A BIG DANCE was once held at which many warriors and girls were present. Toward evening the dancers dispersed, and each warrior selected one or more of the girls to accompany him home.
One of these men, a particularly handsome and well-built fellow, went away with three sisters. On leaving, he asked the girls where they would like to go, and they told him they wished to accompany him to his kraal. He said that it was a long way off, but they replied that that did not matter.
They started off, and after walking some distance, they approached the kraal. The girls noticed some white things scattered about on the ground and asked the warrior what they were. He said that they were his sheep and goats; but when they reached destination, the girls saw that they were human bones. They entered the warrior’s hut and the girls were surprised to find that he lived quite alone.
It transpired later that this warrior was in reality a devil who ate people, but it was not known because he concealed his tail under his garment. He had even eaten his mother and had thrown her bones into a heap of grass which formed the bed.
Shortly after their arrival at the hut, the warrior went outside, leaving the girls alone. A voice, which came from the bed, startled them by asking them who had brought them there. They replied that the warrior had brought them, whereupon the voice told them to open the mattress. The girls threw off the top layer of grass, exposing the bones to view. The voice, which came from the bones, then related that she had been the warrior’s mother and that he had become a demon and had eaten her. The girls asked the bones what they should do, and the voice answered, “The warrior will come presently and bring you a sheep. Accept it. He will then go outside again and, having shut the door, sit down there. Make a hole in the wall and pass out. If you are asked what the knocking is, say that you are killing the sheep.”
Everything took place as the voice had predicted, and the girls made a hole in the wall of the hut through which they predicted, and the girls made a hole in the wall of the hut through which they passed and escaped. When they reached the road, however, one of them suddenly remembered that she had left her beads behind. Her sisters told her to go and fetch them while they waited for her. She returned to the hut but met the warrior, who asked her if he should eat her or make her his wife. She thanked him for giving her the choice and said that she preferred the latter.
They lived together for a considerable period and, after a time, the woman presented the demon with a son, whom they named Tezamet. From the day of his birth Tezamet accompanied his father on his journeys to the forest in quest of people to devour; and, while the man and the boy ate human beings, they took home with them for the woman goats and sheep to eat and cows to milk.
One day one of the woman’s sisters came to the kraal to visit her. As Tezamet and his father were both absent she arrived, the two women sat and talked until it was time for the visitor to depart. The weather looked threatening as she rose to take her leave, and Tezamet’s mother cried out to her not to go to the tree in the middle of the plain, should it rain, for it was the custom of her husband and son to rest there on their way home. But the woman hurried away without paying attention to her sister’s warning, and when it came on to rain a little later, she ran to the tree in the middle of the plain, which was a baobab tree, and climbed up into it. She had not been there long when Tezamet and his father arrived and stood beneath the tree to get shelter from the rain. Their appearance recalled to the woman her sister’s words and she was greatly alarmed.
Tezamet gazed up into the tree and remarked that there was something peculiar about it, but his father said it was only because it was raining hard. Shortly afterward, however, Tezamet saw the woman and called out, “There is my meat.” The woman was forced to descend, and she gave birth to twins.
Tezamet picked up the children and said, “I will take these kidneys to mother to roast for me.
When it stopped raining, the two returned home and Tezamet asked his mother to roast his kidneys for him. But the woman knew at once that her sister had been out to death, and she hid the children in a hole in the earth, roasting instead two rats. When they were ready, Tezamet went to the fire, picked them up off the stones and ate them, grumbling at the same time because they were so small. His mother pretended to be very annoyed at this and, turning to her husband, complained of what their son had said. The old man told her not to mind the boy as he was a liar.
The woman fed and tended the children, who were both boys, and gradually they grew up. One day she asked her husband to bring her an ox which she said, she wished to slaughter and eat. Tezamet on hearing this request at once pricked up his ears and remarked, “It really amuses me to hear of a woman who wants to eat an ox all by herself. I think those kidneys of mine have something to do with this matter.” However, the two men searched for an ox which they procured and brought back with them. They slaughtered the animal and left the meat with the woman, after which they went for a walk in the forest.
As soon as they had departed, the woman let the children out of their hole and gave them the ox to eat. They ate until sunset, when she sent them back again to their hiding place.
Tezamet and his father returned shortly afterward, and the former, being very sharp, at once noticed the small footmarks on the ground. “I wonder,” he said, “what those small and numerous footmarks are. They are certainly not mine.” His mother, however, stoutly insisted that the marks had been made by herself or by the two men, and in this she received her husband’s support. Being annoyed with Tezamet on account of the way he treated his mother, the old man killed and ate him, but he immediately came to life again and cried out, “There, I have come back again.”
As time passed, the children grew up, and their aunt asked them one day if they knew that the people who lived in the same kraal with them were in reality demons and cannibals. She also inquired if, in the event of her being able to obtain weapons from her husband, they could put Tezamet and his father to death. The boys replied that they could, but asked the woman what she would say if her husband wanted to know why she required the weapons. She told them that she would say she wanted them to protect herself against any enemies who might come.
When Tezamet and his father next returned home, the woman asked her husband if he would procure two spears, two shields, and two swords for her. “For I am always here alone,” she said, “and if enemies come, I wish to be able to fight with them.” Tezamet remarked that he had never before heard of a woman who wanted men’s weapons and said he thought that those kidneys, which he had brought to his mother to roast for him, must have something to do with this request.
Notwithstanding Tezamet’s protest, the old man obtained for his wife the weapons that she required. When he had given them to her, she fetched an oxhide, and asked the two men to lie down on the ground while she stretched the hide over them and pegged it down. She told them that when she was ready she would cry out and would see if the enemy came, in which case they could assist her. She pegged the oxhide down securely and asked them if they could get out. Tezamet found a hole and began to crawl out, but his mother told him to get in again, and she pegged it down once more. She then raised her voice and called to the children, who came from their hiding place and killed Tezamet and his father.
As Tezamet was dying, he said to his parent, “Did I not tell you so, and you said I lied?”
The boys, after killing the two devils, took their aunt away to their father’s kraal.
[ MASAI ]