Where Animals Talk; West African Folk Lore Tales/Part 2/Tale 34
A Snake's Skin Looks Like a Snake
Persons
| Bokeli, Son of Njambe-Ya-Manga |
Ko (Wild Rat) |
| Mbindi (Wild Goat) | |
| Jâmbâ, Daughter of Njambe-Ya-Madiki |
Etungi, A Town Idler |
| Kuba (Chicken) |
NOTE
Bokeli was like a snake. When a snake changes and throws off his old skin, that slough, when it is left lying at any place, is almost as fearful to see, as the snake itself.
The list of the dowry goods for Jâmbâ is a good illustration of native exaggeration.
Njambe-of-the-Interior begot a daughter called Jâmbâ. And Njambe-of-the-Sea-Coast begot a son called Bokeli.
Many men arrived at the town of Njambe-of-the-Interior, asking Jâmbâ for marriage. There they were killed (Njambe's people were cannibals), not being able to fulfill the tests to which they were subjected. So, people said, "Jâmbâ will not be married!"
Finally Bokeli, the son of Njambe-of-the-Sea-Coast, said, "I am going to take Jâmbâ for marriage." He prepared for his journey; he went; and he arrived at the town. He at once entered into the public Reception-House, and sat down. There the people of the town exclaimed, "A fine-looking man!" And they saluted him, "Mbolo!" The young women at once went to tell Jâmbâ, saying, "What a fine-looking man has come to marry you!"
Previous to this, the mother of Jâmbâ, who was lame with sores, was lying in the house. If a prospective son-in-law laughed in her presence, she would say to her husband, "He is mocking at me!" Then that visitor would die. All the men who had come there to marry, were killed in that way.
Before this (as Bokeli understood the speech of all Beasts and of Birds) when he entered into the Reception-House, a Cock in the town spoke to him, and said, "If your hope for food rests on me, you will not eat! I will not be killed for you; neither shall you eat at all!" Also a loin of Wild-Goat meat, hanging in the kitchen, said, "For me, you will not eat!"
But Njambe (who had overheard the Cock, and who was thinking of food for his guest) ordered, "Today, catch ye Kuba!" But Cock ran off to the forest. Then the people said, "Take the leg of Mbindi!" The leg of Wild-Goat protested, "I?" And it rotted. They sought some other thing to cook for Bokeli; but, there was nothing. So, Njambe sent his sons hunting to kill wild beasts.
Then, the mother of Jâmbâ called for Bokeli, saying, "He must come; let me see him." So, he entered into her house, and he sat down. They began to converse. It was but a little while then that the mother said to her daughter, "Search for me on the drying frame (over the fire-place); you will find Ko there; take it for the guest, and cook it." The Wild-Rat spoke, saying, "If it is I, he will not possibly eat!"
At this, Bokeli broke into a laugh. The mother was displeased, and said, "You are laughing at me!" Bokeli replied, "No!" But, the woman flung into a rage, and threw herself down on the ground, ndi! She exclaimed, "Ah! Njambe! He laughed at me! Catch him! And let him go to die!"
They laid hold of him, and brought him out of the house. They were about to go a little further to the end of the town, when he suddenly pretended he was a corpse, and leaving his body, his spirit went back home, and assumed another body. They became quiet, all of them being startled. When they moved him, he was as cold as cold victuals. They said, "What shall we do here?" Some of them advised, "Let us take Jâmbâ and this corpse, and let us go together to his father, and explain, 'Bokeli is dead, but this woman is his wife.'" Others said, "What! lest his father will kill us!" Then they decided, "Not so! but, let us send as messenger some Etungi (useless person; no loss if he should be killed) to the father's town.
The Etungi went on that errand. When he arrived at Bokeli's town, he met Bokeli sitting at the village smithy, and, not recognizing him, was intending to pass him by. Thereupon, Bokeli called to him, "Brother-in-law! what are you doing? You have found me sitting here, but you seem about to entirely pass me by. Though all your family do not like me, come in to the Reception-House." The Etungi thought to himself, "Ah! I am dead! Is not this a brother of Bokeli?" Bokeli called to his mother, and told her, "Bring out that food of mine quickly that is there! My brother-in-law has come; he feels hungry!"
They set the food as soon as possible. And the Etungi ate.
Bokeli asked him, "Where are you going to?" The Etungi replied, "I'm on my way going to tell Njambe that his son Bokeli is dead." Bokeli said to him, "This is I." Then he gave the Etungi a shirt and a cloth and a hat, as proofs of his reality.
The Etungi returned to his town. And he reported to the people in the town, "Bokeli is not dead; I met him at the bellows, working." They thought he was lying, and they said, "Let him be beaten!" But the Etungi replied, "True! see ye this shirt, and the cloth, and this hat!" He added, "He that doubts must first go and see."
Then went Kombe. When he arrived, he found Bokeli at the bellows. When Bokeli saw him coming, he arose at once, and went to his mother in the house; he seized a machete, and cut down a plantain bunch, yo! And he said to his mother, "Make haste to cook it!"
Kombe had by that time entered the Reception-House. Bokeli welcomed him, sa-a! and said, "Sit down!" Kombe sat down. Food had been cooked; and he ate. Kombe then says, "I'm going back!" Bokeli at once put down at his feet the dowry for Jâmbâ, cloths, shirts, hats, etc, etc. Kombe carried away the things. And having arrived at his town, he says, "It is true!"
Their father Njambe directed, "Come ye! over there with a present as a propitiation!" Then he gathered goats, fowls, ducks, plantains, dried meats, fishes, all sorts and kinds. He ordered, "Make ye a bier, and carry the corpse. I am going, even if I die!" (He still had a doubt about the real Bokeli.) They did so. They carried the presents, and they went, going on the journey.
When those in front had arrived at the half-way of the road, the father said to his children, "You must now remain here. I shall first go to the town. If you hear a sound of guns, you will know that I am killed; then ye must go back." The father Njambe took Jâmbâ to accompany him, and his wives with him.
When Bokeli saw them coming, at once the cannon were loaded, and were fired in a salute of welcome, and all the guns and musical instruments sounded, and people saying, "The bride is come!"
The children of Njambe who were left on the way, when they heard the sounds of the cannons and guns, said to themselves that their father was killed, and they scattered and hid themselves. But he hastily started and went back to the place where he had left them; and he found nobody there. He called them; and they came out of their hiding. He commanded, "Throw away this thing (the supposed corpse); take up the goods; come to the town of Bokeli."
Then they went to the town. They found Jâmbâ and her husband Bokeli sitting and playing. And they were treated with much kindness. Oxen and pigs were killed; they ate; they drank; and had great fun and very much enjoyment.
Njambe-of-the-Interior then said that he was ready to journey back to his town. But his friend Njambe-of-the-Sea-Coast said, "Not today, but tomorrow in the morning; then I will give you the dowry."
On the next day, they delivered the dowry; five millions of spear-heads (an iron currency); knives also, a million; one thousand hats; one thousand shirts; one hundred cloths; bags and trunks one hundred; bales of all kinds of white man's things; and native things in abundance; cattle also in abundance. Then they went away with them to their town.
And Bokeli and Jâmbâ remained in the seaside town with their marriage.