Author(s): Franz Boas (1858-1942) and C. Kamba Simango (1890-1966)
Journal: Journal of American Folklore
Year: 1922 [public domain]
Internet Archive: Always available.
Stories (20): : Baboon and Hare / Baboon and Hare (again) / Hare and Baboon / The Digging of the Well by the Animals / Hare and Turtle / Hare and Duiker (two versions) / Lion and Hare (two versions) / The Death of Hare / Turtle and Elephant / Why the Elephant Lacks a Tail / Hyena and the Moon / Tale about the Death of the People / Nshunshu / Two Men Who Married Two Sisters / The Cure of a Jealous Person / The Story of the Crocodile / The Mistress and Her Slave / The Three Brothers and the Revived Princess / The Sky People / The Hyena and the Crane. I have included three stories below: Hare and Duiker, The Death of Hare and The Digging of the Well.
Style: These are literal translations of the Chindau texts, and the Chindau text is also provided.
Frame: none
Storyteller: C. Kamba Simango
Additional Information: In addition to the stories, this article also contains a brief selection of Chindau proverbs. Simango provided the stories in Chindau (a Bantu language), and then he and Boas worked together on the translations and notes. Boas was one of the most important anthropologists of the 20th century. He is best known for his work with indigenous American peoples, especially in the Pacific Northwest, but he was also a great champion of both African and African American culture. Zora Neale Hurston was one of Boas's students in the 1920s, and Simango was also one of Boas's students. Simango was born in Mozambique in 1890 and spent most of his life there as a missionary and educator; he died in 1966. In came to the United States in 1914 to study at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, and in 1919 he went to New York City to study with Boas at Columbia.
Story Title: Hare and Duiker
Tradition: Ndau story from Mozambique
Notes: Simango provided two versions of this story: version a and version b. The version below is version a. This story is a nice example of how a song can be woven into the plot of the story itself, and in a live performance, the audience might sing along, or sing the refrain (untranslated here: telele kuteku). There are three species of duiker (a tiny antelope) found in Mozambique: common duiker, blue duiker, and red forest duiker. Mphembge is the name for the duiker, and Shulo is the trickster rabbit (hare).
Parallels: Compare this a Tsonga story from southern Africa: Hare Married the Grey Antelope. For another example of a trickster turning the body of his victim into a musical instrument, see this Igbo story from Nigeria: A Tortoise and a Fowl.
Hare and Duiker
Hare and Duiker were friends.
One day Duiker said to Hare, "If I had no horns, I should be like you. If you had no ears, you would be like me."
One day while they were playing, Hare said to Duiker, "I know a way of pulling off the horns. You will be able to pull off your horns, and I shall borrow them someday."
Because Duiker wanted their friendship to be strengthened, he wanted his horns to be pulled. Therefore he said to Hare, "I want you to teach me the pulling of the horns."
Hare said to Duiker, "Let's go and look for firewood!"
When they came back with the firewood, Hare took a pot and filled it with water. He put it on the hearth. He said to Duiker, "You someday may be able to pull off your horns so that I can put them on, and someday I shall pull off my ears and you put them on. So that both of us may obtain this power of pulling off our ears and horns, it is necessary that we go into this pot on the fire one by one that our ears and horns may become pliable so that they can be pulled."
Duiker agreed to what Hare said.
Hare said to Duiker, "I shall begin to go into the pot because I know how to do it." Hare went into the pot which was on the fire. He told Duiker that when he knocked on the lid, Duiker should take it off. When Hare had entered the pot, Duiker covered the pot with the lid. There was not much fire. Hare stayed a long time in the water before he knocked on the lid. When the water was hot, Hare knocked on the lid, and Duiker uncovered it. Hare came out of the pot.
Duiker went into the pot. Hare covered it with the lid. After he had covered it, he piled firewood on the hearth. When Duiker had gone into the pot, the water was getting hot. He did not stay in very long before the water became very hot, and it was about to boil. When he felt the heat of the water, he knocked on the lid, but Hare said to him, "You have not stayed a long enough time for your horns to be soft. Don't you remember I stayed in the pot a long time? My ears do not need much time to make them soft. Your horns need a long time to make them soft."
Duiker listened to what Hare said. He let Hare cover the pot. Hare put a stone on the lid. Duiker knocked, but Hare did not uncover the pot.
The water was boiling. Duiker knocked on the lid with strength, but Hare said to him, "Your time has not come yet."
When the water was boiling, Duiker made great efforts to come out, but the lid had a stone on it. Therefore, he died in the pot.
When Duiker was cooked, Hare took his horns and made whistles, singing, —
I played with Duiker: be quiet telele kuteku.
Duiker is cooked: be quiet telele kuteku.
I took his horns: be quiet telele kuteku.
The horns of Duiker: be quiet telele kuteku.
I made a whistle: be quiet telele kuteku.
Which I am playing: be quiet telele kuteku.
Hare was singing this song and playing on the whistle made from the horns of Duiker, his friend.
Story Title: The Death of Hare
Tradition: Ndau story from Mozambique
Notes: The motif of the bird that hides its head and/or one leg under its wing, thus inducing (accidentally or on purpose) another animal to amputate its head and/or leg is one of the most popular African folktale motifs. In this story, the ambitious trickster rabbit cannot stand to be outdone by any other animal, and that pride is his undoing! Shulo is the Hare, and Kufa is the Rooster.
THE DEATH OF HARE
One day Hare was walking to the house of Rooster. When he arrived, he asked the wife of Rooster, "Where is Rooster?"
She said, ‘‘Rooster is in the house, but his head and one leg went to drink beer.”’
At first Hare did not believe what was said by the wife of Rooster. When he saw Rooster in the house standing on one leg without his head, he was very much astonished.
Hare went to his home thinking about what was done by the Rooster. When he arrived at home, he told his wife what the Rooster was doing.
The following day the Hare heard Rooster crowing. He went to Rooster’s house, and Rooster began to tell Hare what he had done and how the people had been drinking beer. Hare asked him, ‘‘How do you send your head and your leg to go and drink beer?”
Rooster said, "I cut off my head and my leg. You remember that you saw me standing on one leg, and I was without my head. I had cut off my leg and my head, and they had gone to drink beer.”
The Hare, because he was unwilling to be surpassed by Rooster, when he came home, said to his wife, ‘‘Tomorrow I want you to take a knife and cut off my head and one leg, because I want them to go and drink beer, the same as Rooster did.’’
His wife said, ‘‘You will die,” but Hare insisted that she should do what he had told her. Therefore, when day broke, his wife cut off his head and his leg, but they did not go and drink.
When the Hare failed to rise, his wife went and told the Rooster that her husband did not arise.
Rooster said, “I thought Hare was wise, but he was a fool.”
Story Title: The Digging of the Well by the Animals
Tradition: Ndau story from Mozambique
Notes: This is one of the most popular folktale types in Africa!
Parallels: Sometimes Tortoise catches Rabbit by smearing himself with pitch or tar in a tar-baby type of story; you can see that in a South African version: The Animals Dance for Water.
{insertaudio}
THE DIGGING OF THE WELL
One year which was lacking in rain there was a great drought. All the lakes were dried up. Water was not to be found in the whole country.
The chief of the animals, Lion, called all the animals together to come to his court to talk over the matter of digging a well. When the animals were assembled, Chief Lion told them, “Tomorrow all shall come to dig a well. If an animal does not come, he will not drink the water of the well. "
On the following day many animals assembled at the place which was selected, according to the order of the chief and his advisers, where the well was to be dug. The animals were to dig the well by dancing. They were to dance one by one. They composed a song which they were to sing and to dance to. This song which they composed was:
Trotting, trotting, nshe!
Trotting, trotting, nshe!
Trotting, trotting, nshe!
Trotting, trotting, nshe!
Stamping, stamping, dust rises,
We give this to... Hyena.
That is, the next dancer was to be Hyena. The animals were thus called one by one. They sang this song dancing, and making a large hole; but the water did not come out, because by dancing they made the hole hard. But they persisted in dancing.
When the turn of Hare came, Hare was not found. The chief sent a messenger to call Hare. The chief asked Hare why he did not come to dig the well. Hare answered, “I do not want to dig the well, because I drink dew.” The chief let him go.
When the animals grew tired dancing, they were discouraged because the water did not come.
Turtle said, “ Let me try to dig the well!”
All the animals laughed at what Turtle said. “What can you do?" Leopard said.
Turtle persisted that he be allowed to dig the well. He entered the hole and burrowed in the sand which was packed hard by the beasts. All the animals looked at what was being done by Turtle. When Turtle disappeared in the hole, he dug through to the water, and the well was full of water. The animals were glad because they saw the water.
When the sun was setting, Buffalo said to the chief, “The well should be watched, because Hare refused to help dig the well, but when he hears that we struck water, he will come to drink water in our well. He refused to dig because he did not want to work; he mentioned that he drank dew; it was an excuse, so that he might not be troubled." The chief and all the animals said, "What you say is true, Buffalo. We know Hare is very wise.”
Hyena said, “I shall watch this night to begin.”
When Hare heard that water had been dug out, he went to get honey, which he put into his calabash, and he took his calabash and went to the well to fetch water. When he arrived at the well, he said, “Haye, haye!"
Hyena said, “ What is it?"
Hare said, "I myself taste once what is in the calabash. It is done again when tie."
Hyena said, “What did you say ?”
"I myself taste once what is in the calabash. It is done again when tie."
Hyena said, “ Come here!" Hare came near and gave a taste of honey to Hyena. Hyena tasted the honey, and said to Hare, “Give me more.”
Hare said, “If you are willing to be tied, I shall give you more.”
Hyena said, “Yes, tie me."
Hare tied him, but he did not give him the honey. Hare entered the well. He dipped out water. When he had finished getting water, he disturbed it and went to his house.
The next morning Hyena was found tied, but he did not tell who had tied him.
Leopard said, “I shall watch the well this night.”
When the sun set, Hare came and said “Haye, haye!" as he had said the night before when Hyena was watching. Leopard answered in the same way as Hyena had done. Hare let him taste the honey. He tied Leopard, dipped out water, and filled his calabash. He disturbed the water.
All the animals that watched the well were tied by Hare, but they did not tell that Hare had tied them and that Hare had the thing which he gave them.
Turtle said he would watch the well that night. The animals tied by Hare laughed at him in the same way as at the time when they were digging the well. When the sun set, Turtle went into the water.
Hare arrived, and said, “Haye, haye!" He did not hear a person answer; therefore he said, “Serves them right; I knew they would tire of trying to get me." He went into the well to draw water. When he finished filling his calabash, he disturbed the water, as was his custom. When he came out of the water, his one leg remained in the water; Turtle had taken hold of the leg of Hare! Hare begged Turtle, but Turtle did not speak.
When day broke, Hare was found at the well. He was taken to the chief. The animals were very glad because Hare was captured. But Hare was wise; therefore he said to the chief, “I want to dance my dance before you judge my case.”
The chief allowed Hare to dance his dance. Hare sang his song and asked the animals who were in court to sing for him while he danced to this song:
Hare, are you going about aimlessly? When are you coming back?
Tomorrow!
Hare, are you going about aimlessly? When are you coming back?
Tomorrow!
You, Hare, if you go away, when are you coming back?
Tomorrow!
Hare, are you going about aimlessly? When are you coming back?
Tomorrow!
Hare, are you going about aimlessly? When are you coming back?
Tomorrow!
When the animals saw Hare dancing, they had a desire to dance also, and they made much dust, and Hare ran away. The chief of the animals thought that Hare was there dancing with them. The animals did not see one another on account of the dust and stabbed one another. When the dust settled, the animals looked for Hare, but Hare was not to be found.
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