Once upon a time there was a village with many women in it. All the
women had children at the same time except the wife of the chief. The
children grew, and again all the women gave birth to others. Only the
wife of the chief had no child. Then the people said: “Let us kill an
ox, perhaps the wife of the chief will then bear a child.”
While they were killing the ox, the woman heard a voice saying: “Bear
me, mother, before the meat of my father is all finished.”
The woman did not pay any attention to that, thinking it was a ringing
in her ears. The voice said again: “Bear me, mother, before the meat of
my father is all finished.”
The woman took a small piece of wood and cleaned her ears. She heard
that voice again. Then she became excited. She said: “There is
something in my ears; I would like to know what it is. I have just now
cleaned my ears.”
The voice said again: “Make haste and bear me, mother, before the meat
of my father is all finished.”
The woman said: “What is this? there was never a child that could speak
before it was born.”
The voice said again: “Bear me, mother, as all my father’s cattle are
being finished, and I have not yet eaten anything of them.” Then the
woman gave birth to that child.
When she saw that to which she had given birth, she was very much
astonished. It was a boy, but in size very little, and with a face that
looked like that of an old person.
He said to his mother: “Mother, give me a skin robe.” His mother gave
him a robe. Then he went at once to the kraal where the ox was being
killed.
He asked for some meat, saying: “Father, father, give me a piece of
meat.”
The chief was astonished to hear this child calling him father. He
said: “Oh, men, what thing is this that calls me father?” So he
continued with the skinning of the ox. But Hlakanyana continued also in
asking meat from him. The chief became very angry, and pushed him, and
said: “Get away from this place.”
Hlakanyana answered: “I am your child, give me meat.”
The chief took a little stick, and said: “If you trouble me again, I
will strike you with this.”
Hlakanyana replied: “Give me meat first, and I will go away;” but the
chief would not answer, because he was very angry.
Hlakanyana continued asking. Then the chief threw him outside the
kraal, and went on with his work. After a little time, the child
returned, still asking.
So the chief said to the men that were with him: “What strange thing is
this?”
The men replied: “We don’t know him at all.”
The chief asked of them also advice, saying: “What shall I do?”
The men replied: “Give him a piece of meat.”
So the chief cut off a piece of meat and gave it to him. Hlakanyana ran
to his mother and gave the meat to her to be cooked.
Then he returned to his father, and said again: “Father, give me some
meat.”
The chief just took him and trampled upon him, and threw him outside of
the kraal, thinking that he was dead.
But he rose again and returned to his father, still saying: “Father,
give me some meat.”
Then the chief thought to get rid of him by giving him meat again. The
chief gave him a piece of liver. Hlakanyana threw it away. Fat was then
given to him. He put it down on one side. Flesh was then given to him,
and a bone with much marrow in it.
Hlakanyana said: “I am a man to-day.” He said: “This is the beginning
of my father’s cattle.”
At this time the men were saying to each other: “Who will carry the
meat to our huts?”
Hlakanyana answered: “I will do it.”
They said: “How can such a thing as you are carry meat?”
Hlakanyana replied: “I am stronger than you; just see if you can lift
this piece of meat.”
The men tried, but could not lift it. Then Hlakanyana took the piece of
meat and carried it out of the kraal. The men said: “That will do now,
carry our meat for us.”
Hlakanyana took the meat and carried it to the house of his mother. He
took blood and put it on the eating mats at the houses of the men. The
men went to their houses, and said: “Where is our meat?” They called
Hlakanyana, and asked him what he had done with the meat.
He replied: “Surely I put it here where the blood is. It must have been
taken by the dogs. Surely the dogs have eaten it.”
Then those men beat the women and children because they did not watch
that the dogs did not take the meat. As for Hlakanyana, he only
delighted in this trick of his. He was more cunning than any of the old
men.
Hlakanyana said to his mother, that she must put the meat in the pot to
cook, but that it must not be eaten before the next morning. It was
done. In the night this cunning little fellow rose and went to the pot.
His mother heard something at the pot, and struck with a stick.
Hlakanyana cried like a dog. His mother said: “Surely a dog is eating
the meat.” Hlakanyana returned afterwards, and left nothing but bones
in the pot. In the morning he asked his mother for meat. His mother
went to the pot, and found nothing but bones. The cunning little fellow
pretended to be astonished.
He said: “Where is the meat, mother?”
His mother replied: “It has been eaten by a dog.”
Hlakanyana said: “As that is so, give me the bones, for you who are the
wife of the chief will not eat from the same pot with a dog.”
His mother gave him the bones.
Hlakanyana went to sleep in the same house with the boys. The boys were
unwilling to let him sleep with them. They laughed at him.
They said: “Who are you? You are just a child of a few days.”
Hlakanyana answered: “I am older than you.”
He slept there that night. When the boys were asleep, he got up and
went to the cattle kraal. He killed two cows and ate all their insides.
He took blood and smeared it on one of the boys who was sleeping. In
the morning the men found those two dead cows.
They said: “Who has done this thing?”
They found the boy with blood upon him, and killed him, because they
thought he was the robber.
Hlakanyana said within himself: “I told them that I was older than they
are; to-day it is seen who is a child and who is a man.”
Another day the father of Hlakanyana killed an ox. The head was put in
a pot to be cooked. Then Hlakanyana considered in his mind how he could
get that meat. So he drove all the cattle of the village into a forest,
a very thick forest, and tied them by their tails to the trees. After
that he cut his arms, and legs, and breast, with a sharp stone, and
stood on a hill, and cried out with a loud voice: “The enemy has taken
our cattle; the cattle are being driven away. Come up, come up; there
is an army going away with the cattle.”
The men ran quickly to him.
He said to them: “Why are you eating meat while the enemy is going away
with the cattle? I was fighting with them; just look at my body.”
They saw he was covered with blood, and they believed it was as he
said. So the men took their assagais and ran after the cattle, but they
took the wrong way. Only one old man and Hlakanyana were left behind.
Then Hlakanyana said to the old man: “I am very tired with fighting;
just go to the river, grandfather, and get some water.”
The old man went; and as soon as he was alone, Hlakanyana ate the meat
which was in the pot. When the old man returned with the water he was
very tired, for the river was far for an old man to go to, therefore he
fell asleep. When he was sleeping, Hlakanyana took a bone and put it
beside the old man. He also took some fat and put it on the mouth of
the old man. Then he ran to the forest and loosened the cattle that
were tied by the tails.
At this time the men were returning from seeking the enemy. Hlakanyana
was coming also from the other side with the cattle.
He shouted: “I have conquered the enemy.” He also said: “The meat must
be eaten now.”
When they opened the pot they found no meat. They found only dung, for
Hlakanyana had filled the pot with dung.
Then the men said: “Who has done this?”
Hlakanyana answered: “It must be the old man who is sleeping there.”
They looked, and saw the bone by the side of the old man, and the fat
on his mouth. Then they said: “This is the thief.” They were intending
to kill the old man because he had stolen the meat of the chief.
When the children saw that the old man was to be killed, they said that
he did not eat the meat of the chief.
The men said: “We saw fat on his mouth and a bone beside him.”
The children replied: “He did not do it.”
The men said: “Tell us who did it.”
The children answered: “Hlakanyana ate the meat and put dung in the
pot. We were concealed, and we saw him do it.”
Hlakanyana denied. He said: “Let me go and ask the women; perhaps they
saw who ate the meat of the chief.”
The men sent a young man with him to the women; but when they were a
short distance away, Hlakanyana escaped.
The chief sent an army after him. The army pursued, and saw Hlakanyana
sitting by a bush. They ran to catch him. When they came to the bush,
only an old woman was sitting there.
They said to her: “Where is Hlakanyana?”
The old woman replied: “He just went across that river. See, you must
make haste to follow him, for the river is rising.”
The army passed over the river quickly. Then that old woman turned into
Hlakanyana again. He said in himself: “I will now go on a journey, for
I am wiser than the councillors of my father, I being older than they.”
The little cunning fellow went to a village, where he saw an old woman
sitting beside her house.
He said to her: “Would you like to be made young, grandmother?”
The old woman replied: “Yes, my grandchild; if you could make me young,
I would be very glad.”
Hlakanyana said: “Take that pot, grandmother, and go for some water.”
The old woman replied: “I cannot walk.”
Hlakanyana said: “Just try, grandmother; the river is close by, and
perhaps you will be able to reach it.”
The old woman limped along and got the water.
Then Hlakanyana took a large pot and set it on the fire, and poured the
water into it.
He said to the old woman: “You must cook me a little first, and then I
will cook you a little.”
The old woman agreed to that. Hlakanyana was the first to be put in the
pot. When the water began to get hot, he said: “Take me out,
grandmother; I am in long enough.”
The old woman took him out, and went in the pot for her turn. Soon she
said: “Take me out now, my grandchild; I am in long enough.”
Hlakanyana replied: “Not yet, grandmother; it is not yet time.”
So the old woman died in the pot.
Hlakanyana took all the bones of the old woman and threw them away. He
left only the toes and the fingers. Then he took the clothing of the
old woman and put it on. The two sons of this old woman came from
hunting.
They went into the hut, and said: “Whose meat is this in the pot?”
Hlakanyana was lying down. He said in a voice like that of their
mother: “It is yours, my sons.”
While they were eating, the younger one said: “Look at this, it is like
the toe of mother.”
The elder one said: “How can you say such a thing? Did not mother give
us this meat to eat?”
Again the younger one said: “Look at this, it is like the finger of
mother.”
Hlakanyana said: “You are speaking evil of me, my son.”
Hlakanyana said in himself: “I shall be discovered; it is time for me
to flee.” So he slipped quietly out of the house and went on his way.
When he got a little way off, he called out: “You are eating your
mother. Did any one ever see people eating their mother before?”
The two young men took their assagais and ran after him with their
dogs. They came to the river; it was full.
The cunning fellow changed himself into a little round stone. One of
the young men picked up this stone, saying: “If I could see him, I
would just throw this stone at him.” The young man threw the stone over
the river, and it turned into Hlakanyana again. He just laughed at
those young men.