Congo life and folklore

by John H. Weeks

The Son who tried to outwit his Father

A son said to his father one day: “I will hide, and you will not be able to find me.” The father replied: “Hide wherever you like,” and then he went into his house to rest.

The son saw a three-kernel peanut, and changed himself into one of the kernels; a fowl coming along picked up the peanut and swallowed it; and a wild bush-cat caught and ate the fowl; and a dog met, chased, and ate the bush-cat. After a little time the dog was swallowed by a python, that, having eaten its meal, went to the river and was snared in a fish-trap.

The father searched for his son, and, not seeing him, went to look at his fish-trap. On pulling it to the riverside he found a large python in it. He opened it and saw a dog inside, in which he found a bush-cat, and on opening that he discovered a fowl, from which he took the peanut, and breaking its shell he there revealed his son. The son was so dumbfounded that he never tried again to outwit his father.

INDEX
(TO PART I)

A

• Alphabet, native learning the, [254]
• Attempts by natives to rid themselves of sickness and death, [283], [284]
• Attendants on the King, [145]

B

• Bakula takes a fancy to me, [25];
  • his character, [25];
  • his charms, [35];
  • tells good stories, [39];
  • questions the visitors, [59];
  • strikes at the white man, [65];
  • goes with Satu on a visit, [74];
  • is cut in a drunken row, [99];
  • wound dressed by white teacher, [100];
  • belauds the chief, [105];
  • shakes hands with the teacher, [107];
  • tells his name to his white friend, [111];
  • is astonished at the teaching, [112];
  • accompanies an embassy, [131];
  • goes to see the white man, [133];
  • sees the King of Congo, [137];
  • learns about the King’s Court, [145];
  • sees the station at work, [148];
  • afraid to go into school, [152];
  • sees a witch-doctor performing, [158];
  • attends the white teacher during the Sunday work, [162];
  • exposure of a witch-doctor, [166];
  • returns to his town, [171];
  • begins to lose faith in fetishes, [197];
  • charged with stealing, [241];
  • repudiates charms and “medicine men,” [241];
  • cloth found in his house, [243];
  • refuses to bribe the nganga, [246];
  • is burnt by the boiling oil, [248];
  • runs away to mission station, [250];
  • learns the alphabet, [254];
  • turned out of a town, [258];
  • prays for the people, [259];
  • convicted of sin, [260];
  • joins the Church, [264];
  • returns to his town, [265];
  • starts a school, [268];
  • school-house destroyed, [272];
  • accused of witchcraft, [289];
  • is guarded through the night, [290];
  • takes the ordeal, [291];
  • murdered, [291];
  • is buried by Tumbu, [292]
• Baobab bark juice rubbed on by witch-doctor, [248]
• Baptismal service, [331]
• Bartering for native produce, [235]
• Betrothal bonds, releasing from, [179];
  • customs connected with, [186]
• Brass rod, made in factory, [1];
  • shipped to Congo, [2];
  • travels up river, [6];
  • sold for rubber and ivory, [12];
  • travels overland, [13];
  • Bakula takes a fancy to it, [25];
  • Tumbu takes it from Bakula’s corpse, [293];
  • Tumbu buries it, [294];
  • Mikula discovers and wears it, [295]
• Burial, christian, [201]
• Bush-burning, [194];
  • guarding a town before the bush is burnt, [195];
  • laws relating to, [203];
  • Dimbula breaks the law, [203]

C