Then the King asked, “Can you seize the Yakā of the Akaraganē jungle?”
The man having said, “I can,” said, “What will you give me?”
The King said, “I will give a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load. I will also give the Akaraganē jungle as a Nindema.”[6] The King said, “For seizing the Yakā what do you want?”
Then the man said, “I don’t want anything.”
Having gone to the Akaraganē jungle, and having come on the following day taking the jingling bangle and box of tom-tom beater’s decorations, he showed them to the King, and said he seized the Yakā.
Afterwards the King, having given the man the articles which the man took [to him], gave the man a district from the kingdom, and goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load, and the Akaraganē jungle.
The man having taken them, and come to the rock house, that woman and five children were [there]. The five children having gone to the man’s village, in the man’s village were his first wife and five children of the woman’s. The children having sold the house at that village, and the two women and the ten children having come again to the Akaraganē jungle, building a house in that jungle all remained in that very place.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
[1] Apparently the fire originated accidentally, and the man was afraid of being charged with murdering the beggar. Compare story No. 21, vol. i, of which the Western Province has a variant. [↑]