"And who is Gumbi?"
"He is the king of this country," she replied.
"Well, but I am Gumbi myself, and how canst thou be my daughter?" he
asked.
"I am the child of thy wife, Miami, and after I was born she hid me that
I might not be cast into the river. I have been living with grandmamma,
who nursed me, and by the number of banana-stalks in her garden thou
mayest tell the number of the seasons that have passed since my birth.
One day she told me the time had come, and she sent me to seek my
father; and I embarked in the canoe with four servants, and the river
bore me to this land."
"Well," said Gumbi, "when I return home I shall question Miami, and I
shall soon discover the truth of thy story; but meantime, what must I do
for thee?"
"My grandmamma said that thou must sacrifice a goat to the meeting of
the daughter with the father," she replied.
Then the king requested her to step on the shore, and when he saw the
flash of her yellow feet, and the gleams of her body, which were like
shining bright gum, and gazed on the clear, smooth features, and looked
into the wondrous black eyes, Gumbi's heart melted and he was filled
with pride that such a surpassingly beautiful creature should be his own
daughter.
But she refused to set her feet on the shore until another goat had been
sacrificed, for her grandmother had said ill-luck would befall her if
these ceremonies were neglected.
Therefore the king commanded that two goats should be slain, one for the
meeting with his daughter, and one to drive away ill-luck from before
her in the land where she would first rest her feet.
When this had been done, she said, "Now, father, it is not meet that thy
recovered daughter should soil her feet on the path to her father's
house. Thou must lay a grass-cloth along the ground all the way to my
mother's door."
The king thereupon ordered a grass-cloth to be spread along the path
towards the women's quarters, but he did not mention to which doorway.
His daughter then moved forward, the king by her side, until they came
in view of all the king's wives, and then Gumbi cried out to them--"One
of you, I am told, is the mother of this girl. Look on her, and be not
ashamed to own her, for she is as perfect as the egg. At the first
sight of her I felt like a man filled with pleasantness, so let the
mother come forward and claim her, and let her not destroy herself with
a lie."
Now all the women bent forward and longed to say, "She is mine, she is
mine!" but Miami, who was ill and weak, sat at the door, and said--
"Continue the matting to my doorway, for as I feel my heart is connected
with her as by a cord, she must be the child whom the parrot carried to
my mother with a banana stalk and two pieces of sugar-cane."
"Yes, yes, thou must be my own mother," cried the princess; and when the
grass-cloth was laid even to the inside of the house, she ran forward,
and folded her arms around her.
When Gumbi saw them together he said, "Truly, equals always come
together. I see now by many things that the princess must be right.
But she will not long remain with me, I fear, for a king's daughter
cannot remain many moons without suitors."
Now though Gumbi considered it a trifle to destroy children whom he had
never seen, it never entered into his mind to hurt Miami or the
princess. On the contrary, he was filled with a gladness which he was
never tired of talking about. He was even prouder of his daughter,
whose lovely shape and limpid eyes so charmed him, than of all his tall
sons. He proved this by the feasts he caused to be provided for all the
people. Goats were roasted and stewed, the fishermen brought fish
without number, the peasants came loaded with weighty bunches of
bananas, and baskets of yams, and manioc, and pots full of beans, and
vetches, and millet and corn, and honey and palm-oil, and as for the
fowls--who could count them? The people also had plenty to drink of the
juice of the palm, and thus they were made to rejoice with the king in
the return of the princess.
It was soon spread throughout Manyema that no woman was like unto
Gumbi's daughter for beauty. Some said that she was of the colour of a
ripe banana, others that she was like fossil gum, others like a reddish
oil-nut, and others again that her face was more like the colour of the
moon than anything else. The effect of this reputation was to bring
nearly all the young chiefs in the land as suitors for her hand. Many
of them would have been pleasing to the king, but the princess was
averse to them, and she caused it to be made known that she would marry
none save the young chief who could produce matako (brass rods) by
polishing his teeth. The king was very much amused at this, but the
chiefs stared in surprise as they heard it.
The king mustered the choicest young men of the land, and he told them
it was useless for any one to hope to be married to the princess unless
he could drop brass rods by rubbing his teeth. Though they held it to
be impossible that any one could do such a thing, yet every one of them
began to rub his teeth hard, and as they did so, lo! brass rods were
seen to drop on the ground from the mouth of one of them, and the people
gave a great shout for wonder at it.
The princess was then brought forward, and as the young chief rose to
his feet he continued to rub his teeth, and the brass rods were heard to
tinkle as they fell to the ground. The marriage was therefore duly
proceeded with, and another round of feasts followed, for the king was
rich in flocks of goats, and sheep, and in well-tilled fields and
slaves.
But after the first moon had waned and gone, the husband said, "Come,
now, let us depart, for Gumbi's land is no home for me."
And unknown to Gumbi they prepared for flight, and stowed their canoe
with all things needful for a long journey, and one night soon after
dark they embarked, and paddled down the river. One day the princess,
while she was seated on her cushions, saw a curious nut floating near
the canoe, upon which she sprang into the river to obtain it. It eluded
her grasp. She swam after it, and the chief followed her as well as he
was able, crying out to her to return to the canoe, as there were
dangerous animals in the water. But she paid no heed to him, and
continued to swim after the nut, until, when she had arrived opposite a
village, the princess was hailed by an old woman, who cried, "Ho,
princess, I have got what thou seekest. See." And she held the nut up
in her hand. Then the princess stepped on shore, and her husband made
fast his canoe to the bank.
"Give it to me," demanded the princess, holding out her hand.
"There is one thing thou must do for me before thou canst obtain it."
"What is that?" she asked.
"Thou must lay thy hands upon my bosom to cure me of my disease. Only
thus canst thou have it," the old woman said.
The princess laid her hands upon her bosom, and as she did so the old
woman was cured of her illness.
"Now thou mayest depart on thy journey, but remember what I tell thee.
Thou and thy husband must cling close to this side of the river until
thou comest abreast of an island which is in the middle of the entrance
to a great lake. For the shore thou seekest is on this side. Once
there thou wilt find peace and rest for many years. But if thou goest
to the other side of the river thou wilt be lost, thou and thy husband."
Then they re-embarked, and the river ran straight and smooth before
them. After some days they discovered that the side they were on was
uninhabited, and that their provisions were exhausted, but the other
side was cultivated, and possessed many villages and plantations.
Forgetting the advice of the old woman, they crossed the river to the
opposite shore, and they admired the beauty of the land, and joyed in
the odours that came from the gardens and the plantations, and they
dreamily listened to the winds that crumpled and tossed the great fronds
of banana, and fancied that they had seen no sky so blue. And while
they thus dreamed, lo! the river current was bearing them both swiftly
along, and they saw the island which was at the entrance to the great
lake, and in an instant the beauty of the land which had charmed them
had died away, and they now heard the thunderous booming of waters, and
saw them surging upward in great sweeps, and one great wave curved
underneath them, and they were lifted up, up, up, and dropped down into
the roaring abyss, and neither chief nor princess was ever seen again.
They were both swallowed up in the deep.
"Is _that_ all?" asked Safeni, who had been listening breathlessly to
the story.
"That is all," replied Katembo.
"Why, what kind of a story is this, that finishes in that way?"
"It is not mine," answered Katembo. "The telling of it has been
according to the words I heard, and it is not good to alter a tale."
"Then what is the object of such a story?" demanded Safeni, in an
irritable tone.
"Why, to warn people from following their inclinations. Did not the
girl find her father? Did not her father welcome her, and pardon the
mother for very joy? Was not her own choice of a husband found for her?
Was not the young chief fortunate in possessing such a beautiful wife?
Why should they have become discontented? Why not have stayed at home
instead of wandering into strange lands of which they knew nothing? Did
not the old woman warn them of what would happen, and point to them how
they might live in peace once again? But it was all to no purpose. We
never know the value of anything until we have lost it. Ruin follows
the wilful always. They left their home and took to the river, the
river was not still, but moved on, and as their heads were already full
of their own thoughts, they could not keep advice. But Katembo has
ended."