THERE WAS ONCE a small boy who was herding the goats, and his father came and pointed out to him some long and luxurious grass and told him to take the goats there to feed. So he pastured them there that day and took them there again the day following. Now the next day while the goats were feeding, the owner of the pasture appeared, and said to the boy, “Why are you feeding your goats on my grass?” And the boy said, “It is not my doing, for my father’s house and talk to him.” Now the owner of the grazing ground was a man very bog and tall, and his name was Mukun’ ga M’Bura, so in the evening he came to the home of the biy and he said to the father, “Why were your goats eating my grass when you could see I had closed it to you?’

The father said, “That is my affair.” Mukn’ ga M’Bura said, “As you have done this, I will eat you and all your people.” To this the father reoplied, “You shall do no such thing.” So the young men made sharp their swords and got ready their spears, but Munkun’ ga M’Bura was too strong for them, and he ate the father, and the young men, and the women, and the children, and the oxen, and the goats, and then he ate the house and the barns, so that there was nothing left. The only person who escaped was a little boy, who ran away and hid in the grass so that Mukun’ga M’Bura, did not see him.

The boy made himself a bow and shot wild game and became very strong and built himself a house; and at last he said, when he was full-grown, “Why do I stay here? I am big and strong. Mukun’ ga M’Bura, who killed my father and all my people, still lives.”

So he took his sword and made it very sharp and went to the district where Mukun’ ga M’Bura lived, and as he drew near he saw him coming up out of the great water where he lived. He shouted to him, “Tomorrow I will come and kill you.” And he went back and ate more meat so as to be stronger then ever. The next day he went again, but Mukun’ ga M’Bura was not to be seen. The third day he met him again, and said, “You have killed all my people, so I will kill you,” and Mukun’ ga M’Bura was afraid and said to the warrior, “Do not strike me with your sword over the heart or I shall die, but open my middle finger,” so the warrior did so, and said, “Make a big hole, not a little one.”

And the warrior made a big hole, and out came first the father, whom Mukun’ ga M’Bura had eaten, and then they young men, and the women, and the cattle, and the sheep, and the houses, and the food stores just as before. And the warrior said, “No, I will spare you, for you have restored my father, his people and his goods, but you must not eat them again.” And the giant said, “They shall be safe.”

The warrior and his people went back and rebuilt their homesteads, but the warrior thought to himself, “Now this Mukun’ ga M’Bura is big and strong my very bad. He has eaten many people. He may come again and destroy my father.”

So he called the young men and asked them to come and fight Mukun’ ga M’Bura with him, and they all made ready for war and went to the home of Mukun’ ga M’Bura. He saw them coming and said, “Why are you here to slay me? Have I not given you back your people?” But the warrior replied, “You are very evil, you have killed and eaten many people, therefore you shall die.” Then they all fell upon him and slew him and cut off his head and hewed his body in pieces. But a big piece separated itself from the rest of the body, which was dead, and went back into the water; and the warrior returned to his home and told his brother that he had slain Mukun’ ga M’Bura, all but one leg. “Tomorrow,” he said, “I will go into the water and get that leg and burn it.” And the mother besought him not to go, but the next day he went, and when he got to the place there was no water to be seen, only cattle and goats, for what remained of Mukun’ ga M’Bura had gathered together his children and taken all the water and gone very far. The beasts, however, he had not taken but left behind. So the warrior went back and brought his people, and they gathered the cattle and goats together and took them back to their own homestead.

[ AKIKUYU ]