Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/169

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Folklore of the Banyanja.
141

The crows kept away so well that people did not know how the Picanin could drive them away; one day a boy went quietly to listen how he did it, because he did it so nicely. He listened and heard him singing:

"Kanjinjete," etc.

The boy went back home and told them, "The boy whom you have taken to be the son of her who is dead is not the right one, it is he who drives away the birds. So they called him and asked him if he was the son of the sister who died and he said, "Yes, it is so." They said, "Why did you not tell us?" and he said, "When I saw you all thought it was the other one, I said nothing." So they took him, but they killed the other boy.

Note.—"Kanjinjete!" and "cha!" are exclamations meaning "Go away." "Mbaram" means "birds."


The Man and the Hare.

There was a Man and also a Hare. They worked together at one garden. By and bye it was time to eat, and the Man cooked the food. The Hare said, "I want to go to the river and drink. When I come back we shall eat together." He went down to the river and then he got out of his skin. He went back to the garden singing:

"Psu, psu ! Psu, psu !
Red, red! Red, red!
I am a little red creature without a skin!
Psu, psu!"

The Man was very much afraid and ran away. The Hare ate half the food and then he went back and got into his skin again and then he went back to the garden. He found the Man there with the rest of the food. He said to the Man, "Where is the half of the food? you have eaten it!" The Man said, "No, but while you were away a red 'skellum' (evil beast) came and ate it." The Hare