AFRICAN NARRATIVES

LITTLE jackal one day went out hunting, when he met Lion. Lion proposed that they should hunt together, on condition that if a small antelope was killed it was to be Little Jackal's, and if a large one was killed it was to be Lion's. Little Jackal agreed to this. The first animal killed was a large eland. Lion was very glad, and said to Little Jackal: "I will continue hunting while you go to my house and call my children to carry the meat home." Little Jackal replied: "Yes, I agree to that." Lion went away to hunt. When he had gone, Little Jackal went to his own house and called his own children to carry away the meat. He said: "Lion takes me for a fool if he thinks I will call his children while my own are dying with hunger." So Little Jackal's children carried the meat to their home on the top of a high rock. The only way to get to their house was by means of a rope. Lion caught nothing more, and after a time he went home and asked his wife w

  HERE was once a man living in a certain place, who had two daughters big enough to be married. One day the man went over the river to another village, which was the residence of a great chief The people asked him to tell them the news. He replied, that there was no news in the place that he came from. Then the man inquired about the news of their place. They said the news of their place was that the chief wanted a wife. The man went home and said to his two daughters: "Which of you wishes to be the wife of a chief?" The eldest replied: "I wish to be the wife of a chief, my father." The name of that girl was Mpunzikazi. The man said: "At that village which I visited, the chief wishes for a wife; you, my daughter, shall go." The man called all his friends, and assembled a large company to go with his daughter to the village of the chief. But the girl would not consent that those people should go with her. She said: "I will go alone to be the wife of t

The following is another Xhosa version of the same story It is said that there was once a great town in a certain place, which had many people living in it. They lived upon grain only. One year there was a great famine. There was in that town a poor man, by name Masilo, and his wife. One day they went to dig in their garden, and they continued digging the whole day long. In the evening, when the digging companies returned home, they returned also. Then there came a bird and stood upon the house which was beside the garden, and began to whistle, and said: "Masilo's cultivated ground, mix together." The ground did as the bird said. After that was done the bird went away. In the morning, when Masilo and his wife went to the garden, they were in doubt, and said: "Is it really the place we were digging yesterday?" They saw that it was the place by the people working on each side. The people began to laugh at them, and mocked them, and said It is because yo

  There was once upon a time a poor man living with his wife in a certain village. They had three children, two boys and a girl. They used to get milk from a tree. That milk of the tree was got by squeezing. It was not nice as that of a cow, and the people that drank it were always thin. For this reason, those people were never glossy like those who are fat. One day the woman went to cultivate a garden. She began by cutting the grass with a pick, and then putting it in a big heap. That was the work of the first day, and when the sun was just about to set she went home. When she left, there came a bird to that place, and sang this song: "Weeds of this garden,   Weeds of this garden,   Spring up, spring up;   Work of this garden,   Work of this garden,   Disappear, disappear." It was so. The next morning, when she returned and saw that, she wondered greatly. She again put it in order on that day, and put some sticks in the ground to mark the place. In the even