A MAN HAD TAKEN a wife, and now she had the joy of being with child, but famine was acute in the land.

One day, when hunger was particularly severe, the man, accompanied by his wife, was dragging himself along in the direction of there mother’s home in the hope of getting a little food there. He happened to find on the road a tree with abundant wild fruit on the top. “Wife,” he said, “get up there that we may eat fruit.”

The woman refused, saying, “I, who am with child, to climb up a tree!”

He said, “In that case, do not climbe at all.”

The husband them climbed up himself and shook and shook the branches, the woman meanwhile picking up what fell down. He said, “Do not pick up my fruit. What! Just now you refused to go up!”

And she: “Bana! I am only picking them up.”

Thinking about this fruit, he hurried down from the top of the tree and said, “You have eaten some.”

And she: “Why! Of course, I have not.”

Then, spear in hand, he stabbed his wife. And there she died on the spot.

He then gathered up his fruit with both hands. There he sat eating it, remaining where the woman was stretched out quite flat.

All of a sudden he started running. Run! Run Run! Without stopping once, he ran until he reached the rise of a hill.

There he slept, out of sight of the place where he had left the woman.

Meanwhile the child that was in the womb rushed out of it, dragging its umbilical cord. First, it looked round for the direction which its father had taken, then it started this song:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wonmbless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

That gave the man a shake… “There,” he said, “there comes the thing which is speaking.” He listened, he started in that direction…. “This is the child coming to follow me after all that, when I have already killed its mother. It had been left in the womb.”

Then rage took his wits away, and he killed the little child!…. there he was making a fresh start, and going on. Here, where the little bone had been left: “Little bone, gather yourself up…. Little bone, gather yourself up.”

Soon it was up again, and then came the song:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The Little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

The father stopped…. “Again the child that I have killed! It has risen and is coming. Now I shall wait for him.”

So he hid and waited for the child, with a spear in his hand. The child came and made itself visible at a distance as from here to there. As soon as it came, quick with the spear! He stabbed it! Then he looked for a hole, shoveled the little body into it, and heaped branches up at the entrance.

Then with all speed he ran! with all speed!

At last he reached the kraal, where the mother of his dead wife lived, the grandmother of the child.

When he came he sat down. Then his brothers and sisters-in-law come with smiling faces…. “Well! Well! You have put in an appearance!”

“We have,” he says, “Put in an appearance.”

And a hut was prepared for him and his wife, who was expected.

Then the mother-in-law was heard asking from afar, “Well! And my daughter, where has she been detained?”

Said he, “I have left her at home. I have come alone to beg for a little food. Hunger is roaring.”
“Sit down inside there, father.”

Food was procured for him. So he began to eat. And when he had finished, he even went to sleep.

Meanwhile, the child, on its part, had squeezed itself out of the hole where in it had been put and, again, with its umbilical cord hanging on:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless…!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

The people listened in the direction of the path… “That thing which comes speaking indistinctly, what is it?…. It seems to be a person…. What is it?…. It looks, man, like a child killed by you on the road…. And now, when we look at your way of sitting, you seem to be only half-seated.”

“We do not see him distinctly…. It cannot be the child, Mother; it remained at home.”

The man just got up to shake himself a little. And his little child, too, was coming with all speed! It was already near, with its mouth wide open:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?“

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes!”

Everyone was staring. They said, “There comes a little red thing. It still has the umbilical cord hanging on.”

Inside of the hut there, where the man stood, there was complete silence!

Meanwhile the child was coming on feet and buttocks with its mouth wide open, but still at a distance from its grandmother’s hut. “Straight over there!” noted everyone. The grandmother looked toward the road and noticed that the little thing was perspiring, and what speed! Then the song:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

Bakoo! It scarcely reached its grandmother’s hut when it jumped into it…. and up on the bed:

“Father, wait for me.

Father, have you come?

Yes, you have eaten my mother.

How swollen those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

Then the grandmother put this question to the man: “Now what sort of song is this child singing? Have you not killed our daughter?”

She had scarcely added, “Surround him!” when he was already in their hands. His very brother-in-law tied him. And then…. all the spears were poised together in one direction, everyone saying, “Now today you are the man who killed our sister.”

Then they just threw the body away to the west. And grandmother picked up her little grandchild.

[ BENA MUKUNI ]