LION-CHILD AND COW-CHILD
from
Clement M. Doke, ed., Lamba Folk-Lore (New York: American Folk-Lore Society,
1927), pp. 15-23.
LION-CHILD AND COW-CHILD
The Lamba live in Zambia.
This
is what the lioness did, she went to a village of people.
She
said, "Whose village is this?"
They
said, "The village of the queen!"
The
queen said, "Not I! I won't make friends with a lion!"
Then
the lioness went back to the cow.
She
said, "Let us cross countless rivers far from people, let us travel
five nights and five days!"
They
reached the wilderness, and built a stockade, the cow to the west, the
lioness to the east.
When
night came, the lioness said, "My friend, I have given birth in here,
I have given birth to a man-child. Let us go hunting on the veld, and
kill an animal, and let this child of mine that I have given birth to
eat."
When
evening came, the cow said, "My friend, I also have given birth,
I have given birth to a man-child."
Where
the lioness had given birth, she said, "My friend, let us go hunting
on the veld, and kill some animals and give them to our children!"
Then the cow told
her child, "I'm afraid that the lion will eat me when traveling on
the veld. When you hear her roar, you will know that she has eaten me!"
Indeed, later on
the lioness came roaring, the cow did not come. Thereupon Cow-child went
out, and journeyed on and on where the lioness had gone, and found where
the cow had died; and took down from where they had been hung up his mother's
entrails and tied them in a bundle, and returned to the stockade, and
entered.
Then Lion-child
said, "Mate, are you asleep?"
Cow-child was silent,
he was angry.
Then Lion-child
opened the door where his mate was, and said, "Mate!"
He said, "Why
do you rouse me? Your mother has eaten my mother, and I am mourning my
mother."
Then Lion-child
said, "Mate, my mother is fierce, she has eaten your mother; and,
what is more, we two are alike, we have the scent of people, indeed she
will come and eat us also."
Then Cow-child said,
"Don't accuse me! You will say later on that it was Cow-child who
suggested killing your mother."
Lion-child said,
"Come, let us go to the blacksmiths, let them forge us knives, lest
my mother should kill us."
They entered, and
took axes, and went to the blacksmiths.
On their return
from the blacksmiths, Lion-child said, "Let us hide, me here and
you there by the doorway."
And so it was, when
the lioness entered, they killed her by cutting off her head, the head
in the stockade, the trunk outside.
Thereupon Lion-child
said, "Come, mate, let us cross five rivers, let us travel five nights
and five days, let us build far, far away."
So it was that where
they went they built a stockade.
One said, "Let
us go to the river and look for water, we're dead with thirst!"
They traveled and
reached a village of people.
They said, "Chief,
give us some water, let us drink."
He said, "We
don't drink water, we don't know it. The chief's son will carry a man
to the water tomorrow, in the evening he will return. Then when another
five days pass, they will go again to draw water."
In the morning,
the drum was sounding. The headman of the village said, "Listen,
they are taking the chief's son to draw water!"
Cow-child said in
a whisper, "Let us go too!"
The people were
going through the bush, and those two children were following them through
the bush, through the bush, through the bush. They arrived at a great
expansive lake, and they saw that the people had arrived to kill (i.e.,
to sacrifice a man to the lake-dwellers) in the water.
They said, "Let
us hide, let us see!"
Then creatures with
long white beards were sitting on the water and floating and gazing about.
They said, "Why
are you hiding over there?"
Then Cow-child said,
"They've seen us, let us come out of hiding and stand up."
Then those creatures
came to kill them, but Lion-child took his knife, and cut off their heads–how
many? Eight.
Then he took the
calico in which the chief's son was arrayed, and tied the heads in it,
and sent the chief's son, saying, "Go to the village, and tell the
people, ‘Today go and draw water, today it may be drunk, it may be
drawn in any way!'"
The chief entered
the house, and took the drum, and beat that all the people in the district
hear this business. The chief said, "You people who are gathered
here, did you not leave any strangers in the village?"
They answered, "No,
only guards, there are no strangers."
One said, "At
my village two strangers have remained."
He said, "Send
a man to call them."
The chief's nephew
was sent. He said, "The chief has called you."
They said, "First
let us wash our faces."
When he had returned
to the chief, he said, "Two of you, go tell them to come!"
So others went,
and said, "Friends, they have called you to the chief, come!"
They said, "Say,
‘Let them first eat their porridge.'"
They sent others
saying, "The chief says let them come right now!"
They said, "Let
us first load our guns."
Yet again they said,
"Let us first rest."
Then the chief himself
arose. When he had drawn near, they said, "Let us get up, the chief
has come!"
When they say that
the chief had come, they both hastened to rise.
The chief said,
"Why haven't you come? I am tired of sending people, and you won't
come!"
Then he set them
in single-file rank, and they went to the village.
On their arrival,
he said, "Which is the elder, my friends?"
Then Mr. Cow-child
said, "My elder is this Lion-child."
He said, "This
Lion-child, the elder, is the one who will marry this daughter of mine."
Then Lion-child
undid the bundle of heads. He took out a ring, threw it up, put out his
finger, and the ring slipped on. He took it off, and put it down.
Then Cow-child did
the same.
The chief said,
"This Lion-child is my son-in-law."
Cow-child conjured
with porridge in a cooking-pot, and covered it over with leaves, and gave
it to his sister-in-law, and said, "Now I am going far five nights
and five days; so if my charm dries, you will know that Cow-child is dead."
So it was that he
traveled that great distance, and arrived at where the clouds reach the
earth, and they had put up a ladder. He climbed up and reached a small
house, and saw the daughter of God.
He entered the house
and said, "Now I too am going to marry."
The child of God
said to a youngster, "Go to my father, and tell him saying, ‘An
enemy is with your child!'"
She sped to her
master.
He said, "Why
do you come so quickly?"
She said, "An
enemy is with your child over there where you hid her!"
In the morning soldiers arose.
The God-child said,
"You Cow-child, are you asleep? Wake up! There are people below!"
He said, "Why
do you rouse me? Put on some porridge for me, let me eat!"
Then he ate and
ate and ate, and put on his calico and took his knife, and went out. He
saw two crowds of people, one on either side, and said, "Return to
one side, lest you should kill one another when you throw the weapons."
They all said, "Indeed,
indeed, let us return! Why have we done this, people here and people there
too?"
And they returned
to one side.
He said, "Now
you have done well."
He took his knife
and cut off the arm of one man, and said, "Go to the chief, let him
bring water, and let us put it into the calabash-pipe that we may smoke
hemp through it!"
He went to the chief,
and said that to the chief, to God.
Cow-child killed
all his companions.
Again in the morning
there was a swarm of soldiers at the little house.
She said, "Wake
up, man, wake up, there are people below!"
He said, "Stop
waking me like that, first you put on the porridge, then I'll go outside."
Then he ate and
went out; and met two crowds of people, and said, "Return to one
crowd. Don't you see how your companions died yesterday because they killed
one another?"
They all agreed,
and returned to one side.
Then he killed them
all. He took one and sent him to the chief, saying, "Go and bring
tobacco and hemp, let us smoke it in our calabash-pipe."
The chief said,
"All the people have died, now let us just send and call him."
Cow-child heard
the dogs eating the stomach and intestines of the cow.
He said, "Ah!
Today I die!"
In the morning the
God-child woke and stirred the porridge, and woke him up saying, "Wake
up! Eat the porridge, people are below."
He ate and ate and
ate.
When he had gone
out, he said, "All of you put down your weapons, just take two sticks,
and just kill me, today I am no good!"
So it was that they
took two sticks, and killed him.
When they had thus
killed him, his sister-in-law returned to the magic preparation and found
it dried up. She told his brother, "Cow-child is dead!"
Lion-child said,
"Give me too some flour, let me go after my brother!"
She gave him flour,
and he traveled five nights and five days.
He arrived, and
carried together the corpses, and went to sleep.
Again in the morning
he went and searched for his brother, and again lay down.
The next morning
he searched and searched and searched, but he did not find his brother.
And again in the morning he went counting over the corpses over and over
again, he did not find him, the sun went down.
Then the following morning he found his brother dead, the sticks leaning
against him like this.
He struck his brother
with an animal's tail, and raised him up. They shook hands, and his brother
came to life again.
He said, "Now
we have become two!"
They climbed the
steps, and reached the God-child.
She said, "Go
and say to my father that today they are two."
The girl went. She
said, "Today two have come."
In the morning,
God-child said, "You! Wake up, there are people below."
Lion-child said,
"Stop saying that, you first make the porridge!"
They ate the porridge,
they ate and ate, and went out. They saw two crowds of people. They killed
them all with the knives–Lion-child there and Cow-child over there.
They left one alive,
and said to him, "Say, ‘Today they are two!'"
He reached the chief,
and said, "They are two!"
When it was morning,
more soldiers. She put on porridge for them both, her brother-in-law and
her husband, and they ate. When they went out, they killed them all.
The chief said,
"Let us just call them both."
He sent a man saying,
"You men, they have called you to the chief, saying, ‘Let them
come here!'"
They both arose,
and set the wife between them, and reached the chief.
The chief said,
"Which is the elder?"
He said, "This
one, Lion-child!"
He said, "You
Lion-child, are you married?"
He said, "I
am married over there where I come from, the unmarried one is Mr. Cow-child."
The chief said,
"Now I am moving out of this village, so those who come to settle
cases let them talk with Cow-child, not I!"
The chief left the
village, and goes away to a garden-house to hide.
Cow-child married.
Lion-child said,
"Now I am going."
Cow-child promised,
"If soldiers attack your home, I too shall rise and fight for you."
In the morning he
is left, his brother has gone home.
From that time,
every case came to be settled by that same Cow-child.
Lion-child returned
home.
His wife said, "Where
you went did you find your brother dead?"
He said, "I
found countless people dead, and I got tired of searching: on the Saturday
I found him."