It is in such stories as the Fable of the Rabbit, the Leopard and the
Goat, the Dog and the little Chicken, the Leopard, the Sheep and the
Dove, the Crane, the Leopard and the Sheep, the Rabbit and the Lion, the
Cow and the Lion, the Lion and his mane, the Rabbit and the Leopard, and
the boy Kinneneh and the Gorilla, that Kadu, our accomplished relator of
legends, shone. It is not with a wish to be unkind to Kadu that I say
he showed only too well that according to him cunning was to be
preferred to strength. Perhaps he was right, though cunning is a word
in much discredit with us nowadays, because we are accustomed to ally it
with deception and fraud, but we will put the best possible construction
on it out of admiration for and gratitude to Kadu, and claim that his
cunning, which was the moral of most of his stories, was a kind of
illegitimate wisdom, or a permissible artfulness. None of us, at least,
but sympathised with Kadu's dumb heroes when, by a little pleasant cheat
or sly stratagem, the bullying buffalo got the worst of an encounter
with the sharp-witted rabbit, or when the dog got the better of his sour
mistress the leopardess, or when rabbit put to shame the surly elephant,
or when Kibatti conquered the kings of the animal tribes. The legend of
Kinneneh and the Gorilla was another story which evidently was meant by
Kadu and the unknown ancient of Uganda who invented it to illustrate
that cunning is mightier than strength. He told it in this wise:
In the early days of Uganda, there was a small village situate on the
other side of the Katonga, in Buddu, and its people had planted bananas
and plantains which in time grew to be quite a large grove, and produced
abundant and very fine fruit. From a grove of bananas when its fruit is
ripe there comes a very pleasant odour, and when a puff of wind blows
over it, and bears the fragrance towards you, I know of nothing so well
calculated to excite the appetite, unless it be the smell of roasted
meat. Anyhow, such must have been the feeling of a mighty big gorilla,
who one day, while roaming about alone in the woods searching for nuts
to eat, stopped suddenly and stood up and sniffed for some time, with
his nose well out in the direction of the village. After awhile he
shook his head and fell on all fours again to resume his search for
food. Again there came with a whiff of wind a strong smell of ripe
bananas, and he stood on his feet once more, and with his nose shot out
thus he drew in a greedy breath and then struck himself over the
stomach, and said:
"I thought it was so. There are bananas that way, and I must get some."
Down he fell on all fours, and put out his arms with long stretches,
just as a fisherman draws in a heavy net, and is eager to prevent the
escape of the fish.
In a little while he came to the edge of the grove, and stood and looked
gloatingly on the beautiful fruit hanging in great bunches. Presently
he saw something move. It was a woman bent double over a basket, and
packing the fruit neatly in it, so that she could carry a large quantity
at one journey.
The gorilla did not stay long thinking, but crawled up secretly to her;
and then with open arms rushed forward and seized her. Before the woman
could utter her alarm he had lifted her and her basket and trotted away
with them into the deepest bush. On reaching his den he flung the woman
on the ground, as you would fling dead meat, and bringing the banana
basket close to him, his two legs hugging it close to his round paunch,
he began to gorge himself, muttering while he peeled the fruit strange
sounds. By-and-by the woman came to her senses, but instead of keeping
quiet, she screamed and tried to run away. If it were not for that
movement and noise, she perhaps might have been able to creep away
unseen, but animals of all kinds never like to be disturbed while
eating, so Gorilla gave one roar of rage, and gave her such a squeeze
that the breath was clean driven out of her. When she was still he fell
to again, and tore the peeling off the bananas, and tossed one after
another down his wide throat, until there was not one of the fruit left
in the basket, and the big paunch was swollen to twice its first size.
Then, after laying his paw on the body to see if there was any life left
in it, he climbed up to his nest above, and curled himself into a ball
for a sleep.
When he woke he shook himself and yawned, and looking below he saw the
body of the woman, and her empty basket, and he remembered what had
happened. He descended the tree, lifted the body and let it fall, then
took up the basket, looked inside and outside of it, raked over the
peelings of the bananas, but could not find anything left to eat.
He began to think, scratching the fur on his head, on his sides, and his
paunch, picking up one thing and then another in an absent-minded way.
And then he appeared to have made up a plan.
Whatever it was, this is what he did. It was still early morning, and
as there was no sign of a sun, it was cold, and human beings must have
been finishing their last sleep. He got up and went straight for the
plantation. On the edge of the banana-grove he heard a cock crow; he
stopped and listened to it; he became angry.
"Some one," he said to himself, "is stealing my bananas," and with that
he marched in the direction where the cock was crowing.
He came to the open place in front of the village, and saw several tall
houses much larger than his own nest; and while he was looking at them,
the door of one of them was opened, and a man came out. He crept
towards him, and before he could cry out the gorilla had squeezed him
until his ribs had cracked, and he was dead; he flung him down, and
entered into the hut. He there saw a woman, who was blowing a fire on
the hearth, and he took hold of her and squeezed her until there was no
life left in her body. There were three children inside, and a bed on
the floor. He treated them also in the same way, and they were all
dead. Then he went into another house, and slew all the people in it,
one with a squeeze, another with a squeeze and a bite with his great
teeth, and there was not one left alive. In this way he entered into
five houses and killed all the people in them, but in the sixth house
lived the boy Kinneneh and his old mother.
Kinneneh had fancied that he heard an unusual sound, and he had stood
inside with his eyes close to a chink in the reed door for some time
when he saw something that resembled what might be said to be half
animal and half man. He walked like a man, but had the fur of a beast.
His arms were long, and his body was twice the breadth and thickness of
a full-grown man. He did not know what it was, and when he saw it go
into his neighbours' houses, and heard those strange sounds, he grew
afraid, and turned and woke his mother, saying,
"Mother, wake up! there is a strange big beast in our village killing
our people. So wake up quickly and follow me."
"But whither shall we fly, my son?" she whispered anxiously.
"Up to the loft, and lie low in the darkest place," replied Kinneneh,
and he set her the example and assisted his mother.
Now those Uganda houses are not low-roofed like these of Congo-land, but
are very high, as high as a tree, and they rise to a point, and near the
top there is a loft where we stow our nets, and pots, and where our
spear-shafts and bows are kept to season, and where our corn is kept to
dry, and green bananas are stored to ripen. It was in this dark lofty
place that Kinneneh hid himself and his mother, and waited in silence.
In a short time the gorilla put his head into their house and listened,
and stepping inside he stood awhile, and looked searchingly around. He
could see no one and heard nothing stir. He peered under the bed-grass,
into the black pots and baskets, but there was no living being to be
found.
"Ha, ha," he cried, thumping his chest like a man when he has got the
big head. "I am the boss of this place now, and the tallest of these
human nests shall be my own, and I shall feast every day on ripe bananas
and plantains, and there is no one who can molest me--ha, ha!"
"Ha, ha!" echoed a shrill, piping voice after his great bass.
The gorilla looked around once more, among the pots, and the baskets,
but finding nothing walked out. Kinneneh, after awhile skipped down the
ladder and watched between the open cane-work of the door, and saw him
enter the banana-grove, and waited there until he returned with a mighty
load of the fruit. He then saw him go out again into the grove, and
bidding his mother lie still and patient, Kinneneh slipped out and
ascended into the loft of the house chosen by the gorilla for his nest,
where he hid himself and waited.
Presently the gorilla returned with another load of the fruit, and,
squatting on his haunches, commenced to peel the fruit, and fill his
throat and mouth with it, mumbling and chuckling, and saying,
"Ha, ha! This is grand! Plenty of bananas to eat, and all--all my own.
None to say, `Give me some,' but all my very own. Ho, ho! I shall
feast every day. Ha, ha!"
"Ha, ha," echoed the piping voice again.
The gorilla stopped eating and made an ugly frown as he listened. Then
he said:
"That is the second time I have heard a thin voice saying, `Ha, ha!' If
I only knew who he was that cried `Ha, ha!' I would squeeze him, and
squeeze him until he cried, `Ugh, ugh!'"
"Ugh, ugh!" echoed the little voice again.
The gorilla leaped to his feet and rummaged around the pots and the
baskets, took hold of the bodies one after another and dashed them
against the floor, then went to every house and searched, but could not
discover who it was that mocked him.
In a short time he returned and ate a pile of bananas that would have
satisfied twenty men, and afterwards he went out, saying to himself that
it would be a good thing to fill the nest with food, as it was a bore to
leave the warm nest each time he felt a desire to eat.
No sooner had he departed than Kinneneh slipped down, and carried every
bunch that had been left away to his own house, where they were stowed
in the loft for his mother, and after enjoining his mother to remain
still, he waited, peering through the chinks of the door.
He soon saw Gorilla bearing a pile of bunches that would have required
ten men to carry, and after flinging them into the chief's house, return
to the plantation for another supply. While Gorilla was tearing down
the plants and plucking at the bunches, Kinneneh was actively engaged in
transferring what he brought into the loft by his mother's side.
Gorilla made many trips in this manner, and brought in great heaps, but
somehow his stock appeared to be very small. At last his strength was
exhausted, and feeling that he could do no more that day, he commenced
to feed on what he had last brought, promising to himself that he would
do better in the morning.
At dawn the gorilla hastened out to obtain a supply of fruit for his
breakfast, and Kinneneh took advantage of his absence to hide himself
overhead.
He was not long in his place before Gorilla came in with a huge lot of
ripe fruit, and after making himself comfortable on his haunches with a
great bunch before him he rocked himself to and fro, saying while he
munched:
"Ha, ha! Now I have plenty again, and I shall eat it all myself. Ha,
ha!"
"Ha, ha," echoed a thin voice again, so close and clear it seemed to
him, that leaping up he made sure to catch it. As there appeared to be
no one in the house, he rushed out raging, champing his teeth, and
searched the other houses, but meantime Kinneneh carried the bananas to
the loft of the gorilla's house, and covered them with bark-cloth.
In a short time Gorilla returned furious and disappointed, and sat down
to finish the breakfast he had only begun, but on putting out his hands
he found only the withered peelings of yesterday's bananas. He looked
and rummaged about, but there was positively nothing left to eat. He
was now terribly hungry and angry, and he bounded out to obtain another
supply, which he brought in and flung on the floor, saying,
"Ha, ha! I will now eat the whole at once--all to myself, and that
other thing which says, `Ha, ha!' after me, I will hunt and mash him
like this," and he seized a ripe banana and squeezed it with his paw
with so much force that the pulp was squirted all over him. "Ha, ha!"
he cried.
"Ha, ha!" mocked the shrill voice, so clear that it appeared to come
from behind his ear.
This was too much to bear; Gorilla bounded up and vented a roar of rage.
He tossed the pots, the baskets, the bodies, and bed-grass about--
bellowing so loudly and funnily in his fury that Kinneneh, away up in
the loft, could scarcely forbear imitating him. But the mocker could
not be found, and Gorilla roared loudly in the open place before the
village, and tore in and out of each house, looking for him.
Kinneneh descended swiftly from his hiding-place, and bore every banana
into the loft as before.
Gorilla hastened to the plantation again, and so angry was he that he
uprooted the banana-stalks by the root, and snapped off the clusters
with one stroke of his great dog-teeth, and having got together a large
stock, he bore it in his arms to the house.
"There," said he, "ha, ha! Now I shall eat in comfort and have a long
sleep afterwards, and if that fellow who mocks me comes near--ah! I
would"--and he crushed a big bunch in his arms and cried, "ha, ha!"
"Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" cried the mocking voice; and again it seemed to be at
the back of his head. Whereupon Gorilla flung his arms behind in the
hope of catching him, but there was nothing but his own back, which
sounded like a damp drum with the stroke.
"Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" repeated the voice, at which Gorilla shot out of the
door, and raced round the house, thinking that the owner was flying
before him, but he never could overtake the flyer. Then he went around
outside of the other houses, and flew round and round the village, but
he could discover naught. But meanwhile Kinneneh had borne all the
stock of bananas up into the loft above, and when Gorilla returned there
was not one banana of all the great pile he had brought left on the
floor.
When, after he was certain that there was not a single bit of a banana
left for him to eat, he scratched his sides and his legs, and putting
his hand on the top of his head, he uttered a great cry just like a
great, stupid child, but the crying did not fill his tummy. No, he must
have bananas for that--and he rose up after awhile and went to procure
some more fruit.
But when he had brought a great pile of it and had sat down with his
nice-smelling bunch before him, he would exclaim, "Ha, ha! Now--now I
shall eat and be satisfied. I shall fill myself with the sweet fruit,
and then lie down and sleep. Ha, ha!"
Then instantly the mocking voice would cry out after him, "Ha, ha!" and
sometimes it sounded close to his ears, and then behind his head,
sometimes it appeared to come from under the bananas and sometimes from
the doorway:--that Gorilla would roar in fury, and he would grind his
teeth just like two grinding-stones, and chatter to himself, and race
about the village, trying to discover whence the voice came, but in his
absence the fruit would be swept away by his invisible enemy, and when
he would come in to finish his meal, lo! there were only blackened and
stained banana peelings--the refuse of his first feast.
Gorilla would then cry like a whipped child, and would go again into the
plantation, to bring some more fruit into the house, but when he
returned with it he would always boast of what he was going to do, and
cry out "Ha, ha!" and instantly his unseen enemy would mock him and cry
"Ha, ha!" and he would start up raving and screaming in rage, and search
for him, and in his absence his bananas would be whisked away. And
Gorilla's hunger grew on him, until his paunch became like an empty
sack, and what with his hunger and grief and rage, and furious raving
and racing about, his strength was at last quite exhausted, and the end
of him was that on the fifth day he fell from weakness across the
threshold of the chief's house, which he had chosen to make his nest,
and there died.
When the people of the next village heard of how Kinneneh, a little boy,
had conquered the man-killing gorilla, they brought him and his mother
away, and they gave him a fine new house and a plantation, and male and
female slaves to tend it, and when their old king died, and the period
of mourning for him was over, they elected wise Kinneneh to be king over
them.
"Ah, friends," said Safeni to his companions, after Kadu had concluded
his story, "there is no doubt that the cunning of a son of man prevails
over the strongest brute, and it is well for us, Mashallah! that it
should be so; for if the elephant, or the lion, or the gorilla possessed
but cunning equal to their strength, what would become of us!"
And each man retired to his hut, congratulating himself that he was born
a man-child, and not a thick, muddle-headed beast.