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PART FIRST

Mpongwe Tribe

TALE PAGE

PART SECOND

Benga Tribe

PART THIRD

Fang Tribe

PART FIRST

MPONGWE

FOREWORD

The following sixteen Tales were narrated to me, many years ago, by two members of the Mpongwe tribe at the town of Libreville, Gaboon river, equatorial West Africa. Both of them were well-educated persons, a man and a woman. They chose legends that were current in their own tribe. They spoke in Mpongwe; and, in my English rendition, I have retained some of their native idioms. As far as I am aware none of these legends have ever been printed in English, excepting Tale 5, a version of which appeared in a British magazine from a writer in Kamerun, after I had heard it at Gaboon. Also, excepting Tale 14. It appeared, in another form, more than fifty years ago, in Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson's "Western Africa." But my narrator was not aware of that, when he told it to me.

TALE 1

DO NOT TRUST YOUR FRIEND

Place

Country of the Animals

Persons

Njeg? Ntori Ra-Mar?nge Nyare Ngowa Nkambi Leopard's Wife; and others

NOTE

A story of the treachery of the Leopard as matched by the duplicity of the Rat.

In public mourning for the dead, it is the custom for the nearest relative or dearest friend to claim the privilege of sitting closest to the corpse, and nursing the head on his or her lap.

At a time long ago, the Animals were living in the Forest together. Most of them were at peace with each other. But Leopard was discovered to be a bad person. All the other animals refused to be friendly with him. Also, Wild Rat, a small animal, was found out to be a deceiver.

One day, Rat went to visit Leopard, who politely gave him a chair, and Rat sat down. "Mbolo!" "Ai, Mbolo!" each saluted to the other. Leopard said to his visitor, "What's the news?" Rat replied, "Njeg?! news is bad. In all the villages I passed through, in coming today, your name is only ill-spoken of, people saying, 'Njeg? is bad! Njeg? is bad!'"

Leopard replies, "Yes, you do not lie. People say truly that Njeg? is bad. But, look you, Ntori, I, Njeg?, am an evil one: but my badness comes from other animals. Because, when I go out to visit, there is no one who salutes me. When anyone sees me, he flees with fear. But, for what does he fear me? I have not vexed him. So, I pursue the one that fears me. I want to ask him, 'Why do you fear me?' But, when I pursue it, it goes on fleeing more rapidly. So, I become angry, wrath rises in my heart, and if I overtake it, I kill it on the spot. One reason why I am bad is that. If the animals would speak to me properly, and did not flee from me, then, Ntori, I would not kill them. See! you, Ntori, have I seized you?" Rat replied, "No." Then Leopard said, "Then, Ntori, come near to this table, that we may talk well."

Rat, because of his subtlety and caution, when he took the chair given him on his arrival, had placed it near the door.

Leopard repeated, "Come near to the table." Rat excused himself, "Never mind; I am comfortable here; and I came here today to tell you that it is not well for a person to be without friends; and, I, Ntori, I say to you, let us be friends." Leopard said, "Very good!"

But now, even after this compact of friendship, Rat told falsehoods about Leopard; who, not knowing this, often had conversations with him, and would confide to him all the thoughts of his heart. For example, Leopard would tell to Rat, "Tomorrow I am going to hunt Ngowa, and next day I will go to hunt Nkambi," or whatever the animal was. And Rat, at night, would go to Hog or to Antelope or the other animal, and say, "Give me pay, and I will tell you a secret." They would lay down to him his price. And then he would tell them, "Be careful tomorrow. I heard that Njeg? was coming to kill you." The same night, Rat would secretly return to his own house, and lie down as if he had not been out.

Then, next day, when Leopard would go out hunting, the Animals were prepared and full of caution, to watch his coming. There was none of them that he could find; they were all hidden. Leopard thus often went to the forest, and came back empty-handed. There was no meat for him to eat, and he had to eat only leaves of the trees. He said to himself, "I will not sit down and look for explanation to come to me. I will myself find out the reason of this. For, I, Njeg?, I should eat flesh and drink blood; and here I have come down to eating the food of goats, grass and leaves."

So, in the morning, Leopard went to the great doctor Ra-Mar?nge, and said, "I have come to you, I, Njeg?. For these five or six months I have been unable to kill an animal. But, cause me to know the reason of this." Ra-Mar?nge took his looking-glass and his harp, and struck the harp, and looked at the glass. Then he laughed aloud, "Ke, ke, ke--"

Leopard asked, "Ra-Mar?nge, for what reason do you laugh?" He replied, "I laugh, because this matter is a small affair. You, Njeg?, so big and strong, you do not know this little thing!" Leopard acknowledged, "Yes: I have not been able to find it out." Ra-Mar?nge said, "Tell me the names of your friends." Leopard answered "I have no friends. Nkambi dislikes me, Nyare refuses me, Ngowa the same. Of all animals, none are friendly to me." Ra-Mar?nge said, "Not so; think exactly; think again." Leopard was silent and thought; and then said, "Yes, truly, I have one friend, Ntori." The Doctor said, "But, look! If you find a friend, it is not well to tell him all the thoughts of your heart. If you tell him two or three, leave the rest. Do not tell him all. But, you, Njeg?, you consider that Ntori is your friend, and you show him all the thoughts of your heart. But, do you know the heart of Ntori, how it is inside? Look what he does! If you let him know that you are going next day to kill this and that, then he starts out at night, and goes to inform those animals, 'So-and-so, said Njeg?; but, be you on your guard.' Now, look! if you wish to be able to kill other animals, first kill Ntori." Leopard was surprised, "Ng?! Ntori lies to me?" Ra-Mar?nge said, "Yes."

So, Leopard returned to his town. And he sent a child to call Rat. Rat came.

Leopard said, "Ntori! these days you have not come to see me. Where have you been?" Rat replies, "I was sick." Leopard says, "I called you today to sit at my table to eat." Rat excused himself, "Thanks! but the sickness is still in my body; I will not be able to eat." And he went away.

Whenever Rat visited or spoke to Leopard, he did not enter the house, but sat on a chair by the door. Leopard daily sent for him; he came; but constantly refrained from entering the house.

Leopard says in his heart, "Ntori does not approach near to me, but sits by the door. How shall I catch him?" Thinking and thinking, he called his wife, and said, "I have found a plan by which to kill Ntori. Tomorrow, I will lie down in the street, and you cover my body with a cloth as corpses are covered. Wear an old ragged cloth, and take ashes and mark your body, as in mourning; and go you out on the road wailing, 'Njeg? is dead! Njeg?, the friend of Ntori is dead!' And, for Ntori, when he shall come as a friend to the mourning, put his chair by me, and say, 'Sit there near your friend.' When he sits on that chair, I will jump up and kill him there." His wife replies, "Very good!"

Next morning, Leopard, lying down in the street, pretended that he was dead. His wife dressed herself in worn-out clothes, and smeared her face, and went clear on to Rat's village, wailing "Ah! Njeg? is dead! Ntori's friend is dead!" Rat asked her, "But, Njeg? died of what disease? Yesterday, I saw him looking well, and today comes word that he is dead!" The wife answered, "Yes: Njeg? died without disease; just cut off! I wonder at the matter--I came to call you; for you were his friend. So, as is your duty as a man, go there and help bury the corpse in the jungle." Rat went, he and Leopard's wife together. And, behold, there was Leopard stretched out as a corpse! Rat asked the wife, "What is this matter? Njeg?! is he really dead?" She replied, "Yes: I told you so. Here is a chair for you to sit near your friend."

Rat, having his caution, had not sat on the chair, but stood off, as he wailed, "Ah! Njeg? is dead! Ah! my friend is dead!"

Rat called out, "Wife of Njeg?! Njeg?, he was a great person: but did he not tell you any sign by which it might be known, according to custom, that he was really dead?" She replied, "No, he did not tell me." Rat went on to speak, "You, Njeg?, when you were living and we were friends, you told me in confidence, saying, 'When I, Njeg?, shall die, I will lift my arm upward, and you will know that I am really dead.' But, let us cease the wailing and stop crying. I will try the test on Njeg?, whether he is dead! Lift your arm!"

Leopard lifted his arm. Rat, in his heart, laughed, "Ah! Njeg? is not dead!" But, he proceeded, "Njeg?! Njeg?! you said, if really dead, you would shake your body. Shake! if it is so!" Leopard shook his whole body. Rat said openly, "Ah! Njeg? is dead indeed! He shook his body!" The wife said, "But, as you say he is dead, here is the chair for you, as chief friend, to sit on by him." Rat said, "Yes: wait for me; I will go off a little while, and will come." Leopard, lying on the ground, and hearing this, knew in his heart, "Ah! Ntori wants to flee from me! I will wait no longer!" Up he jumps to seize Rat, who, being too quick for him, fled away. Leopard pursued him with leaps and jumps so rapidly that he almost caught him. Rat got to his hole in the ground just in time to rush into it. But his tail was sticking out; and Leopard, looking down the hole, seized the tail.

Rat called out, "You have not caught me, as you think! What you are holding is a rootlet of a tree." Leopard let go of the tail. Rat switched it in after him, and jeered at Leopard, "You had hold of my tail! And you have let it go! You will not catch me again!" Leopard, in a rage, said, "You will have to show me the way by which you will emerge from this hole; for, you will never come out of it alive!"

Some narrators carry the story on, with the ending of Tale No. 6, the story of Rat, Leopard, Frog and Crab.

Leopard's pretence of death appears also in Tale No. 3.

TALE 2

LEOPARD'S HUNTING CAMP

Persons

Ntori Njeg? And other Animals

NOTE

Besides the words for "hunger" and "famine," the Bantu languages have a third word meaning, "longing for meat." In this story, Leopard's greed is matched by the artifice of Rat:--It was a practice of African natives to hide their ivory tusks in streams of water until a time convenient for selling them.

Polite natives will neither sit uninvited in the presence of their superiors, nor watch them while eating. If need be, to secure privacy, a temporary curtain will be put up, and the host will retire, leaving the guest alone. Rude or uncivilized tribes are offensive in their persistent effort to see a white foreigner's mode of eating.

One of the tricks of native sorcerers is to jump into a fire.

It was a time of ngwamba among the Animals in Njambi's Kingdom.

Leopard, being the eldest in his tribe, said to Rat, "Ntori! child! this is a hard time for meat. I think we better go to the forest, and make a olako for hunting." Rat replied "Good! come on!"

So they began to arrange for the journey. The preparation of food, nets, baskets, and so forth, occupied several days. When all was ready, they started. Having come to a proper place in the forest, they selected a site where they would build up their booths. Leopard was to have his own separate camp with his wives and his children and his people; and Rat his, with his wives and his children, and his people.

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