Now here in this section we will demonstrate how a sense of Good Humor, as in clever punning, may help us initiate a manifestation scenario of positive realities. You already are familiar, I am guessing, with the modern aphorisms regarding the past: “Don’t dredge up the past. What’s done is done. Look forward.” Generally, the past, particularly the past of negative events, traumatic events shall we say, is indeed best forgotten. “Just don’t dwell on it, ” the saying goes, “and it will lose its power over you.”
There is some truth to these statements, from my perspective. You do indeed create through a focusing of your energies on the subject matter. And so I do not advise the student who has had a traumatic childhood, for example, to continuously TRY to remember the traumatic events. Without proper preparation, they may make matters worse for themselves. Yet I DO believe that a return to the scenes of the trauma in the imagination, from an Objective Observer’s perspective, may be quite healing. Again, this is not done willy-nilly, without regard for the safety of the human. Great preparation is made before the return to master this Observer’s Perspective.
Once this is done, the student may safely visit these unfortunate memories, and observe the going-on objectively, without Embodying these negative memories, in other words. Here is where we use humor to neutralize the negative Feeling-Tone that marks and identifies the traumatic events. Change the past and the present will take care of itself. It has a sense of the absurd to it yet it is literally true. Over time the Objective Observer creates safety in this retrieval process. The negative emotion loses its sting, its power to wound.
Now having been neutralized, the event may safely be studied, assessed, and TRANSFORMED. The student is quite literally changing their past. When they return to surface awareness from the Trance State they may well experience the cathartic healing of consciousness. In this sense the student recovers, as in going back to retrieve the lost aspects of Soul, rather than recover in the sense of again covering up the negative past. Please note the activity of the double meaning within consciousness.
ESSENTIAL METAPHOR – You are on a path to your past, to your birth. As you go back in time on this path you see on the side of the road, events, places where you split off parts of yourself and left them. The idea is to collect these aspects or parts of self and integrate them into your personality through Intent. You go all the way back to your birth. When you have done this adequately, you can go back beyond and before your birth to the time in between lives, in the Home Dimension and into other lives.
Now if you have issues of abuse from childhood, these issues may be healed from the present. As you walk this path you see different events being recreated on the side of the road. You see where you have left parts of yourself at different stages of development in your life. The idea is to collect these Feeling-Tones and bring them back to the present. This is healing the Soul. It allows you to integrate all of this material and navigate the developmental phase that was interrupted by the trauma.
It is quite common for the human who has been traumatized in childhood to experience these flashbacks in adult life. The volatile material has been repressed successfully over the years, but now the images and other content force themselves upon the waking mind. The Reality Creation is disrupted violently during these events, as the human, usually referred to as “the victim,” re-experiences the Feeling-Tone of the Traumatic event or events.
It seems to me, that what must change here is the felt sense or Feeling-Tone of the traumatic past that comes to visit. One then revisits the traumatic memories in the Trance State, with an eye toward altering them; altering in memory and thus altering the effects in the flashbacks. One observes the traumatic material as an Objective Observer, without becoming emotionally involved, you see, as though one were watching a movie. Important information is carried out of the Trance State and then documented. Each time the scene is revisited in memory, the Objective Observer notes the particulars with cool detachment. Eventually the flashbacks will be experienced in this Observer Perspective, rather than the traumatized “victim” perspective. It is a case of tuning down the high emotionality and trauma of the event. The cascade of negative emotion will be prevented, as the disturbing material is observed in the cool light of day, you might say. Again, this is simply a change of perspective and so change of realities.
Once some children, at their mother’s behest, very gently approached the sun’s armpit. As the sun lay sleeping. They went to lift up the sun’s armpit.
At the same time, another woman ordered her children to do the same thing. She told them that if they approached ever so gently and drew up the sun’s armpit, then the rice of the Bushmen would become dry, and the sun, as it proceeded from place across the sky, would cause everything to become bright. For this reason it was that the old woman, their mother, coaxed her children to do as she asked. “But, children,” she said, “you must wait for the sun, who is making us so cold, to lie down to sleep. Then approach him gently and, all together, lift him up and throw him into the sky.” Thus, indeed, did both of the old women speak.
And so the children approached the sun. They first sat down and looked at him in order to determine whether, as he lay there, he was looking at them. Finally they saw him lying there very quietly, his elbow lifted up so that his armpit shone upon the ground. Before the children prepared to throw him up into the sky they remembered what the old woman, their mother, had said: “O children, going yonder, you must speak to him when you throw him up. You must tell him that he must be the sun – the sun who is hot and who, as he passes along the sky, causes the Bushmen rice to become dry – the sun who is hot as he stands above in the sky.”
Thus had their mother, the old woman, whose head was white, spoken. They had listened and were going to obey her.
When all was in readiness, they took hold of the sun, all of them together, lifted him, raised him, even though he was hot to touch, and threw him up in the sky, addressing him as they threw him up: “O sun, you must altogether stand fast and you must proceed along your way – you must stand fast while you are hot.”
Then the children returned to their mother, and one of them went to her and said, “Our companion, who is here, this one, took hold of him. So did I. Then my younger brother and my still younger brother, they all took hold of him. ‘Grasp hold of him firmly,’ I said, ‘and throw him up. Grasp the old man firmly and throw him up.’ Thus I spoke to them. Then the children threw him up, the old man, the sun.”
Then another one of those who had been resent – a younger indeed – he also spoke to her and said, “Oh, grandmother, we threw him up, the sun, and we told him what you had told us, that he should altogether become the sun, the sun who is hot, for us who are cold. And we addressed him thus: ‘O my grandfather, sun’s armpit! Remain there at that place. Because the sun who is hot so that the Bushmen rice may dry for us, so that you may make the whole earth light, that the earth may become warm in the summer, that you may altogether make heat. For the reason, you must shine everywhere. You must take away the darkness. You must come indeed so that the darkness will go away.'”
And thus it is. The sun comes, the darkness departs; the sun sets, the darkness comes and, then, at night the moon comes. The moon comes out; it brightens the darkness and the darkness then departs. It has taken the darkness aways and now it moves along, continually brightening the darkness. And the the moon sets and the sun, following, comes out. The sun now drives away the darkness, indeed drives away the moon as it stands there. The sun actually pierces the moon with his knife and that is why it decays. Therefore the moon said, “O sun! leave the backbone for the children!” And the sun did so.
Then the moon painfully went away painfully returned home. He went home to become another, a moon which is whole. He again comes to life although is had seemed that he had died. He becomes a new moon and feels as though he had put on a new stomach. He becomes large; he is alive again. Then he goes along as night, feeling that he is the moon once more. Indeed he feels he is a shoe, the shoe that Mantis threw into the sky, and ordered to become the moon.
That is what the sun has done – made all the earth bright. And thus it is that the people walk while the earth is light. Then people can see the bushes, can we see other people. They can see the meat which they are eating. They can see the springbok, can hunt it in summer. It is when the sun shines, like wise, that they can hunt the ostrich. And so – because the sun brightens the earth, because he shines upon the path of men – the Bushmen steal up to the gemsbok, steal up to the kudu, travel about in summer, and go visiting one another. Because the sun shines hottest upon the path of men in summer, they always go shooting and hunting then, for they are certain to espy the springbok. It is in the summer that they lie contented in their little homes made of bushes, and they scratch up the earth. All day they do when the springbok comes.
The people of whom we speaking were the Bushmen, the men of the early race. It is they who first inhabited this earth and it was their children who worked with the sun, who threw the sun up and made him ascend so that he might warm the earth for them, and that they might be able to sit in the sun.
The sun, they say, was originally a man who lived on earth. In the beginning, he gave forth brightness for a space just around his own dwelling. As his shining was confined to a certain space just at and around his own house, the rest of the country seemed as if the sky were very cloudy – as it looks now, in fact, when the sun is behind thick clouds. This shining came from one of the sun’s armpits as he lay with one arm lifted up. When he put down his arm, darkness fell everywhere; when he lifted it up again, it was as if day came. In the the day, the sun’s light used to be white, but at night, it was red like fire. When the sun was thrown up into the sky it became round and never was a man again.
The same is true of the moon. He too, was once a man who could talk. But today neither the sun nor the moon talk. They just live in the sky. Then Spider said, “I shall go on to Sun’s village in order to bring him. ” Hut Moon said, “Let me first get you something to eat.” And Spider replied, “Ho!” So Moon masked up some yam for him to eat. Then Spider set out for Sun’s village. When he reached Sun’s village, he said to him, “Your father says you must come along with me.” And Sun said, “It is well, I and you shall go, but let me get you something to eat first.” Spider replied, “Ho!” So Sun went and caught a sheep. When he came back, he said to Spider, “I would have wished, had my father come here, that he should have seen what I was doing; if it were good, or if it were bad, in either case he would have seen. Since, however, he has not come and you have come, it is as if father had come. Therefore here is this, my sheep, that I shall kill so you may eat.”
And he killed the sheep and prepared it beautifully for Spider to eat. After the meal Spider said, “Let us go on a fallen tree.” When they got there, Spider said to Sun, “Your father has blackened a stool at his home. He wishes you to succeed to that stool, so he has pulled up a yam and if you know its name, he will take the stool and give it to you. Now this yam is called ‘Terminus.’ And in order that you may not forget its name, I shall cut a shirt drum for you, and make a mpintini drum to go with it, so that when they beat the short drum and the mpintini drum then you will never forget this word, for the shirt drum will speak out and say:
‘Firi bomo!
Firi bomo!”
Then the mpintini drum will say:
‘Kintini bomo!
Kintini bomo!”
So they set off to go to the sky-god’s town. First they reached Moon’s village and took him along; then they reached Night’s village and took him along. All the way they played the mpintini drum. When they reached the outskirts of the town Spider saw a man, and he sent him off to tell the sky-god that they were coming. There upon the sky-god called on assembly together, and soon Spider and the others arrived and saluted every one. Spider now gave the spokesman the news, saying, “The chief’s errand on which I was sent I have performed; I have brought them.” And the sky-god said, “My children, the reason I caused you to be sent for this: I have blackened the stool standing there and I have also pulled up the yam over there. I shall now take this stool and give it to him who sees and names the yam. Because my eldest child is Night, let him try first.” Then Night said, “It is called ‘Pona.” And all the people shouted, “Y-e-e-e.” Again the sky-god spoke, “My second child is Moon, therefore let him give its name.” And moon said, “It is the yam called ‘Asnate.’ ” The people shouted, “Y-e-e-e-e.” Again the sky-god spoke, “My child, the third one, is Sun, therefore let him name it.”
Now’ I forgot to say that the dance music was going on:
“Kintnkyi Bomo!
Kintinkyi bomo!”
and Spider was turning cart-wheels.
Then Sun rose up and stood there, and took hold of the yam, and he said, “Oh, as for this, since ever I began to walk beside my father and was very small, he used to tell me its name, and I have not forgotten; it is called ‘Terminus” And the tribe shouted three times, “E!E!E!”
Then his father rose up and stood there and said, “You, Night, you are the eldest, but the words which I told you you have allowed yourself to forget, because you did not pay attention to my words. Because of this, it it now decreed that wicked things only will be done during your time. And you, Moon, the words with which you and I walked and I told you, you too did not follow. It is decreed therefore that only children will play during your reign. As for you, Sun, when I said words to you, you did not forget; you listened to my advice, so you are to be the chief. Should any one have any matter to settle, let it be heard in your time. Household cases. however, may be heard in the evening.
“So take the path which I have set you and if Zeno wishes to trespass upon it, may Diawerigne, the circular rainbow seen at times around the sun, throw itself around you, so that Moon may not be able to come and touch you. Again, if the rainclouds gather, the sky-god’s bow will be cast on the sky that your children who are under you may see when I have cast it so that the waters will not overflow and carry them away.
“One more thing. These words which were formerly known as the “Sayings of the Sky-God.” now since the spider, has been able to read these words in my head, let them be known henceforth as “The Sayings of Spider.”
Many years ago the sun and the water were great friends, and both lived on the earth together. The sun very often used to visit the water, but the water never returned his visits. At last the sun asked the water why it was that he never came to see him in his house. The water replied that the sun’s house was not big enough, and that if he came with his people he would drive the sun out.
The water then said, “If you wish me to visit you, you must build a very large compound; but I warn you that it will have to be a tremendous place, as my people are very numerous and take up a lot of room.”
The sun promised to build a very big compound, and soon afterward he returned home to his wife, the moon, who greeted him with a broad smile when he opened the door. The sun told the moon what he had promised the water, and the next day he commenced building a huge compound in which to entertain his friend.
When it was completed, he asked the water to come and visit him the next day.
When the water arrived, he called out to the sun and asked him whether it would be safe for him to enter, and the sun answered, “Yes, come in, my friend.”
The water then began to flow in, accompanied by the fish and all the water animals.
Very soon the water was knee-deep, so he asked the sun if it was still safe, and the sun again said, “Yes,” so more water came in.
When the water was level with the top of a man’s head, the water said to the sun, “Do you want more of my people to come?” The sun and the moon both answered, “yes,” not knowing any better, so the water flowed in, until the sun and moon had to perch themselves on the top of the roof.
Again the water addressed the sun, but, receiving the same answer, and more of his people rushing in, the water very soon overflowed the top of the roof, and the sun and the moon were forced to go up into the sky, where they have remained ever since.
There once was a certain woman who bore eleven children. Every day when she got up and cooked food the children ate it all and the mother did not get any of it. She pondered long about the matter, and went off to the plantation and spoke to the silk-cotton tree, saying, “I shall send my eleven children to come beneath you here to pluck pumpkins; and when they come, pluck off eleven of your branches and kill those children of mine.”
The silk-cotton tree said, “I have heard, and I shall do it for you.”
The mother then went home and said to her children, “You must go to the plantation beneath the silk-cotton tree; there are pumpkins there. Go pick them and come back.”
The children set off. They went and reached the silk-cotton tree. Number Eleven said, “Number One, stand still; Number Two, stand still; Number Three, stand still; Number Four, stand still; Number Five, stand still; Number Six, stand still; Number Seven, stand still; Number Eight, stand still; Number Nine, stand still; Number Ten, Stand still; and I Number Eleven, I have stood still.”
Number Eleven then addressed them saying, “Do you not know the sole reason why Mother said we must go and pick pumpkins?”
His brother’s answered, “No.”
Thereupon he said, “She has told this silk-cotton tree that, when we go there, he must pluck off branches and beat us. Therefore all of you cut sticks and throw them against this silk-cotton tree.”
They cut the sticks and threw them against the silk-cotton tree. Pim! pen! pim! pen! was the sound they made. The silk-cotton supposed that the children had come. He took off eleven of his branches and let them fall to the ground. Little Number Eleven said, “You have seen – had we gone on there, the silk-cotton tree would have killed us.”
They picked up the pumpkins and took them to their mother. She cooked them. And at once the children had eaten all! Their mother said, “Ah! as for this matter, I cannot bear it! I shall take these children and give them to the sky-god.”
The next morning, when things became visible, she went and told the sky-god all about it, saying, “The children to whom I have given birth eat so fast and so much that when I wish to eat, I can’t get anything. Hunger is killing me. Therefore, I implore you, let the children be brought and killed, so that I may get something to eat.”
The sky-god said, “Is that really the case?”
The woman said, “I am speaking with a head, the inside of which is white.”
So the sky-god picked out messengers, and they went and dug a large pit in which they placed broken bottles. The sky-god himself went and fetched a snake and a leopard, put them in the pit, and covered it over. And now the messenger went to call the children.
No sooner did they reach the place where the pit lay, than Number Eleven said, “Number One, stand still; Number Two, stand still; Number Three, stand still; Number Four, stand still; Number Five, stand still; Number Six, stand still; Number Seven, stand still; Number Eight, stand still; Number Nine, stand still; Number Ten, stand still; and I myself Number Eleven, I have stood still. You must pass here, but you must not pass there.”
His brothers said, “Why, when a wide path lies there, must we pass through the bush?”
Now, as they were going along, they all carried clubs. Number Eleven said, “Throw one of these clubs upon this path.” They threw a club upon the path, and it fell through into the pit. Yiridi was the sound of its fall. Number Eleven said, “There you are! You see! Had we passed there, we should all of us have died.”
So they took a bypath and went off to meet the sky-god. The sky-god had caused holes to be dug, covered over, and stools placed upon them, so that when the children came to sit on them, they would fall into the holes. Soon the arrived before the face of the sky-god. Hep spoke to them: “Stools are set there. You may go and be seated upon them.”
Then Number Eleven siad, “Who are we that we should be able to sit upon such very beautiful stools? So, sire, we are going to sit aside here.”
Thereupon the sky-god gazed at the children and he said to himself, “I shall send the children to Death’s village.”
The next morning, when things became visible, he called the children and said, “You must go to Death who lives yonder and receive from her a golden pipe, a golden chewing-stick, a golden snuff box, a golden whetstone, and a golden fly-switch.”
Number Eleven said, “You are our master, wherever you will send us, we shall go.”
The sky-god said, “Be off!”
So the children set out for Death’s village. When they arrived there, Death said, “Why, when no one must ever come here, have. you come here?”
They replied, “We were roaming. about and came here quite by chance.” Death said, “Oh, all right then.”
Now Death had ten children. With herself, they made eleven. When things began to disappear – that is, when it became dark – Death divided up the children one by one and gave one to each of her children, while she herself and Number Eleven went to rest. When it was dark, Death then lit up her teeth until they shone red so that she might seize Number Eleven with them.
Number Eleven said, “Death, I must not yet asleep.”
Death said, “When will you be asleep?”
Number Eleven said, “If you were to give me a golden pipe to smoke for a while, then I might fall asleep.”
And Death fetched it for him.
A little while later, Death again lit up her teeth in order to go and seize Number Eleven with them.
Number Eleven said, “Death, I am not yet asleep.’
Death said, “When will you be asleep?”
Number eleven said, “If you were to bring me a golden snuff box, I might go to sleep.”
And Death brought it to him.
Again, soon afterward, Death was going to seize Number Eleven.
Number Eleven said, “I am not asleep.”
Death said, “When will you asleep?”
Number Eleven said, If you were to go and fetch golden chewing-stick for me so that I might chew it for a while, then I might fall asleep.”
Death fetched it for him, A short time passed, and Death was about to seize him.
Number Eleven said, “Grandmother, I am not yet asleep.”
And Death said, “Then when will you be asleep?”
Number Eleven said, “Grandmother, if you were to go and bring me a golden whetstone, then I might sleep.”
And Death went brought it. Again, soon afterward, Death rose up once more.
Number Eleven said, “Oh, Grandmother, I said I was not yet asleep.”
Death said, “And what will be the day when you will be asleep?”
Number Eleven said, “If you were to go and take a calabash full of holes and go and splash water in it and boil some food for me to eat, then I might sleep.”
Death lifted up a strainer and went off to the stream. When she slashed the water into it, the holes in the strainer let it pass through. Now Number Eleven said to his brothers, “Rise up and flee away.” Then they rose up and fled, and Number Eleven went and cut a plantain stems and placed them where his brothers had lain and took cloths and covered them over.
Now Death was at the stream splashing water. And Male Death called to Female Death, saying, “Ho thee, Death!”
She replied, “Adwo.“
He said, “What are you doing?”
She replied, “Alas, is it not some small child whom I have got! When I am about to catch him, he says, ‘I am not yet asleep.’ He has taken all my things, and now he says, I must take a strainer and splash water.”
Male Death said, “Ah, are you a small child? If you pluck leaves and line the inside of the strainer and then splash water, would it not be all right?”
Female Death said, “Oh, how true!”
She plucked leaves, placed them inside, and splashed the water and went off. Number Eleven said, “Death, you have come already? Boil the food.” Death cooked the food; she lit up her teeth in order to kill Number Eleven’s brothers and cook them for food. When she went, she did not examine them carefully, and she herself killed all her own children.
The next day, very, very early, when things became visible, Death rose up and sat there by the fired. Number Eleven said, “Grandmother, a tsetse fly is sitting on your breast.”
Death said, “Fetch the fly-switch which is lying there and kill it for me.”
Number Eleven saaid, “Good gracious me! A person of your consequence – when a tsetse fly settles on you and a golden fly-switch lies there – you would use this only thing! Let me fetch the golden fly-switch and come and kill it.”
Death said, “Go and fetch it from the room.”
Number Eleven went and brought it. He purposely drove the fly away; he didn’t kill it. Number Eleven said, “Oh, today, where this tsetse fly will rest, there I shall rest with him.”
The number Eleven went to the room and took his bag in which lay the golden pipe and all the things. He said, “Grandmother Death, nothing will suffice save that I get the tsetse fly, put it in this bag, and bring it to you.”
Number Eleven set off – yiridi! yiridi! yiridi! He reached the end of the town and siad, “Ho, there, Grandmother Death! Pardon my saying so but if you were not a perfect fool, could I have found a way to escape, and could I have made you also kill all your children? As for me, I am going off.”
Death said, “You, a child like this! Wherever you rest, there I shall rest!”
Number Eleven leaped off – yiridi! yiridi! yiridi! and death, too, went to chase him.
As Number Eleven was going, he overtook his brothers who were sitting on the path. They were making a bird-trap. Number Eleven said, “Have you not gone yet? Death is coming, so let us find some way to escape.”
Now Death came upon them. Number Eleven took medicine and poured it on his brothers, and they went on top of a silk-cotton tree. And Death stood at the foot of the silk-tree. She said, “Just now I saw those children, and where have they gone?
Number Eleven was sitting above. He said to his brothers, I am going to make water upon her.”
His brothers said, “E! she is seeking us to catch us, and we have fled and come and sit here and yet you say, ‘I am going to make water on her.'”
Number Eleven would not listen, and he made water over Death.
Death said, “Ah, there you are! Today you have seen trouble.” Death said, “You, child, who are sitting up there, Kyere–he-ne, Kyere-he-ne!” Thereupon one of the children fell down. “Kyere-he-ne!” a second one fell down. Soon there remained only Number Eleven.
Death said, “Child, Kyere-he-ne!” and Number Eleven leaped and descended on the ground, kirim! And Death then went on top of the silk-cotton tree.
Number Elven said, “You, great big woman, you too, Kyere-he-ne!”
And death, also, came down, tum! She was dead.
Number Elven went and plucked medicine, rolled it between his palms, and sprinkle it on his brothers, and they rose up. Number eleven was going to throw the medicine awaye, when some of it dropped on Death, and Death awoke. She said, “You have killed me, and you have also awakened me. Today you and I will have a chase.”
They they all started to run off at once, kiri! kiri! kiri! Now Death was chasing them. As they were going, there lay before them a big river in flood. When Number Eleven and his brothers reached it, the brothers knew how to swim and they swam across. Number Eleven alone did not know how to swim. The children stood on the other side; they cried and cried and cried; their mouths became swollen up. As for Number Eleven, he turned into a stone.
Death reached the river. She said, “Oh, these children! You stand there! Let me get a stone and hit your swollen mouths.” Death, when she looked down, saw a stone lying there. She picked it up and threw it. As the stone was travelling, it said, “Winds take me and set me on the other side.” It alighted on the other side. Number Eleven said, “Here I am!”
Death said, “Ah, that child! I have no further matter to talk to you about. All I have to say to you is this: Go and remain at home and change into one of the lesser gods, and, if anyone whom I wish to take comes to where you are, do you inform me. If I so desire, I will leave him and make you a present of him; but what I wish in exchange you must receive it for me.”
That is how the Komba, the lesser gods, came into the world. They are descended from the small child Number Eleven.
Amon was married to Keti, the barn-door fowl, but after a while he took to himself four other wives. Keti, of course, retained her rights as head wife, and the other four wives obeyed her.
One day Amon called the four newcomers together and asked each one what present she would give in return for his raised her above other women in the tribe. The first one promised that she would always sweep his compound for him and keep the place neat and tidy; the second said she would always cook for him and never complain when there were many visitors; the third agreed to spin cotton for him and to bring him all the water he might require; and the fourth one said that she would bear him a child of gold.
This last promise pleased Amon, and every day he killed a sheep for this woman. But the child was long in coming. Just when Amon’s patience was giving out. the woman conceived, and Amon detailed Keti to tend and care for her.
So Keti took the woman into her hut and, when the time of delivery was at hand, Keti told her that, whatever else she did, she was to be sure to shut her eyes when the child was born and not to open them until she was told to do so. The woman obeyed, and Keti hurried out and brought back a big pot.
Now it happened that the woman bore twins. The first one to be born was made entirely of silver, and Keti at once took the babe and placed it in the pot. The second child of gold, and Keti placed it in the pot. The she hurried outside and found two frogs. Running with these, she placed them on the couch and then told the mother to open her eyes and see her children.
Then Keti hastened out of the hut with the pot and ran with it as fast as she could to the far, far bush, where she found a dead odum tree. There she hid the pot with the two babies and then returned swiftly to Amon’s compound, passing by his hut on the way. She told her husband that the children had been born and asked him to go with her to see his offspring.
Amon at once arose and went to the hut where the mother was lying. To his consternation and anger, he found two frogs instead of the expected child of gold. He gave orders that the frogs were to be killed at once and that the woman should be sent into the furthermost corner of his kingdom.
Now Amon has a certain hunter whose hut was situated in the far bush. He happened to be out hunting on the day the children were born and his chase led him to the odum tree. There his eye was attracted by the glitter of the golden child and he cried out, “Why, what is this?”
The children answered him, “We are the children of Amon” But he could not believe that.
He took some of the dust that had fallen from their bodies, however, and put it into his bag. Then he took up the children and carried them to his hovel. There he kept them secretly, not did he tell any man of what he had found.
And every time the hunter wanted money he would gather some of the children’s dust. Thus he became a very rich man. Instead of having a solitary hovel in the bush, he built a huge compound and round him there gathered a great town.
Now not very far away there lived Spider. One day he went into the bush to gather some white ants for his fowls and he came across the new town. He was astounded to see that in the place where he expected a hovel there was so much wealth and so many people. His curiosity aroused, Spider entered the town to learn how the change had come about. By sheer accident he espied the former hunter playing with the children. At once Spider knew that the latter were the lost children of Amon, and he hurried back home to send a message to their father. But the hunter has also seen Spider, and he knew full well that that busybody would betray his secret. Therefore he called the children and told them that, as they claimed they were the children of Amon, he proposed to take them to Amon.
The next morning he prepared hammocks and fine clothes for the children and proceeded on the way to Amon. On the road the children called their foster-father and told him that he must collect some stones withe which to play wari, as they themselves could not speak to their father, but that the stones would tell him the whole story.
The man did so, and they arrived before Amon. There the hunter placed stools and asked Amon if he would play a game of wari with him. Amon agreed, but the silver child said, no, he himself wished to play, that the stones would tell the story for which they had come.
Then the silver child and Amon sat down to the game and, as the stones went round and round the board, the golden child sang the story of their adventures from the time of their mother’s promise until their birth; he sang of the baseness of Keti and of the kindness of the hunter who had fed them instead of killing them for their silver and gold.
Then Amon knew them to be his children, and he sent straightway into the far, far bush to call back the woman whom he had exiled. When she arrived, she was dirty over and her hair was uncut and unkempt. Amon himself washed the woman, and when she was clean and nice again he sent for Keti.
Great was Amon’s wrath. He tied the evil fowl Keti, his first wife, by he foot to a stick and cured her. Then he threw her down from the sky and gave orders that every time the fowl wished to drink she would first have to raise her head to him and beg. Further, Amon gave orders that every man would in the future sacrifice fowls as the ordinary sacrifices to the gods.
Are not these things done to this day?
As for the children – once every year they are washed , and dust from them falls upon the earth. Some falls on men, and these are the lucky ones who become wealthy.
