Posted by: andrewandrewsib
Description: Long ago a man and a woman came down from heaven, while another man and woman came out of the ground.
The Lord of Heaven also sent a African python, a non-poisonous snake of Africa, which made its home in a river. In the beginning men and women had no children, they had no desire for one another and did not know the process of procreation and birth.
It was the Python who taught them. He asked the men and women if they had any children, and on being told that they had none, the Python said he would make the women conceive.
He told the couples to stand facing each other, then he went into the river and came out with his mouth full of water. This he sprayed on their bellies, saying "Kus, kus" (words that are still used in clan rituals). Then the Python told the couples to go home and lie together, and the women conceived and bore children. These children took the spirit of the river where the Python lived as their clan spirit.
Members of that clan hold the python as taboo; they must never kill it, and if they find a python that has died or been killed by someone else, they put white clay on it and bury it human fashion.
The Bushmen (San tribe - First people of Africa) share a story with the Hottentots and several other African races about the sending of the message of death to man.
The Bushmen say that the moon sent an insect to man with the following message: 'As I die, and dying live, so ye shall also die, and dying live.' Off went the insect with his message, but his legs were rather short and, unable to see very well, he lost his way many times.
Soon he was overtaken by an inquisitive hare, who found out the purpose of the insect's errand, and thought to himself, 'I will carry this message myself, and as it is an important one, it will bring me fame and glory.' He left the insect trailing along and bounded away.
But the hare, being naturally hare-brained, soon garbled the message as he repeated it to himself over and over as he ran. He arrived at his destination and had his version of the message from the moon proclaimed to all men on earth:
'As I die and dying perish, in the same manner ye shall also die and come wholly to an end.'
The moon, when she heard of this miscarriage of messages, took a stick and angrily hit the hare, striking a cleft in his nose and lip which remains to this day.
He, in retaliation, scratched the moon, inflicting bruises and blotches on her face. Some, however, say that the hare let the end of his karos fall in the fire until it was scorched and hot, then hit the moon in the face with it, causing the dark 'burn' marks which are still visible today.
The Hottentots also believe this story. They despise the hare, and will rarely eat its flesh. They say that it was the chameleon, however, and not the insect which first carried the message, and they mock its slow gait.
The Bushmen also mistrust the chameleon and if they find a dead one in their path they cover it with twigs to avert misfortune.
Anansi was terribly conceited after the whole affair of the ear of corn. God found Anansi entertaining, but his bragging was growing tiresome.
So God gave Anansi a sack and said, "I have something in mind; figure it out and bring it back to me in the sack." Anansi asked questions, but God would give no further clues as to what that "something" might be. God sent the mortal on his way, saying that if he were only half as clever as he boasted he was, then he should have no problem figuring out what "something" God wanted.
Anansi was puzzled. How was he to know what God wanted in the sack? He left heaven and went to Africa, where he had a meeting with the birds, explaining his predicament. The birds were sympathetic, but had no clues to offer. However, each agreed to give Anansi one feather, enabling Anansi to fly. Anansi made these feathers into a beautiful cloak, and then flew up to heaven, where he perched in a tree next to God's house.
Some of the people of heaven saw this strange "bird" and began talking about it. They asked each other what kind of bird this might be. Even God himself did not recall making any sort of creature that looked like that.
One of those present suggested that, if Anansi were clever, he might know what sort of bird this was. Anansi, in the tree, heard all of this.
God's attendants were speaking among themselves when one said, "Good luck finding Anansi - God sent him on an impossible mission. How was Anansi to know that God wanted the sun and the moon brought to him in a sack?"
Overhearing this, Anansi went out to fetch the sun and the moon. He went to the python, the wisest of all things, and asked how one might capture the sun and the moon. The python advised him to go to the west, where the sun rests at night. The moon could be found in the east around the same time. So Anansi gathered the sun and the moon, placed them in the sack, and took them to God. God was so pleased with Anansi's ingenuity that he made Anansi his captain on earth.
When an ordinary man comes before the African king he salutes him thusly: "May the king live forever!"
But once lived a man who refused to say this obligatory phrase, instead substituting: "There is no king like God." After many visits to the king, and many repetitions of this heretical phrase, the king grew angry and plotted to destroy the man.
He gave the man two silver rings and told him they were a present to keep, but in reality the king meant to avenge himself through them. The man, whom everybody now called No-King-as-God, took the rings, put them into a dried and empty ram's horn, and gave them to his wife to keep for him. A week later the king called No-King-as-God and sent him to a distant village, to tell the people to come and help build up the city walls.
As soon as he had gone the king sent for the man's wife and offered her a thousand cowries (imported small shells used as money or ornaments), and a hundred head-cloths and body-cloths, if she would give him that which her husband had entrusted to her. Tempted by the splendid presents the wife agreed and brought the ram's horn, and when the king looked inside, there were the two rings safely stored.
He placed them back in the horn, and gave it to his servants with instructions to throw it far into a lake. They did so, and as the horn fell into the water a great fish swam by and swallowed it. On the day that No-King-as-God was returning home he met some friends who were going fishing. He went with them and caught that great fish.
As his son was cleaning it, his knife struck something hard and he called to his father. The father pulled out the horn, and when he opened it and looked inside he saw the rings which the king had given him for safe keeping. "Truly," he said, "there is no king like God."
They were still fishing when a royal messenger came and told the man he was wanted by the king at once. He stopped at his house first and asked his wife where was that precious thing he had entrusted to her. She replied that she could not find it and thought a rat had eaten it.
Shaking his head at her perfidy the man set off for the royal court. The other counselors all saluted by saying, "May the king live forever." But the man said only, "There is no king like God."
So the king told the counselors to be quiet, and advancing towards the man he said, "Is it true that there is no king like God?" The man replied firmly, "Yes".
Then the king demanded the rings which he had entrusted to the man, and signaled his guards to close round him to kill him.
But No-King-as-God put his hand under his robe and pulled out the horn and handed it to the king. The king opened it and took out his two silver rings. "Indeed, there is no king like God", he said, and all his counselors shouted in approval. Then the king divided his city into two, and gave half of it to No-King-as-God to rule.
The sun blazed upon the earth; there was no rain.
The crops died and hunger was manifest among the people.
This happened one year, again the next, and then for a third year.
So the people gathered at the praying place and asked of each other the reason for their plight; then the question was posed to the Medicine-Man.
He spilled his gourd of its contents, upon the ground again and again. Then he declared that the rains would come only when the maiden Wanjiru was bought. He told them that each, from the youngest lad to the oldest man, must bring, on the appointed day, a goat to purchase Wanjiru from her family.
The day arrived, and all the people were present, with each man leading a goat. The people gathered in a circle, and the relations of Wanjiru stood together, and she herself stood in the middle. As they stood there Wanjiru began to sink into the ground.
Soon she was in to her knees. She cried, "I am lost!" The people pressed close and placed goats in the keeping of Wanjiru's parents. She sank lower to her waist. Again she cried out, "I am lost but much rain will fall!" More goats were thrust upon her family. She sank to her breast, and still no rain came. Wanjiru cried out another time, "A great rain will come!" Now she sank to her neck, and then the rain poured down. The people should have come forward to save her, but instead they placed more goats upon the family.
Then Wanjiru said, "My people have undone me", and she sank down to her eyes. As one or another of her family moved toward her to save her, another of the people would present him or her with a goat and that family member would step back.
Wanjiru cried out for the last time, "My own family has undone me!" Then she sank from sight. The rain poured down in a great deluge and the people hurried for shelter in their homes. There was a young warrior who lamented the loss of Wanjiru. He swore to find her and bring her back. He wandered for a long time, and eventually returned to the spot where Wanjiru had disappeared.
Here as he stood where she had stood, he slowly began to sink into the ground; and he sank lower and lower until the ground closed over him.
He found himself on a road beneath the ground, and as he trod down the road he came upon Wanjiru, all muddy and disheveled, and without her clothing which had disintegrated. He picked her up and carried her upon his back to where they had sunk beneath the ground.
Here they rose up together into the open air. He took her to his mother's house where she was fed the fat from slaughtered goats and clothed with their skins, until she, again, was beautiful and well-dressed.
It came to pass that the village was having a dance, and she and her warrior attended.
When her family saw her they attempted to approach her, but her lover beat them off.
When her family made repeated attempts to see her over the course of the next few days, the warrior repented.
He paid the family the purchase price and allowed them to reconcile.
A long time ago, both thunder and lightning lived on this earth, among the people.
Thunder was a mother sheep and Lightning was her son, a ram.
Neither animal was very popular with the people, for when somebody offended Lightning, he would fly into a furious rage and begin burning whatever he came across. This often included huts and corn bins, and even large trees.
Sometimes he damaged crops on the farms with his fire and occasionally he killed people who got in his way.
As soon as Thunder knew he was behaving this way, she would raise her voice and shout at him as loudly as she could, and that was very loud indeed. Naturally the neighbors were very upset, first at the damage caused by Lightning and then by the unbearable noise from his mother that always followed his outbursts.
The villagers complained to the king on many occasions, until at last he sent the two of them to live at the very edge of the village, and said that they must not come and mix with the people any more.
However, this did no good, since Lightning could still see people as they walked about the village streets and so found it only too easy to continue picking quarrels with them.
At last the king sent for them again. "I have given you many chances to live a better life," he said, "but I can see that it is useless. From now on, you must go away from our village and live in the wild bush. We do not want to see your faces here again." Thunder and Lightning had to obey the king and agree to abide by his ruling; so they left the village, angry at its inhabitants.
But still there was plenty of trouble in store for the villagers, since Lightning was so angry at being banished that he now set fire to the whole bush, and since it was the dry season this was extremely unfortunate. The flames spread to the little farms of the people, and sometimes to their houses as well, so that they were in despair again.
They often heard the mother ram's mighty voice calling her son to order, but, since it was always after the fact, it made very little difference in his actions.
The king called all his counselors together and asked them to advise him, and after much debate they hit on a plan. Why not banish Thunder and Lightning completely away from the earth, and send them to live in the sky. And so the king proclaimed.
Thunder and Lightning were sent away into the sky, where the people hoped they would not be able to do any more damage.
Things did not work out quite as well as they had hoped, however, for Lightning still loses his temper from time to time and cannot resist sending fire down to the earth when he is angry.
Then you can hear his mother rebuking him in her loud rumbling voice.
