VI.--THE STORY OF THE WITCH WHO TRIED TO KILL HER HUSBAND; OR, WHY
NATIVE DOGS REFUSE TO OBEY THEIR MASTERS.
Chief Leku of Inkum married a woman called Achor, and lived with her
for some years.
At that time there was a very fine woman walking about the towns named
Akoba. She was a yellow (light skin) woman, and had many hairs from
the elephant’s tail, and beads round her neck. She did not wear any
clothes, as she preferred to walk about naked, so that everyone could
see her fine skin. Akoba had very large breasts, which hung down, but
this did not in any way spoil her beauty in the young men’s eyes.
Many of them, including chiefs, wanted to marry her, but Akoba refused
them all, as she made a lot of money out of them, and would not bind
herself down to one man.
When she saw that so many men were bidding for her, she got a calabash
and painted it different colours. Having placed the calabash some
little distance off, Akoba said that anyone who wanted to marry her
must hit the calabash with a small stone.
Many young men and chiefs tried who were anxious to possess her, but
did not succeed, as she had put a ju-ju on them.
At last, however, Chief Leku managed to hit the calabash with a stone,
and at once took Akoba home as his wife. He then called all the women
together and held a big play, fired guns off in the town, rubbed Akoba
with camwood, and told all people that she was his wife.
Akoba lived with Chief Leku for a little time, but very soon got tired
of him. So she made up her mind that she would kill him and resume her
former life. She said to herself, “It is very dull living with Leku all
the time. If I kill him, I can have any man I fancy and make plenty of
money, as all the young men want me, and are willing to pay, whereas
now I have to do all the housework, and work hard on the farm, and Leku
does not ‘dash’ me anything.”
Now, Chief Leku was a hunter, and made his living by killing animals
(bush cows, buck, and kobs) and selling their meat. He had five dogs
who were very clever, and had been taught to follow animals by scent.
When they were young, a ju-ju was made for them, and certain leaves
were mashed up and rubbed on their noses, which gave them very strong
smelling powers, and they could follow wounded animals in the bush,
which was most useful to Chief Leku.
The morning after Akoba had made up her mind to kill her husband, she
said to him, “I want you to come into the forest with me to cut some
palm nuts, but leave your hunting dogs behind as I do not like them.”
Chief Leku, suspecting nothing, agreed, and they started off together.
When they got to the palm tree, the chief put his climbing belt of
tie-tie round the tree, and, having secured it round his back, walked
up to the top and commenced to cut the leaves or branches off round the
nuts.
Akoba then beat her breast, and produced a sharp axe with which she
began to cut down the tree, at the same time calling out to her husband
that she was going to kill him. Very soon, the tree began to fall, but
was fortunately caught by another tree growing near. Then Leku climbed
into the other tree. Akoba, who was a witch, then started to cut down
the tree in which her husband had taken refuge.
So the chief called a bird to him and sent it off with a message to
his hunting dogs to come and rescue him. Immediately the dogs got the
message they started off to help their master, but the witch Akoba
caused a flood to overflow the path, so that the dogs could not track
her. At last one of the dogs jumped into the water and swam across, and
was very soon followed by the other four.
When they reached the foot of the tree the Chief told them to kill the
woman, so they all leaped on her, and bit her until she died.
Then the chief came down from the tree, and divided Akoba’s body into
five bundles, and told his dogs to carry them to his house, which they
did.
When they reached the house it was night time, so the chief went to bed
and told Achor what had happened to his new wife.
In the morning Achor saw the five bundles outside, and asked her
husband how he had managed to carry them all, but he refused to tell
her. So when night came and the chief went to bed, Achor said to him,
“I will not sleep with you unless you tell me how you managed to carry
those five bundles.” Now, Chief Leku was very fond of Achor, and
wanted her badly, so he gave in, and told her that his hunting dogs
had carried the bundles for him. Achor then went to bed, but the next
morning she rose early, and calling the dogs to follow her, she went to
the farm, where she collected five bundles of firewood and placed them
in a row. Then Achor said to the dogs: “If you can carry bundles for
your master, you can carry my firewood. Take those loads to my house at
once.”
The dogs did not answer, but picked up their loads and carried them to
the house. As each dog placed its load of firewood on the ground, it
dropped down dead. Then the chief came out and said to Achor, “Look
what you have done. All my hunting dogs are dead. This is what comes of
telling you that my dogs carried the bundles for me.”
Ever since that day dogs never speak or do anything for their masters,
although they can understand quite well. The reason the dogs will not
obey now is because they say that the chief broke their dog law when he
told his wife what they did for him.