ONCE UPON A TIME there was a man who married a woman, and she bore him a male child. Then he married a second wife, and she also bore him a male child. After a while the first wife died.
Now the name of the eldest son was M’wambia, and the name of the second was also M’wambia, and he was known as M’ the Younger, to distinguish him from his brother.
When the two boys were about twelve and ten years old, it happened that the animal known as the N’jenge came from the wilds and ate the food in the fields. thereupon the two brothers went into the woods, and M’wambia the Elder made a snare to catch the N’jenge, and M’wambia the Younger also made a snare at a little distance away. Now a N’jenge came into the snare of M’wambia the Younger, and he released it and killed it and ate it. And a N’jenge also came into the snare of M’wambia the Elder, but he released it and did not kill it. He let it go free into the woods, and the two boys returned to the village and said nothing to their father.
One day the mother of M’wambia the Younger went into the fields and gathered sugar-cane, put it into her basket on her back, and brought it to the house. The father took a large piece and gave it to his elder son, but to the younger he gave a small piece. Then the younger brother said, “Why have you given me a small piece and my brother a big piece?’
And he said, “Because you have a mother while the mother of your brother is dead.”
Then M’wambia the Younger said to his father, “Come into the woods.”
Then he showed him the two snares, and told him how he had killed the N’jenge which he had caught, and how M’wambia the Elder had let him go. And the father was very angry and upbraided his elder son, because the N’jenge was very fat. He chose a tree, tall, with a straight stem, and made him climb up into it. Then he took spikes and stuck them into the ground around the tree with the points leaning inward toward the tree; and he made the points sharp, so that if the boy descended or fell down the points would run into him and he would die. He went away and left M’wambia the Elder in the tree.
Now M’Wambia stayed in the tree for twenty days, and at the end of that time, a N’jenge came and said, “Mangi Kihuti!”
And M’wambia said, “I am not Mangi, I am M’wambia.”
And the N’jenge took one spike and ccarried it away, and ten N’jenge came and each took one spike and carried it away. Then the N’jenge whom M’wambia had set free came, and he said, “Mangi.”
And the boy said, “I am M’wambia,” and he told him how he had set him free. The N’jenge, when he heard this, carried away all the remaining spikes and M’wambia gradually unloosed the grip of his arms around the stem of tree and slid to the bottom.
Next the N’jenge made a hole open in his side, and out came a big sheep. M’wambia took some fat to eat. At first he could not eat it, for he was so weak and was very sick; but afterward he ate a little, and then a little of the leg. Then the next day, he ate another piece of the leg. Thus the sheep provided him with food for four days. At the end of that time, the N’jenge opened his side again and there came out a goat, and that gave him food for four days, and then there came out tow goats, and these lasted three days, for M’wambia had grown stronger and bigger. There then came an ox, and the N’jenge ate too, and M’wambia grew still bigger and stronger.
Finally, the N’jenge said, “Go among the long grass and jump.” And M’wambia went among the long grass and jumped twice, and N’jenge said, “You are not yet strong enough.” So they ate another ox, and then the N’jenge said, “Go and jump again.” So M’wambia went and jumped four times. Finally, he said to the boy, “What would you like to possess?”
And he said, “A goat.”
And the N’jenge opened his side and gave him one hundred female goats which had not borne, one hundred female goats which had borne, one hundred young goats who knew their mother, one hundred male goats, one hundred fat male goats, one hundred sheep which had not borne, one hundred sheep which had borne, one hundred young sheep who knew their mother, one hundred male sheep, one hundred fat male sheep, one hundred cows which had not borne, one hundred cows which had borne, one hundred calves, one hundred oxen, one hundred fat oxen.
And the N’jenge said to M’wambia again, “What do you want?”
And M’wambia replied, “Women.”
And the N’jenge gave him two hundred goats and two hundred oxen to buy women. So M”wambia bought one hundred women. And the N’jenge said again, “What do you want?”
And he said, “I want nothing more.”
Then he went to the Gura River, and he built a big village for his wives and his oxen and his goats. But no children were yet born, so M’wambia went and tended the goats, and he sat on a hillside where he could see them all, for they were many.
Now the mother of M’wambia the Younger said to her young daughter, “Take a bag and go get vegetables.” So the child went to get the vegetables bout could see none; and she walked and walked, and at last she saw M’wambia sitting on the hillside herding goats, and she called out, “That is our M’wambia who was lost.” But he said nothing. And then she called out again, “That is our M’wambia who was lost.”
So he spoke to her and he asked, “How are they all at home, my father and my father’s brother?”
She said, “They are well.”
She saw his village and his wives and his cattle. Then he took a goat and killed it and cut it up and put it into her bag. She walked twelve hours and came to her home. As she came to the homestead she called out to her mother, “Bring me a cooking-pot in which to cook the vegetables.” And her mother brought a little one, and she said, “Bring me a big one.” And she brought a bigger, and the girl said, “That is not big enough.”
And the mother said, “Do you want the one in which we cook meat?” And she said, “Yes.”
And her mother asked, “What kind of vegetables have you that you want so large a pot?” The mother opened the bag and saw the meat, and she said, “You have stolen a goat.”
And the girl saaid, “I have not stolen it; it is from M’wambia.”
And her mother said, “Do not tell a lit. M’wambia is lost.”
And the girl said, “I have seen him, and the day after tomorrow you shall come and see him too.” And she told how she had seen him and his many ossessions.
So the next day they cooked the meat and ate it, and on the day after they all went together to see M’wambia. All went – his father and his father’s brother, and the mother and the father’s other wife, and M’wanbia the Younger, and the girl, and all the family. And when they came to where M’wambia the Elder was, they saw him sitting on the hill herding goats. And there was a river between them, and M’wambia the Elder took a string and he tied a goat to the end of the string and threw it across the river. And the father took hold of it to go to him. As he was being pulled across the river he was drowned because he had been cruel to his son. But the others got across safely, and when they came to the village of M’wambia the Elder and saw his many goods, they stayed there and made their home with him.
And after a while, M’wambia said, “I have many men and women to do work in my homestead.” And he gave his relations work to do – one had to mind the fill-grown goats, one had to mind the young goats, and one hed to work in the fields. And he said, “I will go away for a while and see if they do their work well.” And he went to another village and slept there for five days.
And when he came back to his homestead he saw some fat, and he said, “What is this fat on the ground?” And he looked and saw on the wall the head of N’jenge, and he knew that his friend the N’jenge had come to the village while he was away and that hsi relatives had killed him. And he said no word to them, but he said to himself, “My luck is gone, because the N’jenge is dead with whom I am of one heart.”
And he took a stone and a knife and made his knife very sharp, and he killed all the women and all the men, and all the goats and all the cattle. Then he took the knife and plunged it into his own breast, for the N’jenge, his luck, was dead.
[ AKIKUYU ]