The Lions and Kimona-Ngombe
The lions had settled in the wilderness.
Later, famine came. The lions could not find food.
The lions said, "What shall we do? We are so hungry! The humans always have cattle, but we will have to journey all day to reach their village. Let's go now!"
So the lions journeyed until they reached the village of the humans. At the outskirts of the village, they stopped, and there they turned one of the lions into a beautiful woman. The lions dressed her in fine clothes they arranged her hair nicely, and then they told her what she must do. "This is the village of Chief Kimona-Ngombe, a man who has many cattle. When you go into the village, you must say that you are going on a journey to visit your brother who lives in a distant village. When Kimona-Ngombe sees you, he will talk to you and ask you to marry him. Then, when he marries you, you will kill him, and we will catch his cattle and eat them."
The young lioness agreed and walked down the path into the village, still getting used to her new way of walking just on two legs. She then found the chief sitting at the entrance to his house."You, young woman," he said, "where are you going?"
The woman replied, "I am going to visit my brother who lives in a distant village. My long journey has made me tired. Please, perhaps you will allows your people to give me some water to drink." Kimona-Ngombe ordered his servants to bring water for the young woman to drink.
Then Kimona-Ngombe spoke to her again. "You, young woman, are you married already?"
"No," she answered, "I'm not married yet."
Then, just as the lions had predicted, Kimona-Ngombe proposed to her, and she accepted, "But first," she said, "let me go home first and tell my parents. I will come back in two days."
The woman then went back to the lions. "Kimona-Ngombe has talked to me," she told them, "and he asked to marry him. I said yes."
The other lions said, "That is good."
The woman slept two days, and then she returned to the Kimona-Ngombe's village. The people of the village killed a goat for her, and she ate. They also built her a house.
Chief Kimona-Ngombe told the people of his house, "Tonight I will go sleep in the house of my bride."
"Don't leave me, Papa!" said a little boy. This was Ndala, the son of Kimona-Ngombe and his first wife. The boy clung to his father and wouldn't let go. "I will sleep with my papa."
"Your father is going to sleep in the house of the new bride," said Ndala's mother. "You're going to sleep with me."
But Ndala refused; he cried and cried, begging to go with his father.
Finally his father agreed. "I see the boy won't let go of me," he said. "I suppose he can come with me tonight."
The chief and his little son arrived in the house of the bride and sat on the bed. The bride said, "What is this? The chief has come with a little boy."
"This little boy is my son," said Kimona-Ngombe. "His name is Ndala, and he wanted to come with me tonight. He wouldn't stay in the house of his mother. He clung to me and wouldn't let go, so I have brought him here with me."
Then they lay down, the chief stretching out with his son on the mat beside the bride's bed.
Time passed.
In the middle of the night, the woman rose up from the bed and turned back into a lioness; she was going to attack the chief!
Ndala, who was lying beside his father on the mat, saw the lioness coming. He roused his father, saying, "Papa, look out! There is a lion! It's going to bite you!"
The father got up, but the lioness had already turned back into a woman.
"You're just having a bad dream, my son," he said. "Go back to sleep."
Daybreak came, another day passed, and then it was evening again. The chief announced that he was again going to sleep in the house of his new bride, and again his son clung to him and would not let go.
When they arrived at the new bride's house, she said, "O Chief, the child woke you already in the night. Why have you brought him here again?"
"My son won't let go of me," replied the chief.
So they slept, the father and son lying together on the mat beside the new bride's bed.
The woman could hear the lions calling to her. "You, you who went to kill Kimona-Ngombe, aren't you coming? You, you who are a lion, why don't you come?" she heard them singing in the song of lions.
The woman sang back to them in the song of lions. "The goats of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the servants of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the chickens of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the pigs of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the sheep of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep and Kimona-Ngombe himself is asleep! But his son does not show the signs of sleeping on his face, oh no! His son Ndala is not asleep!"
And the lions sang to her again, "You, you who went to kill Kimona-Ngombe, you must kill him! You, you who are a lion, why don't you kill him?"
So the woman turned into a lion again; she was going to attack the chief.
The son, who was lying beside his father, saw the lion coming and roused his father. "Papa, wake up! Wake up! Something is coming this way!"
The lion immediately turned back into a woman.
His father replied, "You're lying, boy; I'm not going to listen to you."
They slept again for a little while, and then again the woman could hear the lions calling to her. "You, you who went to kill Kimona-Ngombe, aren't you coming? You, you who are a lion, why don't you come?"
So the woman sang her song again. "Kimona-Ngombe is asleep, he is! But his son does not show the signs of sleeping on his face, oh no! His son Ndala is not asleep!"
Then the lions sang again, "You, you who went to kill Kimona-Ngombe, you must kill him! You, you who are a lion, why don't you kill him?"
Ndala stood up and shouted, "Papa, get up! This is the house of a wild beast. There is no bride here."
The chief was now very angry at his son. "We're going back to your mother," he said. "I will leave you there and come back here without you."
When they were outside of the house, the son told his father what he had seen. "The bride turns into a lion, and then she turns back into a bride. She is going to kill you, Papa! She is going to kill us both!"
"How can I believe this story?" said his father angrily.
"I am telling you the truth, Papa!" said Ndala. "Let's go back into the house. Pretend to be asleep, but listen carefully and stay awake. You'll see what happens!"
So the chief and his son went back into the house of the bride.
The woman was angry when she saw the little boy, "You were going to take the child to his mother. Why has he come back with you?"
The chief said, "I tried to leave him there, but the child would not stay with his mother."
So they lay down again. The chief pulled the sleeping-cloth up over his head, but he was listening carefully and watching through the cloth to see what happened next.
Again the lions sang, "You, you who went to kill Kimona-Ngombe, aren't you coming? You, you who are a lion, why don't you come?"
Again the woman sang, "The goats of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the servants of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the chickens of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the pigs of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, the sheep of Kimona-Ngombe are asleep, but Kimona-Ngombe himself is only pretending to sleep, only pretending, oh no!"
But the lions kept singing, "You, you who went to kill Kimona-Ngombe, you must kill him! You must kill him! You must kill him!"
So the woman turned into a lion again; she was going to kill Kimona-Ngombe.
Kimona-Ngombe saw how his bride turned into a lion, and he believed what his son Ndala said. "Ndala spoke the truth," he shouted, rising up from the mat. "Come, my son! We will go to your mother," and they ran out of the bride's house and back to the house of Ndala's mother. There Kimona-Ngombe told all his servants, "Go set the new bride's house on fire. The woman whom I married has turned into a lion."
So they surrounded the house with fire, and they burned the new bride inside.
Then it was daybreak.
Truth may come from the mouths of babes: a woman who was a lion was going to kill Kimona-Ngombe; his son, Ndala, saved his life.
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