulus and the Ba-
suto is the Izimu ( Lelimo ), usually rendered “cannibal”}
but his characteristics suggest that “ ogre ” is a more appropri-
ate term. It is quite clear that what is meant is not a man who
has taken to eating his fellow-men — as did certain unfortu-
nate people in Natal, during the famine that followed on
Tshaka’s wars 21 — but something decidedly non-human. This
word, as has been remarked in a previous chapter , 22 is found
in closely allied forms in most Bantu languages} but the
creature connoted is not always the same. Sometimes he be-
longs to the class of half-men} sometimes he seems more akin
to the monsters Kholumodumo , U silo simapundu and Isikquk-
qumadevu. There is a strange Chaga tradition of a man who
broke a tabu and became an Irimu. 2Z Thorny bushes grew out
of his body, till he became a mere walking thicket and de-
voured men and beasts. He made himself useful, however,
by swallowing a hostile war-party who were raiding the
country, and was finally disenchanted, under the advice of a
soothsayer, by his brother, who came up behind him and set the
bushes on fire.

The name Dzimwe , used by the Anyanja, is evidently the
same word, and is somewhat vaguely defined as meaning “ a
big spirit,” but in their tales, he seems somehow or other to
have got confused with the elephant, and figures chiefly as
the butt and victim of the Hare, filling in some instances, the
exact part played by the Hyena, or, in the New World by
Brer Fox and Brer Wolf. The Swahili have not departed


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AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


so far from the original conception of their Zimwi, but the
word has been to some extent displaced by the borrowed terms
jini and shetani. The Swahili version of a very popular story
runs as follows : 24

Some girls had gone down to the beach to gather shells.
One of them picked up a specially fine cowry, which she was
afraid of losing, and so laid it down on a rock till they returned.
On the way back, she forgot her shell till they had already
passed the rock, when she asked her companions to go back
with her. They refused, but said they would wait for her,
and she went back alone, singing. There was a Zimwi sitting
on the rock, and he said to her: “ Come closer, I cannot hear
what you say! ” She came nearer, singing her petition: “ It
is getting late! let me come and get my shell which I have
forgotten! ” Again he said: “I can’t hear you! ” and she
came still nearer, till, when she was within reach, he seized
her and put her into the drum which he was carrying. With
this he went about from village to village, and, when he
beat the drum, the child inside it sang with so sweet a voice
that every one marvelled. At last he came to the girl’s own
home and found that his fame had preceded him there, so that
the villagers entreated him to beat his drum and sing. He
demanded some beer and, having received it, began to perform,
when the parents of the girl immediately recognised their
child’s voice. So they offered him more beer, and, when he
had gone to sleep after it, they opened the drum and freed the
girl. Then they put in “ a snake and bees and biting ants,”
and fastened up the drum as it had been before. Then they
went and awakened him, saying that some people had arrived
from another village, who wanted to hear his drum. But the
drum did not give forth the usual sound, and the Zimwi went
on his way disconcerted. A little later, he stopped on the
road to examine his drum; but, as soon as he opened it, he was
bitten by the snake and died. On the spot where he died,



PLATE XXV


Dance of Yaos (near Blantyre), both men and
women taking part.

[Prometheus]

TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES' 251

pumpkins and gourds sprang up, and in due time bore fruit.
Some children passing by stopped to look at them and said:
“ How fine these big pumpkins are! Let us get father’s sword
and split them open! ” One of the pumpkins, we are told,
“ became angry ” and pursued the children, who fled till they
came to a river, where they got an old ferryman to take them
across, and, passing on, reached a village where they found
the men seated in the council-house and asked for help. “ Hide
us from that pumpkin! The Zimwi has turned into a pumpkin
and is pursuing us! When it comes, take it and burn it with
fire ! ” The pumpkin came rolling up and said : “ Have you
seen my runaway slaves passing this way? ” The men replied:
“What sort of people are your slaves? We do not know
them! ” “That’s a lie, for you have shut them up inside! ”
But they seized the pumpkin and, having made a great fire,
burnt it to ashes, which they threw away. Then they let the
children out, and they returned home safely to their mothers.

In parts of West Africa, such as Sierra Leone, where Eng-
lish (of sorts) has almost become the vernacular, the Zimwi ,
or whatever his local representative may have been called,
has become a “ devil ” (or, more usually, “ debble ”). Thus
we find, among Temne stories, 25 “ The Girl that Plaited the
Devil’s Beard ” and “ Marry the Devil, there’s the Devil
to Pay.” The latter introduces a theme which recurs again
and again in “ were -wolf ” stories: a girl who had refused
all suitor's is at length beguiled by a handsome man who is
really a disguised “ debble.” Like some varieties ofi the
Zimwiy he has only half a body; but he borrows another half
for the occasion: “he len’ half-side head, half-side body, all
ting half-side.” On the way to his home, his wife sees the
borrowed parts drop off one by one. The husband prepares
to kill and eat her, but she is saved by her little brother, who
had insisted on following her, though sent back again and
again.


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


252

Among the Kikuyu, “ the Ilimu takes the form of a man,
either normal or abnormal in shape, and talks like a man,
£ but is a beast.’ His body is either wholly or in part invul-
nerable. His great characteristic is that he feeds on human
flesh.” 26 In one of the stories, he is described as having one
foot and walking with a stick, “ and his other foot comes out
at the back of his neck, and he has two hands.” If this is
correctly reported, it looks like a distorted recollection of the
Half-man.

The Wachaga seem to attribute various forms to their
Irimu. One has already been mentioned. He seems some-
times to be associated with the idea of a leopard: in fact Gut-
mann calls him “ the were-panther ” (W erpardel) , 27 but this
description certainly will not always fit — for instance, in the
following story . 28 Here, presumably, we are to understand
that the dog’s nature became changed after drinking the child’s
blood: the indestructible part (here, the skull) is a feature oc-
curring elsewhere; but it is not clear how far the creature
developed out of it is the same as the original dog.

There was a certain young married woman, named Muko-
sala, who had a small child. She had no one to help her in
looking after it; but, one day, a strange dog appeared at the
homestead, and took to coming regularly, as Mukosala fed
him. She grew so used to him that one day, when she wanted
to leave the house, she said: “ I will give you this bone, if you
watch the baby nicely till I come back.” The dog agreed, and
performed his task well for a time; but, growing impatient,
he took the bone and cracked it, and a splinter flying from it
hit the baby’s neck and drew blood. Unable to resist the sight
of the blood, he sucked at it till he had killed the child, which
he then devoured. He took the bud of a banana-tree (which
may be quite as large as a small baby), laid it on the bed and
covered it with a cloth, saying to the mother, when she re-
turned: “ Take care not to wake him: I have just fed him.”


TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES 253

But she very soon discovered what had happened and, sending
him away to fetch dry banana-leaves, called her husband.
When the dog came back, they seized him, bound him securely
and threw him on the heap of dried leaves, which they set on
fire, so that he was consumed, even to the bones, all except the
skull. This rolled away, first into an irrigation-channel and
thence into the river, which washed it up into a meadow.
Some girls, coming down to cut grass by the river, and chewing
sugar-cane as they walked, saw the skull and took it for a white
stone. Some of them cried out: “What a beautiful white
stone! — as pretty as baby brother! ” and threw it some of
their sugar-cane as they passed. But one laughed at her
friends, and said: “ How silly! how can a stone be like your
baby brother? ” They finished cutting the grass, helped each
other up with their loads and turned to go home. But when
they came back to the skull, they found that it had grown into
a huge rock which barred their path. So they began to sing
spells in order to remove it. The first one sang:

“ Make room and turn aside!

Let us pass! Let us pass!

She who laughed in her pride
Is far behind — turn aside! —

We come with our bundles of grass —

Let us pass! Let us pass! ”

The rock moved aside and let her through. Each of her
companions in turn sang the same words and went on. Last
of all came the girl who had jeered at the skull, and she, too,
sang the magic song, but the rock never stirred. So she had to
wait there till evening. Just as it was growing dark, a leopard
appeared and asked her: “ What will you give me, if I carry
you over? ”

“ I will give you my father.”

“That won’t do! ”

“ Or my mother! ”


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AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


“ No use.”

“ I’ll give you the ox next the door, at home.”

“ No.”

“The one in the middle — the one next the wall? ”

“ I don’t want any of them.”

“ Then I will be your wife.”

“ I agree to that,” said the Leopard. “ Now hold on to my
tail! ”

She did so, and he climbed the rock, pulling her after him.
But, just as he had got half-way, his tail broke, and she fell
down. Other leopards came, one after another, but the same
thing happened to each. At last came a leopard with ten tails,
who made the same bargain as the rest. She seized all his
tails at once and was carried safely over. After he had gone
a little distance with her, he asked if she could still see her
father’s house. She said that she could, and he went on, re-
peating the question from time to time, till she answered: “ I
can still see the big tree in the grove by my father’s house.”
Still he kept on his way up the mountain side and soon came to
a rock, where he stopped and cried: “House of the Chief,
open! ” The rock opened, and they entered the leopard’s
dwelling, which consisted, like a Chaga hut, of two compart-
ments, one for the people and one for the cattle. He took up
his quarters in the latter, leaving the other to his wife, whom
he kept well supplied with fat mutton and beef. He himself
lived on human flesh, but he always brought his victims in by
night and hid them in the cow-stall, so that his wife never saw
them . 29 After some months, when he considered her fat
enough (a fact ascertained by stabbing her in the leg with the
needle or awl used in thatching and mat-making), he went out
to invite his relatives to the feast, telling them to bring a sup-
ply of firewood with them. While he was gone, her brothers,
who had been searching for her, reached the rock. She heard
their voices and called out to them the magic words


TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES


255

which would open it. They came in and she set food before
them, but the husband came home suddenly, and she had only
time to hide them in the spaces under the rafters, where the
young leopards slept. The cubs began to growl, and the
Irimu became suspicious, but his wife pacified him by saying
that they were hungry. The brothers escaped during the
night, while he slept. Next day, after he had gone out, the
wife smeared herself all over with dirt, and also plastered
dirt on the threshold, the cooking-stones, the posts to which
the cattle were tied, and the rafters of the roof. To each of
these she said, “If my husband calls me, do you answer,
‘Here!’”

Then she got out of the house 30 and hastened homeward.
On the way, she met one after another of the Irimu’s kinsfolk,
each one carrying a log of wood on his shoulder. Each one, as
he passed her, asked: “ Are you our cousin’s wife? ” and she
answered: “ No, his wife is sitting at home, anointing herself
with mutton-fat! ”

They suspected nothing and passed on, to be met by the
Irimu , who conducted them to the rock and called his wife.
The threshold answered “Here! ” but no one came, and he
called again. This time the voice answered from the fire-
place, and so on, till he had searched the whole house in vain
and come to the conclusion that his wife had escaped. He
then heard from his guests how they had met her and been
deceived by her and, leaving them to make the preparations
for the banquet, he set out in pursuit.

Meanwhile the wife had reached a river too deep to ford
and cried: “Water, divide! Let this stand still and that
flow! ” Immediately the stream divided, and she went
through dryshod, and, having gained the further bank, said:
“ Water, unite and flow on! ” The water did so, and she sat
down to rest and cleanse herself. Presently the Irimu appeared
on the other side and asked her how she had got across. She


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


2 56

answered: “ You have only to say to the water, ‘Divide! Let
this stand still and that flow! ’ But when you are in midstream,
say, ‘Come together again! ’ ” The Irimu did as he was
told and was carried off by the current. As he was being
swept out of sight, he cursed her, saying: “ Wherever you go,
you shall only see people with five heads! ” She called after
him: “ Go your way and take root as a banana-tree! ”

The woman went on, and soon came upon some people who
had five heads. When she saw them, she burst out laughing,
and four of each person’s heads dropped off. They said:
“Give us back our heads! ” So she gave them strings of
beads and passed on. The same thing happened over and over
again j but at last she reached her parents’ village in safety.
The IrimUy for his part, was washed ashore by the stream,
took root on the bank and became a banana-tree.

The concluding incidents, as we have them, are not very
clear, but we may perhaps connect the last one with, another
Chaga story , 31 where a woman, carrying her baby with her,
goes to the river-bank to cut grass, and finds a banana-tree
with ripe fruit . 32 She says: “Why, these are my bananas! ”
and the bananas reply: “ Why, that is my son! ” The little
child breaks off a banana and one of his fingers drops off.
Subsequently, they meet an Irimu , who tears the child to
pieces. The relation between the Irimu and the banana-tree
is not stated, but may be guessed without difficulty, when we
recall the preceding story, and the pumpkin-plant which
sprang from the dead Zimwi in the Swahili tale . 33

The latter part of the “ Irimu’s Wife ” belongs to the
numerous tales which have been classified under the heading
“ Flight from Witchcraft.” It is found here in a compara-
tively simple form, the obstacles occurring in most of them
being reduced to one — the river. And here we may remark
that the dividing of a river — either by a mere “ word of
power,” as here, or by striking it with a staff — is too common


TALES OF DEMONS AND OGRES


257

an incident in African folklore to be ascribed to echoes of
missionary teaching. It occurs, not only in fairy-tales, but
also e.g. in the traditions of the Zulus, who bring it down
to so recent a period as the northward migrations of Zwan-
gendaba, about 1825. The Basuto, 34 in the tale of “The
Nyamatsanes,” describe a man flying from ogres, who throws
a pebble behind him. This becomes a high rock, which they
cannot pass. Where the obstacles are multiplied, as in the
Swahili “ Kibaraka ” (thorns, rock, swords, water, fire, sea),
outside influence would seem to have been at work.

The theme is exemplified in nearly every part of Africa,
sometimes in a very close parallel to “ Hansel and Gretel,”
but more usually in the case of a girl married to an ogre (or
were -wolf ) and saved by a younger brother or sister. Some of
them we shall have to notice in a later chapter.


CHAPTER IX


THE LITTLE PEOPLE

W E HAVE mentioned Kitunusi and Chiruwi among the
uncanny denizens of the wood and wild in Tanaland
and the Shire Highlands respectively. Both these beings link
on to a set of legends, which seem, like those of the elves and
“ Good People ” in Europe, to refer, ultimately, to some
former inhabitants of the country, of smaller stature and
lower culture than the later invaders, yet possessed of knowl-
edge and skill in certain arts which gave them a reputation for
preternatural powers. Some had a knowledge of metal work-
ing, others a familiarity with the ways of wild animals and the
properties of plants, which might seem little short of miracu-
lous to the more settled agricultural or even the pastoral tribes.
The mystery of their underground dwellings; their poisoned
arrows; their rock-paintings and sculptures (which, moreover,
seem to have served some magical purpose) — all had a share
in building up their mythical character. As regards Europe,
the subject has been fully treated by Mr. David MacRitchie
in The Testimony of Tradition and other works.

The Giryama, whose country adjoins that of the Pokomo,
have the Katsumbakazi, who appears to be in some respects
akin to the Kitunusi. He is, says the Rev. W. E. Taylor, 1
“a p'ep'o or jinn, said to be seen occasionally in daylight. . . .
It is usually malignant. When it meets any one, it is jealous
for its stature (which is very low) and accordingly asks him:
1 Where did you see me? 1 If the person is so unlucky as
to answer: £ Just here, 1 he will not live many days; but if
he is aware of the danger and says: 1 Oh, over yonder! ’ he



PLATE XXVI


Group of Ituri Pygmies.

After a photograph by E. Torday.







THE LITTLE PEOPLE


259

will be left unharmed, and sometimes even something lucky
will happen to him.”

This sensitiveness as to their size appears to be a common
trait among similar beings. Mr. Mervyn W. H. Beech 2
heard from the Akikuyu elders in Dagoreti district that the
country was “ first inhabited by a race of cannibal dwarfs
called Maithoachiana.” These were followed by some
people called Gumba, said to have been the makers of the old
pottery now sometimes dug up, and also to have taught the
Akikuyu the art of smelting iron. Mr. Beech was informed
by the District Commissioner of Fort Hall that “ the
Maithoachiana appear to be a variety of earth-gnomes with
many of the usual attributes ; they are rich, very fierce, very
touchy, e.g. if you meet one and ask him who his father is, he
will spear you, or if he asks you where you caught sight of
him fir^t, unless you say that you had seen him from afar, he
will kill you. . . . Like earth-gnomes in most folklore, they
are skilled in the art of metal working.”

There seems to be some difference of native opinion here,
as some say it was the Gumba who were the metal-workers.
Stone implements are found everywhere in the Kikuyu
country. Again, some say it was the Gumba who lived in
caves, as many of the people round Mount Elgon still do;
others that it was the Maithoachiana who lived in the earth.
Maithoachiana means, in Kikuyu, “ eyes of children.”

There are legendary dwarfs called by the Swahili Wabili-
kimo. Krapf says 3 that they are said to live four days’
journey west of Chaga, “they are of a small stature, twice
the measure from the middle finger to the elbow.” Krapf,
or his Swahili informant, endeavours to derive the name from
-bili (~wili) ) “two,” and kimo, “measure”; but it very
likely belongs to some language of the interior, and the Swahili
may have followed the practice of popular etymologists all
over the world in trying to get a meaning, by hook or by crook,


26 o


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


out of an otherwise unintelligible word. In Giryama, mbiri-
kimo is “ a member of the rumoured race of Pygmies,” 4 and I
have myself heard of them, quite accidentally, from a Gir-
yama; at any rate it seems clear that the name and the story
came from the interior. Krapf says: “The Swahili pretend
to get all their knowledge of physic from these pygmies ” (this
is his gloss on the statement that they go to “ Mbilikimoni ku
tafuta ugangay 1 to search for medicine ’ ”), “ who have a large
beard and who carry a little chair on their seat which never falls
off wherever they go.” Krapf goes on to make severe re-
flections on the fables invented by the “ credulous and design-
ing Swahili ”; but the last statement has some foundation in
the fact that several tribes of the interior are in the habit of
carrying their little wooden stools slung at their backs by a
hide thong, when they travel; and, seen at a distance these
might be taken for a fixture of their anatomy.

“ All medicine ” (uganga, generally understood as refer-
ring to the occult department) “ is in their country ”; and
herein, they resemble Bushmen, Lapps, and elves. But it is
not clear whether they are the same people as the Kikuyu
Maithoachiana.

In Nyasaland, Sir Harry Johnston 5 found, twenty-five
years ago, that the natives had a tradition ag to “ a dwarf race
of light yellow complexion,” living on the upper part of
Mlanje mountain. These may have been actual Bushmen,
and, indeed, a careful study of the population in some parts
of the Protectorate suggests that there must have been a con-
siderable absorption of Bushman blood in the past. “ They
gave these people a specific name, 1 A-rungu,’ but I confess
this term inspired me with some distrust of the value of their
tradition, as it was identical with that used for 1 gods.’ ”

It may only have meant that these “ little people ” were
passing into the mythical stage which they, or some like them,
have already reached in other parts of Nyasaland. Dr. H. S.


THE LITTLE PEOPLE


261

[Prometheus]

Stannus 6 found that, while the Yaos in some parts of the
Protectorate use the word Chitowe (pi. Itowe ) in the sense
already mentioned (as equivalent to Chiruwt ), others apply
it as follows:

“Among the Machinga Yao the Itowe are 4 the little
people 5 of the Leprecaun order. They rob the gardens and
cause rot among the pumpkins ; their little footprints can be
seen where they have passed hither and thither; fruits and
vegetables that they touch will become bitter. To prevent
these disasters, the Yao, at the time when their crops are
ripening, take some of their different kinds of vegetables and
place them at cross-roads, hoping thereby to satisfy the Itowe
and prevent them coming into the gardens. The Chitowe is
variously said to be like a man but rather like an animal. He
has two legs, but goes on all fours. The Yao describe another
legendary race of 1 little people ’ who 1 used to live in the
country and may still be met with — who knows 5 ? He
was of very small stature, grew a long beard, was very touchy,
quarrelsome and fierce, and carried spears as his weapons.
When anyone met one he was immediately asked: ( Mumbo-
nelekwapi? y (From how far did you see me?) and it was
always as well to pretend to have seen the little man coming
a long way off and make him believe he was considered quite
a big person; if you said, 1 Hello, I have only just spotted
you! ’ he would immediately spear you. They are com-
monly supposed to dwell on the tops of high mountains and
are iron-workers. They are called the Mumbonelekwapi”
The Machinga Yao dwell on the upper side near the outlet of
Lake Nyasa.

The going on all fours may remind us (though it is not the
same) of the Kitunusi’s mode of progression.

Dr. Stannus goes on to say that the same legend is found,
not only among the Anyanja and Yao, but among the Henga
and Nkonde at the north end of Lake Nyasa, and everywhere


262


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


the same name, the equivalent of “Where did you see me? ”
is in use. And here, at the risk of wearying the reader with
another parallel, we will pass on to the Zulus, and reproduce
the account of the Abatwa given to the late Bishop Callaway
by Umpengula Mbanda. 7

“ The Abatwa are very much smaller people than all other
small people; they go under the grass and sleep in anthills;
they go in the mist; they live in the up-country, in the rocks;
they have no village of which you may say £ There is a village
of the Abatwa.’ Their village is where they kill game; they
consume the whole of it and go away. That is their mode of
life.”

“ But it happens if a man is on a journey and comes sud-
denly on an Umutwa ” (singular of Abatwa), “ the Umu-
twa asks, £ Where did you see me? ’ But at first through
their want of intercourse with the Abatwa a man spoke the
truth and said, £ I saw you in this very place.’ Therefore the
Umutwa was angry, through supposing himself to be despised
by the man, and shot him with his arrow, and he died. There-
fore it was seen that they like to be magnified and hate
their littleness. So then, when a man met with them,
he saluted the one he met with, £ I saw you! ’ ” (the customary
Zulu greeting, Sa-ku-bona). “ The Umutwa said, 1 When
did you see me? ’ The man replied, 1 1 saw you when I was
just appearing yonder. You see yon mountain? I saw you
then, when I was on it.’ So the Umutwa rejoiced, saying, 1 O,
then, I have become great.’ Such then became the mode of
saluting them.”

There is a little addition to this account, which, whether
originally a part of it or not, belongs to a comparatively re-
cent period, since it assumes, as a matter of course, that the
Abatwa possess horses.

“ It is said, when Abatwa are on a journey, when the game
is come to an end where they have lived, they mount on a


THE LITTLE PEOPLE


263

horse, beginning on the neck, till they reach the tail, sitting
one behind the other. If they do not find any game, they
eat the horse.”

Their “ dreadfulness,” according to Umpengula, lies in
their very insignificance : “ They are little things, which go
under the grass. And a man goes looking in front of him,
thinking, ‘ If there come a man or a wild beast, I shall see 1 .’
And, forsooth, an Umutwa is there, under the grass; and the
man feels when he is already pierced by an arrow; he looks,
but does not see the man who shot it. It is this, then, that
takes away the strength.”

Their arrows, too, are always poisoned, so that the slightest
wound is fatal, and thus it is no wonder if they were felt to be
something not altogether human. The sense of horror and
mystery which they inspire is admirably rendered in a sketch
of Frederick Boyle’s , 8 describing some uncanny Bornean
forest-folk whom he calls Ujit; but what authority there is
for this, I do not know. I remember, when passing through
the forest which clothes the range of hills a few miles inland
from Mambrui, on the East Coast, a little to the North of
Malindi, one of the porters suddenly remarked: “ Wasanye! ”
I heard a cry of “ Dungich! ” (“the European”) from
among the trees, caught one glimpse of moving shapes, and
all was still. Presently I noticed the peculiarly insistent call
of some bird, repeated again and again and answered by
another. “ Is that a real bird, or the Wasanye? ” I asked the
man nearest me. “ The Wasanye,” he answered. We saw
and heard no more of them at that time.

These were perfectly harmless people and so, in many cases,
are the Bushmen. “ Some are of gentle disposition, ready
to do any service,” says Father Torrend; 9 “ others wage war on
all living beings and cannot be trusted with anything.” It
would have been only fair to add that the disposition of these
latter is consequent on the treatment that they have met with.


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


264

Bishop Callaway adds in a note: “ But they are not Bush-
men which are here described, but apparently pixies or some
race much more diminutive than the actual Bushmen. Yet
the resemblance is sufficiently good to make it almost certain
that we have a traditional description of the first intercourse
between the Zulus and that people.”

Further comparative research shows that the doubt here
conveyed was needless. These Abatwa are certainly the real
Bushmen, though they have passed into the region of myth-
ology.

This name, under various easily recognisable forms, is
found in many parts of Africa} sometimes applied to actual
pygmies, sometimes to people who are not particularly
dwarfish, but also resemble the Bushmen in their mode of life,
or have other characteristics in common with them. Thus the
(Bantu) Pokomo of the Tana River call the Wasanye Wa-
hwa, and there are people called Batwa living in the marshes
of Lake Bangweolo, who cannot be described as pygmies . 10

But everywhere, the name seems to be given by the present
population of the country to some earlier inhabitants. The
Watwa of Urundi consider themselves, says P. Van der
Burgt , 11 “ the true aborigines of the country. They are . . .
hunters, smiths, potters, . . . nomad, timid, cruel, irascible,
greatly given to magic arts , very black, lean, below the mid-
dle height, hairy. . . . The Warundi despise them, consider-
ing them not men hut beasts .”

On the writer’s own showing, however, this can scarcely be
accepted as an exhaustive description of the Warundi’s atti-
tude, since the Watwa seem to have the same uncanny attri-
butes as their congeners elsewhere. In their own ritual
chants, they call themselves “ sons of the stone-men,” which,
whatever it may mean, seems to hint at a different origin from
that of the people among whom they dwell. It is a pity that
no further explanation is forthcoming. We have seen that,


THE LITTLE PEOPLE


265

when African cosmogonies take any account of people other
than the narrators, these are frequently said to have “ come
otherwise” — like the stars in the idea of Browning’s Caliban

— also the Hill Damara and the Bushmen.

The Pygmies (Batwa) of the Kasai also “ came otherwise ”

— their progenitors are held to have been the offspring 1 of
trees, and the Bangongo informed Mr. Torday 12 that you can
still see the great cracks in some trees from which they came
out. Tradition tells that Woto, the fourth chief of the Bush-
ongo, having left his people and retired into the forest, on
account of the misdeeds of his relations, found himself very
lonely and uttered an incantation. Thereupon the trees opened
and sent forth a multitude of little beings who, when he asked
them what people they were, answered: “ Binu batwe! ” (“ we
are men ”) — whence their name. “ At the present day,”
said the informant, “ they are human beings and have chil-
dren like other people, but at that time they were only phan-
toms in human shape, being the children of the trees.”

They are regarded with superstitious terror ; even those who
have left the forest and settled down to agricultural life are
considered more or less dangerous, and the other tribes never
intermarry with them.

However, there seems to be one place at least, where the
Little People are friendly and helpful. This is on Kiliman-
jaro, where some suppose them to live in a world of their own,
within the mountain, with their banana-groves and herds
of cattle. Poor or distressed people who find the entrance to
this world are kindly received and dismissed with generous
gifts, while the well-to-do, who come in hope of getting still
richer, are driven out in disgrace. This reminds us of the
numerous “ Holle ” stories (see Chapter V), though these be-
long rather to the Kingdom of the Dead, and indeed this is
expressly stated in tales of this kind told by these very people,
the Wachaga. It seems pretty clear, however, that the kindly


266


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


Underworld folk are not the ancestors ( warimu ), but “the
legendary earliest inhabitants of the country.” Some localise
them, not inside the mountain, but on the top of Kibo — the
huge, rounded, snowy dome of which you catch a distant view
from the train, approaching Voi, as you come from Mombasa.

“ They are dwarfs with great, misshapen heads, who have
retreated before the advancing tribes and taken refuge on
the inaccessible height. They are called Wadarimba or Wa-
konyingo. They have a kind of ladders, like the rafters in
the roof of a native hut, fixed against the rocks, by which
people can climb up to them, and which do not stop short there
but reach straight up into the sky. These dwarfs, too, take
pity on those in trouble as is related in many legends. The
bits of meat which they lay out in the banana-groves when
sacrificing to their ancestors, roll down the slopes of the moun-
tains and turn into ravens.” 13 Perhaps this is an attempt to
account for the fact that the white-necked raven, fairly com-
mon on Kilimanjaro, is seldom, if ever, seen as high as the
snow-limit.

The Wakonyingo are said to be no larger than human chil-
dren, but to have enormous heads. They never lie down to
sleep, but sit, leaning against the wall of the hut, for if they
were to lie down, they could never get up again, being so top-
heavy. If one of them falls, he has to wait for his friends
to help him up, and therefore every Mkonyingo carries a horn
at his belt, so that he can blow it to call for aid, if necessary . 14

They tell a story of the Wakonyingo , 16 somewhat to the
following effect:

There was a poor man with two sons, Mkunare and Kan-
yanga. As they had not even one cow, Mkunare said: ‘ I will
go up to Kibo. They say that a chief dwells there who has pity
on the poor.’ He took food with him and went up the
mountain. First he came to an old woman sitting by the way-
side, whose eyes were so sore that she could not see out of




PLATE XXVII
The Dwarfs with the Big Heads





THE LITTLE PEOPLE 267

them. He greeted her, and she thanked him, saying: 1 What
brings you up here? ’ He told her, and she said: £ Lick my
eyes clean first, and then I will tell you how to reach the chief.’
He could not bring himself to do this and went on till he came
to the Wakonyingo and found all the men sitting at the
Chief’s kraal. None of them was bigger than a little boy
who herds the goats (which the youngest do, before they are
considered capable of going with the cattle). So he took
them for children and said: £ Good-day, youngsters. Just
show me the way to your fathers and big brothers! ’ The
Wakonyingo answered: £ Just wait till they come!’ He
waited, but no grown men appeared, and, as the evening fell,
the Little Ones drove in the cattle and killed a beast for sup-
per ; but they gave him no meat, only saying: ‘Wait till our
fathers and brothers come! ’ So he had to go away hungry,
and, when he reached the old woman once more, she would
answer no questions. He lost his way and wandered about
for a month before getting home, where he reported that a
great tribe with many cattle lived on the top of Kibo, but they
were inhospitable and would give nothing to strangers. But
as their case continued desperate, the younger brother, Kan-
yanga, resolved to try his fortune. He set out, found the
old woman and performed the charitable office requested of
him. The grateful old woman then said: £ Go straight on,
and you will come to the Chief’s green, where you will find
men no bigger than the goat-boys. But you must not
think they are children, but greet them respectfully, as the
Chief’s councillors.’ Kanyanga did as he was directed, and
the Wakonyingo welcomed him and took him to the chief,
who, on hearing his story, at once supplied him with food and
shelter. In return for this generosity, Kanyanga taught the
Wakonyingo the proper charms for protecting their crops
against insect and other pests and also those for £ closing the
roads ’ so that no enemy could enter their country. This is


268


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


remarkable, as showing that certain kinds of magic may have
been known to the later comers and not to the aborigines.
These dwarfs were so delighted that each of them gave
Kanyanga a beast and he returned home in triumph, driving
his cattle before him and singing the Herding-Song:

“ Bring me an axe to strike the tree —

The Talking Tree that talks to me:

Bairns, says he, and kine, says he —

And where shall I graze those kine? tell me!

They shall graze on Kibo, till Kibo is burnt off.

They shall graze on Mawenzi, till the fire has swept the peak —
They shall feed o’er Lalehu and on Kimala side,

And in Leruhu swamp, till there’s no more grass to seek.

On Mamkinga meadows, by Makirere banks —

Down Kinenena slopes, till the grass is burnt and done . . .
Down, down, to the pools of Kikulo and Malaa —

And then they’ll be at home, every one! ”

So Kanyanga grew rich and restored the fallen fortunes of
his clan. But the people made a song about his brother,
which is sung to this day:

“ O Mkunare, wait till the fathers come!

What right have you to despise the Little Folk! ”

Here we find the Wakonyingo less aggressively sensitive
about their small size than the Abatwa, and less extreme in
their retaliation, though by no means disposed to overlook
slights. Another story , 10 partly to the same effect, describes
their country as reached by a gateway — no doubt like those
which lead to the fortified kayas of the Wanyika. Near the
top of Kibo are two doors side by side, one giving access to
the Wakonyingo’s ladders, the other leading downwards.
Any one ill-advised enough to go through the latter would
perish miserably, for those who come down again perceive
what they were unable to see when going up — ghosts and


THE LITTLE PEOPLE


269

a great fire. This story also describes the Wakonyingo women
going down the mountan to cut grass, each with a gourd
of cream tied to her back, to be shaken up as she walked,
which was their method of churning.

It thus appears that, if the Wakonyingo are not actually
Heaven-dwellers, yet they resemble them in some respects.
But the Thonga, as we have seen, believe in dwarfs actually
living in the sky, who sometimes come down in thunder-
storms , 17 but, from their connection with rain, they would have
come more appropriately into the chapter on Nature Myths.

On the other hand, Duff Macdonald 18 quotes a confused
little tradition that “ people died and went to the graves and
became Itowe,” but there is nothing to show that these are
the same as the pixie-like Itowe described by Dr. Stannus . 19


CHAPTER X


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES

T OTEMISM seems to exist, or to have existed, all over
Africa south of the Sahara. Sometimes we meet with
it in a clear and unmistakable form, sometimes only in a state
of survival, no longer understood — or only partly so — by
the people themselves.

This is not the place to discuss the nature and origin of
totemism, or to compare its African manifestations with those
found in other parts of the world. We are concerned with it
only as a factor in mythology 5 and here it is of considerable
importance. It may be well, for the sake of clearness, to
start with Frazer’s definition 1 — the most recent and satisfac-
tory known to me:

“ A totem is a class of material objects which a savage re-
gards with superstitious respect, believing that there exists
between him and every member of the class an intimate and
altogether special relation. . . . The connection between the
man and his totem is mutually beneficent ; the totem protects
the man, and the man shows his respect for the totem in
various ways, by not killing it if it be an animal, and by not
cutting or gathering it if it be a plant. As distinguished from
a fetish, a totem is never an isolated individual, but always
a class of objects.”

A totem may be an animal or plant, more rarely an inani-
mate object, still more rarely an artificial object. There are
“ rain ” and “ sun ” totems among the Nandi and the Herero;
a “ hill ” totem in Nyasaland, and the Barolong (Bechuana)
have an “ iron ” totem ( tship ). The way in which this origi-


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


271

nated (as related to me by a member of the clan, Mr. Solomon
Tshekiso Plaatje) may throw some light on other seemingly
anomalous totems. The Barolong formerly “ danced ” (as the
Bechuana say) 2 the kudu, and therefore could not eat its
flesh. Once, in time of famine, it appears that a kudu was acci-
dentally killed by some one; no one, however, dared to eat
its flesh, though sorely distressed. The chief came to the res-
cue, by suggesting that the totem should be changed and that
they should thenceforth venerate, not the kudu, but the spear
which had killed it. (This suggests that the “ iron ” totem
belongs to the class, not merely of inanimate, but of artificial
objects.)

[Prometheus]

Totems, as Frazer points out , 3 are never worshipped in any
real sense; the relation “is one of friendship and kinship.”
The man “ identifies himself and his fellow-clansmen with his
totem ... he looks upon himself and his fellows as animals
of the same species, and on the other hand he regards the ani-
mals as in a sense human.” Totemism may sometimes develop
into worship of animals or plants, as may have been the case
in ancient Egypt. The Baganda have a “ python-god,”
Selwanga, whose temple is in Budu. His priests are members
of the “ Heart ” clan, and there is nothing in Roscoe’s account
to suggest that he is a totem ; 4 but, when we find that a tribe
to the northeast of Lake Victoria (the Kamalamba ) 5 have a
python totem, and that the two clans owning this totem pay
special honours to the python, his origin is pretty evident.
The Wawanga, a tribe allied to the Kamalamba, “ have certain
sacred rites connected with the python. . . . Straw images of
these snakes, with a pot of porridge or beer, and perhaps a
few feathers stuck into the ground beside them, are often
to be seen in the villages. In such a case, some one in the vil-
lage has recently met a python and offered it food, or a fowl,
and on his return has made this image of it.” 6 This applies
to the whole tribe — not to any particular clan, and would


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


272

appear to be a transition stage between the practice of the
Kamalamba and that of the Baganda.

Again, totemism appears to exist, though becoming obsolete,
among the Ewe , 7 and three Ewe totems, the Python, the
Crocodile, and the Leopard, are enumerated by Ellis among
“ tribal deities.” It is true that he does not mention a Python
clan, but his list is admittedly incomplete, and it does include
a Snake clan (Ordanh-doj the Python god is Danh-bi), which
may be the same thing.

Totemism is sometimes confused with the idea that the dead
are re-incarnated in the form of animals j but the two notions
are really quite distinct, as is quite clear when we consider
what the Zulus say about the amadhlozi coming back as
snakes. All animals of a given class are totems ; but only a
diviner can tell for certain whether any individual snake is or
is not an idhlozi. Again, while other creatures besides snakes
may be re-incarnated ancestors, there appears to be no case of
their being appropriated to the particular clans, as they would
be if they were totems.

The Wachaga seem to be losing their hold on totemism —
at least only three totems are recognised nowadays — viz., the
Baboon, the Elephant, and the Python . 8 There are probably
others, e.g. the Wild Boar clan explain their name by saying
that their ancestor was once knocked over by a wild boar, and
they do not consider it an honour to be addressed by it. But
this seems to show that the real meaning has been forgotten.
The clans above mentioned believe themselves to be descended
from their namesakes, but whereas most peoples who still re-
tain a conscious belief in totemism think that their ancestor was
actually an animal — usually, one who took human shape in
order to found the family — the Wachaga represent the human
ancestor as having afterwards turned into an animal. This
alone is a sufficient indication that the idea has undergone some
change, and that totemism, as such, is more or less obsolete.


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


273

A seeming exception to this last remark is the case of the
Baboon clan. Their ancestor was a Baboon pure and simple
who, having quarrelled with his fellows, went and settled in
a village. However, the exception is only apparent, as the
Wachaga believe these apes to be degenerate human beings.
Certain people, being hard pressed by their enemies, fled into
the jungle, and finding, after a time, that their huts had been
burnt down and their fields wasted, gave up the attempt to
lead a settled life and have remained wild ever since. Hence
the founder of the clan was only returning to a state from
which his ancestors had fallen.

I think the notion of apes as degenerate men has been re-
ported from various parts of Africa, but the stories I have my-
self come in contact with, rather suggest the notion that they
are inferior beings trying to raise themselves to human status.
An East African tale relates how the Baboons, tired of being
driven away from people’s gardens, chose one of their number,
cut off his tail (by way of disguise), and sent him to settle in
the nearest village, directing him to marry a woman of the
place and then cultivate seven gardens, of which five were to
be left for his relations, while he and his wife were to live on
the other two. The arrangement worked well for a time;
but at last the wife grew tired of working so hard, “ hoeing
for those apes only! ” Her husband agreed with her; but
his kinsmen overheard them talking in this way and hastened
back to the Bush, where they informed the rest of the tribe.
It was resolved that his tail should be restored to him: so the
whole party set off for the village, carrying it with them and
singing:

“ Nyani, hge nyani , hala muchirao ! ”

“ Baboon, ho! baboon, come and take your tail! ”

When they arrived at his abode, he was not at home, having
gone to thatch his father-in-law’s house; but they followed


274


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


him thither and kept on singing till the import of their song
reached him where he was, perched on the ridge-pole of the
hut. He seems to have thought no protests would serve him,
for he merely asked them to let him finish the roof, and then
descended and resumed his tail, much to the astonishment of
his wife and her family — this being the first intimation of
his real nature . 9

The Elephant totem of the Wachaga 10 belongs to the Wa-
konadai clan. The legend has it that a girl of this clan was
once given in marriage against her will to a man of the Wa-
kosalema. She refused to eat ordinary human food, subsisted
on leaves and grass, and finally turned into an elephant,
escaping into the forest. Since that time, elephants have
greatly increased and have taken to feeding in people’s gardens
which they formerly avoided. They never harm one of their
own clan, but if they meet a Mukosalema, they instantly
kill him or her.

There does not seem to be a legend about the origin of the
Python totem, which seems to have existed in many parts of
Africa, but Gutmann’s account is a very good illustration of
the way in which these people treat their totems. Whenever
a marriage has taken place, a feast is made for the Python,
and the young wife sweeps and adorns the hut with especial
care. It is said that the reptile always appears and throws
down in the court-yard some of the yellow berries which are
looked on as its peculiar treasure. It then enters the hut,
where the wife is seated on the ground, glides over her out-
stretched legs and, after helping itself to the milk and other
refreshments placed ready for it on a stool, passes out at the
door and disappears in the scrub.

Gutmann says that this great serpent is regarded as an em-
bodiment of an ancestor ; but this, as already pointed out, is
not the same thing as a totem: moreover, he adds that they
never pray or sacrifice to it, as they do to their ancestral spirits.


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


275

The relation between a man and his totem is further ex-
emplified by an experience of Mr. Hollis’s 11 among the
Nandi — a Hamitic tribe of East Africa. I give it in his own
words:

“ In March, 1908, I was on the point of encamping at the
foot of the Nandi escarpment. The porters were pitching the
tents, the cook had lit his fire, and I was having lunch. All
at once an ominous buzzing warned us that a swarm of bees
was near at hand, and in less than a minute we had to leave
our loads and fly, hotly pursued by the bees. . . . During
the course of the afternoon we tried two or three times to res-
cue our loads but without success, some of the porters being
badly stung in the attempt. At four o’clock, when I had just
decided to do nothing more till dark, a Nandi strolled into
camp and volunteered to quiet the bees. He told us that he
was of the Bee totem, and that the bees were his. He said
we were to blame for the attack, as we had lit a fire under the
tree in which their honey-barrel hung. He was practically
stark naked, but he started off at once to the spot where the
loads were, whistling loudly in much the same way as the
Nandi whistle to their cattle. We saw the bees swarm round
and on him, but beyond brushing them lightly from his arms
he took no notice of them and, still whistling loudly, proceeded
to the tree in which was their hive. In a few minutes he re-
turned, none the worse for his venture, and we were able to
fetch our loads.”

The Nandi have a Baboon and a Leopard clan, but (unless
it is included under the general designation of “ Snake ”)
there does not appear to be a Python among their totems.
The Hyena clan has some curious privileges and restrictions
and is very highly esteemed. I mention this, because the hy-
ena is to a certain extent respected by all Nandi, not merely
by those whose totem he is, and is also the object of what might
be called a cult among the Giryama and other tribes, who, as


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


276

far as one knows, have no such totem. This may be a case of
totemism developing into zoolatry, as seems to have happened
with the Python.

The Thonga, according to Junod, 12 are not totemic, but
two tales 13 which he gives afford a strong presumption that
they once were. As these form excellent illustrations of the
subject, they may be given here. A young man married a girl
named Titishana, and, when the time came for him to take
her home, her parents said: “Take an elephant with you! ”
(There is nothing in the tale, as it stands, to lead up to this
astonishing offer, but it seems to be assumed that she would
take some animal with her to her new home 5 perhaps she had
begun by demanding the totem, and the parents made futile
attempts to buy her off.) She refused, saying: “Where
should I keep him? there is no forest near my husband’s vil-
lage.” They said: “ Take an antelope! ” but again she would
have none of it. “No! give me your cat! ” They would not
consent. “ You know that our life is bound up with the cat! ”
But the heartless daughter replied: “ That does not matter to
me! I may meet with bad luck if you refuse! ” So they
yielded and gave her the cat. When the young couple left
next day, the bride, without her husband’s knowledge, carried
the cat with her. On reaching their home, she secretly con-
structed a kraal for it and kept it there. When, subsequently,
she went out to cultivate her garden at a distance (no one
being left at home in the hut), she told the cat he might come
out and eat the cooked maize left in the pot. He did so, and,
after scraping out the pot, took down the kilt belonging to her
husband, and his rattles, put them on and began to dance,
singing:

“ Oh ho! Titishana! Where have you gone, Titishana?

You have gone away — va! va! va! ”

Then, fearing he might be caught, he restored the things


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


277


to their places and returned to his enclosure. He did the
same every morning as soon as Titishana had left for the
gardens, till, one day, he was overheard by some children,
who went to tell the master of the house. The man refused
to believe them, but hid himself near the door, and presently
saw the cat, wearing his own kilt and ornaments, begin to
dance. He fired at it and killed it, and, at the same moment,
Titishana, hoeing in her garden, fell down, as if seized by
sudden faintness. She called out: “They have killed me at
the village! ” and went home, crying aloud all the way. She
sat down by the door of the hut, telling her husband to wrap
the body in a mat — since she would die, if she saw it uncov-
ered — so that she could carry it to her own village. She
set out, her husband following behind, and on arriving, laid
the bundle down in the middle of the public place. It seems
there was no need to explain what had happened, for a woman
came up to her and said: “We offered you an elephant — you
refused; we offered you an antelope — you refused; have
you not now killed us all ? — tell me ! ” All the inhabitants
of the village assembled there saying: “ We, the Cat-clan,
are undone! ”

Then they unrolled the mat and, one after another — the
culprit being the first to do so — went to look at the dead cat,
each one falling down dead, as he or she caught sight of it.
The son-in-law went out, closed the gateway (the entrance
to the circular stockade surrounding the village) with a heap
of thorn-bushes, and went home, leaving the corpses to decay
unburied. He told his friends that, by killing the cat, he
had killed all these people, as their life depended on that
of the beast. Moreover, he lost the dowry he had paid for
his wife, since there was no one left alive from whom to
claim it.

It seems clear that this cat was a totem, and several points
in the tale are interesting. The wife wants to keep her own


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


278

totem, but is evidently not expected to do so, and disaster
follows. Does this preserve an obscure memory of the
change from female to male kinship? The fact of the clan’s
life depending on the cat seems to favour the theory of the
totem as external soul, which Frazer one time adopted, but
afterwards saw reason to reject . 14

The same idea comes out in the story entitled “ Le Gam-
badeur de la Plaine ” — a translation of Matlangu wa libala ,
the shibongo or “ praise-name ” of the totem, which is here
a buffalo. The incidents are much the same as those given
above: the totem is kept secret from the husband, who finally
kills it in ignorance. There are some differences: the buffalo
is invisible to all except the wife 15 j the wife, unable to feed
him without betraying his presence, tells him to hide in the
forest and come out at night to graze in the gardens and he
performs various tasks for her — fetching wood and water,
cultivating, etc. When he is killed, the wife tries to revive
him by magical ceremonies, and would have succeeded, but
that she was interrupted at critical moments. Finally,
the members of the totem-clan, on hearing of the buffalo’s
death, kill themselves and their children, which seems a less
primitive conception than the other.

According to Dr. Mansfeld , 18 the Ekoi of the Cameroons
not only look on their totem animals as helpers and protectors,
but can influence them to do their bidding, e.g., attack their
enemies. The totem-group usually coincides with the village,
i.e., it has become a matter of locality rather than of descent.
The commonest totems are the hippopotamus, elephant,
crocodile, leopard, and gorilla — also fish and snakes. This
author gives a remarkable and beautiful photograph of a
stream frequented by the totem of the Hippopotamus clan,
where the monsters, being left undisturbed, are (or were)
perfectly tame: the illustration shows sixteen heads calmly
floating on the smooth surface quite regardless of the white



PLATE XXVIII


Harry Kambwiri (a native teacher of the Blantyre
Mission and excellent narrator of folk-tales), with
his wife Lucy. Both are mixed Yao and Nyanja
stock.





TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


279


man and his camera. They came at the call of the chief who
acted as Dr. Mansfeld’s guide, and followed the party as
they walked along the bank.

The Ekoi theory seems to be that half of every man’s soul
lives in an animal of his totem species, therefore it is only
one particular animal which is his individual totem. Men
of the Elephant clan will hunt elephants and kill them with
impunity, so long as they spare those which are totems, for,
apparently, not all elephants are totems. A man and his own
totem will always instinctively recognise and avoid each other:
as for other men’s totems, if the hunter, as he should do, has
properly sacrificed to the elephant-fetish before starting, any
totem-elephant he meets will make himself known by holding
up one forefoot. Should he have omitted to sacrifice, he may
wound or kill a totem, and the man to whom that totem belongs
falls ill or dies, as the case may be. A man, it appears, can
change himself into a crocodile or a hippopotamus, or what-
ever his totem animal may be, and then make himself in-
visible, in order to revenge himself on an enemy. But, at the
same time, he can send the second half of his soul, embodied
in the totem, on a similar errand. This seems a superfluous
doubling of parts, and it is not explained why, given the power
of assuming the animal form, it should also be necessary
to become invisible. But the account comes from a careful
observer, who knew the Ekoi language and was able to get
his information at first-hand. It is possible that this particular
form of totemism may have been modified through contact
with the doctrine — so fully developed in West Africa —
of the Bush-Soul.

In many cases, totem-clans, besides being bound to respect
their totems, are subject to various ceremonial prohibitions
whose connection with the totem it is difficult to conjecture.
Thus the Nandi clan called Kipoiis , 17 whose totems are the
jackal and the cockroach , 18 “ may not make traps, although


Z80

[Prometheus]

AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


they may hunt; they may not build their huts near a road; and
they may not wear the skins of any wild animal except the
hyrax.” This last prohibition applies to several other clans,
while one (the Kipkenda) may wear the skin of any animal
except the duiker. Their totem, however, is not the duiker, but,
for one division of the clan, the bee, for the other, the frog.
(The duiker is the totem of the Kipamwi clan, but — though
of course they are not allowed to eat it — nothing is said as to
the wearing of its skin.) People of the duiker totem may not
plant millet, nor those of the bush-pig totem touch a donkey.
The nature of these tabus is obscure, but they might possibly
have originated in individual prohibitions, such as those issued
by the Congo medicine-man to a woman before the birth of her
child . 19 He orders a feast, prescribing the food — both ani-
mal and vegetable — to be prepared for it, and the child must
abstain, either during life or for a certain fixed period, from
the flesh of any animal or fish eaten at the feast. The restric-
tion applies to animal food only, not vegetable; and we hear
nothing of tabus other than dietetic. But there seems no reason
why such should not be imposed, and probably they might be.
Duff Macdonald 20 gives a Yao story of a girl who was only al-
lowed to marry on condition that she should never be asked to
pound grain or anything but castor-oil beans. Her co-wife, in
the husband’s absence, insisted upon her pounding the maize; as
she did so “ water appeared up to her loins, she pounded again
and it was at her neck, as she tried again, she was covered
over.” A similar incident occurs in a story of the Chameleon
narrated by Junod , 21 with the additional touch that the water
became a lake. Again, we have a Kinga tale 22 in which a boy
is buried alive, close to a river, by some of his companions.
His sister came to the river to fetch water, and, as she stooped
to fill her gourd, she heard a voice saying: “If you are my
sister, tell my mother that they have buried her eldest son! ”
The girl ran home terrified, and said nothing of what she

TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


281


had heard. The same thing happened three days running,
but, on the fourth day, she told her mother, who went down
to the river with her, and hid herself, while the girl drew
water. The mother heard the voice, went to the spot whence
it seemed to come and lifted away the loose earth, uncover-
ing the boy’s head. Then she fetched a hoe and dug him
up,. He was alive, but the flesh of one side was decomposed.
They carried him home, and stayed with him three days. On
the fourth, the parents went out to hoe their garden, and,
before leaving, told the boy on no account to fetch fire, if
asked to do so. When he was left alone in the hut, some chiefs
came by and sat down to rest in the shade, telling the boy to
bring some fire, as they wished to smoke. He refused several
times, but, being threatened with a stick, complied, when he
was immediately turned into water, and a large pool occupied
the site of the hut. The chiefs fled in terror, and the parents,
when they returned, went and hanged themselves in the hut
of the people who had tried to murder the lad.

Several points in this tale need clearing up, and it is probably
imperfect as we have it. But if the boy’s totem was water,
there would be a reason for the prohibition against meddling
with fire, and also for his turning to water when the tabu was
contravened. In the present form of the story, the motive is
obscured, if not entirely lost; but perhaps a hint of it may be
preserved in the statement that he was buried close to the
river and discovered by his sister when drawing water. In the
two preceding examples, there is no discoverable connection
between the tabu and the water-totem, if it is such . 23

But it is only here and there, if at all, that we can trace any
direct connection with totemism in the animal-stories which
may be said to make up the great mass of African mythology.
They are not so much a product of totemism as an outgrowth
of the state of mind which gives rise to totemism, though, while
the latter is more or less falling into oblivion, they continue


282


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


to flourish and everywhere are the primary channel of the
people’s budding literary instincts. The three branches of
Africans whom we have envisaged in this study all possess
them in enormous abundance, and while some themes, com-
mon to all three, may have been diffused from a common
centre, others may very well have originated independently
and been developed by each in its own way.

The principal hero of the Bantu animal-story is the Hare,
who has reached America as Brer Rabbit. The bulk of the
Negroes in the Southern States are descended from Bantu-
speaking tribes — most of them, I understand, from the Congo
region. This is rather curious, in view of the fact that the
Hare is not conspicuous in the folklore of the Congo people ;
but Mr. Weeks 24 suggests the solution, when he says: “ Brer
Rabbit is the Gazelle ( nsexi ) ” — either Neotragus or Dor-
catherium, the Water Chevrotain, appears to be meant —
“ [It] is very agile, and I suppose the slaves from Congo, find-
ing no such animal in America, used the rabbit as a substitute.”
But the real hare, found in most parts of eastern and southern
Africa, is undoubtedly the animal which figures in the folk-
tales of those regions and some of whose adventures, in all their
details, are attributed to the little antelope who takes his place
in the west — from the Congo northwards to the Cameroons
and beyond the Bantu area as far as Sierra Leone. That this
antelope should be called by English-speaking negroes “ Cun-
nie Rabbit ” is something of a puzzle, perhaps to be explained
by the great mingling of tribes which took place through the
settling of freed slaves at Sierra Leone. Koelle’s vocabularies,
collected there, include a number of Bantu dialects, some of
them spoken by people whose tales deal with the Hare. Eng-
lish, of a sort, became the common language of all the Sierra
Leone settlers, and it would be quite natural if, in the inter-
change of thought, the name “ Cunnie Rabbit ” was trans-
ferred from the hero of the eastern tales to the protagonist


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES 283

of the western — the tales themselves being, in many cases,
almost identical. I cannot help thinking that the Hare has the
prior right, and that the so-called “ Cunnie Rabbit ” took his
place in regions where no hares are to be found ; “no form of
hare has yet been recorded from the central or heavily for-
ested regions of the Congo basin.” 25

The Hare (Kabulu) reappears in the folklore of Angola, 26
where he is one of the heroes of the celebrated Tar Baby story.
Further south, among the Nama, his place is taken by the
Jackal, who really belongs to Hamitic tradition, though he is
occasionally found in Bantu tales. 27 The Basuto, who attrib-
ute to the Jackal an adventure elsewhere belonging to the
Hare, may have borrowed the former from the Hottentots.
The Zulus are not altogether unmindful of the Hare (1 um-
vundhla ), though they have given his glory in great part to
Hlakanyana; but he comes into his own again all over East
Africa, not only among the Bantu, but with the Nilotic peoples
north of Lake Victoria, even as far north as Darfur. The
Hamitic Galla and Somali will have none of him, in his
capacity of hero, counting him an unlucky beast — so much
so that if he crosses a hunter’s path in the morning, the man
will turn back at once, knowing that he will only meet with
bad luck if he goes on.

Abarea, whom I questioned at Mambrui in 1913, was very
explicit on this point; and when I asked why it was that the
Hare, if so abhorred, enjoyed so great a reputation and had
so many tales told about him, he repudiated the suggestion
and affirmed that it was not the Hare who, e.g., got the better
of the Lion by inducing him to swallow a hot stone, but the
Gedal (jackal). This is quite in accordance with the tra-
ditions of the Nama, at the other end of Africa, and of the
Masai, who also are partly Hamitic. The latter, accordingly,
have two tales at least 28 which elsewhere are given to the Hare.
But we also find a Hare story 29 (containing the “ Uncle


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


284

Remus” incident of “ Tu’n loose dat stump-root en ketch hole
er me ”) 30 which the Galla tell of the Jackal.

The Tortoise is common to “ Bantu ” and “ Negro ” Africa;
he is the one creature who is a match for the Hare in the first,
and the Spider in the second. He, too, has crossed to the
New World — as Brer Terrapin. He sometimes appears as
the embodiment of experienced wisdom and shrewd benevo-
lence, but sometimes also as a cold-blooded old Shylock, track-
ing down his victims with infinite patience and persistence,
and making them pay up, to the uttermost farthing.

The Spider makes occasional appearances in the folk-lore
of Bantu Africa, where some have explained him as an alias,
if one may say so, of the Sun — the rays of the latter being
compared to his web . 31 If it is correct that the Duala word
for “ spider,” dibobe , is also used for the sky, there is certainly
some ground for this assertion, but it is difficult to see how
it applies to Anansi, the Spider, as he figures in the folk -tales
of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. The latter can scarcely
be said to represent the Hare in this region, as he has none
of the latter’s better qualities — his cleverness has a wholly
malignant character, and he is altogether without redeeming
traits. In fact, we find him side by side with, and sometimes
defeated by, Cunnie Rabbit . 32

These five are the principal characters in the beast-fable,
as we have it in Africa. There are other protagonists, who
appear less frequently: the Chameleon , 33 the Crocodile, the
Python, various birds, the Frog (and particularly, in the
Delagoa Bay region, the curious little species known to science
as Breviceps mossambicensis ) 34 and others . 35

Then we have, en second plan , those who serve as butts,
victims, or foils to the hero of the tale, and these are usually
creatures of much greater size, strength, and apparent im-
portance: the Lion, the Elephant, the Hippopotamus, the
Rhinoceros, the Leopard, and the Hyena.


TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES 285

The sense of fair play which delights in the confounding
of the mighty by the weak things of the world, is, one hopes,
common to human nature everywhere ; but it seems to be
specially marked in Africa — perhaps because its peoples have
always been the prey of stronger and less scrupulous races.
M. Junod, in classifying his Ronga tales, calls one division
“ La Sagesse des Petits ” — but the trait is not confined to
any one group: it could be as fully illustrated from his other
classes of “ Contes d’Ammaux ” or “ Contes d* Ogres

It is hardly fair, one may remark in passing, to say, as
McCall Theal does: 36 “There was nothing that led to ele-
vation of thought in any of these stories, though one idea
that might easily be mistaken for a good one, pervaded many
of them: the superiority of brain power to physical force.
But on looking deeper it is found that brain power was always
interpreted as low cunning} it was wiliness, not greatness of
mind, that won in the strife against the stupid strong.”

This, on the one hand, is far too sweeping, and, on the other,
takes no account of the fact that you must not look for ethical
ideals in fairy-tales, which are the playground of irresponsible
fancy. What sort of ethical code could be inferred from
“ Jack the Giant Killer,” “ Tom-Tit-Tot,” and others of our
most popular tales, taken as they stand?

To return to our subject: the Hyena, in his association with
the Hare, is the most likely original of Brer Fox, possessing
at the same time, some characteristics of Brer Wolf. He is
cunning as well as brutal, makes friends with the Hare and
takes advantage of his good-nature, but is no match for him,
once his suspicions are aroused. The Lion is tricked over and
over again, by Jackal and Hare. The Elephant likewise cuts
a very poor figure, so, as a rule, does the Hippopotamus,
though one Ronga story, 37 curiously enough, represents him
as a benevolent fairy god-father — a kind of subaqueous Dr.
Barnardo, who receives lost or deserted children and in


286


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


due course restores them to their sorrowing parents, if any.
We are not informed what ultimately becomes of the un-
claimed ones.

In the following chapters an attempt will be made to group
the principal tales relating to the Hare and Jackal, the Tor-
toise, and the Spider.

There is a distinct type of tale (that on which Kipling’s
Just-So Stories are to some extent modelled), which professes
to explain the origin of certain animals, or of their peculiarities.
Thus we learn why the Hare has a short tail and long ears
(one version has it that his ears became elongated through
so many people stroking them in their delight at his clever-
ness), why the Spider has a flattened body and lives in dark
corners, why the Parrot has bright red tail-feathers, and so on.
The Rock-Rabbit has a little stump of a tail because, when
tails were being given out, he stayed at home, as it was a wet
day, and sent some one to fetch his for him. The Snake has
no legs and the Millipede (so the Swahili believe) no eyes,
because the latter, wishing to attend a wedding dance, and
having in those days no legs, borrowed the Snake’s, who lent
them, on condition of receiving the Millipede’s eyes during
his absence; but when the Millipede returned from the dance,
the Snake refused to restore his eyes, so he has kept the Snake’s
legs to this day. This reminds one of the exchange of
feathers between the Fowl and the Parrot, as reported by the
Benga . 88

Stories of this kind, though not uncommon, are com-
paratively few, when viewed in relation to the vast mass of
Bantu animal folk-lore. It seems as though the African mind
took the animals for granted, being more eager to relate their
adventures than to inquire how they came to be as they are.

A charming Yao “Just-So” story 39 is concerned with a
little brown bird, as to whose scientific identity I have no infor-
mation. He is called by the natives “ Che Mlanda ” and is



PLATE XXIX


The Story of Che Mlanda













TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


287

remarkable for his restless habits — always running up and
down, cheeping and twittering fussily, as if determined to
attract attention at all costs. In the beginning, it appears, all
birds were alike white. They thought this state of things
very dull and accordingly petitioned Mulungu to make them
of different colours, like the flowers and insects. Mulungu
heard their prayer and commanded them all to attend on a
certain day. The birds gathered in the bwalo, where Mu-
lungu sat on his stool, like a Yao chief dispensing justice, with
his pots of paint at his feet. They ranged themselves in
concentric semicircles and stood waiting their turns, as he called
them up one by one, letting each bird hop on his finger and
then setting him on his knee. He took up his little painting-
stick, chose his colors, decorated the bird and let him go, call-
ing up the next. Che Mlanda’s place was some way from
the end of the row, but he was too impatient to wait till called,
and behaved like a spoilt child, dancing up and down and
chirping: “Me next! paint me next! ” Mulungu at first
took no notice, beyond bidding him wait, and went on with
the other birds — the black bishop-finch with his scarlet wings,
the little jewelled emerald and sapphire king-fisher, the gor-
geous plantain-eater, blue and green and purple, and the rest.
But Che Mlanda would not be denied and kept clamoring
to be taken out of his turn, and at last Mulungu beckoned to
him, saying: “Well then, you shall have your way! ” The
little bird hopped up, full of self-importance, and Mulungu
dipped his stick in the pot of brown paint, hastily brushed him
all over with a uniform, dull tint, and dismissed him. So he
runs up and down, to this day, in his sober coat, among the
brilliant-plumaged fowls who adorn the African bush.

This chapter would not be complete without a reference to
the Mantis, who is a prominent figure in Bushman folk-lore.
Indeed, he may be called a sort of divinity — whether orig-
inally a totem, we cannot say, because we know so very little


288


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


about Bushman totemism . 40 I have not met with any Bantu
myths concerning this creature ; but it is probably everywhere
the object of various superstitions, which is not strange, con-
sidering its uncanny appearance and habits. The Northern
Swahili call it Kukuwazuka , “ fowl of the Ghosts,” 41 and the
Thonga people say that, in old times, it was considered a god,
or rather an emissary of the ancestor-gods . 42 “ Y oung shep-
herds, when they meet with a Mantis, tear out a little hair from
the skins of their belt and offer it to the insect, saying: 4 Take,
Grandfather!’ ” Formerly, 44 when one entered a hut, no one
interfered with it, as it was thought that perhaps some god
had come to pay a visit to his descendants. These ideas seem
to be disappearing now, and the offering is but a little
children’s game.” The Baronga think that the ancestral spirits
( psikwembo ) sometimes take the form of this insect . 43

The South African colonists usually call the Mantis the
44 Hottentot god,” and it is sometimes said that the Hottentots
used to worship it. Hahn 44 confirms the assertion of Peter
Kolben on this point, adding: 44 The Namaquas believe that
this insect brings luck if it creeps on a person, and one is not
allowed to kill it.” But this hardly amounts to worship, and,
though Thunberg says, 44 the people here believe that the
Hottentots offer prayer to it,” the statement is too vague to
accept unsupported, and Bleek, as we shall see, distinctly con-
troverts it.

The Zulus divine by means of the Mantis — disturbing it
when sitting on a stalk of grass, and then noting the direction
of its head when it settles again. This is done especially by
herd-boys trying to discover the whereabouts of strayed
cattle . 45 Sometime it is called 46 by names meaning 44 break the
pot,” which are explained by saying that if you see one when
you are carrying a pot, you are sure to drop and break the
latter.

Whatever the ideas underlying the above, it seems clear that

[Prometheus]

TOTEMISM AND ANIMAL STORIES


289

the Bushmen held the Mantis (Kaggen, Cagn) to be a divine
or quasi-divine being. 47 He was concerned in creation 5 the
moon is his old shoe, which he flung up into the sky j 48 he makes
an eland and restores it to life when killed. “ Besides his own
proper name (Kaggen) he possesses several others, and so also
does his wife. . . . Their adopted daughter, the Porcupine
(whose real father is a monster named Khwai-hemm, the All-
devourer . . .) is married to Kwammang’a and has by him a
son, the Ichneumon, who plays an important part, particularly
in advising and assisting his grandfather, the Mantis, and in
chiding him for his misdeeds. ... It does not seem that he
is the object of any worship, or that prayers are addressed to
him.” 49

This seems to conflict with Mr. Orpen’s account, which con-
tains the touching prayer versified by Andrew Lang. 50 Still, it
is not surprising to find a different development of the idea in
people inhabiting areas so widely separated as those of the
respective informants. But, in any case, Kaggen’s character is
“ ondoyant et divers”: sometimes he appears creative and
beneficent, sometimes as tricky as Hubeane, for instance, when
he turns himself into a dead hartebeest and frightens out of
their wits the little girls who, delighted at finding such a prize,
skin and cut him up with their flint knives. 51 The head com-
plains of being uncomfortably carried on the back of the child
who is taking it home, and, when she drops it, calls out: “ Oh!
oh! my head! Oh! bad little person, hurting me in the head! ”
Then all the joints reunite and the revived hartebeest assumes
the shape of a man and chases the girls home. u Have you
been and cut up the old man, the Mantis,” asks their father,
“ while he lay, pretending to be dead, in front of you? ”

The Mantis has three children, one of whom, Gaunu-
Tsachau, was killed by the Baboons and afterwards brought
to life by his father — a process described at great length, and
remarkable because the dead child’s eye is treated as a kind of


290 AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

germ or seed and kept in water till the whole body has grown
from it. 82

Finally, Kaggen and his son-in-law (by all accounts a less
exemplary character even than himself) are to be seen in the
rainbow, 53 Kaggen above and Kwammang’a underneath; and
the Moon (for which, as we have already seen, he is responsi-
ble) “ can talk, because he belongs to the Mantis, all of whose
things talk.” 54



PLATE XXX


1. The Story of the Mantis.

2. Bushman Idea of a Ghost.





CHAPTER XI

HARE AND JACKAL STORIES

T he hare, in one part of Africa the favorite hero
of folklore, is in others held to be distinctly unlucky.
The Abyssinians will not eat hare’s flesh, neither will the
Galla, and a hare crossing the path is by them considered the
worst of omens. The Hottentots, as already stated, connect
him with the Moon in a myth which relates how his blundering
brought irreparable disaster on mankind. The Bushmen say
that the Hare was once a human being, who assumed his pres-
ent shape when cursed by the Moon for his imbecility. They
have no objection to eating the Hare, but always carefully
avoid one particular muscle in the leg which, they think, was
taken over unchanged from his human form . 1

Various reasons have been given for the popularity of the
Hare in general Bantu tradition. Natives have sometimes
said that his habit of moving his mouth, as if talking to him-
self, indicates great wisdom. Something must be allowed for
the sympathy naturally inspired by the cleverness shown by a
weak and insignificant creature in escaping the pursuit of the
more powerful and ferocious beasts. And he is undoubtedly
among the most beautiful and attractive of “ small deer.”

It is sometimes denied that the African native is at all sensi-
tive to beauty in nature, living or inanimate} but a little first-
hand research is sufficient to show that this opinion is, at best,
only partially true. The Pokomo women, for instance, habit-
ually make songs in praise of various birds — songs which,
simple as they are, show both observation and sympathy.
Some of the tricks and adventures attributed elsewhere to


292


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


the Hare are told by the Zulus of Hlakanyana, a quasi-human
being who, in some respects, resembles our Tom Thumb, or
perhaps may be looked on as a sort of elf or pixy, though born
of human parents. It seems reasonable, in this case, to think
that the animal version of the story is the older one and the
other a later development 2 — favoured, no doubt, by the
story-teller’s inveterate habit of assuming that the animals are
the same as himself and his audience, or rather, of forgetting
that any points of difference exist: the Hare and the Hyena
hire themselves out to hoe a man’s garden ; the crow casts lots
like a diviner; a bird makes a drum and plays on it, and so
on, ad infinitum. “ Uncle Remus ” somewhere explains that
“ beasts ” were once upon a time just like “ folks the neces-
sity for such an explanation would never occur to the genuine
African . 3

Having mentioned “ Uncle Remus,” we may remark here
that for many of the “ Brer Rabbit ” stories African originals
have actually been found, and probably many, if not all, of
the remainder, can be similarly traced to their sources, though,
of course, they have all been adapted to American surround-
ings. Brer Fox and Brer Wolf have replaced the Hyena;
Brer B’ar is substituted for the Elephant; while the Lion makes
a few appearances in his own person, though under greatly
altered circumstances.

Whether or not Hlakanyana be considered as a development
of the Hare, the latter has a curious tendency to attract to
himself imported incidents belonging to other characters.
This is especially observable in East Africa, where there is a
certain confusion between the Hare and Abu Nuwas, the
Arab jester and hero of many more or less discreditable ad-
ventures. Thus, when the personality of Abu Nuwas has been
forgotten, banawasi has become a common noun in Swahili,
meaning “ a man who always has an answer ready , 4 who excels
in repartee.” Indeed, the name — if we may trust a some-


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES 293

what perplexing entry in Krapf’s Dictionary , has become
associated with the Hare, as is also evident from an instructive
parallel obtained by M. Junod at Lourengo Marques. Here,
some of the best-known adventures of Abu Nuwas 0 are related
of one Bonawasi — a name which Junod, influenced by the
idea that the story is Portuguese, explains as a corruption of
Bonifacio. One of the characters remarks, in admiration of
this man’s cleverness: “Truly, he is Nwachisisana,! ” — the
usual shivongo (honorary title) of the Hare.

In South Africa the contact of races has tended to produce
a certain confusion about the Hare, which, however, is easily
cleared up. The Basuto attribute one of his best-known ad-
ventures to the Jackal — “ probably through direct or indirect
Hottentot influence.” 6 Here the Hare appears as one of the
Jackal’s victims, a fact explained by the Hamitic view. “He
— he’s not clever,” said Abarea the Galla, “ his cleverness is
only in running away! ” And when I asked why, then, so
many tales were told about him — as, for instance, of his killing
the Lion by getting him to swallow a hot stone — the answer
was, “ Oh! that was not the Hare, it was the Gedal (jackal).”

Conversely, a story told me by Abarea about the Jackal
(which will be given later on) is told, by some Masai at least,
about the Hare. 7

The Basuto call the Hare ’ mutla , or, usually in the tales,
by the affectionate diminutive ’ mutlanyana . He is sometimes
opposed to an animal called hlolo , translated “ rabbit ” in
Jacottet’s version, and described by Brown as “ a small red
animal like a hare,” but apparently distinct both from the rock-
rabbit ( pela ) and the spring-hare ( tshipo ). 8 The point is of
interest, because it seems to mark an attempt at something like
compromise between the two views. The Bantu, unable to con-
ceive their beloved Hare in the role of a dupe and victim, have
insisted on his retaining his place, and put in some less es-
teemed congener to be a foil to him. Such might conceivably


294


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


be the genesis of the “ March Hare,” as Madan calls him , 9
who plays the part elsewhere assigned to the Hyena or Brer
Fox. A tale, “ The Wise and Foolish Hares,” preserved in
Campbell’s Travels™ may be an indication of the same thing.
It would appear from the opening that the two hares in ques-
tion were both of the same species, “ accustomed to dwell on
the mountains in holes dug by themselves. ” The wise one
made several entrances to his burrow, the one who was not so
wise “ made a passage that went straight in, neither crooked
nor divided.” Consequently, when some ill-disposed person
“ kindled a fire on the outside in the direction of the wind,”
the foolish hare was suffocated. When she “ felt the smoke
and heat entering her cell, she cried out loudly: 1 Brother,
brother! come and help me, for I am almost suffocated! ’ but
the other paid no attention to her screams; he only laughed
and in sport desired her to stand on her head, which, while at-
tempting to do, she died. On entering the hole afterwards,
the live hare took the dead one by the ears and called out:
1 Stand up, my sister, or I shall eat you up ’; but he found
she was dead. After this, the wise hare, that had horns on his
forehead, began to talk of his wisdom in providing against
evil; but while he was boasting, a creature came down from the
heavens and snatched away his horns.”

They were ultimately restored to him, so he has presumably
kept them; and the author adds this curious note: “There is
an animal, resembling a hare, which has horns about four
inches long. The scull (sic) and horns of one is in the Mis-
sionary Museum.”

This, if not Neotragus , may be some small species of ante-
lope which has the same reputation as “ Cunnie Rabbit.” There
may be a further hint of some association or confusion between
it and the Hare in the fact — if fact it be — that Kalulu y the
name for “ hare ” in Chinyanja and many allied languages,
is elsewhere the name for some small antelope.


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES 295

It is also remarkable that the Hare in this story, after los-
ing his horns, is persecuted by mysterious unnamed beings
whose efforts to destroy him — though the methods employed
are different — recall the adventures of Hubeane and Kalika-
lanje. It is difficult to resist the suspicion that these heroes, like
the Algonkin Ioskeha in America, were originally identical with
the Hare. Perhaps the same might be said of Hlakanyana,
though the descriptions given by Callaway’s informants rather
suggest some sort of weasel. Hlakanyana, by the bye, kills the
Hare and makes a whistle out of his bones — as the Hare is
elsewhere said to do to other creatures. This may mark a
stage in the transition from the Bantu to the Hamitic hare.

In another tale given by Campbell, the Hare appears inci-
dentally as a rain-maker, which may be a link with the older
mythological conception hinted at above.

No one has yet attempted to weave the “ faicts et gestes ” of
the Hare into a connected whole, as was done by the unnamed
mediaeval poet, or poets, for Reynard the Fox. But it would
not be a difficult task and may well be accomplished some day.
M. Junod points out that the two tales to which he has given
the common title of “ Roman du Lievre ” 11 have more or
less of literary coherence, and each leads up to a distinct
climax j but they include only a few of even the most typical
incidents.

The first begins with a trick played on the Gazelle, the
Hare inducing her to get into a cooking-pot and boiling her
to death, as Hlakanyana does the Cannibal’s mother. He then
makes her horns into a musical instrument, 12 on which he plays,
frightening the whole country-side. The Hippopotamus lies
in wait for him and catches him, but is induced not to betray
him by the promise that the Hare will teach him to blow the
horns. He tries, but without success, and the treacherous Hare
persuades him to have first one lip and then the other cut off, on
the pretext that their thickness prevents his blowing properly. 13


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


296

The Hippopotamus, in revenge, swallows the horns and the
Hare attempts to kill him, but is frustrated by the Dove, who
repeatedly warns the intended victim, till the Hare shoots and
destroys her, even to the last feather; he then shoots the
Hippopotamus, cuts him open and recovers his trumpet.
While he is washing it in the river, a Civet-cat steals the meat
which he has left on the ground; he smokes her out of the tree
in which she has taken refuge, kills her, and sells her skin,
living for some time on the proceeds. When these are ex-
hausted, he takes to stealing from people’s gardens, frighten-
ing the owners away by raising a cry that the enemy are
coming . 14 This trick works for some time, but at last the vil-
lagers catch him by setting up the image of a woman covered
with some sticky substance — a Tar Baby, in fact . 15 They
determine to kill him, but only succeed in killing their own
chief, while the Hare escapes.

The next story opens with an episode which occurs elsewhere
in other connections, even in European folklore. The Hare,
frightened (or pretending to be so?) by a sudden noise, runs
away, communicating the alarm to every one he meets, till
the whole population of the forest is running . 16 The connec-
tion between this and the next episode is not very clear: they
reach a tree, covered with sweet fruit which they eat, leaving,
at the Hare’s suggestion, one bunch for the use of the chief.
He steals this fruit himself during the night and contrives to
put the blame on the Elephant — much as Brer Rabbit brings
home to the innocent Brer Possum the theft of the butter 17 —
and the Elephant is accordingly put to death. But the Hare
cannot refrain from boasting of his exploit, is pursued, takes
refuge in a burrow, is caught, but escapes by the device of
calling out the equivalent to “ T’un loose dat stump-root en
ketch holt er me! ” 18 However, the pursuers stop the opening
of the burrow and leave him. He makes his way out at last,
nearly starved, and sets to work to weave a number of baskets.


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES 297

He then (by way of disguise) makes himself a wax head-
ring 19 and goes away to peddle his baskets at the Elephant’s
village. He is detected when the sun melts the wax, but runs
away, shaves his head, and coming back unrecognised, enters
into conversation with the village chief and, persuading him
to take a vapour bath, scalds him to death and makes his skull
into a drum, which he beats to call the villagers together, him-
self remaining hidden. He plays at hide and seek with them
for some time and finally escapes — it is not clearly stated
how. 20

But this is not an epic close — it is merely a pause in the
development of the story. There are endless additional inci-
dents, some of which may be placed before and some after the
above, while some, no doubt, are alternative versions. I will
content myself with recounting some of the most famous, be-
fore passing on to the tragic climax which so artistically rounds
off the whole. 21

At a time of drought, the animals agreed to dig a well,
being summoned for the purpose by the chief, sometimes —
but not always — specified as the Lion. The Hare, however,
refused to take his share in the task and, consequently, was
not allowed to draw water when the well was finished. 22 All
the animals resolved to take turns in watching the well. The
Hyena took the first watch and, after waiting about three
hours, heard the voice of the Hare, who strolled along carrying
two gourds, one empty and one full of honey, soliloquising
aloud: “ I don’t want any water — I don’t care for the water
of this well. I have sweet water of my own! ” Having raised
the Hyena’s curiosity, he gratified it by giving him a taste of
the honey, but, when he asked for more, refused it except on
condition of his allowing himself to be tied to a tree — alleging
that, such was the strength of the drink, he would otherwise
be unable to keep his feet. The Hyena consented and was
tied up; whereupon the Hare, instead of giving him the honey,


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


298

laughed in his face, took all the water he wanted and went
his way. When the other animals came back in the morning
and found the Hyena tied up, he made some attempt to save
his face by declaring that he had been overpowered by
numbers, but no one believed him. The Lion undertook the
next watch, but was similarly beguiled, and the Hare added
insult to injury by bathing in the well after supplying himself
with water. Other animals tried their luck (one account
mentions the Elephant and the Buffalo) with no better result,
till at last the Tortoise volunteered. He hid under water
and kept quiet, never answering when the Hare shouted his
noisy greeting. The latter, after waiting and getting no
answer, concluded that the animals were now thoroughly
frightened, and stepped into the water, putting his foot on
what he took for a stone but which was in fact the Tortoise.
When he stooped to dip out the water, the Tortoise caught his
“ hand,” then, in spite of his struggles, the other; then both
feet, and so held him till the animals came up. They carried
him before the chief and began to discuss the manner of his
death, when he spoke up, and — less subtle than Brer Rabbit
— suggested that the way to kill him was to tie him up with
banana-leaves and throw him down in the sun. This was done,
and he lay quiet, till — the sun being high — the banana-leaves
dried up and began to crack. Some of the animals heard it and
reported to the chief: “The Hare will break loose! ” The
Hare heard and groaned languidly: “ Leave me alone — I am
just about to die! ” In a little while, he felt that the drying
process had gone far enough, stretched himself vigorously and,
as his bonds fell off, sprang away too quickly for any one to
catch him.

[Prometheus]

In some versions the tale ends here: others carry it further
and relate how the Hare, pursued by the other animals, crept
into a hole in an ant-heap. The Elephant put in his trunk
and seized him, but let him go again (all the animals in their



PLATE XXXI


1. Bwana Ahmadi, a Swahili of Mambrui, whose
grandfather was miraculously cured of his blindness.
(See page 349.)

2. A group of Akamba in Rabai market-place.
The woman on the right is wearing a quantity of
the fine copper chains alluded to in the text. (See
page 300.)

After photographs by Prof. A. Werner.




























299


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES

native wilds seem singularly credulous) when informed that
he had got hold of a root. The animals left the Crow to watch
the hole, while they went to fetch fire. As soon as they were
gone, the Hare called out to the Crow: “Would you like
some white ants? ”

“ Y es, give me some ! ” said the Crow.

“ Open your eyes as wide as you can, so that you can see
them! ” and the Hare scratched up some earth and threw it
into the Crow’s eyes, taking advantage of his predicament
to escape . 23

Some time after this, he made friends with the Hyena, and
they agreed to go on a journey together. On the way, they
stopped to set a trap in the bush, and caught a guinea-fowl.
The Hare left the Hyena to roast it, while he lay down to
sleep. The Hyena, unable to resist the savoury smell of the
roast, devoured it as soon as it was done; he then put the
feathers and legs into the fire and lay down, pretending to be
asleep. The Hare was awakened by the smell of burning
and called the Hyena, asking what had become of the guinea-
fowl. The Hyena ruefully confessed that he had gone to sleep
and let it burn. The Hare did not believe him, but said
nothing.

A little later, the Hare proposed that they should both
visit his parents and the Hyena agreed. But the Hare led the
way to a strange village and left his companion behind in the
banana-gardens outside it, telling him to take as many bananas
as he wanted, while he (the Hare) went to announce their
arrival. As soon as he reached the village, he told the people
that there was a thief among the banana-trees, and made off.
The villagers rushed out, caught the Hyena, tied him and
beat him soundly. When they had left him, the treacherous
Hare appeared on the scene, showed his great surprise and
distress and condoled with his friend as he released him.

They then went on their way and in a little while arrived


300 AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

at a village where a dance was going on. The Hyena
retired apart, bathed and adorned himself, wearing on his head
an egg-shell into which he had stuck some feathers saved from
the guinea-fowl. He then danced, while the Hare sat and
looked on, and presently began to sing a riddling ditty:

“ The whole guinea-fowl was scorched up in the fire, til til til M

The Hare, guessing the sense of the words, took a drum
and began to beat it singing:

“ I got him tied up with banana-leaves and beaten, fu! fu! fu! ” 24

This quarrel appears to have been made up, for a little later,
we find the two, in time of famine, making a bargain to kill and
eat their respective mothers. The Hyena carried out his part of
the contract, and the two feasted on the meat thus provided 5 but
the Hare hid his mother and, when the time came to produce
her, declared that she had been killed by a lion. The Hyena
believed him at first, but, finding that he went away secretly
every day and would give no account of his movements, fol-
lowed him, discovered the mother hidden in a cave, gained
admittance by a trick, killed and ate her. 25

The Hare said nothing at the time, but “ went away and
grieved by himself,” nursing thoughts of revenge. After a
certain interval, he appeared at the Hyena’s abode “ very
fine — just like a Kamba,” i.e., adorned with bright brass
and copper chains, armlets and anklets, such as the Akamba
make and wear. The Hyena was overwhelmed with admi-
ration and envy. “ Do you know how I got all these fine
things? ” asked the Hare. “ I had a nail made red hot and
driven into the top of my head.” The Hyena did not stop to
inquire into the logic of the process, but was quite willing to
undergo the operation. So the Hare heated a nail and paid off
old scores, killing the Hyena outright. 26


30i


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES

On another occasion, the Hare made friends with the Lion,
at a time when the latter was weak and low after a run of bad
luck in hunting. He proposed a scheme for providing him
with food and helped him to build a large house, with a
baraz,a (verandah or porch). Inside, he dug a hole and, hav-
ing induced the Lion to lie down in it, covered him up with
sand, so that nothing showed above ground but one of his
teeth. Then he beat his drum and called all the animals to
a dance. The Rhinoceros came up to him and asked him to
start the tune 3 and, accordingly, he began to sing:

“ All you elephants, all you wild boars,

You shall dance in the inner house!

All you buffaloes, you shall dance in the inner house!

All you hippos, you shall dance in the inner house! ”

After the animals had entered and shown some alarm on
perceiving the Lion’s tooth projecting from the ground:

“ This is only the tooth of a dead camel —

Tooth, tooth, tooth, tooth of a camel! —

I and the Civet-cat, we will dance in the outer house!

Tooth! tooth! tooth! tooth! of a camel! ”

The animals took up the refrain and shouted in chorus:

“ Hidyo ni gego, gego, gego , gego dya ngamia! ”

And, while the fun waxed fast and furious, the treacherous
Hare and the Civet-cat barred the door on the outside and
ran away. When the singing was at its height, the Lion sud-
denly leapt from the ground and began to lay about him.
Not one escaped, and the Lion had a full supply of meat.
Then the Hare came back and opened the door. But the Lion
was ungrateful and consumed the meat by himself, and the
Hare soon grew tired of providing for him. So one day he
heated a stone in the fire, wrapped it up in the kidney-fat of


302


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


the animal just killed, and called on the Lion to open his mouth
for the reception of a specially dainty morsel. The Lion swal-
lowed it, and that was the end of him.

This is told by Hottentots of the Jackal 27 ; the Basuto, in a
similar story about the Hare, describe a different trick: he
gets the Lion to help him to thatch a house and fastens his
tail into the thatch, leaving him on the roof to perish, as
Hlakanyana does the Cannibal.

In some versions, having killed the Lion, he uses his skin
to play tricks on the Hyena. This need create no difficulty in
view of the latter’s death as already narrated — we are at
liberty to arrange the chronology of the incidents as we please,
or to suppose that the one just mentioned concerns a different
Hyena.

And now, passing over other adventures too numerous to
specify, we come to the last tragedy which proves that — as
the Giryama story-teller puts it — “ Harey ( Katsungula )
was clever, but he met with his match at last.” 28

The Cock and the Hare became very friendly and fre-
quently visited one another. But the Hare, finding it advis-
able to conceal his whereabouts from his enemies, built himself
a great many houses, omitting to tell his friend in which of
them he was to be found. Consequently, one day when the
Cock came to see him, he was put to a good deal of trouble
in finding him, and took offence, though he refrained from
expressing his annoyance and only said: “To be sure it was a
very clever device, such as no one else is in possession of! ” —
and they “ conversed and ate their meal,” till at sunset the
Cock took his departure, after arranging that the Hare was
to return the visit “ the day after to-morrow, when the cattle
go to graze.”

The Cock went home, nursing his grievance, and, when the
appointed day came, he said to his wives: “That friend of mine
went and put me to trouble by a device of building many


303


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES

houses, and so I too have thought of a trick to play on him
to-day, in order that he too may come to wait about.” So he
gave them full instructions, and sent scouts to watch for the
Hare’s approach. As soon as he was reported coming,
the Cock tucked his head under his wing and went to sleep.
When the visitor arrived, the women told him that his friend
had gone out to the pasture with the herd-boys and would
return with them in the evening. On his expressing his aston-
ishment at such inhospitable behaviour, they explained that
he had not really gone away altogether — he had sent his
head away with the herd-boys, while his body remained in the
house ; and in proof of this they showed him the apparently
headless form of the Cock. The Hare was greatly impressed
and asked the women to “ wake him that we may come and
have a talk,” but was given to understand that he must wait
till afternoon. At last, when the herd-boys came home, their
mother said to them: “ Just rouse your father there where he
is sleeping.” So they roused him, “ and he woke with a start,
saying : c Ah! so then, my friend, you have come? ’ ” And the
Hare rejoined, reproachfully: “ I have been come a long
time.” However, the Cock succeeded in placating him, and
they dined together, chatting as usual, till, when about to leave,
the Hare, unable any longer to repress his curiosity, inquired
about the “device.” The Cock replied: “Now, my dear
friend, is it so very much of a device? If you think you would
like to do it, it is done merely by those herd-boys of yours
cutting off your head, so that they may go with it to pasture,
and then, when they see you have come home, for them to hit
you, and you will awake! ”

The Hare hastened home full of excitement, and related
the wonder to his wife and next morning told his boys to cut
off his head and take it with them when they went out with
the cattle. They demurred at first but, on his insisting, said:
“Well, we know your cleverness! ” and gave in. So, when


304


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


the time came for them to go out, they said: “ Now then, we
are ready. Come, Sir, and let us cut the head off, as you said,”
and he went outside and they cut off his head, piercing the ears
to run a string through for carrying it. And when he was
quite dead, the women picked up the body and laid it on his
own bedstead. The Cock was not long in coming round to
see how his suggestion had borne fruit, and, of course, when
shown the body, jeered at his friend’s credulity, but said he
would wait till the boys came home and see what happened.

“ And on arriving they asked: c But where is father? ’ And
their mother said to them: 1 Is not that he, yonder on his bed? ’
And they went up to him and struck him, but he did not get up
and they struck him again — he did not get up! And the
children burst out crying. And the mothers of the family
cried. And folks sat a-mourning. And all the people that
heard of it were amazed at his death: 1 Such a clever man! who
built so many houses, you know — and for him to have met
with his death through such a trifling thing! Well, who will
get his property? Let that friend of his inherit it. Yes, he is
the clever one! ’ And the Cock took the property left by
his friend.”

We may share the surprise of the mourners that one so
acute should so easily have been taken in — but there is a touch
of shrewd observation here. We are familiar with the fact —
however psychologists may explain it — of some inexplicable
oversight, some momentary lapse of perception or memory,
wrecking the carefully thought-out plans of a powerful
intellect.

As already mentioned, the story of the Lion and the hot
stone is given by the Hottentots to the Jackal ; so is that of the
well — the Basuto, apparently, having adopted that form of
the tale, though in some other cases they have retained the
adventures as the Hare’s. Another well-known jackal story
I will give as obtained from a Galla informant, premising


305


HARE AND JACKAL STORIES

that it shows the Lion in a much more favourable light than
do the Hare stories and thus makes his treatment by the Jackal
quite inexcusable . 29

The Jackal ( gedal ) sat by himself out in the Bush, crying.
The Lion passed by and asked him what was the matter.
“ My father and mother are dead, and I am here all alone,
with no one to take care of me.” The Lion said: “ Don’t
cry, I will look after you,” and took him along to his village,
where he set him to herd his cattle. One day the Lion killed
a bullock and said he would go to herd, directing the Jackal
to stay at home and cook the beef for him. The latter did so,
but at the same time put a stone into the fire and, when it was
red-hot, wrapped round it a very fat piece of meat. When
the Lion came home hungry, Gedal told him to open his
mouth as wide as he could and threw the stone down his throat.

The narrator here described very graphically how the fat
sizzled on its passage down and how, “ his bowels being cut
through,” the unfortunate Lion died. (This climax was ex-
pressed by putting both hands under his left cheek and droop-
ing his head over them.)

Soon after, the Hyena, attracted by the smell of the roast-
ing meat, came up and asked for a share. Gedal gave him
some bones, telling him to make no noise, as the Lion was
asleep; then he sat down between the Hyena and the dead
Lion and — as if he had nothing better to do — asked the
former to let him play with his tail. The Hyena, busy with
the bones, made no objection, and never noticed that Gedal
was tying his tail to the Lion’s. Presently he shouted a
caution: “Look out! the Lion is awake! ” — and the Hyena
started at a run, dragging the dead Lion after him, reached his
burrow and crawled in. The carcase, of course, blocked the
entrance, and the Hyena waited, not daring — and indeed
unable — to move, till, in the course of nature, the truth
became evident, and the Lion’s tail came away when he pulled


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


306

at it. Then, after a time, he made his way out. Meanwhile
Gedal, having finished up the beef, and being again in want
of an easy subsistence, tried the same trick a second time, and
sat in the bush weeping and waiting for some charitable
stranger to pass. This time it was the Elephant, laden with
a bag of honey, who listened compassionately to his story and
— when Gedal added, as a final touch, that “ Father always
used to carry me on his back ” — said : “ All right, up with
you! ” While enjoying his ride, Gedal fell to eating the
honey from the Elephant’s bag. The latter, feeling the drops
which he let fall from time to time, asked if it was raining,
and the disconsolate orphan replied that the drops were his
tears, which he could not keep back, whenever he thought of
his mother. Having finished the honey he next remarked
that his father, when he took him for a ride, was always con-
siderate enough to pass under the trees, so that he could pick
fruit without dismounting. The good-natured Elephant,
seeing a fruit-tree with conveniently overhanging boughs,
walked under it, and Gedal sprang into the branches and took
himself off. We do not press the question of his arboreal
habits too closely. “ When the Elephant got home, his wife
took down the bag and found it empty.” The domestic sequel
is left to the imagination.

As already remarked, the Jackal is the favourite hero of
the Hottentot stories. Schultze has summed up his character-
istics in the following passage : 30 “The Jackal’s cunning is
most conspicuously successful where it is combined with per-
sonal courage, or cleverly takes advantage of his adversary’s
cowardice — as here in the case of the hated Leopard or the
more harmless Baboon. Where the adversary is both stupid
and greedy — as in the adventure of the Jackal with the
Boer, the sly rascal makes good his escape at the last moment.
Where his opponents show irresolution, or ill-judged leniency
(like the missionary who, in a tale of recent origin, employs




PLATE XXXII


1. The Nyanga, an elder of the Bushongo (Ban-
gongo tribe) presiding over the initiation ceremony.

2. House in which a death has occurred, which is
abandoned and left to decay (Babunda).

After photographs by E. Torday.

[Prometheus]

HARE AND JACKAL STORIES 307

him about the farm and is wofully cheated), his most serious
offences are allowed to go unpunished. Yet the old rogue
sometimes comes in for a good beating ... for instance,
when he behaves with excessive arrogance towards the Fla-
mingo family. When persecuted by powerful enemies and
defeating them by his own ready wit, he enjoys the Hottentot’s
unlimited sympathy — still more so, when he avenges the
wrongs he has himself suffered ; but most of all, when he
appears as avenger and benefactor of the weak in general.”
There is a curious story 31 which represents the Jackal as
falling in love with the Sun (here, of course, feminine) and
trying to carry her off on his back, with the result that his
fur got burnt and remains black to this day (this of course, is
the South African variety known as the black-backed jackal).
Other versions 32 represent the Sun as a baby, apparently for-
saken by the wayside, which the Jackal picks up and carries
off. “When it burnt him, he said: f Get down,’ and shook
himself, but the Sun stuck fast to his back.”

We all remember the delightful episode in Uncle Remus ,
when Brer Rabbit presents Brer Fox in the character of “ my
fambly ridin’ hoss.” This appears to be a genuine jackal-
story, perhaps because the peoples who have made the Hare
their hero do not ride, or have only learnt to do so recently. 33
The Hyena is the victim. Both were invited to a wedding,
but the Jackal pretended he was too ill to walk and so induced
the Hyena, not only to take him on his back, but to provide
him with saddle, bridle, and spurs, on the plea that he would
be unable to keep his seat without them. 34

We cannot conclude this chapter without a reference to the
remarkable parallels contained in the Indian story of Mahdeo
and the Jackal. 35 The Jackal gets himself himself carried
on the Elephant’s back; he is caught by Mahdeo (who hides
under water and seizes him by the leg), and calls out that
Mahdeo is holding the root of a tree. Mahdeo then catches


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


308

him by means of a Tar-baby figure and ties him up, but he
escapes by a trick, inducing another jackal to take his place,
and Mahdeo is so delighted with his cleverness that he makes
him his watchman.

I do not think it is necessary to suppose that all the Hare
and Jackal stories migrated from Africa to India ; indeed, it
seems to me that an independent origin is indicated for the
Tar-baby, to take only one instance} but I should prefer to
abstain from theorising, till the materials have been more
fully studied.


CHAPTER XII


TORTOISE STORIES

O N THE few occasions — apart from the last disastrous
encounter with the Cock — when the Hare does not
come off victorious, it is the Tortoise who circumvents him.
We have seen how this happened in the story of the Animals
and the well , 1 and it is scarcely necessary to mention the two
most famous exploits of “ Brer Terrapin ” 2 — of which the
African versions will be given presently.

It is not difficult to see why the Tortoise should have gained
the reputation he bears in African and other folklore. His
ability to exist for a long time without food, the difficulty of
killing him, the ease with which he conceals himself, together
with his slow movements and uncanny appearance all combine
to suggest infinite watchfulness, patience, endurance, and wis-
dom, a grim sense of humour, and magical or preternatural
powers of some sort. I say advisedly wisdom, rather than
cunning, because, though in some cases the Tortoise’s intellect
serves the purposes of malice and vindictiveness, in others we
find him applying it to harmless fun or actual beneficence.

It is to be noticed that the Tortoise appears in all three
divisions of African folklore — i.e., side by side with the
Hare (or the antelope which sometimes takes his place), the
Jackal, and the Spider. Sometimes the land-tortoise, some-
times the turtle, or one of the fresh-water species, appears to
be meant — no doubt according to locality. One or the other,
at least, is found in every part of Africa.

The Baronga do not take much notice of the Tortoise in
their folk-tales j its place is taken by the strange little batra-


310 AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

chian called by them chinana and by zoologists Breviceps
mossambicensis . 3

In Sierra Leone, 4 we find the Turtle (“ Trorkey ”) making
a riding-horse of the Leopard — a feat ascribed in the West
Indies to Anansi. Here the Turtle, by a refinement of astute-
ness, induces the Leopard to offer the ride and even press
him to let himself be carried. However, when he finds him-
self tricked, he has his revenge, ties Trorkey to “ one big
’tick,” and beats him so severely that the marks show on his
shell to this day. This is an ending I have not met with else-
where — though there are other stories accounting for the
conformation of the Tortoise’s shell by relating how he got it
broken to pieces and mended again.

The famous race story as told in Aesop is probably a
moralisation of comparatively recent date. The primitive
tale, which seems to be so universally diffused as to create a
presumption that it originated independently, is both less edi-
fying and more amusing. The Akamba 5 say that the contest
took place between the Tortoise (N gu) and the Fish-eagle
(Halmetus vocifer) called by these people Kipalala and by the
Swahili Furukombe or Chalikoko. Both creatures had asked
for a Kamba girl in marriage, and had been told by her father
that the condition of winning her was “ to start at daybreak
for the coast and return before nightfall with some sea-salt.”

The Eagle was quite willing ; the Tortoise showed some
reluctance, but consented to compete if the race were put off
for ten months, to which the Eagle agreed. “ Next day, un-
known to the Eagle, he started for the coast to fetch some
salt; it took him nearly five months to go and five to return,
and he hid the salt in his house. Now during his journey to
the coast he arranged with all the tortoises he met on the way
to station themselves at intervals along the route between
Ukamba and the coast, one at each of the various camps,
streams and water-holes, and he told them all to look out for


TORTOISE STORIES


3 1 1

the Eagle as he flew past . . . and, when he called out:
‘ Tortoise, are you there? ’ each one was to reply in turn, ‘ 1 am
here.’ On the appointed day the Eagle started off on his
flight to the sea 5 at intervals he called out: ‘ Ngu iko ? ’ and at
various points en route he received the prearranged reply. He
was much surprised to find the Tortoise getting on so quickly,
and still more so when he reached the shore and found a
Tortoise there in the act of collecting some salt. He, however,
quickly picked up his own salt and flew back at full speed,
and not knowing that the Tortoise which he had left on the
beach was not his competitor, felt confident that he had won.
About four o’clock in the afternoon the original Tortoise, who
was on the look-out, saw the Eagle like a speck in the distance,
so he emerged from where he had hidden throughout the day
and waddled up the road to the village, announced his return
from the coast and handed the packet of salt to the girl’s
father.”

The Eagle, when he arrived and found that he had been
outwitted “ was very angry and flew off in a great temper.”
The Mukamba said to the Tortoise: “ It is true that you have
won, but if I give you my daughter, where will you live in
safety? for the Eagle is so angry that he is sure to find you
out and kill you.” The Tortoise answered: “Oh! that is
all right, do not be anxious for my safety. My home will
in future be in the water, and the Eagle will never get me.”

We have no information as to the various species of Tortoise
to be found in Ukamba; but this suggests that at least one
of them lives in fresh water, or is amphibious . 6

There is a curious little Hottentot story recorded by Kron-
lem 7 which seems to be based on the same idea as the above,
though the race motive is absent.

“ One day, it is said, the Tortoises held a council how they
might hunt Ostriches, and they said: ‘Let us, on both sides,
stand in rows near each other, and let one go to hunt the


312


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


Ostriches, so that they must flee along through the midst of
us.’ They did so, and as they were many, the Ostriches were
obliged to run through the midst of them. During this they
did not move, but remaining always in the same places, called
each to the other: ‘ Are you there? ’ and each one answered:
‘ I am here.’ The Ostriches, hearing this, ran so tremendously
that they quite exhausted their strength and fell down. Then
the Tortoises assembled by and by at the place where the
Ostriches had fallen, and devoured them.”

This does not seem very clear, but no doubt means that the
Ostriches thought the pursuers were at their heels all the time
instead of being — as in fact they were — stationary, and
so rushed on madly to their destruction. An ostrich, as is
well known, cannot see distinctly what is close to him.

Another Tortoise story, printed by Bleek 8 from a MS. of
Rath’s (the original is in Herero), represents the Tortoise
as placed by the Elephant in charge of a pool of water,
while he went off to hunt. The Elephant had previously
quarrelled with the Rain, which consequently left the country $
he then asked the Vulture to work a rain-charm, but the
latter refused. The Crow, however, consented, and rain fell
“ at the lagoons, but they dried up, and only one lagoon
remained.” During the Elephant’s absence, the Giraffe, the
Zebra, the Gemsbok and several other animals came and
demanded water, but the Tortoise refused them all, saying:
“ The water belongs to the Elephant.” Last of all came the
Lion, who, without waiting for an answer to his request, seized
the Tortoise and beat him and drank of the water. “ Since
then the animals drink water ” — as though it had not been
their custom before. “ When the Elephant came back from
the hunting, he said: ‘Little Tortoise, is there water? ’ The
Tortoise answered: ‘ The animals have drunk the water.’ The
Elephant then asked: ‘Little Tortoise, shall I chew you or
swallow you down? ’ The little Tortoise said: ‘ Swallow me,


TORTOISE STORIES


3i3

if you please ’; and the Elephant swallowed it whole. After
the Elephant had swallowed the little Tortoise and it had
entered his body, it tore oflF his liver, heart and kidneys. The
Elephant said: ‘Little Tortoise, you kill me! ’ So the Ele-
phant died; but the little Tortoise came out of his dead body,
and went wherever it liked.”

I have given this latter part at length because of its possible
bearing on a curious unexplained point in the Swahili story
which describes the animals as “ singing ” in order to obtain
water . 9 There it is said that, after the rest had been unsuccess-
ful, “ the Tortoise appeared, and the Elephant saw him and
caught him and put him into his mouth, and he came out at
his nose, and his (the Elephant’s) companions said to him:
‘ Let him go, perhaps he will get water.’ And they let him go.
And he went and sang and got much water.”

This looks as though the well-known story related in our
last chapter had got mixed up with some rain-making legend
like the one given above, and one may conjecture that the
Tortoise proved his magical powers by coming out unharmed
in the way described . 10

Another point to notice is the eating of the Elephant from
inside, which we have already seen in “ Unana-bosele.” In
a Mandingo tale , 11 the Hyena having discovered a way to
introduce himself into the Elephant’s internal economy, feeds
on him and grows fat, but is always careful to avoid touching
the heart. The Hare, having got the secret out of “ Uncle
Hyena,” accompanies him and, paying no heed to his
directions, seizes on the heart and kills the Elephant. When
the chief’s servants come to cut up the carcase, the Hare hides
in the gall-bladder, which is at once thrown into the bushes,
and so he escapes, while the Hyena is killed.

The Mpongwe Tortoise and Leopard 12 act in a similar
manner towards the Giant Goat, who, however, is good-
natured enough to permit this parasitism, so long as the limits


3H


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


are observed, and the incident also figures among Anansi
stories . 13 It seems possible that it may have originated in the
idea — common and quite natural among primitive people —
that some animal is the cause of internal pains not otherwise
accounted for.

The famous “ Tug-of-War ” — usually between the Ele-
phant and the Hippopotamus — is found in various parts of
Africa. In the American version, it will be remembered,
Brer Tarrypin ties the rope to a stump under water, after
giving the other end to Brer B’ar. This is probably owing
to the difficulty of finding in the New World two equally
matched competitors . 14

The tale as told by the Mpongwe (Gabun) is as follows : 15
The Tortoise, having worsted the Leopard in several en-
counters and finally caused his death, began to consider him-
self equal to the Elephant and to the Hippopotamus and to
say: “We three who are left are of equal power; we eat at
the same table and have the same authority.” The people
who heard this and similar speeches went and reported them
to the animals mentioned, who only laughed and said that they
could afford to despise him.

One day, these two met in the forest, and the Hippo asked
the Elephant if he had heard of the Tortoise’s boasts. The
Elephant replied: “Yes, I have heard. But I look upon it
with contempt. For I am Njagu. I am big. My foot is as
big as Ekaga’s body. And he says he is equal to me! But I
have not spoken of the matter, and I will not speak, unless I
hear Ekaga himself make his boast. And then I shall know
what I will do.” The Hippopotamus agreed to do likewise.

When the Tortoise heard of their threats, he set out to look
for the Elephant and, when he found him, addressed him
familiarly as “ Mwera ” — about equivalent to “Mate!”
The Elephant, in great indignation asked: “Whom do you
call Mwera? ” and the other coolly replied: “ You,” and pro-





PLATE XXXIII


1. Sacred friction-drum of the Southern Bambala.

2. Dance of the Malela, to greet the New Moon.
The chief (in European costume) is conducting in
the centre.

After photographs by E. Torday.




TORTOISE STORIES


3i5

ceeded to assert his claim of equality and suggested that they
should test it by a tug of war on the following day. To this
the Elephant unwillingly consented. It was agreed that “ if
one overpulls the other, he shall be considered the greater,
but if neither, then they were Mwera.”

The Tortoise then cut a long creeper in the forest — such
as in West Africa is called a “ bush-rope ” — and, handing
one end to the Elephant, went into the forest with the other,
telling him to begin pulling when he should give the signal
next day. He then went to find the Hippopotamus and, after
challenging him in like manner, and getting him to agree to
the contest, gave him the other end of the rope, saying, “ To-
morrow when you feel the vine shaken, know that I am ready
at the other end, and then you begin, and we will not stop to
eat or sleep until this test is ended.”

Each of the competitors — not very consistently, considering
the confidence they had previously expressed — went into the
forest “ to gather leaves of medicine with which to strengthen
his body.” Next morning, the Tortoise went to a spot half-
way between the two, where he had made a mark on the
ground, and shook the creeper, first towards one end and then
towards the other. The two then pulled with all their might,
and the Tortoise laughed as he sat and watched them. When
he felt hungry, he went off and ate his fill of mushrooms,
after which he returned home for a sleep, awoke late in the
afternoon and went back to the forest to see how the contest
was going. He found the rope stretched quite taut, and
though, from time to time, it was pulled a little way in one
direction or the other, yet this was soon neutralised by a pull
from the opposite side, and neither gained any advantage.

At last the Tortoise, growing tired, nicked the creeper with
his knife, whereon it parted and each of the combatants fell
violently to the ground, the Elephant bruising his leg badly
and the Hippopotamus his head. The Tortoise visited each


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


316

of them in turn, and in each case was acknowledged as an
equal. “ After that, whenever they three and others met to
talk in palaver, the three sat together on the highest seats.”

The Tortoise also figures in a tale of a somewhat unusual
kind, occurring in widely separated regions. The examples
hitherto collected are not numerous, and of the five which I
have noted, one has the Hare and another Hlakanyana in
place of the Tortoise. But there is a surprising agreement
between two forms collected at opposite ends of the Bantu
area — one from the Basuto, the other from the Benga of the
Cameroons.

Jacottet 16 thinks it may be a remnant of some ancient re-
ligious tradition, which is probably indigenous. It centres
about a tree whose fruit cannot be eaten without the permission
of the owner and then only by those who know its name.
(This is not expressly stated in any of the versions before me,
but the importance attached to the knowledge seems to imply
something of the kind.) 17 Messengers are sent to the owner
of the tree, who in each case gives the required information,
but every one forgets it on the way back — usually in conse-
quence of some accident — till at last the Tortoise (or, in one
case, the Hare) is more successful. In some instances, the
successful animal takes an unfair advantage of the others and
robs them of the fruit, throwing the blame on some innocent
party, and this is sometimes found in connection with other
incidents and without the episode of the name, as for instance,
in the story of the Hare already referred to , 18 where it follows
on the panic of the animals caused by the dropping of a fruit.

In two cases the owner of the tree is expressly stated to be
God (Leza, Maweza). In another, it is said that he, or more
probably she, for the word means “ grandmother,” was named
Koko. Elsewhere it is said to belong to “ the chief of the
animals,” and in the Ronga variant a woman, unnamed and
otherwise unaccounted for, appears to be in charge of it. One

[Prometheus]

TORTOISE STORIES


3i7

more point should be noted: the name of the tree is some-
times said to be quite meaningless , 19 or else the narrator is
unable to explain it. Perhaps it is an archaic word whose
meaning has been lost, and it is possible that its original form
had some forgotten mythological significance.

Dr. Nassau collected a very interesting version of this tale
from the members of the Benga tribe at Batanga in the Cam-
eroons. It runs somewhat as follows:

In old times all beasts lived together in one part of the
country, with the exception of the Python, Mbama, who
dwelt by himself in a place about thirty miles away from the
rest. In that country grew a fruit-bearing tree called Bojabi,
but none of the beasts knew its name, nor whether its fruit
could be eaten. Then came a year of famine, when, searching
everywhere for food, they noticed this tree, but no one dared
to touch the fruit, as they did not know whether it was fit for
food. At last they decided to send and consult Mbama.
They chose the Rat as their messenger, telling him that he must
go by sea and not along the beach (this to prevent his loitering
by the way) and carry with him one of the fruits in order to
make certain of the identification. He accomplished the trip
safely, appeared before Mbama, and heard from him that the
tree was called Bojabi and its fruit was edible. Next morning
he started homeward, paddled energetically, and arrived in the
afternoon, but the operation of beaching his canoe so absorbed
his intellectual faculties that by no effort of memory could
he recall the name. He had to confess his failure and was
soundly beaten by the disappointed animals, who next dis-
patched the Porcupine. He too succeeded in his errand, but
forgot the name just as he was entering the village on his
return. Then the Antelope went, and he too learnt the name;
but just as he was about to land, a wave upset his canoe, and
the name went clean out of his head. One after another, all
the beasts tried and failed, with the exception of Kudu, the


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


318

Tortoise. He at last volunteered but the rest jeered at him
for his presumption and even began to beat him. But the
Gazelle interposed saying: “Let him go on his errand. We
all have failed, and it is well that he should fail too! ”

But the Tortoise wisely went to consult his mother before
setting out. She warned him neither to eat nor drink while
on the sea, or, in fact, before reaching his destination. “ It was
through neglecting this precaution that the others forgot the
name.” The Tortoise attended to her instructions, reached
Mbama, received his message, and next day started on the
return journey. To keep the name in mind, he sang, as he
paddled :

“ Elephant! eat the Bojabi fruit! Straight! straight! straight!

Bojabi !

Buffalo! eat the Bojabi fruit! Straight! straight! straight!

Bojabi! ”

And so on, varying the song by beginning each line with the
name of a different animal. In this way he nerved himself
to keep straight on.

He had gone some distance when his canoe was capsized
by a large wave, but he clung to it and was carried ashore,
still repeating: “Bojabi! Bojabi! ” The canoe was some-
what damaged, and he had to repair it, but kept on singing his
song, and once more started on his journey. Just as he was
approaching the landing-place where all the beasts were gath-
ered to await his coming, a great wave caught the canoe, and
his friends ran into the surf, seized it and him and carried them
in triumph up the beach, he still shouting: “Bojabi! ” But
they did not understand what he meant, and, when they
begged him to tell the name of the tree, he said he would
only do so when they had reached the town. They carried him
up, and he then made the further stipulation that, before he
delivered the message, he should be allowed to carry his share


TORTOISE STORIES


3i9

of the fruit into the house. This he did and then revealed
the name, after which there was such a rush to gather the fruit
as to justify the Tortoise’s foresight in making provision for
his mother, whose advice had brought him success. 20

A Tortoise story collected in Nyasaland (1894) 21 exhibits
the hero in anything but an amiable light: he has been robbed
by the Iguana and is as vindictive and relentless as Shylock
in exacting his pound of flesh — quite literally, for the unfor-
tunate Iguana is cut in two, and the creditor carries off the
tail and two hind legs rejoicing. I prefer to give a pleasanter
episode, related to me by a stray Kavirondo 22 — not, I fear, a
model character — who had somehow or other found his way
to the Mission at Ngao and was supposed to be working about
the place, but preferred telling me tales and helping me to
shepherd my own tortoise — a pet whose sad history can-
not be related here.

A Lion had assumed the shape of a man and came to court
a girl at a certain village. Having obtained her own and her
parents’ consent, he took her home, her sisters and some girl-
friends accompanying her. At nightfall he became a Lion
again and, leaving the girls in his hut, went to summon the
other lions. He thought the girls were all asleep, but one of
them had seen the transformation and, as soon as all was quiet,
she called her companions, and they made their escape. They
had walked a long way when, tired out and frightened, they
met with a Tortoise who, on hearing of their plight, came to
the rescue by swallowing them all. He then ate a quantity of
grass and leaves and kept on his way. Presently the Lion,
who had for some time been on the track of the girls, came up
with the Tortoise and asked if he had seen them, which the
Tortoise denied. The Lion, however, was suspicious, and,
noticing that the Tortoise’s body seemed greatly distended,
asked him what he had been eating. The Tortoise answered:
u Only grass,” and, when the Lion was still incredulous,


320


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


coughed up a quantity to convince him. This seemed to be
proof positive, and the Lion took himself off, while the Tor-
toise travelled on till he reached the girls’ village, and there,
before the eyes of their astonished parents, brought them up
safe and sound.

This unpleasant mode of rescue is also practised by the
Tortoise in a Benga tale , 23 where, having won a wife who is
coveted by the Leopard, he swallows her, with her servants
and all their goods. When questioned by the Leopard, he
declares that he has eaten large quantities of mushrooms —
which is, in fact, the case. But the Leopard, less easily satis-
fied than the Kavirondo lion, insists that he shall “ go on
vomiting,” till furniture, goats, slaves, and at last the wife,
are produced. “Tortoise thought to himself: ‘I have no
strength for war.’ So, though anger was in his heart, he
showed no displeasure in his face.” But nevertheless, he
enjoyed a very complete revenge when his time came.

This aspect of the Tortoise recalls the “ Great Tortoise ”
of the Zulus , 24 who, in his turn, appears to be related to
Usilosimapundu and Isiququmadevu. But usually, in the
tales, he is not conceived as gigantic — merely as our familiar
little friend of the forest and veld.


CHAPTER XIII
SPIDER STORIES


T HE SPIDER of West Africa, Anansi , 1 is a very
different being from the Spider whom we occasionally
find in the Bantu area associated with creation, or acting as
intermediary between heaven and earth. So in the Angola
story 2 of the son of Kimanawezi who married the daughter
of the Sun and Moon, we find that the Sun’s handmaidens,
when they come down to earth to draw water, ascend and
descend by means of a spider’s thread. Similarly, the Lower
Congo people relate that the Spider brought down fire from
heaven . 3 The Duala represent the other animals as consulting
the oracle of the Spider, in the story of “ The Animals and the
Tiger-Cat ” 4 ( Mbanga-njo ). They had clubbed together to
clear a site for a village, but had no axes; the only one who
possessed any was Mbanga-njo. He, when applied to, refused
to lend an axe unless they could tell his name, which had
hitherto been a family secret. The little Iseru Antelope
(probably identical with “ Cunnie Rabbit ”) was deputed to
ask advice of the Spider, who told him to go into the forest
and, when he came to a trap with a bird in it, to take the bird
out and go on till he came to a fish-trap. He must take out
the fish he would find in it and put in the bird, and return to
the first trap and leave the fish in it, and then hide and
await the result. Presently the two sons of the Tiger-Cat
came along to look at their traps, and each of them exclaimed
in astonishment: “Oh! my father Mbanga-njo! — who ever
saw the like? ” When they had gone on their way, Iseru
returned to his village, called all the animals together by


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


322

means of the signal-drum, and said: “ Now let us fetch the
axes from the home of him whose name we do not know.”
So they went to Tiger-cat’s house and made their request.
“Tell me my name.” “ Your name is Sango Mbanga-njo.”
As much surprised as Tom-tit-tot and others in like circum-
stances, he handed over the axes, and Iseru was lauded by all
the animals for his good sense.

Schon 5 records a story in which the Spider ascends to
heaven by his thread, in order to attend a wedding-feast; but
his conduct when he gets there is quite in accordance with the
general West African estimate of his character. He is un-
grateful to the Cobweb which enabled him to reach the sky
(and which is spoken of as if endowed with a separate person-
ality); the Cobweb is offended and refuses to take him back
to earth; the Dove offers to do so for a consideration, but,
on arriving, instead of giving her the promised gold, he
roasts and eats her. There was some justification for the
poor Dove’s remark when hesitating over the bargain: “ With
you people of the earth, if a man makes it day for you, you
make it night for him.”

Ellis 6 says that the Gold Coast tribes hold the human race
to be descended from the Spider — which probably means
that he was once a totem, or one of the animal deliverers and
Demiurges (like Yehl and Ioskeha) who may or may not —
this is not a point I feel competent to discuss — be glorified
totems. In any case, his character has suffered considerably
since his descent from mythology into folklore.

The usual Spider or “ Anansi ” story of West Africa is
of a type which falls into line with the Hare, Jackal and
Tortoise stories of other regions. He is a less pleasing
personality than these, and one is inclined to deny him a single
redeeming feature; but the Hausa, at least, do not appear
to take so harsh a view. Mr. Rattray 7 says: “ The Hyena is
. . . the personification in Hausa folklore of all that is



PLATE XXXIV

View on the Calabar River, Southern Nigeria.
After a photograph by P. Amaury Talbot.













SPIDER STORIES


323

greedy and treacherous. Quite a different character from
that ascribed to the gizo-gizo (spider), for instance, whose
cunning and plausibility are rather admired than otherwise.”
This cannot be said of the Temne, who, while duly impressed
by Mr. Spider’s cleverness, draw a very clear distinction be-
tween it and the more endearing wiles of Cunnie Rabbit.

We find him not only astute and resourceful, but mean,
greedy and cruel, and his treatment of his own family is a
scandal to any decent African. It is curious that his son
(sometimes called Kweku Anansi and, in the West Indies,
Tacoma) usually appears in a much more favourable light.
Whether this son is supposed to be a spider pure and simple
is not clear: the Bushongo cosmogony and various facts in
Bushman mythology prepare one for the weirdest relation-
ships between animals ; and the Temne, it appears, say that the
Spider’s wife is Koki, the “ Praying Mantis.”

Sometimes we are told — and the statement probably
marks a late stage of myth-development — that the Spider
was formerly a man. One Hausa story 8 says that he was a
smith who played a remarkably low-down trick on the Lion
and was by him torn to pieces and trampled in the dust. The
pieces joined together became the Spider. The Temne 9 say
he was once “ round lek pusson ” and acquired his present
more or less flattened shape through being stuck to, and for-
cibly detached from, the Wax Girl — the local equivalent
for the Tar-Baby. The explanation of his small waist given
by the same people 10 is this: Hearing that feasts were to be
held in the surrounding villages, the Spider determined to
secure a supply of meat from all. He therefore took up his
position in a central spot and gave each of his children a rope,
of which he had tied the other end round his waist. He then
instructed each of them to pull his end of the rope when the
feasting was about to begin at the village which he had reached,
so that their father might lose no time in repairing thither.


3 2 4


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


Unluckily for him, all the dinners began at the same time,
so that he was pulled simultaneously in several directions,
and his figure shows the results to this day.

A peculiarity everywhere attributed to the Spider is his
inability to pronounce words in the ordinary way. In Hausa
he speaks with a lisp and says shaki for sarkin (“ chief ”),
doyina. for droina (“ hippopotamus”), etc. The Gold Coast
people describe him as talking through his nose. Even in the
West Indies his queer speech is invariably emphasised . 11

Typical Spider stories are found among Twi, Hausa, Vai
and Temne, to name no more. They are markedly absent
from the folklore of Calabar, Ikom, and Yoruba , 12 where the
Tortoise figures most prominently, and from that of Sene-
gambia and French Guinea, so far as I have been able to ex-
amine it, which favours the Hare — or whatever animal whose
name the French authorities have translated “ Herne ” This
is the case in the Tug-of-War story already mentioned.

The Spider, for all his cunning and resourcefulness, is not
invariably successful ; — witness the following tale, told by the
Hausa and, in a somewhat different form, by the Anyi of
the Gold Coast . 13

The Spider’s wife owned a cow, which the Spider — always
described as afflicted with an insatiable appetite — desired to
eat. He could not touch it (this is a point of African custom
too often overlooked) without his wife’s permission, which
she was not likely to give. So he feigned sickness and desired
her to consult a certain one-eyed wizard, to be found at a
place which he indicated to her. He then tied a patch over
one eye, took a short cut through the bush, and reached the
spot before she could get there. Not recognising him, she
paid the fee and said she had come to ask his advice about
her husband, who was very ill. He told her it was impossible
that the patient could recover, “ if you do not give him this
cow of yours, that he may go to the bush with it, to some


SPIDER STORIES


325


place where there is no one, not even a fly, and there kill it.”
(The stipulation for the absence of flies is felt by the narrator
to be the acme of meanness: the Spider does not intend to
lose even the smallest particle of the meat.) The wife went
home and found her husband groaning in bed. He was, as
might be expected, eager to try the remedy, and insisted, in
spite of his wife’s remonstrances, that he could crawl, if he
could not walk. In fact, he already felt so much better that
he got out of bed and caught the cow. They set out, accom-
panied by their son, but had to travel a long way through the
bush before they could find a suitable place and, even then,
there was one fly there. However, the Spider concluded
that this was negligible, so he killed the beast, skinned it,
and then, thinking that the red of the sunset, seen through
the trees, was a distant fire, sent off the boy to fetch a brand,
that they might roast the meat. While he was on the way,
the sun went down, but he could still see a red spot, which he
took to be a fire, though it was in fact the open mouth of the
bush-demon known as the Dodo. The boy tried to light
a bit of dry grass at the supposed fire, when he was startled
by a voice saying: “ Who are you? ” In his fright, he could
only answer: “ My father says you are to come,” and the
Dodo rose up and followed him. When they reached the place,
the Dodo said: “ Here I am,” and the Spider retorted. “ Who
called you? ” “ The Dodo said: 1 Your son called me.’ And
the Spider was about to strike the boy, but the Dodo said: ‘ You
must not beat him.’ So he refrained and cut off one lump of
meat and gave it to the Dodo. And the Dodo said: c For the
sake of a little thing like this does a friend summon a friend?
Add to it, increase it.’ And so on, and so on, until the Dodo
had taken all the Spider’s meat from him.”

But, even so, Dodo was not satisfied, but, on the Spider’s
pointing out that there was no meat left, said: “ Even if you
give me yourself, I shall not refuse.” The Spider, ignoring


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


326

this broad hint, handed over, first his son and then his wife,
whom the Dodo stowed away in the elephant-skin sack where
he had already secured the meat. As he was still unsatisfied,
the Spider began to pick young pumpkins which were growing
close by, but though he cleared the whole garden, he could
not fill the bag and found himself at the end of his resources.
“ So the Dodo opened the mouth of the bag and said: 1 Come
here, get in.’ And the Spider entered by compulsion, not of
his own wish.” 14

[Prometheus]

Then Dodo tied up his bag, shouldered it and went on
through the forest, looking for a convenient place to roast his
prey. Presently the Camel came along, like a chief, with a
long trail of followers singing his praises. He took no notice
of the Dodo and passed on. Soon after, the Dodo met the
he-Goat, with a similar procession 5 he too passed on, saying
nothing. Then came the Rat and was about to pass likewise,
when his “ tail ” drew his attention to the fact that Dodo was
carrying something. The Rat, no doubt made suspicious by
past experience, stopped and questioned Dodo; but the latter
lost his temper and swallowed him — to little purpose, how-
ever; for the Rat, three times over, emerged unhurt from
various parts of his person. 16 “ Then the Dodo fell down
and died.” The Rat had the bag opened, and out came the
Spider with his wife and son. On hearing his story, the Rat
said: “Worthless one, take your meat and get off home.
Allah has been good to you this day,” and so departed;
while the Spider, not much disturbed by this candid address,
gathered up the meat of which he had so nearly been deprived,
went home with his family, and sent his slaves to cut up the
Dodo, who was apparently considered edible. 16

We have already seen that the Spider sometimes figures
instead of the Tortoise in the Tug-of-War story. 17 The
Hausa version of this presents some novel features and an
interesting sequel. 18 He is not concerned with asserting his


SPIDER STORIES


327

dignity against the Elephant and the Hippopotamus — only
with obtaining a supply of food which, to do him justice, he
this time intends to share with his family. He brings the
Elephant a message, as from the Hippopotamus, asking for
a hundred baskets of grain and promising to send a horse in
return, at harvest-time. He makes the same promise to the
Hippopotamus in consideration of a hundred baskets of fish.
When the time comes to redeem his promise, he hands each
creditor the end of a rope, telling him that the horse is at
the other end, but is very wild and vicious. Both pull with
all their might, unconsciously move along the rope and at
last, meeting face to face in the forest, discover the trick.
Naturally, their first thought is to discover the Spider and
pay him out; but he is quite ready for them. He finds the
skin of a dead antelope, gets inside it and wanders about —
presenting, of course, a lamentable appearance. He meets
the Elephant who inquires what has reduced him to this con-
dition. “ I was unfortunate enough to quarrel with the
Spider, and he pointed his hand at me. Those at whom he
points his hand waste away as I have done.” The Elephant
believed him, for (like the Lion in a similar predicament) 19
“ he was a fool,” and at once gave up the search, and — the
Hippopotamus meeting with a similar experience — the Spider
escaped.

We may now relate an Ewe tale ?0 which in some respects
resembles the one given in Chapter V, though it makes no
allusion to the spirit-world. The Spider had a friend named
Detsyovi, who, during a time of famine, happened to be stroll-
ing through the Bush, when he saw a millstone grinding by
itself and a stream of honey flowing beside it. Detsyovi ate
as much honey as he wanted and then took some, with a sup-
ply of flour, for his wife and children at home. This he did
from time to time, and so they were enabled to live and grow
fat. One day the Spider (Yiyi) came to see Detsyovi and


328 AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

asked him where he got the food on which the family appeared
to be thriving. Detsyovi refused to tell him, on the ground
that he was too talkative. Yiyi, however, left him no peace
till he consented, but said they would wait till the next morn-
ing, when the women went to fetch water. The Spider was
too impatient to wait for daylight, but came along while it
was yet dark, with a water-jar on his head, rattling the gourd-
dipper inside it, and called out that the women were already
on their way to the well. 21 Detsyovi, looking out, saw that it
was still too early, and told him to wait till the women swept
out the courtyard. Yiyi at once took up a broom and began
sweeping, as noisily as he could, and then hurried to his friend,
telling him that it was time. But Detsyovi, seeing no sign of
daylight, said that he would go with him when the sun rose.
Then the Spider went a little way off and set fire to some
bundles of sticks, hoping that the glare would deceive Det-
syovi; but the latter refused to come out, and both went to sleep
again till morning.

When, at last, it was really daylight, they went into the
forest together, and Detsyovi led the Spider to the place where
the millstone was grinding and the honey flowing. Yiyi
shouted aloud: “Why! there’s food here, and we have to
go hungry! ” Detsyovi said: “Don’t make such a noise! ”
They both stooped down and drank some honey, and then the
Spider hoisted up the millstone on to his head. The stone
began to sing, telling him to carry it back and put it down;
but he would not listen. He went round with it to all the
people in the neighbourhood, who paid him cowries for various
quantities of flour, till his bag was full of money. But when
he grew tired and wanted to carry the stone back to its place,
he found that it had stuck to his head, and he could not lift it
off. The weight crushed him into small pieces, which were
completely covered by the stone. “ That is why we often
find tiny spiders gathered together under large stones.” 22


SPIDER STORIES


329

If the Spider had not carried off the millstone from its place
in the forest people could have gone there to this day, in
times of scarcity, and got food.

Among the Ewe the Spider has, on the whole, the character
which we have already indicated, though there are one or
two curious traces of his figuring as a benefactor. Spieth
says : 23 “The Spider surpasses all the beasts of the field in
courage and cunning.” (His courage is not, as a rule, conspic-
uous elsewhere.) “ He gets the better of the Leopard . . .
and also of the Elephant ... he borrows money from a
chief and refuses, even after numerous reminders, to repay
it. By his magic power, he delivers the whole population of
a town from the destructive c sword-birdd Yet, on the other
hand, it was the Spider who brought sores, and even death,
into the world.”

The stories given as evidence of the last two statements
are not very clear, and are probably remnants of some older
tradition. Anansi has so few redeeming points in his char-
acter that it will be well to give the first of them , 24 with all
its obscurities.

Once, in time of famine, the children of God (Mawu) came
down to earth, and the Spider (Yiyi) asked them if his
daughter Yiyisa was there (in heaven, presumably). He
requested that, when they returned, they would take her a
small parcel which they were to fetch from his house. If
he were not at home when they called, they would find it lying
on the hearth and were to carry it away without further cere-
mony. This was because he intended to get himself tied up
in the parcel j and, for the same reason, he bade them tell his
daughter not to open it until she was in the inner compartment
of the house. t His daughter was, naturally, much surprised at
seeing him, but received him cordially and did all she could to
make him comfortable, only informing him that he would have
to go elsewhere for the night, as no one else slept in that


330


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


town . 25 The Spider asked the reason, adding that nothing
would induce him to leave the place. Yiyisa answered: “ There
is a bird here with a beak as long as from Ho to Tsibuj and,
if we stay, he will come and eat us.” The Spider replied,
boasting of himself by his laudatory names 26 : “The bird
will have no desire to eat me — me, the Little Gun! — me, the
Little Gourd! — I will stay here!” Accordingly, he re-
mained, and set about sharpening his knife to such an edge
that “ if a fly settled on it, it became as water.” During the
night, the bird set out, singing:

“ We birds, we birds, we eat human flesh!

We birds of Akem, we birds of the free-born, we eat human flesh!

When we cry aloud, no other bird cries!

When we cry aloud, the grass dies in the bush! ”

The Spider sat in the inner room, keeping up his courage
by the repetition of his praise-names, till at last the tip of the
bird’s beak — which preceded him by several hours —
reached the town. The Spider hacked it off with his knife
and continued to cut off fresh pieces, till he killed the bird.
Then he struck up his war-song:

“ We Spiders, we Spiders, we live in the wall!

We Spiders of Akem, we Spiders of the free-born — ”

and so on, adapting the bird’s slogan to his own use.

The people, when they came back and heard this, rejoiced
greatly, but told him there was yet another plague for him
to get rid of — a man covered with sores, who would not
permit them to sleep in their town. He desired them not to
leave the place, and, in the night, he heard this pestilent
person approach, singing:

“ Ado says, ‘ The angry man shall kill me! ’ ”

The Spider began to dance and went on till morning, when
he told the man to come again and sing to him. The people






PLATE XXXV


Women of the Bankutu tribe, shov
patterns on the body.


ing cicatrised











SPIDER STORIES


33i

assembled; the man sang, and the Spider danced with great
vigour, till at last he became infected with the man’s sores.

Nothing I have been able to discover throws any light on
this mysterious statement. It is not even clear whether the
sores were transferred from the man to the Spider, thus free-
ing the former, or whether the latter merely caught the infec-
tion. The narrator goes on to say:

“ At first Mawu had not made any sores in the world ” —
perhaps there is an idea of Pandora’s box here — “ but when
the Spider had got them, they spread among men. Formerly
they were only with Mawu, but now they are spread abroad
through the world, because of what the Spider did.”

It is thus evident that he was a very partial benefactor;
and in the next story , 27 though it appears that his intentions
were to some extent good, he only succeeds in causing dis-
aster. The tale, as we have it, cannot be very near its primitive
form, whatever that may have been; but its importance is
attested by the existence of two West Indian versions , 28 in
one of which (very obscure) Annancy marries his daughter
to Death, while in the other he sends her to Death’s house
as a servant.

This, too, begins with the statement that “ there was a
famine in the land.” Death, whose habitat is not clearly indi-
cated (he is taken for granted as dwelling within easy reach
of, but not among, mankind) kept himself alive by snaring
game. To do this more efficiently, he hoed a broad road about
six miles long and set his traps in it. The Spider, finding
that there was plenty of meat in Death’s house, came cadg-
ing there with a huge basket; and, in order to have an excuse
for repeating his visits indefinitely, he finally gave Death
his daughter in marriage.

Death warned his wife not to pass along the broad road
when she fetched water from the river; and, for a time, all
went well. But one morning, after heavy rain, unwilling to


332


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


take the narrow side-path through the wet grass, she went
by the road, stepped into a trap and got killed. Death, when
he found her body, was hampered by no sentimental scruples,
but cut it up and set the joints to dry by the fire. Yiyi,
missing her when he paid his usual call, asked where she
was and was told that he would find her if he removed
some of the meat. Though not in general an affectionate
parent, he was so far roused as to say: “ I am now going
home, but I will come again ; and I am not going to take you
by surprise — I shall make open war on you.” He went
away, sharpened his knife to such a point that it would split
a fly, flung the weapon at Death and fled. Death discharged
an arrow, which set the Bush on fire but did not hit the Spider
— he being by this time safe in his house. Death lay in wait
for him outside the village and, in the meantime, amused
himself by shooting at the women who passed through the
gardens with their water-jars, on their way to the river. After
a while, he went to look, found that he had killed several,
and exclaimed in delight: “ Why, this is game! I need never
go and set traps in the Bush any more! ” In this way, Death
came into the world. The narrator seems to mean by this the
world of men — the animals having experienced Death’s
power for some time previous to the Spider’s unlucky
intervention.

Nothing more is said about the Spider himself — but it
is to be presumed that he escaped — at any rate for the time
being. In both the Jamaica versions, he is represented as
outwitting Death. He climbs the rafters, with his wife and
children, while Death waits below. One by one, they are
forced by exhaustion to let go and are seized and put aside
for future consumption. Annancy tells Death he is so fat
that he will “ pop ” if he falls on the ground, and so, “ if you
no want me fat fe waste, go an’ fetch someting fe catch
me.” 29 Death fetches a cask of flour from the next room,


SPIDER STORIES


333


and Annancy, dropping into it, raises such a dust as to blind
him for the time being and allow his victims to get out of
reach.

It may yet be possible to recover a more satisfactory version
of the Ewe legend, which may make these fragmentary tales
more intelligible and also throw some light on the Spider’s
mythological position.


CHAPTER XIV


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT AND
WEREWOLVES

S TORIES about witches distinctly characterised as such
are not very common in Africa — certainly not among
the Bantu. The personage who, in European tales, would
figure as the witch more often belongs to the numerous and
weird family of ogres or amazimu. Bleek’s theory 1 that
Bantu “ ancestor-worship and belief in the supernatural give
rise to horrible ghost-stories and tales of witchcraft,” while
beast-fables are conspicuous by their absence, scarcely needs
refuting at this time of day; and Jacottet 2 comments on the
comparative rarity of such legends, except among the Herero,
a people peculiarly open to non-Bantu influences.

Some interesting particulars as to Hausa witches are given
by Tremearne , 3 most of them tending to bear out the above
view — viz., that the witch is rather a preternatural or, at
any rate, abnormal being than a mere human creature possessed
of magical skill. Thus we find that “ a witch and Dodo are
often interchangeable ”; “ when a witch is killed, every bit
of her must be destroyed, for even a single drop of her
blood can kill the victim ” — just as the remains of the zimwi
in the Swahili story give rise to a pumpkin-plant which de-
velops equal powers for mischief. Another unpleasant pecu-
liarity is the following: w All witches have many mouths which
they can cause to appear all over their bodies at will, and the
owner can turn them back into one by slapping herself.” 4 The
rimu of the Wachaga 0 is, in one case, detected by his pos-
session of a second mouth in the back of his head, and one tribe


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


335

of ogres, according to the Baronga , 6 have one in the nape of
the neck, where it is usually hidden by their long hair.

But witchcraft, though not often mentioned in the tales,
occupies (as is only too well known) a prominent place in
African folk-belief. The terror which makes small boys —
and indeed older people — in Nyasaland reluctant to go out
after dark, is not ghosts or bogies, as we understand them, but
afiti, wizards. In East Africa, I have been assured in all
seriousness that wizards (wan go) are in the habit of knocking
at people’s doors by night, and woe to those who open and
answer them! They entice you (or perhaps induce you by
hypnotic power) to follow them into the forest and there kill
you. My informant did not expressly mention for what
purpose, but every one knows it; and the theory and prac-
tice of ufiti seem to be wonderfully uniform, from the Tana
to the Cross River, and beyond, for there can be little doubt
that it underlies the Obi and “ Voodoo ” rites reported from
the West Indies and the Southern States of America.

A mistake which has sometimes been made with regard to
these last is to treat them as normal manifestations of African
religion, whereas they represent not merely unauthorized but
illicit and positively criminal practices. It should be remem-
bered that most, if not all, of the slaves voluntarily sold by
their own tribe, in the days when the trade flourished, were
either criminals or debtors. Similarly, we find some writers
even now confusing witches and witch-doctors 7 — which is
much as if one made no distinction between the thief and the
policeman.

Witches, in general, do not seem to be credited with such
multifarious activities as in Europe. Though one does hear
of their causing injury or death through spite and revenge,
their principal raison d'etre as a society (in parts of East
Africa, at any rate, they appear to form an organized guild)
is to feed on the bodies of those recently dead — doubtless


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


336

in order to secure a cumulative supply of strength, wit, courage
and other desirable qualities. To this end, when deaths from
natural causes occur too infrequently, or the “ subjects ” are
unsuitable, they cause people to die by means more or less
occult. It is generally believed, and probably with reason,
by those in a position to know, that they possess an extensive
knowledge of poisons j and it also seems likely that they often
kill by suggestion . 8

The Nyasaland natives believe that it is not through poison
that the victims are killed, but (as our authority not very
clearly puts it) “ by supposed power against them through
medicine.” 9 Witches can make themselves invisible, dance
in the air, and move from place to place regardless of the
ordinary laws of matter ; and the dread of them explains many
funeral customs — e.g., the drumming and dancing kept up
night and day till the corpse is buried, the abandonment of the
deceased’s house, which is shut up and left to decay, the fact that
no one will sleep in it while the burial rites are going on, etc.,
etc. They make their fire on a recent grave, and it can be
seen for miles — hence any light of unknown origin is re-
garded with suspicion. (It is not an actual fire, but the
grave itself becomes luminous, “shining with an uncaused
light.”) I remember being assured that some flames of unu-
sual height and brilliancy, observed during the grass-burning
season on Nyambadwe hill, near Blantyre, were caused by afiti.
So, too, the Baziba 10 never venture near a fire seen in the
distance at night, believing that it marks the place where the
witches are seated in council, deliberating who shall next be
killed.

[Prometheus]

Witches have power over certain animals, whom they em-
ploy as their messengers or familiars . 11 Such are the owl,
the hyena, the leopard, sometimes the lion, a kind of jackal,
snakes, etc. The Zulus believe that the baboon is sent out
by abatagati (wizards) on “ villainous errands,” as is also the


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


337

wildcat. These errands are of various kinds. “ The leopards
will go to any house and carry off fowls or goats just as they
are ordered. The snakes, too, will hurt any victim chosen by
the wizard.” 12 Or, as the Zulus say, the wildcat may be
sent to suck other people’s cows, or to collect izidwedwe, i.e.,
old rags which have been in close contact with people’s bodies
and which may be supposed to absorb some of their personality
and, therefore, can be used for bewitching them.

When it has been decided to hold a cannibal feast, these
messengers, especially “ the owl who sits on the head of the
chief ” (presumably the arch-sorcerer) are sent out to summon
the witches to the grave where the unholy fire has been kin-
dled. The grave is opened (the well-known habits of hyenas
may explain this point), the dead man brought out, restored
to life, killed again, cut to pieces and eaten — sometimes on
the spot ; but sometimes the “meat” is carried home and
hidden, after being divided among the participants . 13

Every member of the witches’ corporation takes it in turn
to provide a victim, and no one is allowed to evade the obli-
gation, even if it entails the sacrifice of his or her nearest rela-
tion. A popular song recorded from Pemba 14 (by no means
contemptible as poetry) gives expression to this idea, being
the lament of a mother who has sacrificed her daughter and —
so to speak — sold her soul for nothing, since she has not
obtained what she was led to expect in return.

In the cases referred to above, the victim is consumed after
death and burial (whether always revivified and killed again,
as in Nyasaland and Zanzibar, does not seem clear) ; but with
some West African tribes (e.g., the Mpongwe), the procedure
is different. Here, if accounts are to be trusted , 15 hypnotism
appears to be at work. The witches remain, to all appearance,
asleep in their huts; but “ their real selves,” or, as theosophists
would say, their astral bodies, go out into the forest to hold
their nocturnal orgies, while, by the same, or some analogous


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


338

process, they bring out the “ self ” of the destined victim,
extract his “ heart’s life ” and consume it. The person thus
treated dies, if the whole of his life is eaten ; if it is not eaten
all at once he suffers from a lingering illness, but will recover,
if even a part of it is restored.

Corpses are sometimes restored to life for other purposes
than that of being eaten. Zulu sorcerers are said to dig up a
dead person in order to make of him (or her) a familiar,
known by the name of umkovu. They give certain medicines
to bring back the life, then “ they run a hot needle up the
forehead towards the back part of the head, then slit the
tongue ” 16 — or, according to another authority , 17 cut off the
tip, so that he can only speak “ with an inarticulate confused
sound.” These beings are sent out by night to work charms, or
place poison in the kraals. They go about “ shrieking, yelling
and making night hideous ” — though presumably not while
engaged on the errands just mentioned — and have the power
of compelling the grass to twine round the feet of a belated
traveller, so as to hold him till they come up. “If they call
a man by his name, and he is green enough to answer to it . . .
he is drawn like Sindbad’s ships to the loadstone rock . . . they
soon finish him, cut his throat, pull out his tongue and enrol
him in their . . . corps.” 18

The appearance of an umkovu in a kraal is a presage of
death, and if any one there happens to be ill at the time, it is
certain he cannot recover.

One of the rare Suto tales dealing with witchcraft may be
given here , 19 because it illustrates some points in what has
already been said, and also because of some remarkable coin-
cidences with one presently to be quoted, from the distant
region of Calabar. It is sometimes given as an account of the
way in which witchcraft was first introduced among the Basuto:
in that case it is not clear whence it was derived.

A young girl, recently married to a man who lived at a


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


339


distance from her own home, was called one night by her
mother-in-law and went with her to a ravine, where they
found the people with whom the older woman “ used to
practise witchcraft, also ghosts ( dithotsela ) and baboons and
many other animals.” The woman had brought with her two
sticks, one black and one brown } and, having ordered the whole
assembly to sit down, she shook the black stick at them, and
they all died. She then waved the brown one towards them,
and they all returned to life. She then handed them to her
daughter-in-law and told her to use them. She waved “ the
staff that kills,” left the people dead on the ground and re-
turned home to tell her husband. In the morning, the chief of
the village called all the people together and found that there
was some one absent from many of the huts. He then went
with his wife to the place of the meeting and found the people
still stretched on the ground. The woman brandished the
brown stick, and they all returned to life: the ghosts (who had
presumably been embodied for the occasion) vanished away,
but the human participants were all seen to be naked . 20 On
reaching home, the young wife refused to stay any longer in
such a place, but returned to her parents, to whom she said:
“ I have been married among witches } I even know already
how to practise witchcraft} if I had known, I would not
have married there.” The mother-in-law was very angry
and, the next night, sent a familiar in the shape of an obe
(“ a fabulous animal of very large size ”) to fetch her. She
tried in vain to awaken her parents and the other people in
the kraal, was carried off and cruelly beaten with sticks by
the assembled witches. The obe carried her back, and when
her parents got up in the morning, they found her bruised
and swollen all over. The same thing happened again twice,
but on the fourth occasion the obe was killed by armed men
posted in accordance with a witch-doctor’s directions. The
witch came next morning and asked for the obe i s skin, which


340


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


was refused, and she was ultimately driven from her village
and “ went away for good.”

The story told by the Ikom of the Cross River (Southern
Nigeria) 21 also professes, if not to account for the origin of
witchcraft, at least to relate how it became known to that
particular tribe.

A chief named Ndabu, who had been childless for many
years, consulted a “juju man,” or witch-doctor, and was
advised by him to put away all his wives except one, from
whom, after certain ceremonies had been performed, he might
expect a family. On the birth of the eldest child, the witch-
doctor prophesied that one of the chief’s sons would “ some
day discover something which the Okuni people had never
heard or known of before.” One of the Okuni chiefs, Elullo,
became jealous of Ndabu’s power and influence, and conspired
with Elilli, one of the discarded wives, to get rid of him. Both
of these people belonged to the witch-society, the existence of
which was then unknown to all outside their own circle. They
could not directly injure Ndabu and his house, as he kept
powerful “medicine” to protect them; but they decided to
“ put a witch into ” the youngest son, Amoru, and so use
him for their purposes. Elullo then invited Ndabu, with
all his family, to dinner and bewitched the portion of food
set aside for Amoru. The effect of this was that, when
summoned during the following night by Elullo (who came
to the house in the shape of an owl), he was compelled to go;
but the influence seems to have been limited, for Amoru
retained his own individuality and, when given human flesh
to eat at the witches’ feast, hid it and only ate the yams pro-
vided with it. Every night, for six weeks, he was forced “ by
the witch inside him ” to go and join in their revels, but, in-
stead of eating the meat, he always took his share home and
carefully put it by. At last they told him “ it was his turn
to provide a body for food, but Amoru said he was too young



PLATE XXXVI


Charms to protect a village against witchcraft and
other evil influences. Bakongo tribe, on the Loange
River, a tributary of the Kasai. After a photograph
by E. Torday.






STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


34i

and had no one to give. Then Chief Elullo said: 1 You have
a father and mother and plenty of brothers and sisters, we
shall be pleased to eat any of them.’ ” The boy entreated
them in vain to let him off; but at last they agreed to wait
till his turn should come round a second time, when he was
to hand over one of his parents. As the time drew near, he
became more and more uneasy and at last confided in his
eldest brother, showing him the hidden store of meat to prove
that his words were true. They then agreed upon a plan
for catching the witches.

That night, when Amoru went as usual to the witches’
meeting, Elullo reminded him of his obligation, and he re-
plied that he would give his eldest brother, Nkanyan. The
chief told some of the people to go and fetch Nkanyan, tak-
ing with them the “ night-calabash,” which was always carried
by the witches on such errands, in order magically to prolong
the darkness. Amoru, however, insisted that Elullo, being
the chief, ought to accompany them, and he consented —
Amoru going first to show the way. When they entered the
hut, the man carrying the “ night-calabash ” held it out three
times towards Nkanyan; the third time Nkanyan sprang up
and smashed it with his matchet. Immediately it was daylight,
and the witches began to run out and try to escape. But
Nkanyan called the people from the other huts, and, being
naked, the miscreants were at once recognised and caught.
Ndabu called the other chiefs together; the witches were tried,
condemned, and burnt alive, and Elullo put to death with
tortures . 22 Amoru was sent for treatment to a noted witch-
doctor who “ took the witch out of his heart and put it under
a rock,” after which he was quite cured. “ The people then
collected all the ashes . . . and threw them into the river,
saying they had got rid of all the witches in their town.”

An exceedingly curious account of an organization intended
to counteract the doings of the witches’ guild was obtained


342


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


some years ago in Nyasaland. Unfortunately, I can only
give it from memory as received at second-hand, in the hope
that documents relating to this or similar cases may become
available at some future time. Societies of this sort are not
uncommon — in fact, the “ Human Leopards ” of Sierra
Leone were, in the first instance, a body whose object was to
protect the community against witches.

A member of the society was brought to trial for killing a
man, which he admitted, but justified, on the plea that the
victim was a witch. All the circumstances, and his character,
being taken into consideration, he was discharged with a caution.
His account of the society, and his connection with it was
somewhat as follows:

When he was a young man, a succession of deaths occurred
in the village where he lived, so rapid and so unaccountable
as to occasion a good deal of talk. He thought over the matter
for a long time and finally consulted his father, asking whether
he knew of any remedy for this state of things. His father
replied that there was one, and had he been younger, he would
have tried it himself ; that his son could do so, if he felt able,
but it was a great undertaking, requiring courage and resolu-
tion, as well as physical strength. The son declaring himself
willing, the old man told him to repair to a certain doctor,
whom he named, at a village some distance away, and put
himself under his direction. The doctor kept him under in-
struction for some time and, when his initiation was complete,
sent him home. “ On the way,” said he, “ you will meet a
funeral party. One of the bearers will give you his end of the
bamboo pole ” — to which the corpse, wrapped in mats, is
slung — “ you must take it and go on.”

When the young man had gone some distance, he saw the
head of the procession approaching along the narrow path, and
seized by a sudden panic, turned aside and hid in the long
grass, till he thought they had passed by. He came out again


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


343

and went on, but presently saw a second funeral and again
hid himself. The same thing happened again, and gradually
the conviction dawned on him that it was one and the same
procession and that he could not escape. So he went forward
boldly and lifted the pole from the bearer’s shoulder to his
own. As it touched him, he felt a kind of explosion in his
head and knew no more. When he regained consciousness,
he was lying on the path alone. He got up and went on his
way without further adventure.

When he next met the doctor — after some time — he
related his experience, expressing some doubt as to whether
what he had seen might not be an illusion. The answer was:
“,You are right; there was no funeral, it was I.” Probably
the idea was to test his endurance by means of some hypnotic
trick; but in the absence of trustworthy details, it seems idle
to attempt any explanation.

When he reached home, he seems either to have formed a
local branch of the secret society or got into communication
with such members as may have been within reach. Their
procedure was to watch by night near a recent grave and seize
upon any person approaching it, who, by the nature of the case,
it was believed, could only have come on a ghoul’s errand.
They killed him by inserting a poisoned splinter of bamboo
into the body, in such a way as to leave no external traces. The
victim would go home and — conscious of guilt, or knowing
that he could prove nothing against appearances — dared not
complain and died in a few days. The last, however, know-
ing that Europeans took a different view, reported the matter
to the magistrate before his death. Hence the trial.

The belief that sorcerers can change themselves into lions,
leopards, hyenas, or other animals, seems to be found all over
Africa as a matter of actual, living belief. At any rate, it
is no more than thirty years since an old man was tried at
Chiromo (Nyasaland) on a charge of murdering unoffending


344


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


travellers — leaping on them out of the long grass, as they
passed. He admitted the murders, alleging, in all good faith,
that from time to time he turned into a lion; he always “ felt
it coming on ” and was at such times driven by an irresistible
instinct to kill some one. 23

We have seen that such animals are sent by wizards to do
their bidding; this is not incompatible with the belief (held
concurrently or as a local variation) that the wizards them-
selves may assume their shapes, and that the hyenas which,
unless due precautions are taken, invariably come and scratch
the soil from a newly made grave are, in fact, afiti. .This
implies the power of turning back again when desired, and is
distinct from the idea of the dead coming back in animal form;
yet there is a link beween the two in the notion that people
can, by taking certain medicines, ensure that they shall change
into certain animals when they die. This is probably, though
not in all cases necessarily, for the sake of working mischief,
so that such people may be classed as posthumous werewolves. 24

Sometimes it is believed that people turn into animals while
asleep — i.e., the soul leaves its human body and enters for
the time being that of an animal. Gaunab, the being in
Hottentot mythology who is sometimes described as the
<c devil,” can assume at will any shape, human or animal —
the latter, apparently, only by day. These avatars of his,
whether buck, jackal, or any other creature, are invulnerable
and never fly from the hunter. 25

When the late Walter Deane, a mighty hunter and much
beloved by the Congo natives, was killed by an elephant at
Lukolela in 1888, the natives insisted that this was no ordi-
nary elephant, but “ bad fetish ” — probably the expression
used by an interpreter familiar with Europeans. 20 This may
have meant one of three things: either ( a ) it was a “ were-
elephant,” the shape temporarily assumed by a hostile sor-
cerer, or (£) it might have been sent by such a sorcerer to


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


345

kill Deane, or (c) — a case very similar to the last, but yet
distinguishable — it might have been the totem-elephant of
some enemy. In the absence of fuller information, the ques-
tion must be left undecided.

In Abyssinia, where (as among the Somali, Masai and
others) all workers in iron are a race apart and to some extent
outcasts, blacksmiths are supposed to turn into hyenas and
commit depredations in that shape, like the wolf in the class-
ical instance recorded by Apuleius. 27 A case is related by a
European who “ may be said to have been nearly an eye-
witness ” of the occurrence. 28 Coffin, who lived in Abyssinia
for several years during the early part of the last century, had
engaged one of these men as a servant. One evening he
came and asked for leave of absence till next day. “ This
request was immediately granted, and the young man took
his leave 5 but scarcely was Mr. Coffin’s head turned to his
other servants, when some of them called out, pointing in
the direction the Buda had taken: ‘Look, look, he is turning
himself into a hyena! ’ Mr. Coffin instantly looked round,
but though he certainly did not witness the transformation,
yet the young man had vanished, and he saw a large hyena
running off at about a hundred paces distance. This happened
in an open plain, without tree or bush to intercept the view.”

Whatever may be thought of the above, it is certainly an
item in folk-belief, which is what concerns us here; and the
same writer records elsewhere 29 how the people of Adowa
asserted that a man once shot at one of six hyenas and hit it in
the leg. They all made off, and when the men, who pursued
them with spears, came up with them, they saw “ five Budas
carrying a lame person.” The man was found to have a
fresh shot-wound in the leg, and the Budas — like the witches
in the two stories already given — had no clothes on.

The werewolf idea frequently recurs in folk-tales; but usu-
ally in a different, form from that hitherto mentioned; instead

[Prometheus]

AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


346

of a man turning himself into an animal, we have an animal
turning himself into a man, for the purpose of securing for
his wife a human being whom he intends to kill and eat,
though his purpose is in most cases defeated, either by a
brother or sister of the wife, by some helpful animal, or other-
wise. The most popular beasts in this connection are the
leopard and the hyena. But the story occurs in innumerable
variations, the suitor being sometimes, not an animal but an
ogre — disguised, of course — or even a mere “ robber,” while
in a region long subject to European influence, he is, frankly,
“ the Devil.” It should also be noticed that the Wachaga
(whose folklore unites two separate streams of tradition) have
an extremely fluctuating conception of their irimu. Sometimes
he is called a “ were-panther ” (but even as such his shape
seems to differ from that of the ordinary leopard), but some 1 -
times he appears as an ordinary human being, except for a
second mouth at the back of his head, and yet again, as a
shapeless monster, with bushes growing out of him, like the
Zulu U silosimapundu. There is more than one Chaga tale
relating the courtship of such a being, and one where a hyena
(not called an irimu) forces a girl to marry him and keeps
her in his den till rescued by an old woman. But this tale, as
it stands, seems to be a confusion of two different themes, and
it is better to take a fairly typical one from Nyasaland . 30

A girl refused all suitors who presented themselves (this is
the usual opening and serves to point a moral against pride
and over-fastidiousness), but was at last attracted by a hand-
some stranger from a far country, who was, in fact, a trans-
formed hyena. Her parents consented, and the marriage took
place. After some days, the husband prepared to take his
bride home, and her little brother, who suspected something
wrong, begged her to let him come too; but she refused, be-
cause he had sore eyes . 31 He waited, however, and then
followed them, crouching down and hiding in the grass when-


STORIES OF WITCHCRAFT


347

ever he was about to come up with them. When he thought
he was too far from home to be sent back, he joined them
openly, but his new brother-in-law drove him back with threats
and blows. So he dropped behind, but still followed them
secretly and reached the village, where they so far took pity
on him that they allowed him to sleep in the hen-house. Here
he stayed awake, and when it was quite dark, he found that
many hyenas had assembled (during the day all the people
in the village had taken human form). They went round
and round the house where the bride was sleeping and sang:

“ Let us eat her, our game, but she is not yet fat enough ! ”

In the morning, he told his sister what he had heard, and
she refused to believe him; so, at nightfall, he asked her to
tie a string to her toe and pass the end out through the wall of
the grass hut, where he could get it. When the hyenas began
their dance, he pulled the string, so as to awaken her, and she
heard them for herself. Next day, he borrowed his brother-
in-law’s adze, saying that he wanted to make himself a spin-
ning-top, and constructed a wooden receptacle of some sort,
evidently having magical properties, for, not only was he
able to get into it with his sister, but, on his singing a certain
incantation, it rose into the air with them and carried them
safely home, despite the pursuit of the hyenas.

A story very similar to this is told by the Mpongwe , 32 of
a leopard who, hearing how a certain girl has announced that
she will accept no man as a husband whose skin is not perfectly
smooth and flawless, gets himself treated by a medicine-man
so as to fulfil the conditions and carries home his wife, who
has a narrow escape of being eaten, but is saved by an enchanted
horse, thoughtfully provided by her father. This horse,
however, introduces an alien element into the conclusion, and
will require a passing notice in our last chapter.


CHAPTER XV


RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS

I T DOES not come within the scope of these pages to
attempt definitions of mythology and folklore, or to say
where the line should be drawn between them. But it seems
to me that, in an old civilisation, though folk-belief may still
be a living thing, it does not as a rule throw up new shoots of
myth. Not that the mythopoeic faculty is by any means
dead, even in these islands, as witness the legends of the
Mons angels and the Russian army at Aberdeen. But there
is a difference — better felt than expressed — between such
fictitious narratives as these, disseminated (no doubt in all
good faith) usually through the medium of the newspapers,
and the equally fictitious narratives related and believed as
sober fact, in Africa. I should not include among the latter
such rumours as that of the miraculous fish caught at Zanzi-
bar and bearing texts from the Koran on his sides — an anec-
dote whose proper home would seem to be the columns of
Tit Bits or the Daily Mail. But any day in casual conversation,
one may hear of occurrences which might have been taken
direct from some mediaeval chronicle. One was informed,
for instance, how the women of Mambrui, during a long
drought, went on pilgrimage to a ruined mosque in the woods,
and there, in the pauses of their prayers, heard the spirits of
“ the old Sheikhs ” chanting, within the walls, “ Amin ” and
“La illah ill' Allah.” And the rain came down in torrents
before they reached home. Or how a godless soldier of the
Seyyid’s guards — “ one of those Hadhramis, you know, who
have no respect for anything ” — shot down the glittering



PLATE XXXVII


1. Ancient Pillar at Mambrui, from which the
urn is said to have been shot down.

2. Ruined house at Lamu. Note the rows of
niches along the wall which are used as shelves. They
were often filled with valuable china by rich Arabs.






RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS 349

bowl which used to finish off the top of the great pillar just
outside the town, and fell down dead before the fragments
reached the ground. Or how my informant’s grandfather
was cured of his blindness through remedies revealed to him
in a dream by “ our lord Hamza.” 1

A remarkable example of these modern myths is the follow-
ing, sent me in MS. by the Rev. K. Becker, formerly of the
Neukirchen Mission, at Kulesa on the Tana. His account is
translated from the notes of one of his native teachers, who
got the narrative at first hand from an aged woman at Mwana-
thamba — a village not far from Ngao. I may mention that
I had heard of the story before receiving Mr. Becker’s MS.
and had twice walked over to Mwanathamba in order to secure
an interview with Hadulu — said to be the heroine of the
tale — but without success.

This woman belonged to the Buu tribe, 2 who now occupy
the country round Ngao, about thirty miles from the sea.
According to the narrator, at the time when these events took
place — which we may put at from fifty to seventy years
ago — they were sunk in degradation and wickedness, chiefly
owing to their drinking habits. They used to make intoxicat-
ing liquor from the juice of a species of Borassus palm ( mu -
hafa\ which produces edible fruit ; and besides the other evils
arising directly from drunkenness, they killed so many palms
by persistent tapping, that the food supply was sensibly
affected.

Now a certain man named Mpembe, living at Sambae, was
one day visited by a white man, dressed in a long white gar-
ment; his hair, also, was long, like that of a European woman.
He told Mpembe, who was a man of influence and standing,
being a member of the witch-doctors’ guild, that he should ex-
hort his countrymen to leave off their sinful practices.
Mpembe obeyed, and with some apparent result, as the people,
though inclined to scoff at first, became frightened and effected


350


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


an ostensible reformation, though many of them continued in
secret to act as they had done heretofore. The stranger there-
upon visited Mpembe a second time and sharply rebuked him,
in so much that he nearly died of fright.

One day, about this time, three young girls were out watch-
ing the rice-fields, to drive away the birds from the ripening
crops. One of them belonged to the Buu tribe, and her
companions to the neighbouring tribes of Ngatana and Kalindi.
One day, when the birds were less troublesome than usual,
they left their posts to pick up firewood in the forest and saw
the white-clad stranger — his figure surrounded by a mysteri-
ous radiance — standing among the trees. They were terri-
fied and ran back to the rice-field, crouching down to hide
themselves in the standing grain. But, when they ventured to
look again, they saw him coming nearer — the nimbus which
surrounded him growing brighter all the time — till he stood
under a muhafa palm, when he bowed himself to the ground,
and they heard him say: “Amen! amen! the people cry,
1 Hunger! hunger! hunger! ’ Yet I have given you the fruit
of the mukindu and of the muhafa and of the mukoma , to
eat thereof, but ye have wasted and destroyed them through
your sin.” He had a long staff in his hand with which he
struck the trunk of the palm again and again, and at every
blow some of the leaves fell, till at last it was quite bare.
Except for the word “ Amen,” which, of course, was unknown
to the girls, he spoke in their own language. He then addressed
them as follows: “ I have done this that you may tell your
people of it and warn them that, if they go on spoiling the trees
and refuse to give up their other sins, I shall do terrible things
among them ! At such and such a place I saw a drunkard who
had climbed a palm; I said to him: ‘Come down! ’ but he
only mocked at me. I touched him with my staff, and he fell
dead. Tell your people to go and fetch his body, and let this
evil-doing cease out of the land! ”


RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS 351

Presently there arose a terrible tempest: the wind beat down
the rice in which the girls had hidden themselves and even
threw them to the ground, and they saw the stranger rise into
the air and disappear among the clouds.

At the same time, Mpembe, at home in his village, received
some supernatural intimation which caused him to tell the
people that the stranger of whom he had spoken to them
had appeared to three girls in the rice-field, and that their
friends ought to go and look for them, as they would be
helpless with terror. They went and found that it was as he
had said, and heard the whole story from the girls.

However, the warning had no lasting effect. The Wabuu
failed to mend their ways, and the stranger’s words were ful-
filled, for some time after this, the Tana changed its course
(as it seems to have done several times previously) and the
Buu tribe were forced to leave the fertile bottom-lands, which
ceased to be productive when no longer periodically flooded by
the river. Then, too, the muhaja palms died throughout their
country, and they were not only deprived of the intoxicating
drink in which they were wont to indulge, but of the fruit
which they might legitimately have used. The narrator then
goes on to describe the present distribution of the tribes repre-
sented by the three maidens and the first introduction of
Christianity.

It is, possible — as suggested by the missionaries at Ngao —
that some wandering friar, of whom all record is lost, may have
penetrated the Tana forests about the middle of last century.
But an examination of the story makes it more probable that
we have here a product of the myth-making fancy, under the
influence of Christian teaching, projected backwards to a
period long before the establishment of the Neukirchen
mission in 1887.

It is interesting to compare with this a Chaga tradition (un-
fortunately somewhat vague and scanty) reported by Gut-


352


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


mann . 3 At a not very distant period — “ the first Europeans
had already come to us ” — was seen the apparition of a light-
complexioned man floating through the air at high noon. He
had a bell in either hand and cried aloud:

“ Pay every debt thou owest to thy brother!

If thou hast an ox of his, restore it.

If thou hast a goat of his, restore it.

The King commands it!

Let every stranger in the land return to his home.

Every child kept in pawn ye shall set free.

Cease from deeds of violence, break the spear!

The King commands it! ”

At sunset he appeared again and was seen in different places,
but never touched the earth. The Chief of Moshi heard of
him and ordered his men to keep on the lookout. But,
though they sat gazing at the sky till driven indoors by the
chill of the evening, they never saw him again.

Another example of a recent — or at all events highly
modernised — story from the same region is that of the fight
with the pool already mentioned in Chapter IV . 4

Turning from indigenous myths of recent origin to those
which can be set down with tolerable certainty as introduced
from without, we are confronted by some very interesting
problems of diffusion. Where Arab influence has extended,
we may expect to find Moslem traditions ; and such legends
may be found more or less naturalised in the folk-lore of
the Swahili, the Hausa, and various peoples in the Eastern
and Western Sudan . 5 The tales of the Arabian Nights , too,
are widely current in East Africa, whether originally imported
in a literary form, or by purely oral transmission, it is hard
to say, but I am inclined to the latter supposition, judging
from the number of stories one hears (casually told by cara-
van porters and other quite illiterate people) which, though of
the same general character, are not to be found in that collection


RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS 353

and no doubt belong to the great mass of floating tradition of
which only a small part has been reduced to literary form in
the Nights.

India, too, has contributed, directly and indirectly, to the
folklore of East Africa. The story of the “ The Washerman’s
Donkey ” 6 has been traced to the Sumsumara Jataka and that
of “ The Heaps of Gold ” to the Vedahhha Jatak a, though
it has been derived through a Persian channel. 7 A version of
the “ Merchant of Venice ” was related to me in Swahili by
a Pokomo, as told to him by an Indian at Kipini who, he
supposed, had “ got it out of some book of his own.” 8

The stories of Abu Nuwas have already been referred to
as, in some cases, mixed up with those of the Hare. They
are not to be found in the Arabian Nights , but seem to be a
common property of Arabic-speaking story-tellers and are
contained in a chap-book circulating in Syria. 9 Some of his
adventures are identical with those of Khoja Nasreddin, the
famous Turkish jester, but not necessarily derived from them.
There are also points of contact with the Arab and Berber Si
Joha ( Jeha ). Abu Nuwas was a real person, a poet and
humorist who lived (a. d. 762— 815) at the court of Harun-al-
Rashid and — like Theodore Hook and others — gained such
a reputation for wit and whimsicality as to attract to himself all
the anonymous good things of his own day, as well as those cur-
rent before and since. Some of his repartees are really humour-
ous, but his specialty lies in practical jokes, and, according to
the legend, he became such a nuisance that Harun-al-Rashid
and Jaafar resorted to every possible stratagem to get rid
of him. These stratagems and the expedients whereby he
defeats them sometimes, in Africa, coincide more or less with
the more primitive Hubeane and Kalikalanje cycles ; and we
have seen how his name, Banawasi, has become a common noun,
denoting a clever, resourceful person, or even an epithet for
the Hare. Harun becomes, vaguely, “ the Sultan,” or “ the


354


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


Chief ” — though in some Swahili versions his name and that
of Jaafar are preserved, — and at Delagoa Bay, he is even
localised into the Portuguese Governor of Mozambique . 10 A
favourite incident is that of his being ordered, by the Caliph
or the Governor, to build a house in the air. He sends up a
large kite with bells attached to it and, calling attention to the
sound which, he says, is that of the workmen’s hammers, he asks
for stones and lime to be sent up. This being declared im-
possible, he is absolved from his share of the contract.

Again, when the Sultan has ordered his house to be burnt
down, he appears resigned to his fate and only begs leave to
take away the ashes in a sack. These he sells to the Portuguese
(a people, in the narrator’s view, very easily gulled) for
their weight in silver, making them believe that the sack con-
tains valuable presents which he is taking to their king. Com-
ing back with the price, he reports that there is a wonderful
market for ashes in the Portuguese possessions; consequently
the Sultan and all the townspeople burn their houses down and
load seven ships with the result. These fall in with a Portu-
guese squadron on its way to avenge the trick; the ships are
sunk and only a few of those on board escape by swimming.
The Sultan seeks for Abu Nuwas, to have him killed, but he is
nowhere to be found . 11

Yet in spite of this, he shortly afterwards cheats a differ-
ent set of Portuguese and induces the Sultan to kill all his
cattle in order to sell the hides and bones at fabulous prices.
He is then thrown into a lion’s den, but tells the lion that the
Sultan has sent him to scratch him whenever his hide feels
uneasy. The beast is so pleased with this delicate attention
that he does Abu Nuwas no harm.

One of the jests common to Si Joha , 12 Nasreddin and Abu
Nuwas is that of the borrowed saucepan, returned with a
small one, because it has produced a young one in the interval.
On the next occasion, the lender is more than willing, hoping

[Prometheus]

RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS 355

to get his own back with interest a second time — but the
saucepan never returns, the borrower explaining that it is
dead. 13

Anecdotes of Joha were told me at Lamu: they were chiefly
of the Eulenspiegel kind and evidently derived from Arab
sources. The one I remember best tells how when his mother
desires him to “ mind the door,” he takes it off the hinges and
carries it on his back. 14 Other jests of a somewhat similar
nature are related at Lamu as taking place at the neighbouring
town of Shela, the local equivalent of Abdera, Gotham, the
German Schilda or the French Saint-Maixent. In one of these,
a hunter, having taken a bush-buck out of a trap and being
in too great a hurry to slaughter it ritually, lets it go, charging
it with a message to his wife. The Berbers tell a somewhat
similar story of Si Jeha, 15 but give it quite a different turn.
Si Jeha had caught three hares and, one day, when expecting
some visitors, gave two to his mother, telling her to kill and
cook one and keep the other in a corner of the house. The
third he took with him to the fields. When the guests,
directed by his mother, joined him there, he let the hare go,
bidding it go and tell the mistress that it was to be killed for
breakfast. Seeing the men’s astonishment, he told them that
he had two wonderful hares, of which one always returned
to life when the other was killed 5 and, in proof of this, when
they reached home he showed them the live hare in the corner.
The distribution of these drolleries, and their relation to the
native African tales of Hubeane, etc., might well form the
subject of a separate volume.

At Mambrui, in 1912, an old lady named Mwana Mbeu
bind Sadiki, a native of Shela and said to be aged 1 1 6 (though
this I doubt), told me the following story. Unfortunately,
I could not take it down word for word in the original Swahili,
but I wrote out the substance of it soon afterwards :

A childless couple consulted a soothsayer, who told them


356 AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

that they would have a son if they followed his directions
(not recorded) j but he would turn out a spendthrift. The
son was born in due course, and they gave him a good educa-
tion, but by the time he had completed his university career
their whole property was consumed. Having absolutely
nothing left, they proposed to sell him, but he (taking the same
line as Admetus with his parents) pointed out that it would be
more to the point for him to sell them. More submissive than
the Greek couple, they agreed, and he disposed of them in re-
turn for clothes, a sword, a dagger, and a horse, and rode off.
On the way he fell in with a man carrying to the Sultan of the
next town a letter containing orders to kill the bearer on arrival.
(The reason of this was not made clear: the man was described
as a fsadi — a waster, or general bad character.) The messen-
ger handed over this letter to the young man, who agreed to
deliver it and put it into his turban for safety. Proceeding on
his journey, he found himself crossing a waterless desert
and was nearly dead with hunger and thirst when at last
he came to a well near which lay a dead ewe. There was
neither rope nor vessel of any kind at the well, but he unwound
his turban, forgetting all about the letter fastened into its
folds, lowered it into the well and sucked the water from it
after drawing it up. Finding the letter soaked, he spread it
out to dry, became acquainted with its contents, and destroyed
it. He cut open the carcase of the ewe, found that the lamb to
which she had been about to give birth was alive, killed,
roasted, and ate it. Then he journeyed on and at length
reached a country where the Sultan’s daughter had announced
that she would only consent to marry the man who could
beat her at chess — unsuccessful competitors to lose their
heads. The youth presented himself, played and won. He
was then required to enter on a further contest and to guess
riddles proposed by the princess. (The game of chess may be
due to confusion with another story, as there is no previous









*














PLATE XXXVIII

Bantu Types, Basuto

1. Woman grinding.

2. A family stripping maize.





RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS 357

hint of two contests.) He guesses all hers and then defeats
her by asking: “ Who is it who wore his father, rode his
mother, ate the food of the dead ” (it should rather be “ ate
of that which was never born ”) “ and drank the water of
death? ” Here the story, as told to me, ended with the mar-
riage of the youth and the princess.

Parts of it struck me at the time as vaguely familiar, yet I
could not place it, nor could I, for some years after, discover
anything analogous to it, till I happened to re-read Hindes
Groome’s Gypsy Folk Lore 16 and found that Mwana Mbeu’s
tale is substantially identical with the Turkish Gypsy story of
“ The Riddle,” though the conclusion of the latter — in
which the princess gets at the story by unfair means — is
wanting. The editor says: “ When I translated this story I
deemed it unique, though the Bellerophon letter is a familiar
feature in Indian and European folk-tales, and so too is the
princess who guesses or propounds riddles. . . . Now, ... I
find it is largely identical with Campbell’s West Highland tale,
1 The Knight of Riddles,’ No. 22 (ii, p. 36), with which cf.
Grimm’s ‘ The Riddle,’ No. 22.” 17 But in both these, as well
as in the further variants cited by Kohler and others, the
riddle is different, whereas the Turkish Gypsy version is very
nearly the same as Mwana Mbeu’s; it also occurs in a Russian
tale. Otherwise the European versions differ greatly from
it and sometimes from each other; but an Arab enigma runs as
follows: “ Who is he who rode on his mother, armed with
his father, and drank water neither of the earth nor the sky,
while he carried death on his head? ” 18

On the whole, it seems most likely that the original home
of the tale, in this form, is Arabia, whence the Gypsies carried
it to Europe.

From the point of view of the diffusion of folk-tales, five
stories grouped by Junod as “ Contes Etrangers ” 19 are ex-
tremely interesting. One of these, “ Bonaouaci ” (= Abu


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


358

Nuwas) has already been noticed. The adventures of Djiwao
(Joao) are a mixture of exotic and native elements. The
former are to be sought rather in the East than in the West,
though there may be some European touches. We are re-
minded of three different tales to be found in Swahili: Sultan
Darai (the episode of the enchanted castle and the serpent —
here replaced by Sakatabela, a white woman with seven heads),
Sultan Majnun (the “ Nunda, eater of people ”), and Kiba-
raka (the magic horse which delivers the hero). 19a The end
of the tale brings in the old trick of Hlakanyana boiling the
mother of the cannibals ; but the victim in this case is Gwanazi,
chief of Maputa — who, by the bye, was still living when the
story was taken down.

Only one of these tales seems to be distinctly European,
“ La fille du roi,” which, the narrator said, her informants had
heard in Portuguese from some of the Europeans for whom
they worked at Lourengo Marques. It is Grimm’s “ The Shoes
that were Danced to Pieces,” of which at least one Portuguese
version has been recorded . 20 A few Portuguese stories have
found their way to Angola 21 — if anything, it is rather sur-
prising that there are no more.

But one of the most remarkable instances of diffusion is
the story given by Junod under the title “ Les Trois Vaisseaux.”
A “ white man ” 22 has three sons, all of whom, unknown to
their father and to each other, are in love with the same girl.
Each asks his father for a ship and all three set out on a
trading voyage — so thoroughly has the tale been localised
that we are told the names of the three districts near Delagoa
Bay where each of them landed in order to sell his goods. An
old woman persuades the eldest to buy an old, broken basket,
which has the properties of the magic carpet; while she sells
to the second a magic mirror, and to the third a powder which
will restore the dead to life. They see in the mirror that the
girl with whom they are in love is dead and being laid out; the


RECENT AND IMPORTED MYTHS 359

eldest brother transports all three back in a twinkling by means
of the basket, and the third resuscitates the maiden. The ques-
tion now is who had the greatest share in saving her life, and
consequently who shall marry her — and, in this version, it
is left undecided.

A Yao version, “ The Story of a Chief,” obtained in Nyasa-
land some twenty years ago, 23 is altered almost beyond recog-
nition and has lost much of its exotic character^ moreover, the
point is somewhat obscured by the statement that it is a man
who has been brought back to life and whom, consequently, each
of the brothers claims as his slave. 24

I cannot help thinking that this belongs to the class of legal
problem stories, where the audience is sometimes expected to
supply the conclusion, 25 and that in the genuine form no deci-
sion is reached. It is found (with an unsatisfactory decision)
on the Kru coast, 26 and bears a certain resemblance to the
Congo “ How the Wives Restored their Husband to Life ”, 27
which may, however, be quite independent. Here, the women
agree to settle the matter in this way: “ Let us each cook a
pot of food, and take it to him as soon as he can eat} and let
him decide out of which pot he will take his first meal! ” He
decided in favor of the one who actually revived him, “ and
the majority of the people said he was right in his judgment}
but the women round about said he should have put the food
out of the three pots into one pot, and have eaten the food thus
mixed.”

The foregoing is only a hasty survey of a few outstanding
points in what might well be a separate field of investigation.
It is subsidiary to the main purpose of this book, but some
notice of it is necessary in a comprehensive view of the subject.



APPENDIX

[Prometheus]

AFRICAN


ADDITIONAL MYTHS SUPPLIED BY CAPTAIN
J. E. PHILIPPS OF THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE

RUANDA (East Central Africa)

{Ex -German, Congolese and British )

Principal Authorities:

1. The Muniginya Mututsi Nirimbilima, first cousin of the Sultan

Yuhi Musi.nca, reigning Umwami of Ruanda.

2. The Mwega Mututsi woman Kantarama of Induga County

(Ruanda Proper).

3. The Muhutu Arcadi Nderese of Bugoie County (N. W. Ruanda).
4 The Muhutu Rwakazina of Bufumbira (Brit. Ruanda).

5. The Mututsi Kabango of the Rutshuru (Congolese Ruanda),
and others.


I

THE COMING OF MAN (Ba-tutsi)

The Mututsi Kigwa, a Muniginya, came down to Induga from the
heavens with his wife, a Mwega, and his two sons named Katutsi and
Kahutu. He found on earth the aboriginal clans of Bagessera, Bazigabe
and Basinga, all Ba-Hutu. All were equal. There was no King. They
attacked the family with stones. They knew no other weapons.

On his deathbed Kigwa instructed his sons to teach the aborigines the
arts of civilization, which they did. The smelting of iron, and the manu-
facture of spears and knives resulted.

Katutsi had a daughter. He told Kahutu to go to another hill across
the river and marry her.

He wished to establish a separate branch of the family to avoid too close
intermarriage.

Kahutu at first refused as the relationship was too close, but faute de
mieux consented so that the race should neither lose its purity nor die out.



PLATE XXXIX


Bantu Types

People of the Safwa tribe (north of Lake Nyasa).
(See page 372.)






APPENDIX


373


Kahutu’s wife (and her offspring) were thenceforward called the
“ Abega ba Kulya,” “ The nether Princess(es).” Cf. Luganda: Mu-Mbega,
or Mu-Mbedja = a princess.

It was stated by Katutsi that “ The Banya-GiNYA shall bear kings.” To
which Kahutu replied: “ And the Ab-EGA the mothers of Kings.”

The word “ Ruanda ” = “ the Kingdom,” in the Kinya-RuANDA tongue.

The story is taken down verbatim from (i), but varies considerably in
detail as told by other informants, usually as to whether they are Ba-tutsi or
Ba-hutu. The inhabitants of the Induga County alone consider themselves
to be of the true Ruanda stock.


II

THE COMING OF CATTLE (THE COW).

By the Banya-RuANDA Cattle are considered second only to man in the
world-creation.

Umwami Ndori (Ndahiro) had a daughter, Nyiraruchaba, who was
driven out from their home (Ulugo) by him.

She went into the wilderness of Kanagge above Msaho (Lake Kivu).
Her father thought her dead.

Nyiraruchaba saw two strange animals in a rocky forest glade. One was
a cow and the other its (bull) calf. The cow appeared to be rubbing
itself in the mouth of a small rocky depression. When it moved into the
forest, she went and examined the place and found a white liquid in a
pool. This she tasted and found good.

Every morning she watched the cow: first it suckled the calf and then
descended into the hollow to try and relieve the pressure of milk in its
udders, by rubbing against a mound in the cave mouth, as the calf could
not drink enough.

While in the forest shortly afterwards she met an exiled Muhutu who
possessed nothing, and they lived together. Nyiraruchaba had been drink-
ing regularly of the milk to sustain her and wanted someone to help her
to keep and tame the cow for herself. She suggested first catching the
calf. But the Muhutu was afraid and said: “ If we catch the calf, the
mother will go away and not give us more milk.” But she caught the calf
herself, without help, and put it in their hut of leaves. Next day she went,
taking the calf as a protection against an attack by the mother’s horns. She
let the calf suck and then went and drank from the udders herself. Daily


374


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


she did this till the cow became accustomed to her and it was no longer
necessary to conceal herself with the calf to do so. Eventually she learnt
to milk into a primitive vessel. Her man told her to do this daily. Both
drank. One day at the edge of the wilderness she met a strange man who
said: “I seem to know you.” She said: “Perhaps.” He said: “We are
all in distress. The King is ill of a mortal disease.” She gave him a
clay vessel of milk to take to the King as medicine. She placed a reed-
“ straw ” in it and told the man to take it to the King, but that the effective-
ness of the medicine would be spoilt if it was told that the donor was a
woman. She feared her father might suspect sorcery from a woman.
Ndahiro consented to try it, after the bearer had tasted it, and in two days
he recovered after years of sickness. After pressure, it was revealed that it
came from a girl in the wilderness. Eventually Nyiraruchaba was sent
for and found: the cow and calf followed her to the King. He was over-
joyed to see her. She said the milk was the sap of trees, fearing harm to
the cow, of which she was fond.

One day, however, the King came upon her milking the cow, naked.

He discovered the secret, but was angry to find his daughter naked,
against taboo.

The cow had calves by the bull calf, and the King had great power and
honour as their possessor.

He ordered his daughter to teach the herdsmen to milk, and that women
were never again to milk cows. Some years after the “ Abapfumu ” (priests)
of Bukara predicted the appearance of large herds of cattle from the
caves near Lake Ruhondo (Mulera) and that there would be no more,
peasantry or poverty. All would own cattle and all be equal as at first.

The King, apprehensive for the government of the Ruanda (realm),
decreed that all cattle were a royal appurtenance, as they are in Ruanda to
this day. The cattle appeared in the reign of Cihanga and he apportioned
them to his people as his herdsmen.

And thus it is in Ruanda to this day.

Taken down verbatim from (2). Variations in detail in other narratives
is inconsiderable.


APPENDIX


375


III

THE COMING OF MAN (Ba-Hutu)

{British Ruanda: Bufumbira)

(a) Luganzu is in Ruanda (Bufumbira) tradition the first man on earth.
He is believed to have descended from the heavens and first set foot on
earth at this spot (Plate XII). The footprints of a cow, calf, and dog are
clearly visible, as also marks representing that of a bow and arrow.

The footprints of Luganzu and the kneeprints of his wife are also
shown. These had to be cleared of moss before photographing. The
Muhutu Chief Muzerero of Nyarusiza (Bufumbira) is here seen in the
traditional position and attitude of Luganzu. A passing Munya-RuANDA
woman is posed in the knee marks of Luganzu’s wife.

The place is a mile north of the foothills of Mt. Sabinyo (Birunga
Range). The Anglo-Belgian (Congo) frontier runs upon the slight rise
seen in the near background.

(b) Luganzu’s cattle trough (Plate XIII). Curious rock formation.
The troughs contain no water except occasional rain pools and are not
now used to water stock. Twenty yards from the site shown in Plate XII.

A young Mu-Tutsi is seen seated. The peculiar Ruanda hair pattern
(Umusunzu) is very visible. The Ba-TuTSi maintain it longer and more
carefully than the other two Banya-RuANDA races, viz, the Ba-HuTU and
the Ba-TwA.










NOTES

[Prometheus]

AFRICAN


ADDITIONAL MYTHS SUPPLIED BY CAPTAIN
J. E. PHILIPPS OF THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE

RUANDA (East Central Africa)

{Ex -German, Congolese and British )

Principal Authorities:

1. The Muniginya Mututsi Nirimbilima, first cousin of the Sultan

Yuhi Musi.nca, reigning Umwami of Ruanda.

2. The Mwega Mututsi woman Kantarama of Induga County

(Ruanda Proper).

3. The Muhutu Arcadi Nderese of Bugoie County (N. W. Ruanda).
4 The Muhutu Rwakazina of Bufumbira (Brit. Ruanda).

5. The Mututsi Kabango of the Rutshuru (Congolese Ruanda),
and others.


I

THE COMING OF MAN (Ba-tutsi)

The Mututsi Kigwa, a Muniginya, came down to Induga from the
heavens with his wife, a Mwega, and his two sons named Katutsi and
Kahutu. He found on earth the aboriginal clans of Bagessera, Bazigabe
and Basinga, all Ba-Hutu. All were equal. There was no King. They
attacked the family with stones. They knew no other weapons.

On his deathbed Kigwa instructed his sons to teach the aborigines the
arts of civilization, which they did. The smelting of iron, and the manu-
facture of spears and knives resulted.

Katutsi had a daughter. He told Kahutu to go to another hill across
the river and marry her.

He wished to establish a separate branch of the family to avoid too close
intermarriage.

Kahutu at first refused as the relationship was too close, but faute de
mieux consented so that the race should neither lose its purity nor die out.



PLATE XXXIX


Bantu Types

People of the Safwa tribe (north of Lake Nyasa).
(See page 372.)






APPENDIX


373


Kahutu’s wife (and her offspring) were thenceforward called the
“ Abega ba Kulya,” “ The nether Princess(es).” Cf. Luganda: Mu-Mbega,
or Mu-Mbedja = a princess.

It was stated by Katutsi that “ The Banya-GiNYA shall bear kings.” To
which Kahutu replied: “ And the Ab-EGA the mothers of Kings.”

The word “ Ruanda ” = “ the Kingdom,” in the Kinya-RuANDA tongue.

The story is taken down verbatim from (i), but varies considerably in
detail as told by other informants, usually as to whether they are Ba-tutsi or
Ba-hutu. The inhabitants of the Induga County alone consider themselves
to be of the true Ruanda stock.


II

THE COMING OF CATTLE (THE COW).

By the Banya-RuANDA Cattle are considered second only to man in the
world-creation.

Umwami Ndori (Ndahiro) had a daughter, Nyiraruchaba, who was
driven out from their home (Ulugo) by him.

She went into the wilderness of Kanagge above Msaho (Lake Kivu).
Her father thought her dead.

Nyiraruchaba saw two strange animals in a rocky forest glade. One was
a cow and the other its (bull) calf. The cow appeared to be rubbing
itself in the mouth of a small rocky depression. When it moved into the
forest, she went and examined the place and found a white liquid in a
pool. This she tasted and found good.

Every morning she watched the cow: first it suckled the calf and then
descended into the hollow to try and relieve the pressure of milk in its
udders, by rubbing against a mound in the cave mouth, as the calf could
not drink enough.

While in the forest shortly afterwards she met an exiled Muhutu who
possessed nothing, and they lived together. Nyiraruchaba had been drink-
ing regularly of the milk to sustain her and wanted someone to help her
to keep and tame the cow for herself. She suggested first catching the
calf. But the Muhutu was afraid and said: “ If we catch the calf, the
mother will go away and not give us more milk.” But she caught the calf
herself, without help, and put it in their hut of leaves. Next day she went,
taking the calf as a protection against an attack by the mother’s horns. She
let the calf suck and then went and drank from the udders herself. Daily


374


AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


she did this till the cow became accustomed to her and it was no longer
necessary to conceal herself with the calf to do so. Eventually she learnt
to milk into a primitive vessel. Her man told her to do this daily. Both
drank. One day at the edge of the wilderness she met a strange man who
said: “I seem to know you.” She said: “Perhaps.” He said: “We are
all in distress. The King is ill of a mortal disease.” She gave him a
clay vessel of milk to take to the King as medicine. She placed a reed-
“ straw ” in it and told the man to take it to the King, but that the effective-
ness of the medicine would be spoilt if it was told that the donor was a
woman. She feared her father might suspect sorcery from a woman.
Ndahiro consented to try it, after the bearer had tasted it, and in two days
he recovered after years of sickness. After pressure, it was revealed that it
came from a girl in the wilderness. Eventually Nyiraruchaba was sent
for and found: the cow and calf followed her to the King. He was over-
joyed to see her. She said the milk was the sap of trees, fearing harm to
the cow, of which she was fond.

One day, however, the King came upon her milking the cow, naked.

He discovered the secret, but was angry to find his daughter naked,
against taboo.

The cow had calves by the bull calf, and the King had great power and
honour as their possessor.

He ordered his daughter to teach the herdsmen to milk, and that women
were never again to milk cows. Some years after the “ Abapfumu ” (priests)
of Bukara predicted the appearance of large herds of cattle from the
caves near Lake Ruhondo (Mulera) and that there would be no more,
peasantry or poverty. All would own cattle and all be equal as at first.

The King, apprehensive for the government of the Ruanda (realm),
decreed that all cattle were a royal appurtenance, as they are in Ruanda to
this day. The cattle appeared in the reign of Cihanga and he apportioned
them to his people as his herdsmen.

And thus it is in Ruanda to this day.

Taken down verbatim from (2). Variations in detail in other narratives
is inconsiderable.


APPENDIX


375


III

THE COMING OF MAN (Ba-Hutu)

{British Ruanda: Bufumbira)

(a) Luganzu is in Ruanda (Bufumbira) tradition the first man on earth.
He is believed to have descended from the heavens and first set foot on
earth at this spot (Plate XII). The footprints of a cow, calf, and dog are
clearly visible, as also marks representing that of a bow and arrow.

The footprints of Luganzu and the kneeprints of his wife are also
shown. These had to be cleared of moss before photographing. The
Muhutu Chief Muzerero of Nyarusiza (Bufumbira) is here seen in the
traditional position and attitude of Luganzu. A passing Munya-RuANDA
woman is posed in the knee marks of Luganzu’s wife.

The place is a mile north of the foothills of Mt. Sabinyo (Birunga
Range). The Anglo-Belgian (Congo) frontier runs upon the slight rise
seen in the near background.

(b) Luganzu’s cattle trough (Plate XIII). Curious rock formation.
The troughs contain no water except occasional rain pools and are not
now used to water stock. Twenty yards from the site shown in Plate XII.

A young Mu-Tutsi is seen seated. The peculiar Ruanda hair pattern
(Umusunzu) is very visible. The Ba-TuTSi maintain it longer and more
carefully than the other two Banya-RuANDA races, viz, the Ba-HuTU and
the Ba-TwA.










NOTES