Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/82

 72 Some N'otes on East African Folklore.

Galla version of the Pokomo one already referred to, identical with a part of Petit A/<?z';r (Jacottet, pp. i8 et seq.). The Gedal built a large enclosure and dug a pit inside it, in which the lion hid himself, the Gedal covering him over with earth till only one of his teeth projected. He then summoned all the animals to a dance, and induced them to enter the enclosure, singing:

" This {i.e. the tooth projecting from the ground) is the tooth of a camel ! The civet-cat and I, we will dance outside the house, The rest of the animals will dance within, This is the tooth, the tooth of a camel ! "

When all was ready, he gave the signal, and the lion forced his way out of the pit and killed them all. It is not said in this version that the lion ate all the meat, leaving none for the jackal, and thus supplying a motive for the latter's revenge ; but probably this has been omitted by the nar- rator, who simply goes on to say that " then he deceived the lion " ; he heated a stone in the fire and said, " Father, you have had a very unpleasant time {utnesumbuka sand) — I want to give you some nice fat meat, that you may be satisfied — just shut your eyes [and open your mouth], so that I inay give you this fat meat." So the lion opened his mouth and the jackal put in the stone, and his whole tongue was burned, and he fell down and died entirely {kabisa). The hyaena then arriving, the jackal first gave him the bones to eat and then attached his tail to the lion's skin, with results related elsewhere.

This incident is so well known to all collectors of folklore that my only apology for mentioning it is its interest in connection with the contact between Hamite and Bantu tradition. ^2

^-The Giryama, etc., tales I have collected are by no means confined to animal stories. There is a very interesting tale of Matsezi and Mbodze, which embodies the motive of the escape from cannibals, and several others, which, unfortunately, I am obliged to leave out of account in this paper.