XXII.—A Story of the Great Famine.
In the days of the great famine, when all men and animals on the land were starving, the alligators and the fish in the river had plenty to eat, and the parrots and bats were also well off for food. The parrot used to fly off very early every morning with his family to an island in the river where there were plenty of palm-trees, and return in the evening carrying his bag of palm nuts with him. All the people were very jealous of the parrot in consequence, and wanted to kill him and all his family. The hare (Nchigga) was very curious to know how it was that the parrot always managed to get food, so he went to him pretending to be a great friend of his, but could never find him at home in the daytime, so he went in the evening and met the parrot returning home carrying his bag, full of palm nuts as usual. The hare asked the parrot where he got all the palm nuts from, and said he would like to go with him. But the parrot said that the hare could not go, and that he was only able to take his own family to the place where the palm nuts grew.
The hare then went home, but made up his mind to go with the parrot, so that very night he hid himself in the parrot’s bag. At daylight the parrot put his bag round his neck and flew off with his family to the island. He then began to gather the palm nuts, and to fill up his bag. Now the palm-tree where the parrot was overhung the river, and the hare, thinking he would pay the parrot out for refusing to bring him, made a hole in the bottom of the bag so that the nuts dropped through into the water as fast as the parrot put them into the bag. When the parrot began to eat some of the nuts, the hare eat some also, and when the parrot dropped the kernel the hare dropped his at the same time through the hole in the bag. The parrot did not notice this, as he thought that some of his family were also eating close at hand, so he continued to put nuts into the bag, but could not understand why it was that the bag did not get full. At last the parrot thought there must be a hole in the bag, so he looked inside and found the hare there.
Then the parrot said, “My friend, what are you doing in my bag? Did I not tell you that I would not take you to the place where I got my food from? You must have hidden yourself in my bag without my knowledge.” He then pulled the hare out of the bag, and having placed him on the top of the palm-tree, flew off to the next tree, where he was joined by the rest of his family, to whom he related the way in which he had punished the hare, and shortly afterwards they all flew home, leaving the hare on the island.
The hare managed with some difficulty to climb down the tree, but when he reached the ground he was afraid to cross over to the land from the island, as he thought the alligators or big fish might catch him. He looked all round the island for a place to make his house in, but it was all wet, as the river was high; so the next day he determined to swim across the river, and risk being eaten. But before the hare started he threw some small bits of dried stick into the river and watched the fish come up and look at them. When he saw that he was bigger than the fish, he said, “They cannot eat me,” and without much fear jumped into the water and began to swim across.
The fish came round the hare and saluted him, saying, “Go on your way in peace.” Just as he got near the land, however, he came across a large female alligator, who asked him where he came from and where he was going. When he said that he was swimming from the island towards the land the alligator caught him, saying, “I want you to do me a service first, and then I will let you go.”
She then took the hare to her house at the bottom of the river, where she introduced him to her husband, and said, “This man can paint our children, and make them look nice to all people.” At this time the alligators were grey-coloured without any markings, and had for some time been wanting to change their colouring.
Then the hare said, “I see you have many young alligators here, and I will paint them all for you, but you must not look at me while I am doing it. I will paint one of your children every day and show it to you, but you must first of all build me a house, into which you must put all your children, with plenty of food and firewood.”
The next day the alligators built the house, and did everything the hare told them, a small hole being left in the wall of the house so that the hare could show the alligators each child as he painted it. The hare then went into the house and shut the door carefully. That day he painted the alligators’ eldest son with long-dark stripes across his body, and when he had finished he held the young alligator up to the hole for his parents to see, and asked them if they were satisfied. The old alligators told the hare that he had painted their son very well, and they were pleased. So the hare put the young alligator on the ground and closed the hole.
That evening the hare killed one of the young alligators and eat it. The next day he held up the alligator he had already painted to the hole for the old ones to see, and then put it down again, closing the hole as before. When night came he again killed another young alligator and eat it. The same thing happened every night until the hare had eaten all the young alligators except the one he had painted and showed to the parents each morning.
The hare then told the alligators that he had finished painting all their children, and wanted to go home, but he told them that they must not go into the house until after he had gone, as if they did his ju-ju would be broken and all the painting would be spoiled. He also asked them to allow him to be rowed across the river by an iguana, who is deaf and cannot hear anyone shouting.[6]
The alligators agreed to this, and told the iguana to bring his canoe and paddle the hare across the river. They then gave the hare presents of fish and yams, and said good-bye to him. The hare then got into the canoe and pushed off, and the iguana commenced to paddle him over.
When they had gone a little distance the father alligator went to the house where the hare had been, and when he looked in he found only his eldest son who had been painted, so he asked him where the other children were, and his son replied that the hare had eaten one of his brothers or sisters every night until he was the only one left. When the alligator heard this he was wild with rage, and went up the bank and called to the iguana to bring the hare back; but as he was deaf, the iguana took no notice. When the hare heard the alligator shouting and waving from the bank, he attracted the iguana’s attention and made him understand that the alligator was so pleased at the good work he had done that he wished the iguana to row faster, so he paddled harder than before.
Seeing that the canoe did not return, the alligator dived into the river and swam after the canoe, but before he could catch it the hare had jumped to the land and ran up the bank. The alligator then scrambled up the bank to where the hare was sitting, and asked him why he had killed and eaten his children, and told the hare he should kill him. The hare acknowledged that he had done wrong, but asked the alligator not to kill him at once, as his body was so small it would not be worth eating. He then advised the alligator to dig a pit and put sharp stakes, with their points upwards, in the bottom. The hare said, “If you do this, and then throw me up in the air as high as you can, so that my body will fall into the pit on the sharp stakes, then I shall die in great pain, and in three days’ time my body will be much swollen and will then be better worth eating.” The alligator thought this a good plan, and agreed to what the hare said, so he dug a pit and put the sharp sticks in the bottom. The alligator then threw the hare into the air as high as he could, and he fell into the pit, but was careful not to be caught on the sharp sticks. The hare then commenced to scream with pain, pretending to be in great agony. So the alligator said, “Now I have got you, you cunning hare!” and walked away to the river. The alligator then swam home and told his wife, who was mourning her children, of the revenge he had taken upon the hare.
The next morning he went to the pit to see if the hare had grown any larger, but when he looked in he found that the hare had disappeared. He then made enquiries from some other animals about the hare, and they told him that he was alive and they had seen him running home.
When the hare got home, he went to the parrot and told him what had happened to him, and warned the parrot that he should do his best to kill him for leaving him on the palm-tree to the danger of his life, unless for the future the parrot lived by the waterside, as that was where he got his food from. Then the parrot was frightened, and moved his house to the top of a high tree on the island. Ever since that time the parrots have made their nests on high trees on islands, and when they are flying high up in the air you can hear them laughing at the hare, saying, “We are out of your reach, you cannot harm us now.” And even at the present time you can see that the young alligators have stripes across their bodies, but the skin of the old ones, which is very rough, does not show the marks made by the hare, except on the tail part.
Told by Ennenni, an Okuni woman.—[28.6.10.]